Irish Examiner view: Stop using the past as a distraction

Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald. Sinn Féin’s past is the never-ending distraction that all too often diverts attention from today’s policy promises

Though it seems unlikely that Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar have agreed on a good-cop-bad-cop routine in how they might debate Sinn Féin, this week’s events hinted at such an arrangement. 

There were sharp Dáil exchanges when Mr Martin suggested that Sinn Féin needed to be more accountable about its finances, describing some of its funding as “a shady enough transaction that would make even a stockbroker blush”.