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SINN FÉIN HAS been engulfed in controversy once again over the use of social media by one of its elected representatives.
Senator Máire Devine has been suspended from the party after she retweeted a post on Twitter from a parody account which called Brian Stack, a senior prison officer shot dead by the IRA in the 1980s, a ‘sadist’.
Devine’s actions have been condemned across the board, with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald calling the retweet “a catastrophic error of judgement”.
Austin Stack, the son of Brian Stack, who has been campaigning to find out who murdered his father, said that what the senator had done “is well below the standards of any public representative”.
This is far from the first time Sinn Féin members have come under fire for their use of social media, with prominent party figures sanctioned and suspended in the past.
McDonald – who took over as leader of Sinn Féin last month after Gerry Adams stepped down after 35 at the head of the party – spoke to TheJournal.ie recently about the need to “modernise” and reform the party.
She was addressing issues around the internal bullying that has dogged the party in recent months.
“Everyone needs to know there are rules, there are standards, there is a charter of ethics and we didn’t write and produce them just for the craic, they actually mean something, and if they are breached, we have to deal with that,” she said.
Addressing claims and allegations around internal party bullying will surely form part of this reforming process, as will how McDonald deals with the party’s frequent controversy caused on social media.
According to Máiría Cahill – a former Labour senator who claims that she was raped by a member of the PIRA and was then forced confront her abuser – a lot needs to be done by Sinn Féin to address issues around bullying and social media.
Cahill has suffered a lot of online abuse by anonymous Twitter accounts since she went public with her story.
“My heart goes out to Austin Stack on this and I have spoken to him to see if there is any support at all that could be offered,” Cahill told TheJournal.ie.
“For example, I protected my own Twitter account… Because of the abuse I was taking day in, day out.
Cahill said that senior Sinn Féin figures needed to stop engaging with anonymous online accounts as a matter of urgency.
Barry McElduff and Kingsmill
Devine’s suspension comes just over two months after a similar storm was caused by a prominent party figure posting on social media.
Barry McElduff resigned as an MP in January after he posted a highly controversial video of himself on Twitter posing with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.
The Kingsmill massacre, one of the worst single atrocities of the Troubles, saw a van carrying a group of textile workers killed by men disguised as British soldiers on 5 January 1976.
The IRA have never claimed responsibility for the attack, although an investigation by the North’s Historical Enquiries Team concluded in 2011 that it was responsible.
While McElduff maintained that there was no intended reference to Kingsmill in his tweet, he accepted that people felt it was “deeply damaging to the reconciliation process”.
He was suspended from the party for three months with pay, before he then resigned as an MP.
Other incidents
There have been many other prominent incident in recent years with party figures on social media.
Former party leader Gerry Adams was forced to apologise in 2016 after he sent a tweet after watching the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained.
The tweet compared the struggle against slavery in the US to the struggle of Irish nationalists, and made use of the n-word while making this comparison.
It was removed quickly, but not before it provoked anger on social media.
As well as this, Sinn Féin MP for Mid Ulster Francie Molloy was also forced to apologise after he described revelations on a BBC Spotlight programme as “a load of rubbish” in 2015.
The programme saw Paudie McGahon, an alleged victim of IRA abuse, claim that he was abused by a volunteer when he was 17 and later subjected to an IRA-convened kangaroo court.
Molloy described the programme as a “joint Indo bluesh.. production”.
Following criticism from Mairía Cahill – who called the tweet “disgusting” – Molloy deleted it.
Another notable incident includes now-Lord Mayor of Dublin Micheál Mac Donncha calling the people who call Irish rugby “West Brits”.
There have been a number of other incidents over the past four years.
Social media guidelines
In light of the latest controversy, Mary Lou McDonald said that asked the party’s general secretary to reissue social media guidelines to members.
The guidelines from 2016 emphasise the need for party members to be responsible with their output.
“Social media tools such as facebook, twitter, blogs, etc are powerful political tools that can help accelerate political support for the party when combined with the right political issues and messages,” the guidelines state.
However, a casual, naïve or irresponsible approach to these tools can cause problems for the party, individual representatives and members.
The guidelines give general advice but state that they “cannot replace commonsense and personal responsibility of activists when engaging with these tools”.
The guidelines include advice not to engage with trolls, to consider your audience, to not send “offensive or harassing material to others” and a particular one about reposting which states:
Beware of reposting others content: When we repost something from another political/campaign site – acknowledged or not – it will be viewed as a tacit endorsement of that site or page. So we should not be reposting material or endorsing sites, pages or people from people or groups who are politically opposed to us.
The guidelines state that disciplinary action can be taken for people who breach Sinn Féin’s Charter of Ethics and Disciplinary Procedures, which can include suspension or expulsion from the party and loss of voting privileges.
Mary Lou’s response
There have been calls for Devine to resign – including from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – following her retweet. However, McDonald has said her punishment was proportionate.
Reacting today to the latest scandal, McDonald said that what had happened was “entirely unacceptable”.
“The retweeting of this material was entirely unacceptable. It represented the poorest of poor judgement on behalf of Senator Devine. She has of course and quite correctly fully apologised for the matter and we acted swiftly,” McDonald said.
She has been disciplined and been left in absolutely no doubt as to the gravity and the seriousness of her actions, and a three-month suspension for anyone in political life is a serious sanction. The whip has been removed and her party membership has been suspended.
“And for anyone in a profession to receive such a sanction is a very open and public rebuke, it is certainly more than a wrap on the knuckles,” the Dublin Central TD added.
Asked about whether Devine should be removed from the party, McDonald said this would not be appropriate.
Yesterday, she said that the issue highlighted “the fact that users of social media have to be very careful”.
She said she has asked the party’s general secretary to reissue social media guidelines to members and implored people in the party to “please, for goodness sake, be thoughtful, be cautious, and if you make a mistake, accept that the mistake was made immediately and, where an apology is due to another human being, make that apology”.
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When Sinn Fein welcomed ex Fianna Fail TD Chris Andrews into the party, after he was caught red handed smearing and trolling his party rivals from a fake account, it was a pretty clear signal from the SF leadership to its activists, that online trolling would be tolerated if not encouraged.
@Ted Leddy: I’m sure if the Shinners ever starts behaving like mature adults they will start to be treated like adult. They have a long road to adulthood in front of them
@frank murphy: “behaving like mature adults” lol the irony coming from you.. No exaggeration.. You’ve gone through at least 25+ accounts on here.. Billy mcplunket
They need to address the mindset, and then they won’t need to muzzle/censor/ retrain their party members/ supporters. A social media bandaid won’t fix the nastier elements of their ideology.
@Blants: that’s it in a nutshell
@Honeybadger197: evil does what evil does
@Blants: I think that all of the main parties are equally untrustworthy but I’m gonna give a different untrustworthy party my vote next time out and see what they’re made off should they succeed. Its the only trustworthy option I can see as the other options who are currently untrustworthy have had it wrapped up between them at every GE since the inception of the state.
@Frank Cauldhame: exactly
@Megs Molcia: This is news to me! When was I a squaddie??
@Megs Molcia: English please…
The woman has set out her stall and is working damn hard to achieve the reform needed. Of course she is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t by some here. People were asked to give Leo a chance when he took over from Enda. It seemed reasonable at the time, Enda was a disaster. But we see what Leo has done. His SCU has misappropriated public funds and is now infiltrating all branches of government and the public service, even training public servants to make sure HIS image coincides with how the government and public service carry on their daily work.
Yet we hear nothing about this. But the new leader of SF is being made like she is personally responsible for some loose cannons in the party.
Where’s the balance here.
@Dave Doyle: Deny/Distract/Deflect.
And you’re right Dave, it’s ALL FG’s/Leo’s fault.
@Dave Doyle: Mary Looper is 100% responsible
@MK76:
You don’t know how true that is.
@Dave Doyle:
Ahh come on she was head hunted
Private school education
Probably getting a few backhanders
Do you really think someone from from Rathgar would say TAL
Was there any truth in what Máire Devine said ?
@Patrick Burke: It does not matter. The man should not have being murdered. SF/IRA are not judge, jury and executioner. Brian Stack was not in a conflict he was doing his job.
IRA wanted to control the Republican wings of the prisons and would not take orders from the prison officers in cases where prisoners are uncooperative acceptable force can be used.
@Pilib O Muiregan: where did your other comment go?? The level of comment editing on the journal is getting ridiculous and appears to be totally random, or is it?
@kevin: I don’t know where it went. Shinners must be reporting it…. Bout time they reported something.
Nobody cares journal! Bar the SCU boyos on here, and thats only because there on time and a half for working evenings.
Once upon a time all parties were terminated EXCEPT fine gael and fine fail and we will lived happily ever after and then we all went to live in one big house and morph into each other .The end.
As the original party of militarized boiler room trolling http://www.thejournal.ie/sinn-fein-keyboard-warriors-2349964-Sep2015/
you’d think Sinn Fein would be better at it by now.
@alphanautica: The ‘original’?
Your articles from 2015, here’s your lot from 2013
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/03/07/fine-gaels-frape-room/
So, who are the real originals??
@alphanautica: hahahaha zing!!
@Dermo Adams:
The photo was taken in the basement of Mount Street and the paid trolls were all YFG.
The original photo, I used in 2011 to highlight the control and brainwashing of students.
Can the decision to reprimand her not be taken out of sf hands nd have her removed as a senator ,,,,, how much of out tax payers money does she get to act like this,,,, remove her now
@Tomas Lynch:
Remove her now???
Who?
Regina? Francis???
The hypocrites working overtime I see.
Hopefully they won’t weather the storm and will just disappear
@The Exhibition Guy!: keep hoping sf are here to stay and will be in power within 10 years and if they lie to the people like PR Leo or mehole Martin I won’t vote for them again.
@David Clarke: It’s gotten to the point where the negative articles on SF are proving counter productive .People are tired of the SF bashing..More people have viewed the Ringo Starr article then have even bothered clicking on this.. More clicked on the Cambodian Pool Party article than the earlier article on SF. People are just bored of it.The last positive article on SF got 44,667 views (although we’ll just assume people were shocked that Gerry actual had a positive article written on him anywhere ) Here’s one though ,Leo’s little foot in mouth article got a whoping 47,726 views nearly twice as many as the two articles on the SF tweet combined..If I were doing the metrics on views of negative vs positive message articles at the Fraperoom …I’d be worried about keeping my job. The view hits on positive vs negative SF articles are actually very good. People seem more inclines to read positive stories on SF than negative ones and seem more inclined to read negative than positive stories on the government despite the 5 million out lay of taxpayer money on positive messaging… The thumbs on comments don’t tell the full story. Of course now that I’ve given the game away expect that to start changing…
@Megs Molcia: wishful thinking on my part!
@David Clarke: Dave, there is no way they will be in power in 10 years and if they are then god help us.
If she is suspended from the party, does she get to keep her full salary and not pay the portion above the national average wage into the party funds?
Who cares? The Church’s word is sacrosanct and anyone who disagrees is nothing but an SP.
TÁL and Up da Rebels.
@MK76: Your tongue is so far up Leo’s derriere you’re comments have a smell off them.
You’re getting more idiotic than frank murphy and i didn’t think that was possible.
@Dave Doyle:
With comments like that – rude and crude – you would expect nothing better from your political representatives.
@Dave Doyle: Just about the standard to be expected from a classy supporter of a classy organisation.
Lovely bunch of people.
@MK76: You love to dish it out, but get all offended when you’re on the receiving end.
@Dave Doyle: Dave, I’ve been posting on these forums for a number of years now, but never had to lower myself to such crassness.
You’re posts are however reflective of the standards the party you are trying to defend, uphold.
Stay classy Sinnfeinologists.
@MK76: I seriously think you are in fact frank murphy and you’ve just swapped names for the evening shift.
@Dave Doyle: It is fun to laugh at you hated filled shinners LOL
@MK76: Now now AK47 you’ve been abusive and bullying on one occasion recently a lady kept her graces after you commented her “loneliness” that was classy! being sarcastic is a calling for you as you’ve called countless people morons and spouted such school yard comments like Tin foil hats and the like! You’ve lowered yourself on more than one occasion but you should leave the holier than dow poo for the trolls. There’s a good rebel boy now.
@Declan: Poor Declan. Playing the bullying card when you’ve nothing of substance to say. Perhaps leave these forums to the adults (even the crass ones like Dave).
Look why are people surprised by this?, it happens all the time and will keep happening.
The shinners will always revert to type.
The good news is they are a busted flush.
Before the 2011 GE they said they would not go into coalition and would be a single party govt in the south.
When that didn`t work out they said they could only go into coalition if they were the lead party in any coalition.
Now they say they are willing to go into govt as the minor party in any coalition in the south. LMFAO !
The are becoming increasingly irrelevant and will be consigned to the dustbin of history, where they belong.
Shinners just cant help their evil way. Its fantastic to she the evil cult brutally exposed yet again.
@frank murphy:
Get over yourself Frank.
Your showing your bitterness and every bitter/negative moment is a wasted moment.
I hope you find happiness.
@frank murphy: You need to get a tracking fob to attach to your blister packs frank, being off your meds is slightly entertaining but the long term effect may well have you getting a bad case of Stockholm syndrome and you’ll end up at the Sinn Fein shop in Parnell sq peddling t-shirts with the logo; Shinnerbots for life.
My God I have to laugh when I hear these dopes slate Sinn Fein sometimes the truth is a bitter pill to swallow.There is an old saying people in glass houses should not throw stones. FF and FG have literally rapes this Country for to many years to remember there has been numerous inquiries which cost this state Billions and not one of these so called Politicians have served prison sentences sorry the odd one might have served a few months .These Politicians who now sit back with massive pensions there is never once an out cry looking for theirs heads why because the media won’t touch it why because we all know who owns the media in Ireland and where he got his money.
Quite a few foolish people in politics, not just in sinn fein but as a sf voter i would say these people need to be weeded out of the party. Of course the media are loving it too.
And there was I thinking that after Adams retired the new leader could put some distance between the party and its shady gunmen side.
It looked like it might start taking votes from the FG/FF cartel. Mary Lou however has shown SF hasn’t moved on a lot because of her support for the Kingsmill muppet and now this senator. Such a shame.
Social Meeja, an online crutch for absolute idiots
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