Former Sinn Féin councillor says he was ‘silenced’ by party headquarters
Councillor Aidan Mullins was first elected to Laois County Council (pictured) in 2014 as a member of the Sinn Féin party.
Sinn Féin has just one councillor in Laois after Aidan Mullins resigned from the party last week.
Cllr Mullins announced his departure from Sinn Féin after a complaint was lodged to party headquarters by one of his fellow members, accusing the 73-year-old Portarlington-based councillor of being anti-transgender, over a comment he shared on X, formerly Twitter.
The party upheld the complaint, which he strenuously denied and last week issued Cllr Mullins with a three-month suspension, which he refused to accept and resigned.
A lifelong republican, cllr Mullins had been a member of Sinn Féin for the past 51 years and an elected councillor in the Graiguecullen/Portarlington Municipal District since 2014. Currently he is cathaoirleach of the municipal district.
A regular user of social media, he often posts and shares controversial issues and posed questions that he said his constituents were raising with him, which didn’t align with some of the party’s positions and policies.
He said: “I’ve been having difficulties with the party for more than 12 months on its immigration, and the referendums on Family and Care positions.
“They had tried to silence me and had instructed me not to be posting anything contentious on my social media accounts. They wanted me to see no evil, say no evil and to just shut up and put nothing up on immigration.
“It now transpires that what I was advocating on immigration, the party has taken most of that on board and is now their policy. But it had no position on it before the local elections in June. It also has done a u-turn on its original position on the .”
He said that he will remain in the council’s ‘technical grouping’ (comprising of one Sinn Féin, one Labour and now four Independent councillors), but will not be contesting another election.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Sinn Féin’s head office said: 'There have been serious differences on key policy issues and values between the party and Mr Mullins for some time. We have no further comment to make.'
Cllr Mullins said: “I’m not anti-Sinn Féin. I hold no animosity towards anybody in it, but I think some people in senior positions within the party nationally need to go. This is not the party that I joined. I really feel that they have lost their way completely.”
I submitted my resignation as a member of Sinn Féin this morning. Just not happy with the direction the party is taking. It's not the Sinn Féin I joined decades ago and we differ on many issues.
— Aidan Mullins (@AidanMullins7) August 28, 2024
