Mary Lou McDonald will be unopposed when party delegates elect a new president in February

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old



Sinn Féin will be led by a woman for the first time in its modern history, with the party’s Mary Lou McDonald the only candidate to replace Gerry Adams.

The Dublin TD (MP) will be unopposed when Sinn Féin delegates elect a new president at a special conference, Ard Fheis, in February.

McDonald was confirmed on Saturday as the only party member to come forward to succeed Adams, who is resigning from the post he has held since 1983.

The Trinity College Dublin graduate will also become the first Sinn Féin leader in modern times with no direct association with the IRA or its armed campaign during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Adams welcomed McDonald to a meeting of the party’s ruling body – the Ard Comhairle – on Saturday, saying: “Please welcome the president-elect of our party, Mary Lou McDonald.”

He then spoke about a fresh round of political negotiations starting on Wednesday aimed at restoring power sharing in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists will be the key parties.

“We have to challenge ourselves and our support base. We also have to challenge unionism,” Adams said, justifying Sinn Féin’s participation in the talks.

“Whether the upcoming talks succeed or not in the short term, there is no merit in Sinn Féin disengaging from the conversations and dialogue with unionists and others that is necessary – in whatever format is appropriate in the time ahead.”

McDonald’s rise to power in Sinn Féin may make it easier for other parties in the Irish Republic to enter a coalition with a party which for decades had to justify the IRA’s violent campaign.

Her main focus will be on the next general election in the Republic, which could come as early as spring. She has been a TD for Dublin Central in the Dail since 2011 and previously served as an MEP for the Irish capital.

In the 1990s McDonald was briefly a member of the larger opposition party in the Republic, Fianna Fáil.



However, Ed Moloney, a leading authority on Irish republicanism and author of The Secret History of the IRA, doubted that either Adams or the military organisation would loosen its influence on Sinn Féin.

Moloney said: “I do not believe the IRA has gone away nor the influence of its leaders, eg Adams et al, nor have I come across any evidence that the famous IRA dictum – that SF should be under army control at all levels – has been reversed or ditched. The IRA’s failure to say anything to the contrary publicly leads one to suspect that is deliberate.”

