Mickey Coogan quits Sinn Fein

Mickey Coogan quits Sinn Fein

By David Telford

BALLYNAHINCH councillor Mickey Coogan has sensationally quit Sinn Fein.

He confirmed his decision at Down Council's meeting on Monday night when he rejected last minute pleas by his former party colleagues not to resign. Mr. Coogan has become an Independent councillor and in his only interview since quitting Sinn Fein, he candidly spells out to the Down Recorder his reasons for leaving the party.

The Ballynahinch councillor reveals he was unhappy at some of the decisions taken by Sinn Fein in the run-up to last year's Assembly election and concerned about individuals within the party whom he felt were "actively working against him."

Councillor Coogan said his decision to leave Sinn Fein was not a "spur of the moment thing," but something which had been building for a number of years. He is adamant there is is no going back and is looking forward to continuing in his role as Down Council chairman and councillor for the Ballynahinch area "engaging and working with local people to help make a difference."
Councillor Coogan said his decision to quit Sinn Fein signals a time for him to move forward and open a new chapter. He said there is no going back.

THE gravity of his decision to quit Sinn Fein is not lost on Ballynahinch councillor Mickey Coogan.

He readily admits his public announcement on Monday night was a difficult one, but he's adamant it was one he had to make. For some time now, Coogan's future in Sinn Fein has been exercising his mind and he has emphasised his decision to go was not taken overnight and has nothing to do with his Down Council colleagues.

He's made it clear his major issue is not with the party but individuals within it whom he felt were "actively working against him." Coogan is also critical of the party's electoral strategy in South Down at the last year's Assembly election when Portaferry's Naomi Bailie was selected over him to run alongside sitting MLAs Willie Clarke and Caitriona Ruane.

Elected to Down Council in 2005, Coogan was a hard working Sinn Fein activist who was one of its most influential foot soldiers in the Ballynahinch and Drumaness areas. He increased the party vote and political standing in these areas and was recognised as a key Sinn Fein organiser at community level.
Before his election, he helped Sinn Fein increase its profile in this part of South Down, knocking on doors selling copies of Republican News as it was "an ideal way of face-to-face engagement with the local community."

Coogan also helped the party develop a strategy of asking people to identify the needs in their respective area and the issues survey is now widely adopted by Sinn Fein branches.

Following his election in 2005, he helped the party focus on the Loughinisland area. Sinn Fein already had strong support in nearby Drumaroad and Loughinisland was the location Republicans wanted to make inroads into next. Coogan also became heavily involved in the work of the PIPS suicide prevention initiative and other community organisations.

But problems started to surface when Sinn Fein chose Portaferry's Naomi Bailie to run alongside sitting MLAs Caitriona Ruane and Willie Clarke for last year's Assembly election. Coogan argued he should have been considered ahead of Ms. Bailie, given his effort and commitment to the party. He also claimed it was "kept sort of quiet for a time" that the party had chosen Ms. Bailie.

He continued: "Two weeks before the Assembly selection convention the plan was to run Caitriona, Willie and Naomi in South Down. It was also suggested that Willie would be subsequently stepping away from the Assembly and that Naomi would replace him at Stormont. But that of course never happened as it was Chris Hazzard who replaced Willie.

"Naomi is a great girl and did really well at the polls. I have to be honest and say I don't know if I would have done any better. However, I put it to two senior party officials, including our Director of Elections, that I thought she should not have been our third candidate in South Down."

Coogan argued the party's Downpatrick branch should have been allowed to select the third candidate as that was the area the person would be canvassing in. He thought councillor Éamonn Mac Con Midhe would have been an ideal candidate, but the Downpatrick branch backed Coogan.

He continued: "People in Downpatrick were unhappy about what was happening and I was contacted by a number of branch members in the area to put my name forward and go head-to-head with Naomi to secure the nomination. Some members felt it was a "disgrace" that they had no say in who the third Assembly candidate in South Down would be.

"When I rang a senior party official to inform him I would be putting myself forward at the selection convention he asked if I was serious. I explained Naomi's nomination was a cause of disharmony in Downpatrick and described the election strategy the party was advocating as 'dangerous and totally unnecessary,'" he revealed.

At the selection convention, Coogan secured the backing of the Downpatrick and Ballynahinch Cummans, but he failed to secure enough votes to win the nomination. "I have no doubt that people in the room that night were told what way to vote. That's when I started to become disillusioned as people were easily persuaded about which candidates they should choose.

"The killer for me that night was I joined Sinn Fein because I refused to accept things that I felt were wrong; I was strong and opinionated when I joined, but here we had a room full of people who just needed a phone call to tell them who to vote for. These were people whom I did a lot of work for. They knew me; I had sat in their houses and worked for them. I also worked in the party's Castlewellan office for three years alongside a lot of these people and was left to question their motivation and principles," he said.

Coogan also revealed he had been asked to withdraw his name ahead of the convention but refused to do so. He said he put his name forward because he and others felt what he was doing was right.

"During and after the convention, all the trust I had in a lot of people went in a heartbeat. Some who opposed me at the convention did come around, but things were very tense for a while and I questioned my position with Sinn Fein at that stage.

"It was December 2010 but I wasn't happy with the selection process and asked senior party officials in Belfast to review what had taken place at the convention. I made formal complaints with support for my decision from the Downpatrick Cumman.

"Following the review I was told that a lot of things were wrong but was asked to move on, which I agreed to do in the interests of party unity, backing our three Assembly candidates. We secured two seats and Naomi did very well."

While he agreed to move on and stood for an unwinable seat in the Strangford constituency Coogan claimed there was then one "catastrophe after another" with his election material full of mistakes, including no name of his election agent on his posters.

"It was hard for me to think this wasn't deliberate as there were so many mistakes, some of them horrendous. I had agreed to contest the Assembly election in the Strangford constituency for the party, but my election poster said I was 'leading the way for South Down.'

"What was happening was both insane and concerning. My Assembly election material had to be changed on four occasions and I had no literature for the Down Council election until I went to the party in Belfast and demanded it. I warned if it wasn't provided I wouldn't be contesting the council election."
Coogan said he believes there was an attempt being made to be "destructive towards him" from individuals within Sinn Fein locally. He said while he thought these people were working for him, it's his contention they were actually working against him. He admits this hurt.

He also revealed that after the last local government and Assembly elections, he sat down with a party official whom he was "having issues with," explaining they both acknowledged they could have handled things differently, had a job to do and had a level of experience which they needed to share with other party members locally.

"That was fine, but my role during the district's recent Halloween celebrations was questioned by someone in the party and I am convinced an attempt was made to stab me in the back and discredit me. I felt all this was affecting my working relationship with the PSNI, Down Council officers and members of the republican community who are not necessarily Sinn Fein members.

"The problem I had with a particular individual was always going to be a difficult one for the party to deal with. It has been there for a long time and no one took it seriously enough. Everyone is so busy doing many different things that they don’t stop to look unless there is blood on the carpet. There is now.

"Party officials did ask me to reconsider my decision to quit Sinn Fein but when I went to a recent Halloween event at the Assumption Grammar School, members of the audience whom I knew put their head down and did not make eye contact, that was it for me," he declared.

Coogan added: "Clearly someone had been spinning things about me. I helped start the Loughinisland Justice Group and some of those people were putting their heads down, not looking at me. That was the last straw, feeling uncomfortable among people I had worked so hard with. There was no way I was going back on my decision. There is no going back."

Sinn Fein's South Down chairman Ryan Morgan said he is "sad and disappointed" that  Coogan has tendered his resignation from the party.
"Mickey Coogan has served Sinn Féin on Down Council since 2005, so I am disappointed he has decided to resign from the party. Despite offers from myself and other senior party colleagues to meet with him to discuss any difficulties, he has yet to give a substantial reason why he decided to resign," added Mr. Morgan.