Irish Examiner view: A political party digging holes

The bravado of the Sinn Féin leadership in the Dáil when railing against the alleged “crimes” of Paschal Donohoe was as impressive as it was self-defeating; it only encouraged political rivals and the media to question the party’s own financial arrangements.

The art of digging a hole for yourself is one that has been successfully practiced by Irish politicians for many, many years. It was perhaps best encapsulated by the actions of Fianna Fáil during the 1990 presidential election campaign.

Think of the late Brian Lenihan Sr and his “on mature reflection” speech to the nation after a tape emerged in which he admitted making phone calls to the then-President Patrick Hillary, trying to influence him over an issue relating to the dissolution of the Dáil back in 1982. 

Lenihan never denied his participation in this at the time. But then in the midst of the 1990 presidential campaign — when he was the Fianna Fáil candidate — he changed his account and insisted he had no “hand, act, or part” in the efforts to pressure President Hillary. 

Newspaper coverage proved this to be untrue and, credibility severely mauled, he lost the election to Mary Robinson.

The whole affair ultimately led to the downfall of Charlie Haughey as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader in 1992. Fianna Fáil and Lenihan never stopped digging. It cost both dearly.

Recently, we saw something similar with Sinn Féin which, having denounced Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, for failing to properly register assistance received for putting up posters with cries of “we need accountability” and “stench of cronyism”, suddenly found itself facing questions about statements made to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) on its own spending declarations.

Mistakes, anomalies, and contradictions made in Sinn Féin’s declarations to Sipo, now mean it is facing more questions on its spending and it has emerged the party has been the subject of repeated complaints to the commission. 

If these are upheld it will be deeply embarrassing given the manner the party went after Donoghue, but even as it is Sinn Féin continues to try and explain the inexplicable.

The bravado of the Sinn Féin leadership in the Dáil when railing against the alleged “crimes” of Paschal Donohoe was as impressive as it was self-defeating; it only encouraged political rivals and the media to question the party’s own financial arrangements.

Sinn Féin has equivocated and supplied opaque answers and, generally, kept making the hole it found itself in that bit bigger.

As we have seen so often in the past, that’s a tactic which has rarely worked.