Analysis: Brian Stanley’s tweet leaves Mary Lou McDonald with a decision to make

Sinn Féin leader has a precedent having previously suspended Máire Devine for an offensive social media post

Brian Stanley, the Laois-Offaly TD, drew a parallel between the Kilmichael ambush in the War of Independence and the Narrow Water bridge attack by the Provisional IRA in 1979. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

“Sinn Féin was unavailable for comment,” is not something you hear everyday.

But just a day after the party hit a record high of 30 per cent in the Business Post/Red C poll, Sinn Féin did not make any of its usual media performers available to RTE’s Morning Ireland or the station’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

The reason for the party’s uncharacteristic radio silence was the tweet by its Laois-Offaly TD Brian Stanley.

He ...