Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley resigns from Sinn Féin

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley has resigned from Sinn Féin, leaving the party with no elected representative in Laois.

Just over two months since her husband Brian Stanley TD left the party, the Portlaoise councillor has done likewise and declared that Laois Sinn Féin is ‘not a safe place to be’.

In a statement on her social media page shortly before 8pm tonight, she said: ‘I have resigned from Sinn Féin with immediate effect.

‘During my 27 years of membership, I worked diligently to advance the objectives of the party. I met and worked with some great republicans on that journey and will always cherish those memories.

‘I have given this careful consideration and reflection over the recent past and decided to resign my membership of Sinn Féin.

‘Given how the party leadership dealt with the controversy that arose in July and related matters since then, including outright attacks on both me personally and my family by some local party members, I have come to the conclusion that Laois Sinn Féin is not a safe place to be.

‘I had hoped that the party at leadership level would have made the effort to engage with me directly and give some support and assistance to me to try and deal with these matters. However, no contact has been made by the leadership with me over the past 5 months.

‘While the party has always prided itself on the values of equality and in particular supports for women in politics, in my case this has proven to be a fallacy.

‘With this in mind, I have decided that the time is right for me to draw a line on 2024 and resign, look to the future and embrace what I hope will be a better political future in the time ahead.

‘I will continue in my role as an independent republican councillor providing vigorous and effective representation for the Portlaoise/Abbeyleix Municipal District.’

The announcement follows months of speculation regarding Cllr Dwane Stanley’s future in Sinn Féin, following her husband’s controversial departure and subsequent re-election as an Independent TD in the November general election. He had been a prominent Sinn Féin TD since 2011 and topped the poll for the party in Laois-Offaly in the 2020 general election.

In the count centre following his 2024 general election victory, the long-serving councillor accused Sinn Féin of running “a toxic, dirty, despicable and disgusting campaign” against her husband.

She said at the time that she had decided to remain silent until the general election was over, so that she couldn’t be accused by anyone of trying to sabotage their campaign. 

Her decision tonight means that all three elected Sinn Féin members in Laois have left the party within just four months, with veteran Portarlington councillor Aidan Mullins having resigned last August to become an Independent councillor.

A Portlaoise native, Cllr Dwane Stanley was first elected to Laois County Council in 2014 for the Portlaoise Municipal District and comfortably retained her seat in the two subsequent local elections.

In the 2024 local election last June, she had the second highest personal vote in the Portlaoise Municipal District with 1,415 first preferences and was elected on the second count. A huge vote-getter for Sinn Féin, she was second only to then-councillor Willie Aird (FG), who was elected to the Dáil for the first time last month.