YOU MAY NOT have been aware that for a brief period in the 1990s, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald was a member of that other republican party, Fianna Fáil.
McDonald’s parents were both supporters of Fianna Fáil and in 1998 they would have been pleased that their daughter joined the party a year after it embarked on what would be 14 years in government.
The future Sinn Féin star was apparently offered a safe council seat but refused it and defected to Sinn Féin later that year, citing differences with Fianna Fáil over its economic and social policies.
In the course of a wide-ranging interview in TheJournal.ie‘s offices this week we asked McDonald where she thought she would be now had she remained in Fianna Fáil:
Video: Michelle Hennessy/TheJournal.ie
An extended interview with Mary Lou McDonald will be on TheJournal.ie later today.
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