Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has opened up about an extremely challenging year during which her “personal resilience got tested to the extremes”.
After undergoing major surgery herself, Ms McDonald’s husband, Martin Lanigan, was diagnosed with cancer and she lost her father, Patrick.
On the political side, the party underperformed in June’s election and was confronted with four separate scandals, which saw the resignation of two TDs, over the period.
In wide-ranging podcast interview with the , Ms McDonald has spoken of striking a balance between family life and Leinster House, her opinion of Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin who refused to speak to her about government formation, and the party’s hopes ahead of the presidential election in 2025.
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After a gruelling 12-months, the party leader says the break over Christmas this year will be “like none before” for herself and her family who live in the Dublin suburb of Cabra.
“A lot happened, and we will be just very happy to be together and to have the holiday season and the happiness of Christmas together.
“So yeah, tinged with sadness, I mean, I lost my my dad during the year, but we got there.”
“Isn’t that the lesson in life? When things get tough you continue on and you lean on people who are around you.
“And for me, Christmas is a time for lots of things, but counting your blessings is certainly top of my list this year.
“It has been a challenging year, of that’s there’s no doubt. There’s no question, my personal resilience got tested to the extremes,” she says.
Ms McDonald, whose children Iseult and Gerard, are now young adults, has always kept her family out of the spotlight as much as possible and trying to strike a healthy balance of being a public persona and “protecting your own privacy and that of your family” has been important to her.
“You’re the public figure, your family are not. They have to go about their lives.
“So on the one hand, being clear on that, but on the other hand having the public accept that you are a human being.
Does she think either of her children would ever follow her into politics?
While both are interested in politics and have “strong ideas” that are often debated around the kitchen table, for now they are pursuing very different interests.
“They have their own views of the world. Sometimes they coincide with mine, many times they do, and other times they don’t, and that’s OK.
“We raised them to be free and independent thinkers, and we did a good job on that score.”
But Ms McDonald, who was a member of Fianna Fáil before moving to Sinn Féin, laughs and says she would “die of shock”, if they ever came home and told her they were joining Mr Martin’s party or Fine Gael.
While dealing with multiple challenges in her personal life, Ms McDonald admits that politically 2024 has been “a mixed bag” for her party, which continued to slide in the polls and has failed to form part of the next government despite returning the second largest number of TDs.
Before the general election, the party had come under the microscope on issues of child protection, stemming from the case of former press officer Michael McMonagle who admitted a series of offences, including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
In a separate controversy it was revealed that former senator Niall Ó Donnghaile had resigned after allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a teenager.
The party’s woes didn’t stop there as Kildare South representative Patricia Ryan quit, claiming she was being pushed out.
Long-serving member and Laois-Offaly TD Brian Stanley resigned, claiming the internal investigation into a claim against him was akin to a “kangaroo court”.
“It’s been testing,” Ms McDonald says when asked about the political year.
Focusing on the positives she says: “We went into a general election where lots of people had written us off. I mean, there were predictions that we were going to lose lots of the seats, and we didn’t. We regrouped, we gathered. I think we ran a very effective campaign.
“There are 39 of us, 15 of whom are women, which is really great, very significant.”
“We’ve demonstrated that 2020, wasn’t a one-off or a blip or something extraordinary. We’ve consolidated our strength.
“But of course, we’re not going into government, and that’s the objective I had set for us. So we fell short on this occasion.
“I know there’s a level of disappointment amongst lots of people on that score, a bit of anger I’ve heard from from others as well, at the idea of the same two again, with the help of the ‘Michael Lowry Independents’ going back into office, but that’s elections for you.”
After November’s poll, Ms McDonald sought a meeting with her counterpart in Fianna Fáil to explore coalition possibilities.
However, this was ruled out by Mr Martin.
She says she has “no personal animus” towards Mr Martin but believes he has been “arrogant and dismissive”.
“The idea that Micheál Martin, the man who wishes to be a Taoiseach can simply say, ‘I’m not talking to you’, that’s not a disrespect to me, that’s a disrespect to hundreds of thousands of people who vote for us and whose vote has to carry equal weight, has to matter as much as the vote for for anyone else.
“To be so dismissive, and also to make a virtue of being that arrogant and dismissive is quite something.
Looking to relationships between both parties in the future, she admits that she has heard it speculated that the departure of Mr Martin could pave the way for a deal between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, but refuses to go any further on the matter.
November’s presidential elections will be the next big test for Sinn Féin, but Ms McDonald says a tilt at the Aras is “not on my horizon”.
“Whoever is successful will have very, very big shoes to fill. I mean, Michael D has been, by any stretch, an influential and hugely loved and respected president.”
Asked about her predecessor, who has been named from time to time, she says: “I don’t think Gerry Adams has the remotest interest at all in running.”
