Sinn Fein told member to take her complaint to ex-IRA commander

https://archive.ph/20241027123443/https://www.thetimes.com/world/ireland-world/article/sinn-fein-told-member-to-take-her-complaint-to-ex-ira-commander-htqwfzlh0

Sinn Fein’s chairman told a female party member who complained she was bullied, harassed and intimidated by another member to raise it with a former IRA commander.
The party has now admitted shortcomings in its handling of the complaint.
Declan Kearney, the national chair of Sinn Fein, told the woman to contact Seán Hughes, once a senior IRA figure who is now the party’s national organiser and was at the time the line manager of the person she was complaining about, as it was an HR issue.
She did so but Hughes did not respond for more than two years. Last month he eventually told the woman, who lives in the midlands, that he could not disclose the outcome of the investigation.
Sinn Fein now claims that the party had decided within weeks of the woman’s complaint in 2022 that it did not warrant action — but admitted failing to tell her.
The episode has become public after four other separate controversies. In the past few weeks two TDs — Brian Stanley and Patricia Ryan — have resigned, a former senator has admitted sending inappropriate messages to a 16–year-old and two press officers in Stormont have quit after they gave job references for a former colleague who later admitted child sex offences.
Hughes, who was nicknamed “the Surgeon” by security forces who blamed him for carrying out strikes against soldiers with surgical precision, has been named under parliamentary privilege as a member of the IRA Army Council. Party insiders say that in his current role he is a key figure involved in election planning.
The woman who made the allegation, who spoke to The Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, filed a formal complaint with Kearney in June 2022. She alleged bullying, harassment and verbal abuse by another party member and said her treatment left her intimidated, humiliated and embarrassed.
The complainant said the party member had disclosed private medical information and called her a “dirty bitch”.
The next month Kearney told the woman it would be inappropriate for the complaint to be processed under the party’s disciplinary procedures and said it was an employment or HR issue. He told the woman to contact Hughes and provided an email address for him.
Hughes told the complainant he would get back to her soon but he did not contact her again.
Declan Kearney, the national chair of Sinn Fein
Declan Kearney, the national chair of Sinn Fein
KELVIN BOYES/PRESS EYE/PA
The woman, who said she suffered a mental health crisis on foot of the events, wrote to Kearney and Hughes in July this year, saying that no action had been taken on her complaint.
She was critical of how some people in the party had treated her and her family. “I was left alone to defend myself,” she wrote to the two senior Sinn Fein figures.
The woman did not receive a response and wrote again last month, saying “your closing ranks is predictable and disappointing”. Hughes then contacted the woman from his private email address. He apologised for his delay, saying it was “due to a period of annual leave and illness”.
In his email he told the woman that — contrary to what Kearney had said in 2022 — her complaint had been investigated under party procedures. He added however: “Given the strict confidential nature of that process between employer and employee I am not at liberty to provide you with any detail of the outcome. I am however happy to discuss any nonrelated issues relevant to your activism within the area.”
Sinn Fein told The Sunday Times: “The process began in June 2022 and formally closed in July without any further action warranted. The complainant should have been informed of the outcome at that time.
“When they contacted the party in August 2024 we verified that the process had concluded.”
The woman who made the complaint said the party had failed her. “It was always drummed into us to protect the party but when I needed help the party didn’t protect me,” she said.