Mary Lou McDonald ‘went out of her way to facilitate Jonathan Dowdall’, Dáil is told

Sinn Féin leader says he should not have been in her party

Mary Lou McDonald with Jonathan Dowdall in 2014. Photo: Independent.ie

April 20 2023 03:59 PM

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Mary Lou McDonald “went out of her way to facilitate Jonathan Dowdall remaining in her party”, it has been alleged in the Dáil.

Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy was interrupted by the Leas Cheann Comhairle as he deviated from a debate on organised crime to speak about the State’s protected witness in the recent murder case against Gerard Hutch, of which he was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court.

Mr Brophy said Ms McDonald “needs to come clean” and asked whether she had ever visited Mr Dowdall’s house on the Navan Road – the address at which a waterboarding torture took place that resulted in Dowdall’s conviction.

Ms McDonald was not in the chamber at the time, but later spoke on the subject under discussion.

The shadow of Jonathan Dowdall still hangs over Mary Lou’s Sinn Féin

   

“These gangs must be smashed. These thugs put behind bars where they belong,” she said. The Sinn Féin leader added that the Special Criminal Court had a role in that regard.

Mr Brophy had asked: “Did his (Dowdall’s) constituency mentor and now party leader Mary Lou McDonald call to his home on the Navan Road and persuade him to stay (in Sinn Féin)?

“Did Deputy McDonald pressurise Jonathan Dowdall to stay in her local organisation? I’m not sure what actions Mary Lou McDonald took to remain on as a councillor.”

He referred to a 2014 report on TheJournal.ie that Dowdall was “delighted” to be remaining with SF and that the decision came after talks with party figures.

He was quoted as saying Mary Lou McDonald had been a “total support.”

Ms McDonald subsequently came into the chamber to address the issue.

She said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Jonathan Dowdall had no business and shouldn’t have been in our party.

“He joined in June 2013. He left in February 2015. But it was in March 2016 that his criminal activity was discovered.”

She added: “I first met Jonathan Dowdall and his wife, a civil servant in the Department of Social Protection, at an event in advance of the 2011 general election.

“He was a family man. He was running a successful electrical business, working with some of the largest companies in the land. Indeed, he featured in the media about the success of his business.

“He was a north inner city kid who had worked really hard and who had done really well.

“We now know that this was not the real Jonathan Dowdall — a man who would go on to commit heinous crime, and he alone is responsible for his actions.

“He has been tried. He has been convicted before the courts. If I had known for a second what he would be capable of – what he would go on to do – he wouldn’t have been near me.

“He wouldn’t have been there, shouldn’t have been, and he certainly would not have been running for public office. I would not tolerate that.”

As a public representative she had stood resolutely on the side of the community in the fight against criminal gangs, drug dealers and anti-social elements, she said.

“I will continue to do that. I have always stood with the community in the fight for services, for supports, for housing, and an opportunity for the people.

” I will continue to do that. And I could only that Government now, or some other government in the future, would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with communities to face down these thugs.”

Mr Brophy asked the Chair that Ms McDonald be “afforded some extra time” to answer the questions he had asked, but Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghail ruled that it was not a question-and-answer session.