The Mick Clifford Podcast: Doherty would have been Sinn Féin leader if put to a vote, says Ross
“I talked to one or two members of Sinn Féin who thought that if there had been a democratic vote Pearse would have won,” Shane Ross told the Mick Clifford podcast.
Pearse Doherty would have been elected leader of Sinn Féin instead of Mary Lou McDonald if the matter was put to a vote, according to the author of a new biography on Ms McDonald.
Former government minister Shane Ross says that in researching for his book, , he met party members who told him that Mr Doherty would have won if the membership had voted on the matter after Gerry Adams stepped down from the role in 2017.
Mr Ross says that Mary Lou McDonald was selected early on by party leaders as somebody who was to be championed and after that there was never going to be any opposition to her inside the party.
“I talked to one or two members of Sinn Féin who thought that if there had been a democratic vote Pearse would have won,” Mr Ross told the Mick Clifford podcast.
"He was from a border county, she was from south Dublin and apparently well off. But that wasn’t the plan of the leaders and the leaders could impose their preferred candidate.”
Mr Ross also said that he is convinced from his research that the “hard men” of the IRA are exercising major influence over Sinn Féin even though they are unelected to any office.
“There are individuals who were deeply involved in the war as they call it up there and they are very influential,” he said.
He believes that one lever of control that may be exercised by these individuals concerns the party’s finances.
"Questions have to be answered about the finances,” he told the podcast.
“Sinn Féin has an enormous among of money and it spends a lot of money on political activities in the south and people are still looking for answers as to where the money is coming from.”
Shane Ross is this week’s guest on the Mick Clifford Podcast.
