Do we like Mary Lou McDonald?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Clear on LGBTQ+ equality in her own words and quick to apologise, marked down for the party's child protection fallout and its contested shift on immigration.
McDonald grew up in Dublin, started out in Fianna Fáil, then jumped ship to Sinn Féin in 1998 after less than a year. She was in the party's leadership team within months, became deputy leader in 2009, and was set to take over from Gerry Adams in 2018. That's a long climb for someone who started in the other lot.
The messiest chapter is child protection. Sinn Féin suspended former senator Niall Ó Donnghaile in 2023 after he allegedly sent inappropriate messages to a teenager, and he later resigned. Separately, two party press officers reportedly gave job references to a former colleague who was under investigation. McDonald said the party acted properly and ordered an overhaul of its procedures, while Micheál Martin said the party's “track record of concealment and secrecy is shocking”.
She did cop it on the Ó Donnghaile statement. In October 2024 she told the Dáil the teenager's age in her earlier account was wrong, corrected the record, and wrote to the young person and his mother with a “full, unequivocal and sincere apology”. Owning the mistake counts for something, though the questions about why the party kept it quiet didn't go away.
On the harm test, her record on LGBTQ+ people is the strong point. When a Sinn Féin frontbencher praised the UK Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of woman and then apologised for the hurt, she went on the Late Late Show and said everyone has the right to respect, and that these talks should start from respect. Nothing harmful from her own mouth turned up on women or the planet, and no dodgy co-stars or collaborators either.
Immigration is where the asterisk sits. She says the abuse aimed at her over it comes from “a tiny number of people, but they are very loud”, and her justice spokesman admitted the party made mistakes on its position. In September she called for clear, transparent rules and permit numbers set by need. Where you land depends on whether you read that as sensible policy or as a party chasing the mood.
She was also accused, in 2022, by a former Sinn Féin councillor secretly recorded during a trial, of using a crime family for money and votes. She denied it flatly, saying any suggestion of anything improper was “entirely wrong”, and the article reports no finding against her. On facts more broadly, TheJournal's check of her carbon tax claim found petrol use did rise in 2023 but diesel fell, so only partly accurate.