Political leaders dealing with a violent past

Sinn Féin, led by Mary Lou McDonald, won 37 seats in the Irish general election

Mary Lou McDonald, has asked her colleagues "not to make throw-away" comments that can be misconstrued.

Several of Sinn Fein's newly elected TDs (Irish MPs) have been caught up in controversies about the IRA.

Mrs McDonald is not the first leader poised on the precipice of power to have to deal with her party's controversial past, just the most recent.

Sinn Féin now has 37 TDs in the Dáil, one behind Fianna Fáil.

The party is currently seeking support to reach a majority of 80 in coalition negotiations.

Mrs McDonald is about to start talks with other left-wing parties and the Greens about reaching a common policy platform with a view towards government formation.

Although those talks are most unlikely to conclude with a deal - the numbers simply aren't there - the last thing she needed was another controversy about the IRA, also known as "the Ra".

David Cullinane was criticised for a speech he made at a post-election victory party

During the Troubles, Sinn Féin was the political wing of the IRA, which waged an armed campaign against Britain's presence in Northern Ireland.

The IRA was responsible for more than 1,700 deaths.

Footage emerged on Monday evening of the Sinn Féin Waterford TD, David Cullinane, shouting a pro-IRA slogan: "Up the Ra."

Private party

Questioned by reporters, he said he made the comments at a private post-election victory party on what was a very emotional day for him, after an exhausting campaign.

Mr Cullinane topped the poll with a huge vote.

"My comments were about the past, they're not about the future," he added.

"The IRA is gone and everybody knows and I celebrate that."

The Black and Tans were former soldiers recruited to bolster the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary in the 1920s

Earlier in the day in Dublin, another Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis, a convicted IRA member, was filmed in a group singing a popular song about the notorious British Black and Tans who were responsible for murder and mayhem during Ireland's War of Independence between 1920 And 1921.

A Sinn Féin press officer intervened.

The Black and Tans were former soldiers, recruited to bolster the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary, deeply resented because of their violent reprisals on civilians in the aftermath of IRA attacks.

And last week another newly elected Sinn Féin TD Pauline Tully was in the news when video emerged of one of her election vans playing out on a loudspeaker a song with the refrain "ooh, ah, up the Ra".

She was not present and said she has not ruled out the possibility that the soundtrack was fake and added on later.

Sinn Féin's critics in the two other main parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, have long criticised it for not taking ownership of IRA violence for the time when it was the paramilitary group's political wing.

'Be more careful'

Mary Lou McDonald has now asked her elected representatives to be more careful about their remarks in future.

"I've asked everybody not to be making throw-away comments or comments that can be misconstrued or distract us from the work ahead and I know that's what happened in David's case", she said.

But she also said she couldn't be their "mammy" or censor them either.

"We're all adults and I do expect people to behave in an adult way and not to create distractions," she added.

"But let's not get over-excited on this."

Eoin O'Duffy led the fascist Blueshirt movement in Ireland in the 1930s and became a Fine Gael TD

There are many in Sinn Féin who believe issues like this are synthetic and manufactured to hurt the party, while others acknowledge the genuine hurt caused to victims of IRA violence.

Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had their origins in the civil war that followed the fight for independence.

Fianna Fáil's leaders were once accused of being violent communists, while that party often reminds Fine Gael of its flirtation with fascism and the Blueshirt movement in 1930s.

The road to power and political respectability is often long and torturous with many a pot-hole on the way but nearly Irish political parties eventually get there.