Editorial: Sinn Fein seems to think that Michelle O'Neill is incapable of answering questions

Almost Michelle O’Neill’s first words in Tuesday’s interview for BBC’s ‘The View’ were that this election is about “strong leadership”.

It was a typically self-congratulatory remark from the Sinn Fein leader, who has been first minister of Northern Ireland since February. And yet Ms O’Neill has shown anything but strong leadership when it has come to being grilled in this campaign.

She ducked the UTV leaders’ debate. She ducked the ‘Talkback’ radio interview with William Crawley. And on Thursday she ducked the BBC TV leaders’ debate.

While Doug Beattie was also absent on Thursday, only Ms O’Neill among the leaders of the five biggest Stormont parties was absent in three of these four key tests of their ability to explain themselves. This has let Ms O’Neill evade questioning on her key role in the Bobby Storey IRA funeral, which should have seen her banished from public life, let alone from leading this society. Having for four years shrilly defended her conduct that day, when thousands of Ulster folk obeyed limits for burying their own loved ones, she suddenly apologised when the Covid Inquiry came to Belfast this year, no doubt realising it would not be as easily placated as the other feeble probes into the Storey mass Covid breach.

In fact even Ms O’Neill’s substitute on ‘Talkback’, Conor Murphy, was allowed to escape scrutiny of that funeral by saying he had yet to appear before the inquiry.

It was reminiscent of the way the DUP, which did not delete its Covid WhatsApp messages, got all the negative headlines whereas SF, which – disgracefully – did delete theirs, avoided such scrutiny.

Ms O’Neill, who has attended numerous celebrations of past IRA terror, was able to present herself on the Shankill on Thursday, the day of the debate, as a generous, non tribal leader. In truth she lacks such qualities: and her party seems to think she lacks the ability to answer questions.