LAST UPDATE | 18 Nov

TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has taken aim at Sinn Féin this evening as he continued to mount a defence of a Fine Gael senator who has been criticised over an assault case taken against him in the High Court.

Controversy has surrounded the selection of senator John McGahon as a Fine Gael candidate in Louth after a man who took a civil case was interviewed by The Sunday Times yesterday, in an article which contained pictures of the injuries he sustained.

McGahon was involved in an altercation with farmer White outside the Rum House pub in Dundalk in 2018.

Though he was acquitted in a 2022 criminal trial of assault causing harm, McGahon was ordered this summer by the High Court to pay White €39,000 after the Castleblayney farmer sued the senator for assault and battery.

According to the Irish Times, the jury found White had been assaulted and awarded €60,000, including €10,000 for aggravated damages. It apportioned blame at 65% against McGahon and the other 35% against the farmer.

A video of the incident has also circulated widely on social media.

Rival party leaders today questioned Fine Gael’s selection of McGahon as the party’s general election candidate for Louth, but Harris hit back this evening on his way into the RTÉ leaders’ debate and took aim at recent controversy involving a Sinn Féin press officer.

Speaking about criticism of the party by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, the Taoiseach said: “Her press officer is in prison tonight for being a paedophile, John McGahon was found not guilty by a court of law.”

Former Sinn Féin press officer Michael McMonagle, from Limewood Street in Derry, was sentenced to nine months in prison for child sex offences in Northern Ireland earlier this month.

He then went on to get a job with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which did not know he was under investigation for child sex offences.

Sinn Féin faced mounting pressure last month after it emerged that two former party press officers provided references for McMonagle in 2022 for the BHF job.

The press officers quit in late September, after Sinn Féin began disciplinary proceedings against them, and both Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minster Michelle O’Neill apologised over the controversy.

Earlier, McDonald said that the video circulating of the incident is “very distressing to view”. 

“I think it’s really shocking. I really think it’s shocking that anybody in public life or anybody at all would behave like that,” she said.

“Simon Harris, rather than dismissing concerns, needs to come out and address them.”

She repeated that the incident was “no way for a public representative to behave”. 

Harris previously described what happened as “a scuffle” and said McGahon was remorseful.

Micheál Martin ‘surprised’

Fianna Fáil leader and Tánaiste Micheál Martin also questioned Fine Gael’s selection of McGahon, saying that he was “surprised” that Fine Gael stood by the senator.

Speaking to reporters today, he said the “injuries were very severe”.

“There is a victim here and the victim feels that he hasn’t been listened to,” Martin added.

Martin also said he was “shocked to see the photographs” and added that he “didn’t realise at all that it was of that scale”.

“There is very severe cuts and bruises, stitches; I didn’t understand that that was the nature and the severity of the assault.”

Martin also said today that McGahon would not be a candidate “given the circumstances” if he were a member of his party and said: “There is a victim here, and striking to the head is very, very dangerous and thankfully here, didn’t lead to worse consequences, but could have.”

In broader comments about the issue today, Harris said the issues involving McGahon “were litigated in front of a court”.

“A jury sat, a jury looked at all of the evidence, all of the CCTV, all of the photos, a defence of self-defence was put forward in the court, and John McGahon was acquitted by a jury of his peers,” he said.

“Of course, if he had not been acquitted, if he’d been found guilty by a criminal court, we’d be in a very different situation.

“It’s interesting, these facts have been known for a very long period of time. And obviously, now that there’s an election, there’s a focus in relation to this.

But ultimately, it will be up to the people of Louth to decide. 

Earlier, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, defended the selection of McGahon while Justice Minister Helen McEntee also backed McGahon yesterday.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper and Stephen McDermott.