There was no previous falling out with Sinn Féin, says Janice Boylan 

The candidate for Dublin Central addressed comments made in 2022 

Launching her Dublin Central by-election campaign on Tuesday, Janice Boylan said she never resigned from Sinn Féin, despite a previous threat to leave the party. Picture: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan has denied there was ever any falling out with party leader Mary Lou McDonald, despite previously writing that the party had not supported her.

Launching her Dublin Central by-election campaign on Tuesday, Ms Boylan said she never resigned from Sinn Féin, despite a previous threat to leave the party.

“I had a rant to my colleagues because I mean, that’s what we do. We have rants every now and again, and that’s what I did,” Ms Boylan said.

Ms McDonald added: “That’s allowed too”.

In 2022, Ms Boylan wrote to local party activists and said she could “not stay where I am not supported, valued, or even really respected”.

At the time, the party said that Ms Boylan had not resigned from Sinn Féin, while a post of she and Ms McDonald was later posted online to indicate the internal row had been diffused.

Ms McDonald described the “political friendship” between herself and Ms Boylan as “intact and strong”.

Ms Boylan pushed back on suggestions she was the “second choice” candidate for the party, after she beat campaigner Gillian Sherratt for the nomination.

Ms Sherratt had been seen as the preferred candidate of the Sinn Féin leadership.

“We had a democratic selection convention, and when we don't do things like that, we're criticised,” Ms Boylan said.

Comments on immigration

It comes as candidates in the constituency have condemned veteran criminal and independent candidate Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch over his call for “illegal immigrants” to be interned in the Curragh.

Mr Hutch said that he had no issue with “genuine” immigrants “bringing their toolbox to work”, as he claimed “foreign nationals” are needed for jobs that Irish people have “gone too posh for”, such as working in McDonald's.

Ms Boylan described the comments as “out of order”, while Ms McDonald said she would not comment on the remarks of another candidate.

Ms McDonald said the party has been hearing that people want to see a “fair” immigration system, saying the sentiment is that “people aren’t being listened to”.

“What we're hearing is that people want to know that this system is efficient, that decisions are made, that decisions are enforced,” Ms McDonald said.

Ms Boylan said the immigration system needed to be “reformed”.

Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, the People Before Profit candidate, described the remarks as “absolutely racist”.

I think Gerry Hutch is trying to basically pander to a kind of a sentiment that is around, but actually that I don't think is the overwhelming sentiment of people in the inner city.

“When we're talking to people in the inner city now, they're primarily worried about rent increases that the Dublin City Council has imposed on them."

Labour candidate Ruth O’Dea described the comments as “despicable” and said she was horrified by the remarks.

“I reject that absolutely, and I'm absolutely disgusted by that comment. We do not have detention without trial, and those days are long gone and thank God,” Ms O’Dea said.

“For him to say that is outrageous.”