Second Sinn Féin councillor resigns from party in election aftermath

iol reports the resignation of New Ross Town Cllr John Dwyer from Sinn Féin. His profile on the Wexford Sinn Féin website calls him “one of the most experienced of County Wexford’s local politicians” and notes he has been a councillor since 1999. As with Dublin Cllr Christy Burke the party has called on Cllr Dwyer to “return his seat to the party”. Adds From Politics.ie – “Cllr Dwyer is presently out of the country on holidays and is reported on South East Radio to be releasing a statement on his political future later today.” [That’s from a few days ago] Updated below the fold. And More from Cllr Dwyer here.

The 47-year-old, who left the party before in the mid-1980s over a disagreement with some members, said it was clear Sinn Féin was pushing a doomed strategy of personality politicians. In an attack on two of the party’s leading lights in the Republic, he said failed MEP candidate Mary Lou McDonald had no track record in grass-roots local politics. “She is a very able politician but in terms of having a grasp of real-life everyday problems, she’s not in a position to understand that sort of thing,” he said.

Mr Dwyer also claimed rising Sinn Féin star Senator Pearse Doherty was hand-picked by the leadership as a “safe pair of hands” and more suited to a career in life-assurance than radical politics. “Building a party of faces rather than policies is never a good thing,” he said.

Update Also from politics.ie today

Cllr John Dwyer has confirmed on South East Radio’s “Morning Mix” his resignation from Sinn Fein. He will sit as an independent on New Ross Town Council. His concern at the rightward trend of policy in Sinn Fein, the unequal distribution of resources internally in the movement and poor support for him from HQ as well as his treatment by Gerry Adams who warned him against “waving the red flag in Wexford” at a meeting attended by about 50 activists are cited as grounds for resignation.

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