That record is far more current than the days of the Troubles and includes a number of sitting TDs.

While the motion centres around the handling of the most recent riots in Dublin, TDs on the Government backbenches and perhaps even Government ministers will be only too eager to raise another incident where garda batons were drawn.

In 2010, Ms McDonald was involved in a protest during which more than 50 Sinn Féin supporters broke through the security cordon at the gates of Government Buildings. Gardaí managed to push back the crowd which was led by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh who accused gardaí of being heavy-handed during the protest.

On the same day, four members of Ógra Shinn Féin occupied the offices of Fianna Fáil councillors in Cork City Hall.

Another area which Government representatives will be more than happy to focus on is the arrest of Sinn Féin’s now Dáil deputy leader Pearse Doherty for public order offences. 

Mr Doherty appeared in court back in July 1999 over an incident at a taxi rank on Dublin’s O’Connell St at 2.40am the previous November, but was given the benefit of the Probation Act in lieu of a criminal record. 

Fellow Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy, then a councillor, was also involved in the incident and received the same treatment in court. 

In an interview last year, Mr Carthy said: “It is better in life to look forward rather than regret the things that happened in the past. It was a peculiar incident that I won’t go into now because it was at a time when there was a bit of friction between Ógra Shinn Féin and the gardaí.”

He may not want to go into it, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs are now likely to delve deeply into it in the Dáil on Tuesday.

Then, of course, there is Ms McDonald’s links to former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathon Dowdall who was sentenced for facilitating the murder of Kinahan cartel member David Byrne at the Regency Hotel, Dublin. 

Added to the mix is the 10-year prison term served by Dessie Ellis after he was convicted of possession of explosives in 1983.

This is all before TDs get into the murky world of previous IRA links.

Asked if the motion could backfire on her party, Ms McDonald said: “Of course, we have considered the political implications of taking this motion, but this motion isn’t about Sinn Féin, it’s not about what the Government benches might or might not say to us back across the floor of the Dáil.”

Ms McDonald said she expects members of the Coalition to raise “all matters by all means” to “seek to distract” from her motion, which she said centres on the loss of control in Dublin city centre and Helen McEntee’s inability to lead on justice.

However, Ms McDonald must be preparing to take a bruising during the debate next week.