McDonald issues ‘unequivocal’ Dáil apology to teen who received texts from former senator

MARY LOU MCDONALD has apologised in the Dáil to the teenager who received text messages from the party’s former Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile. 

Sinn Fein president last week told the Dáil that the teenager was 17 when he had received the texts.

The teenager told the Sunday Independent that he was 16 when he received the text messages. 

Addressing the Dáil before Leaders’ Questions today, McDonald said:

“I would first like to address information which I placed on the Dáil record last week relating to an incident where a Sinn Fein representative sent inappropriate text messages to a young person.

“It was then my understanding that the young person was 17 years of age because of the information provided on his application form when he applied to join Ogra Sinn Fein – that information was wrong.

“The young person themselves has made clear that he was in fact 16 at the time. So I want to correct the Dáil record to reflect that, he was in fact 16 years of age when these texts were sent,” she said.

McDonald said she has written to the young person and his mother, offering a “full, unequivocal and sincere apology”.

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She said what happened to this young person was wrong, adding that the former senator’s “behavior was unacceptable, utterly inappropriate”, telling the Dáil that no young person should have experienced it. 

‘Sorry for the hurt caused’

Making reference to the statement of tribute made following the resignation of Ó Donnghaile, she said:

“I am also very sorry for the hurt that my words caused in the statement that I issued following his resignation. That was never, ever my intention. And I apologise to that young person for issuing that statement.”

The apology and correction of the Dáil record from McDonald comes after Sinn Féin vice president and First Minister Michelle O’Neill was also forced to correct the record in the Northern Ireland Assembly today, after she insisted yesterday party records said the teenager was 17.

O’Neill said she “fully accepts” that a young person sent inappropriate texts by the former senator was 16 years old when it occurred. 

Last week Ó Donnghaile acknowledged he quit Sinn Féin last year after the party received complaints that he had sent inappropriate texts to a teenage party member.

Sinn Féin has said it referred the matter to the PSNI and social services immediately last September, but no criminal investigation was pursued after police deemed that there had been no illegality.

Ó Donnghaile stepped down from the Seanad three months after Sinn Fein had referred the issue to the authorities.

Pressure had been mounting on McDonald in recent days amid questions being raised about the age of the teenager at the centre of the controversy.

Taoiseach Simon Harris accused the Sinn Féin leader of being “silent” on the calls from the young person at the centre of the matter to apologise to him for the handling of the incident.

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