Sinn Fein IRA funeral hypocrisy: Mary Lou McDonald is slammed after praising English aristocrat heiress turned bombmaker Rose Dugdale after Irish politician praises the terrorist who died aged 83 last week

Sinn Féin has been accused of hypocrisy after leader Mary Lou McDonald praised Rose Dugdale, the former English heiress turned bomb-maker, after her party distanced itself this week from garda-killer and wife-beater Pearse McAuley.

On Wednesday, several current Sinn Féin TDs as well as former party leader Gerry Adams, attended the funeral of Rose Dugdale, whose coffin was draped in the tricolour.

Ms Dugdale, an English aristocrat, was involved in other IRA operations during the Troubles, including a failed bid to drop bombs on to a police station in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, using a helicopter hijacked across the border in Co. Donegal.

She was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for IRA activities. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a son, Ruairí, in Limerick prison.

While Mary Lou McDonald was not at the funeral herself, she posted a picture of Ms Dugdale captioned 'Unmanagable [sic] Revolutionary' and 'Eternal rest' in Irish.

Former Fine Gael justice minister Alan Shatter posted on X/Twitter in response that Ms Dugdale's atrocities exceeded those of McAuley. He tweeted: 'The tricolour adorning Rose Dugdale's coffin Wed was no less offensive than it adorning Pearse McAuley's coffin. Whilst SF is trying to distance itself from the murderous McAuley, yesterday it embraced & eulogised Dugdale's terrorist atrocities. Her atrocities exceeded McAuleys.'

A Sinn Féin spokesman said: 'Alan Shatter has been cheer-leading a genocide [in Gaza] for the last five months. His comments don't merit a response.'

Responding to Sinn Féin, Mr Shatter said the party shouldn't be celebrating the life of someone who had a 'murderous history'.

He said its attempt to put the focus onto his remarks about the Israel-Gaza conflict was an attempt 'to move the spotlight off a very, very serious issue of relevance to democratic politics on this stage and on this island.'

John McGahon, a Fine Gael senator, added: 'Rose Dugdale isn't someone who should be praised nor remembered fondly.

'She spent her life designing bombs with the intent of killing innocent people. Equally, Pearse McAuley was a murdering thug and whether they [Sinn Féin] like it or not, he is still revered within the republican movement.'

McAuley was convicted of the manslaughter of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched post office raid in 1996.

Sinn Féin members Pearse Doherty and David Cullinane said that they did not like to see the tricolour draped across his coffin during his funeral, after it was condemned by the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

McAuley was met on his release from prison by former Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris.

However, it later emerged that McAuley repeatedly stabbed his ex-wife, now Sinn Féin TD Pauline Tully, with a steak knife.

Mr Doherty, the party's finance spokesman said after McAuley's funeral: 'In our view Pearse McAuley had nothing to do with Sinn Féin for many, many years. And in the eyes of Republicans, he's not a Republican.

'In relation to the funeral of Pearse McAuley, we had no hand, act or part in it.

'In relation to the placement of the tricolour, if it was our decision one would not be on the coffin.'

His comments were echoed by Mr Cullinane later in the week.