McDonald vows to continue as Sinn Féin leader even if they fail in general election

Ms McDonald strongly refuted Danielle Twomey' s claim that there is “no real democracy” in the organisation

Mary Lou McDonald has insisted that her party is democratic, despite strong claims to the contrary from Danielle Twomey who recently stood aside as a councillor in Cork over a "lack of respect". Photo: Leon Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Mary Lou McDonald has vowed to remain on as Sinn Féin leader even if her party fail to enter Government after the next general election.

The Sinn Féin leader has insisted that her party is democratic, despite strong claims to the contrary from Danielle Twomey who recently stood aside as a councillor in Cork over a "lack of respect".

With a 2024 general election now widely expected, Sinn Féin has made it clear that it wants to go into power and will be fielding two or more candidates in most constituencies across the country in a bid to win as many Dáil seats as possible.

However, Ms McDonald has said she will not stand down if she fails to lead her party into Government.

"My intention is to lead the party to the best of my ability. Nobody goes on forever, but I'm five years, going into my sixth year. I'm enjoying the challenge of this and it is challenging, absolutely no doubt about it.

"I think we've succeeded and achieved some things but I think we can do a whole lot more. So I'm not for hanging up my boots or my shoes," she said.

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In a wide-ranging interview with the Irish Examiner, Ms McDonald wished Ms Twomey the very best.

In the wake of her announcement to depart local politics earlier this month, the now-former Sinn Féin councillor said there was “no way she could stay in the party” as there is “no real democracy” in the organisation.

Ms McDonald strongly refuted this claim, stating: "We are democratic, we're a very large organisation and I know as the person who is in charge, very often it's a management and a balancing act to keep all of the plates spinning and to keep everybody informed and to keep the wheels of the decision making turning. 

"But this is a good party and people who are active in Sinn Féin make great friendships, there's great camaraderie, we do our best and we're also an imperfect human organisation and not everybody is going to rock along.

"I have long ago accepted and become philosophical that I can fix that. I can't fix that bit of it, but I can ensure that to the best of my ability that our systems and our processes work and work well for people."

She added: "People come into political life and people go, Sinn Féin is no different from any other political party in this regard."

After disastrous local elections in 2019, Sinn Féin has already selected more than 250 candidates to run at local level next June. Ms McDonald confirmed that around 100 more candidates will be added to tickets in the new year and admitted that the party will have ground to make up.

"I want to get elected as many as we possibly can—everyone that we are fielding we are fielding them to win."

Sinn Féin lost 78 seats in the last local elections, returning just 81 representatives across the country.

"We're pushing the envelope hard, just remember I couldn't walk the length of myself after the last election without people collaring me and saying 'you didn't run enough candidates,' so were are certainly not making that mistake this time. Obviously, we had a very, very challenging local election last time out so we have ground to make up.

"So these are important elections for us. Local issues will feature very strongly, so we're running very strong slates of candidates and I've said to each and every one of them, that you're not a sweeper, you're in it to win," she said.