SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has doubled down on her party’s pro-fox hunting position, despite some internal criticism. 

Last week, Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil all voted in favour of allowing the blood sport to continue. 

The bill brought forward by Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger to ban the practice was defeated in the Dáil by 124 votes to 24. 

Coppinger’s bill would have prohibited the use of canines to hunt or flush out foxes and prohibited trapping or snaring of foxes in order to kill them. 

Over the weekend, the Sunday Times reported on a split in Sinn Féin on the issue.

Kindare North TD Réada Cronin said she would continue to try and persuade her party to change its position, arguing that the practice is “abhorrent and cruel”. 

Speaking to The Journal, McDonald stood by her party’s position. 

Asked for her own personal view on fox hunting, the Sinn Féin leader said: 

“This is an issue that’s come to several Ard Fheisanna. It’s been very passionately debated and it’s been voted on. And on each occasion, the balance of consideration of the Ard Fheis has fallen on the side of tight regulation rather than an outright ban.

“And I think on balance, and I’ve listened to both sides of the arguments really carefully, the Ard Fheis probably got it right.”

McDonald added, however, that it will be “interesting to see how the conversation unfolds” within the party, given that there is a large diversity of opinions.

“People come at this with different views, and people are very passionate in their views, and they’re right to be.

“That’s what makes politics interesting. We have the debate. The vote is taken, and then that’s the policy, and we are then bound collectively by the policy,” she said. 

McDonald said that she is “always a bit taken aback” when people within the party don’t care what the Ard Fheis (the party’s annual conference of members) decides.

“I care what the Ard Fheis says. I care that our people have the opportunity to have their debate, state their point of view, then the vote is taken, and then we move on,” she said.

McDonald sat down with The Journal earlier this week to discuss the year that was and her plans for 2026. You can read that interview in full here.