Sinn Féin’s former byelection hopeful Gillian Sherratt has dismissed a “narrative” around the party’s selection in Dublin Central.
Sherratt, a disability rights campaigner and the mother of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who died aged nine after waiting years for spinal surgery, was understood to be Sinn Féin’s favoured candidate for the upcoming byelection in Dublin Central on May 22nd.
However, she was beaten at a selection convention by long-term councillor Janice Boylan, who had been Mary Lou McDonald’s unsuccessful running mate in the 2024 general election.
The decision of the Dublin Central base to choose Boylan over Sherratt had been perceived by some as a challenge to McDonald’s authority.
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McDonald defended her stewardship of the party during the Sinn Féin ardfheis at the weekend, insisting there is no plan to change the leadership of her party.
In a post on social media on Sunday night, Sherratt said “this narrative around the byelection selection convention is getting incredibly old”.
She added: “Both myself and Janice Boylan went to the convention, made our speeches and then the members in the constituency voted. It was a democratic decision and it being made in to some sort of scandal is genuinely ridiculous.
“Maybe when Leo Varadkar said Sinn Féin isn’t a ‘normal’ political party he was getting at the fact that they actually allow their members have a say in party decisions like this, unlike some others.
“Seems like yet another attempt to just smear Sinn Féin ahead of the byelections. For those of you in Dublin Central, vote Janice Boylan No 1.”
Sherratt and her husband, Stephen Morrison, who are from Clondalkin in Dublin, have met senior Government figures in recent months. They participated in a campaign with advocacy groups for a public inquiry into the care of children with scoliosis and spina bifida.
The Dublin Central byelection will fill the seat vacated by former minister for finance Paschal Donohoe, who has taken a position at the World Bank in the US.
Sinn Féin topped the poll there in 2024 through leader McDonald, who secured 19.5 per cent of the vote and was the first TD elected. Boylan, who ran with her, gained 3.8 per cent.
She faces a field that includes Dublin lord mayor Ray McAdam (Fine Gael) and returning candidates such as Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin (People Before Profit), Gerry Hutch and Malachy Steenson.
The Social Democrats’ Daniel Ennis and Greens’ Janet Horner are also in contention, as are Colm Flood (Independent), Ruth O’Dea (Labour), Ian Noel Smyth (Aontú) and John Stephens (Fianna Fáil).
