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Child welfare at centre of political storms

24 October 2024

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The issue of child welfare has raised its head once again in the Dáil.  Once around the scandals besetting Sinn Féin and once more around the state and its child protection agency’s abrogation of its responsibilities towards children.  Neither the state, Sinn Féin or the Left came out of it very well.

Sinn Féin was challenged over various sex scandals that engulfed the party recently.  Chief amongst them was the case of their press officer McGonagle who had been given references from two high ranking Sinn Féin officials as part of his job application to the British Heart Foundation.  This was followed by revelations surrounding the former SF Lord Mayor of Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile who stepped down as a senator when SF realised he had been sending text messages to a minor.  They lied at the time about the reasons behind his resignation and have continued to lie, with some controversy surrounding the age of the victim at the time, perhaps related to different ages of consent in the North and the South, from where he almost certainly sent some of the texts and different possible consequences for them.

In the Dáil debate on the issue, SF lied time and again.  The Left had little to say on the matter.  Bríd Smith, said that Mary Lou McDonald had acquitted herself well in the Dáil.  Kieran Allen the lead ideologue of People Before Profit writing in Rebel News said the Left had to prepare itself for more mud slinging and “Every effort Sinn Féin has made to deal with inappropriate behaviour – and we have no idea of what is alleged or how it was dealt with – has been held up to ridicule and suspicion.”  He then went on to list some examples of the state and its treatment and cover up of the abuse and neglect of children.  He was not wrong about the state, but his criticism of the state was in the context of a general soft line on SF and its abuse.  SF have form on this issue, rapes by IRA members and also Gerry Adams having realised that his brother was a paedophile got him out of Belfast and found him a job working with children in Dundalk.  He was later convicted of raping his daughter and sentenced to 16 years in prison where he died.

Paul Murphy for his part, spoke in the Dáil about how the issue of child welfare was being used as a political football.  Again, he was not wrong on the examples he gave.  But he did so in the context of discussions about SF, who are part of PbP’s “Left government” proposal in which they would be a key player.  He referenced the situation with children under the auspices of TUSLA, the child protection agency and the deaths that had occurred.  He further claimed that it was good practice for Mary Lou McDonald not to know about the allegations, citing independence of the investigation, ignoring that the complaints against them over McGonagle and the former senator Ó Donnghaile were all of a criminal nature and involved children and so should have been reported to the relevant agencies.  We have no knowledge as of yet what the nature of the allegations against Stanley are.

The Left has surrendered the high moral ground on this and related issues to the right-wing conservative politician Peadar Toibín who attacked not only SF but also the state on its record of child protection.  He came back to this issue some eight days later on the issue of Kryan Durnin an eight-year-old child who has been missing for two years, despite TUSLA having engaged with the child.  In the last 10 years 227 children have died in state care or were known to state care agencies, 11 were murdered, 40 committed suicide, eight overdosed.  Furthermore, children under the care of TUSLA have gone missing on a regular basis for long periods, with one later found chained up in a brothel.   As of June this year, 34 children under TUSLA’s care had gone missing.

The Left is correct to point out the hypocrisy of the state on the issue, but it is not right to do so in the context of softly supporting SF over its own behaviour on this, nor is it right to surrender to conservative forces, such as Aontú, leadership on this and other issues surrounding child protection and safety.  The allegations against SF are not mudslinging and anyone who is serious about children’s welfare would recognise this, and call it out for what it is.


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