BASH CASH 

Mary Lou McDonald has ‘questions to answer’ as Sinn Fein confirm Jonathan Dowdall purchased fundraiser tickets, TD says

• 18:49, 13 Nov 2022
• Updated: 18:49, 13 Nov 2022

SINN Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has “more questions to answer” after the party confirmed gangster Jonathan Dowdall also purchased tickets for a party fundraiser.

Earlier this week, Fine Gael TDs urged McDonald to hand over a €1,000 donation from Dowdall to a crime prevention charity.

McDonald landed a donation in 2011 from former Sinn Fein councillor Dowdall, who has since been jailed for four years for facilitating the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.

However, recent reports revealed more examples of Dowdall’s financial support for the party.

Fine Gael TD for Louth, Fergus O’Dowd said: “In recent weeks we learnt that Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald accepted a €1,000 donation from former Dublin City Councillor, Jonathan Dowdall, the man who facilitated the brutal and shocking gangland murder at the then Regency Hotel in the capital.

“We now learn, however, that Sinn Fein went on to accept further financial donations from Dowdall, including at a high-profile fundraising dinner for Deputy McDonald and her constituency at Dublin’s famed Gresham Hotel.

“Just how much has Sinn Fein accepted from their former councillor, who has been convicted of torture and is now imprisoned for his role in the Regency Hotel murder, a murder which sparked a succession of appalling killings.

“Deputy McDonald and Sinn Fein need to clarify the exact amount she and the party have received from Dowdall and do the right thing by giving every cent to the new Community Safety Innovation Fund which directly helps communities affected by crime.”

A spokesman for Sinn Fein said: “Jonathan Dowdall made a single donation to the party of €1,000 in 2011 and he also purchased tickets to a dinner dance and a local event.”

Earlier this week, Fine Gael TDs, Neale Richmond and Fergus O’Dowd, alongside Councillor Kenneth Egan, called on the Sinn Fein President to donate the €1,000 she received from disgraced Johnathan Dowdall to the Community Safety Innovation Fund.

Dublin Rathdown TD Richmond insisted the SF supremo should hand the €1,000 over.

He said: “Gangland criminals like Jonathan Dowdall are a plague on local communities; their dirty and corrupt money has no place in our political system.

“That Sinn Fein’s leader accepted a €1,000 donation from Jonathan Dowdall, the man who facilitated the most brutal gangland murder Ireland has seen and as she herself admitted, probably used it towards election expenses is appalling.

“The fact that she has not made a more legitimate use of this donation such as to make our communities safer is staggering. She must put this wrong to right.”

McDonald says she was ‘profoundly shocked’ to learn that former Sinn Fein Cllr Dowdall was involved in criminality.

She said: “Had we known that he was involved in any form of criminality, and I have to say I was profoundly shocked, as were many, many others, to discover his criminal activity, he wouldn’t have been anywhere near Sinn Fein.

“He wouldn’t have been anywhere near me or anybody else.”