Michelle O’Neill says removal of ex-senator's portrait from Belfast City Hall is appropriate

SINN FÉIN VICE president Michelle O’Neill has said she thinks it is appropriate that a portrait of former Belfast Lord Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile is removed from City Hall.

It comes after a motion at the council brought by the DUP following Ó Donnghaile’s admission he left Sinn Féin after allegedly sending inappropriate text messages to a teenager.

Sinn Féin referred that matter to the PSNI and social services last September, but no criminal investigation was undertaken.

Ó Donnghaile became the youngest Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2011, and like all who hold that office, had an official portrait painted and displayed to mark his year in the role.

He went on to serve as an Oireachtas senator before his resignation last year.

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Sinn Féin is facing questions over its handling of the case, which emerged after the separate case of the former party press officer, Michael McMonagle, who admitted child sex offences earlier this year.

McMonagle, 42, from Limewood Street, Derry, last month admitted to a series of offences, including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Sinn Féin backed the motion to remove Ó Donnghaile’s portrait from City Hall.

Speaking to media in Belfast this morning, First Minister O’Neill said:

I think it is appropriate. His behaviour was completely inappropriate so, therefore, I think that we had no issue whatsoever in backing the removal of the portrait.

Asked whether she has any regrets over the party essentially paying tribute to Ó Donnghaile when he left, O’Neill said she believed that Mary-Lou McDonald had “tried to set that record straight” in relation to the departure and the “considerations that she had to take on board”.

O’Neill said this was particularly in relation to Ó Donnghaile’s “severe mental health”, which she said was the “only consideration that we had whenever he stepped back” from the party.

“It’s appropriate that he stepped back but I’m very confident in terms of how we conducted ourselves, how we referred him to the PSNI and to social services, that that was correct and proper,” O’Neill added.

“I think that was appropriate but we were concerned about his mental health and we also had the issue of legally being able to name him.”