Mary Lou McDonald was defiant as she responded to Sinn Féin’s failure to win seats in the byelections and media questions about her continued leadership of the party.“Today isn’t our day here,” she said of the Galway West result, where Sinn Féin’s candidate Mark Lohan got just 6.7 per cent of the votes in a constituency where the party’s sitting TD Mairéad Farrell topped the poll in 2024.McDonald insisted there is “no question” about her leadership and she also said: “I feel under no pressure whatsoever. Pressure is for tyres.”She went through much the same line of questioning at the Dublin Central count on Saturday. Sinn Féin’s candidate there, Cllr Janice Boylan, came second but her failure to take a seat is arguably more damaging for the party leader given that Dublin Central is McDonald’s own constituency. Again, McDonald sought to dismiss any questions over her own leadership, saying it was a “settled matter” and how it was decided at Sinn Féin’s ardfheis three weeks ago to keep her on as leader.She said Sinn Féin was “building” and rejected suggestions the party’s peak was behind it.McDonald also said “when a general election lands, watch and see how we perform then”. She said she was “determined that at the next general election we will see the back of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government”.One Sinn Féin TD, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Sunday the party needed to reflect on what happened.“You get into every election to win it,” the TD said. “I wasn’t shocked yesterday. I just didn’t feel like it was going to be a big day for Sinn Féin.”The TD added: “You need candidates that are transfer friendly”.[ Dublin Central count: Full byelection results dataOpens in new window ][ Galway West count: Full byelection results dataOpens in new window ]Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics that McDonald will lead the party into the next general election and “she is the best person for the job by a mile”. O’Reilly said the party would have a review of its byelections campaign “as we have a review after every electoral contest”.Put to her that Sinn Féin was squeezed by rival parties from both the left and the right, O’Reilly sought to reassert her party’s connection to communities and its left-wing credentials.“The issues that are raised on the doorsteps are those issues raised by us in the Dáil,” O’Reilly said, adding that Sinn Féin is a “left republican party” and “we know what we stand for”.It was not the first lacklustre election result under McDonald’s leadership. The party ran too few candidates in the 2020 general election to capitalise on its support level of 24.5 per cent. It returned 37 TDs.Its share of the vote was just under 12 per cent in the local elections in 2024.The general election later in 2024 saw Sinn Féin’s vote share drop more than five percentage points on its 2020 result, though the 19 per cent it got on that occasion still resulted in two extra seats in the current Dáil. The byelection results were also disappointing for Fianna Fáil but Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s leadership of the party is “absolutely not” in question. O’Brien dismissed questions about Martin’s future, saying: “Since after the 2020 general election I was asked would Micheál lead us into the general election ... Not only did he do that, he came back returned as Taoiseach, with the largest party in Dáil Éireann.”O’Brien said he wouldn’t try to “sugarcoat” the party’s result in the race to fill the seat vacated by his former cabinet colleague Paschal Donohoe in Dublin Central, with Fianna Fáil candidate John Stephens finishing well adrift of the leaders with just 4 per cent of first preferences.“We knew the challenge that we would have in this constituency. We’ve one councillor, we haven’t won a Dáil seat here since 2007 – that means we’ll redouble our efforts to rebuild on the ground in Dublin Central,” O’Brien said.Asked whether he would one day like to lead Fianna Fáil, O’Brien sidestepped the question, saying he didn’t deal in hypotheticals and was focused on his work as a Minister.“We’ve a job of work to do, we’ve about 3½ years remaining in this Government’s term, to deliver across housing, to deliver across jobs, health and education, the areas we’re focused on,” he said.