My leadership of Sinn Féin more important than ever, says McDonald

By Rebecca Black, PA

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald has said that her leadership of the party is “more important than ever”.

Ms McDonald has faced some criticism after her party was unable to prevent political heavyweights Fianna Fail and Fine Gael from pursuing another coalition government following the recent Irish general election.

Fianna Fail won 48 seats in the Dáil, while Sinn Fein won 39 ahead of Fine Gael which won 38 seats.

However, with 88 seats needed for a majority, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are expected to reach an agreement with others to form the next government.

Ms McDonald told media in Belfast on Monday that no-one is “more disappointed than her” but said she is determined to lead a “knuckling down”.

She also emphasised that Sinn Fein emerged with more seats, and said that confirms a “fundamental transformation of southern politics”.

“Our objective, however, had been to get into government, and we fell short of that on this occasion and as the leader of Sinn Fein, there is nobody more disappointed by that than me,” she said.

“I have been out and about since the election, and I’ve been talking to lots and lots of people who still are counting on Sinn Fein to represent them, and counting on it to get into government, to really bring about the kind of change that they wish to see, and they are disappointed.

“My leadership, for me now, is more important than ever in terms of knuckling down and getting the job done.

“We have made great progress. We have we have not reached our destination yet, but we will.

“I think we had a very successful campaign … in some ways we may have won the campaign, but we didn’t win the election.

“Next time round, we need to be stronger, we need to be better and, frankly, we need to convince more people than on the last occasion.”