Sinn Féin’s McDonald says byelections are ‘peculiar’ and no seat is easy to win

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has pushed back against the questioning of her leadership and said byelections were “a peculiarity in the system”.

McDonald said it was “not our day” in Galway West after Sinn Féin candidate Mark Lohan gathered 6.5 per cent of first preference votes based on an unofficial tally, but she said the race in Dublin Central was “tight”.

Social Democrats candidate Daniel Ennis topped the poll in Dublin Central, McDonald’s own constituency, with 4,903 first preferences, followed by Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan on 4,348.

The quota to be elected is 12,435.

Boylan said that she was “very happy” with how the campaign went and said it was a “great” election for them.

Asked at the RDS in Dublin on Saturday afternoon about the party’s performance, McDonald said Sinn Féin was “building politically” and said the trajectory of Irish politics over the past 10 years was one of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s decline and the “growth of politics beyond that”.

She said: “We are absolutely front and centre in that, we’re not the totality of it, we recognise that too, but we have had tremendous, tremendous success. We have grown and we will grow again.

“Things don’t happen in political life – in my experience and it’s considerable at this stage – in a straight line. Things take, sometimes, detours.”

McDonald said Galway West had once been “a bastion of Fianna Fáil” and that the result shows a government is possible without Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, while neither a Fianna Fáil nor a Fine Gael TD in Dublin Central was “an image of politics to come”.

“No seat, ever, in any contest, is an easy seat to win,” she said at the RDS, adding that when a general election comes, “watch and see how we perform then”.

“I believe that the next general election our job, as the largest and lead party of opposition, is to lead that politics that makes that possibility a reality.”

Earlier, speaking at the count centre at Galway Lawn Tennis Club, she said there was “no question on the leadership” and that she does not feel under pressure.

“I am the leader of Sinn Féin, I lead us on days when we’re on a winning streak, I lead us on the days when we’re not lifting the cup,” she said.

“That is my job, that’s the job of the leader. I know you’ve had to ask the question, I have now answered the question.”

Asked if her leadership is under pressure, she said: “I feel under no pressure whatsoever, pressure is for tyres.

“If you’re going to lead the opposition of the project of constructing a government beyond Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, a historic project, if you’re going to lead a party, a national movement and a national organisation like Sinn Fein, you don’t give way to pressure.

“You have to have the fortitude, the stamina, the resilience and the concentration span to see this through.

“And just for the avoidance of doubt, I have all of those qualities in abundance and I will carry on with my work.”

McDonald said Lohan had fought a “strong” and “honourable” campaign, and that she wanted to assure people they met while canvassing that they would “fight their corner”.

She said there was “no confusion” for voters about whether the party was either left-wing or right-wing.

“We’re an Irish republican party, we’re a party of a united Ireland and we’re a party of the left, we’re a party of social justice, of economic justice and equality,” she said.

“We are very much a party that is about progress, about advancement. We are a party of working people in the first instance, we believe that everybody has to have a decent standard of living, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

“Notwithstanding the fact that we’re not lifting the cup today here in Galway West, we will be returning to the Dail to get on with our work.”

She added: “Byelections are peculiar, they’re peculiar to the constituencies in which they are fought, and a dynamic takes on.

“We fought a strong campaign, Mark is an outstanding person, articulate, accomplished, he’s been an activist and an advocate all his life, and he’ll continue to be just that.

“Politics, as in sport – sometimes it’s just not your day.”