Mary Lou McDonald: Jonathan Dowdall 'should not have been in Sinn Féin' 

'Jonathan Dowdall had no business in Sinn Féin,'  Mary Lou McDonald has said. Picture: Sinn Féin

Former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall "should not have been in Sinn Féin", Mary Lou McDonald has told the Dáil.

The former councillor has been jailed for four years for facilitating the 2016 murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel, having previously been jailed for physically and mentally torturing a man he and his father both suspected of trying to defraud them.

Dowdall had been a Sinn Féin councillor for Dublin's Inner City North ward in the heart of Ms McDonald's constituency from 2014 to 2015 but left the party complaining of having been bullied.

 Dowdall was a key witness in the trial of Gerry The Monk Hutch which ended this week with Mr Hutch being acquitted by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of the Regency murder.

In her judgment, one of the three judges, Ms Justice Burns, said: “It cannot be said that [Dowdall] found God and decided to do what was right." She said he “acted out of his own self-interest”.

Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday during statements on organised crime, Ms McDonald reiterated that her party would not have included Dowdall had they been aware of his ties to criminality.

“For the avoidance of doubt, let me say again that Jonathan Dowdall had no business in Sinn Féin. He shouldn’t have been in our party.

“He joined in June 2013. He left in February 2015. But it was in March 2016 that his criminal activity was discovered.”

Ms McDonald, however, said that Dowdall is the only person responsible for his actions.

Mary Lou McDonald said of Jonathan Dowdall: 'He and he alone is responsible for his actions.'

“He and he alone is responsible for his actions. He has been convicted before the courts.

If I had known for a second what he would be capable of, what he would go on to do, he wouldn’t have been near me. He wouldn’t have been near Sinn Féin, and he certainly would not have been running for public office.

However, a number of Fine Gael TDs used their speaking time to question who had convinced Dowdall to remain in Sinn Féin when he spoke of leaving in 2014. Colm Brophy said there were “many serious questions unanswered” by Ms McDonald about Dowdall, who he described as her “political protege-turned-gangland torturer”. 

However, Mr Brophy earned a rebuke from Leas-Cheann Comhairle Catherine Connolly, who said that the session was for statements and not questions.

Fergus O’Dowd and Alan Farrell also used part of their statements to ask questions about which members of Sinn Féin had spoken to Mr Dowdall about a gun attack on his uncle's home in 2011.

Justice Minister Simon Harris said he hoped that the conviction of two other men at the Special Criminal Court in connection with the 2016 Regency shooting would show the need to support the court when the legislation underpinning it is voted for in the coming months.

“I do want to send out a very strong message today: Justice always prevails. You can run. You can try to hide. But An Garda Síochána will never stop pursuing and dismantling the criminal gangs causing fear, violence, and murder across this country," he said.