Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald 'not a bully and funds own legal cases', says Eoin Ó Broin

€1,000 donation made to Ms McDonald in 2011 by convicted criminal Jonathan Dowdall has been spent and “there is no question of a refund.”

Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) has named Mary Lou McDonald as the politician who has “proven most reliant on SLAPPs and legal intimidation to respond to opposition, dissent, or efforts at accountability”.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is not a bully and funds her own legal cases, the party’s housing spokesman has said.

Eoin Ó Broin also said that a €1,000 donation which was made to Ms McDonald in 2011 by convicted criminal Jonathan Dowdall has been spent and “there is no question of a refund”.

Dowdall, a former Sinn Féin councillor, has admitted to helping a criminal gang murder a rival gang member at the Regency Hotel in Dublin six years ago. He was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday.

Mr Ó Broin has also said he would like to see a reform of the State’s defamation laws, describing them as “outdated.”

It comes after several senior political figures, including the Taoiseach, launched an attack on Sinn Féin accusing the party of “aggressive management of the media” and accusing them of shutting down debate.

Mr Martin said the party was placing restraints on freedom of speech “because people feel that they could be sued or threatened by legal threats”. Tanáiste Leo Varadkar also said he was aware of three Fine Gael elected representatives who received legal letters from “Sinn Féin figures.”

When asked if Sinn Féin has a strategy to shut down debate, Eoin Ó Broin said the party has no policy and does not fund or get involved in decisions made by individual members who decide to “defend their good names in court”.

He added: “If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael don't want their members to be subject to legal actions by members of our party or anybody else then stop telling lies about us and stop libeling us, it’s as simple as that.”

He said Mary Lou McDonald “absolutely” funded her own legal costs and denied there was a strategy within Sinn Féin to bully critics into silence.

Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) has named Ms McDonald as the politician who has “proven most reliant on SLAPPs and legal intimidation to respond to opposition, dissent, or efforts at accountability”.

CASE is a coalition of non-governmental organisations from across Europe united in recognition of the threat posed to public watchdogs by Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).

When asked about the award by CASE, Mr Ó Broin said: “I absolutely don’t think she’s a bully and I don’t think the award should be taken seriously.”’

Jonathan Dowdall

On Jonathan Dowdall’s affiliation with the party, Mr Ó Broin said it is a lesson for all political parties to “do your due diligence,” but rejected a suggestion that Sinn Féin didn’t do due diligence.

He said: “What I would say is if the party had known at the time that Jonathan Dowdall joined the party or selected as a candidate, what we subsequently learned, he would never have been in the party and never have been a candidate, we didn't know those things.”

Mr Ó Broin signaled the party would not give a €1,000 donation to a charity that helps victims of crime. Dowdall gave the same amount in a donation to Mary Lou McDonald in 2011.

He said his party should do more than that and represent constituents who are very often at the receiving end of organized crime and a lack of proper investment “rather than a tokenistic gesture of a €1000 donation”.