Former Sinn Féin TD Patricia Ryan has said she had social media posts censored and that questions to the party leadership at meetings were vetted, as she hit out at Sinn Féin for “not listening” to members and TDs.
The Kildare South TD, who resigned from the party on Wednesday, denied that she quit because the general election candidate selection convention was going to be contested. She said this was “absolutely not” the case. Ms Ryan said she was quitting the party after the leadership failed to address issues among local grassroots members.
She also said she felt “pushed” out by the leadership.
Speaking for the first time about her resignation to her local radio station KFM, she said “there were issues within the grassroots of the party in Kildare South and the party weren’t dealing with them issues. And despite having asked the party to deal with those issues for quite a while, it was left fester. And I felt that it either had to be sorted or I had to go”.
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“There was an issue around an illegal encampment in the Curragh and constituents had come to me to complain about the illegal encampment in the Curragh. I was addressing the issue and I had written to Tánaiste Micheál Martin and I had asked him to take a look at this to see what we could do. I put up on my social media that I was doing that, and I was asked to take it down by the grassroots – the Comhairle Ceantar, the overall county board. It was my social media. It wasn’t theirs. I was elected to do a job, and if I am going to be curtailed, and put in a position that I can’t do that job, well then I’m not doing the job people elected me to do.”
“There were other issues around asking members if they were going to a meeting, to come along and to say ‘we’d really like to see your questions before you ask the leader.’ Why would you ask somebody that’s a member of a party to come along and have their questions vetted that they’re going to ask the leader of the party? If you’re a member of a party, you should be able to openly ask that question without being curtailed. So there were issues around that.”
She also raised the party’s performance in the local and European elections, where Sinn Féin took less than 12 per cent of the national vote.
“As time went on and we came to local elections, we were knocking on doors and I found we did get it wrong around the (Family and Care) referendum. The party did come out and say they got it wrong, but it was a little too late when they came out because we were getting it on doors. But before we ever got it on the doors, I absolutely felt that we raised it with the party in team meetings. We said this isn’t the right way to go, and nobody listened to us as members.”
In their statement announcing her resignation, Sinn Féin said that a contested convention in Kildare South was due to take place and Ms Ryan had been invited to seek the nomination. Asked whether she felt she was entitled to be the only candidate, she said: “No, absolutely not.”
“Anybody that runs in a convention can be contested. So this isn’t an issue. I don’t have any issue with anybody contesting a convention: that’s democracy. I have an issue with other things that have been going on that have not sat comfortably with me for about 18 months. I’ve had many, many sleepless nights over this and many, many hard decisions. I worked for Sinn Féin for the last 15 years in a voluntary capacity, initially, then I became a councillor and then a TD. So this isn’t something that I would rest easy with.”
Asked why she had to take down her social media posts, she said she was told “that I was hurting some members of the party”.
“I feel somebody telling you to take down posts is wrong. I feel somebody saying to you that questions going to meetings must be vetted is wrong. I think that’s the wrong way to go. There has to be respect both from me and from them.”
She acknowledged that there were concerns raised that a constituency office in Athy was not open enough.
“Yes there were concerns raised around that, because initially it would have been opened on a stronger basis but then I had a staff member who became sick, and I couldn’t be in two places at the one time. I have to be in Dublin. I’m whipped to be in Dublin when I’m a member of a party.”
She also spoke about interactions with leader Mary Lou McDonald about the emerging local issues.
“I would have went, on several occasions, with various different issues I had problems around and asked it to be addressed, and I would be told yes it will be addressed. And then somebody will go, maybe, and have a conversation around it. And then we will be back then a week later, we would be back to the same thing.”
It was put to her that for several years, some members of Sinn Féin in South Kildare have expressed serious concerns about the lack of leadership shown by her.
She said she “did not disengage with Sinn Féin”, and disagreed that she had shown a lack of local leadership.
Ms Ryan also said it was “incredibly disingenuous” for anyone to say she did not support local candidates.
“First of all, I had fallen in October of last year and broken my shoulder. I had surgery in January. I couldn’t drive until March, and my husband was driving me around. He’s not always there to drive me around.” She said she canvassed across the constituency regardless.
Asked if she felt she was “pushed” from the party, she said: “Yes, I do. I absolutely do.”
“I feel that when you go to somebody and you ask them for help because they’re not sorting out internal issues, and that help is not forthcoming well, you either stick with your integrity and do what you think the right thing for you and your constituents is to do, or you stay put and you do nothing. And I was brought up by strong women and I’m a strong person, and I believe in my integrity and my principles, and I, under no circumstances want to be undermined and curtailed in what I can do for the constituents that elected me to do a job.”
Asked what section of the party she felt pushed by, she said it was by “leadership nationally”.
“I don’t feel they did the job they were asked to do, to curtail the problems that have arisen. There have been many members who have raised problems with them, and they’ve just let it slide. They are down in the polls, I think, because they don’t listen to those of us who are asking them to listen. And it’s unfortunate.”
Asked about staff turnover in her office, she said she had one parliamentary assistant who left, one secretary who got another job nearer to her home and another staff member who left due to illness. She said such turnover was not unusual.
Responding, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said later: “We were aware there were issues in the constituency. There were no formal complaints made. The party attempted to resolve the issues arising through mediation and discussion. This was not successful.
“We don’t believe there was vetting of questions.
“Sinn Féin is a democratic party and every TD has to go before convention to be selected for an upcoming election. Patricia chose not to do this.”
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