THE Sinn Féin member recently accused of bullying was involved in an armed robbery in which a garda was shot and killed, according to the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Seamus Lynch, who controversially called to the house of a young woman after she publicly criticised TD Brian Stanley over a number of his social media posts, was jailed for his part in an IRA robbery of a post office cash van at Drumree, Co. Meath in August in 1984.
Detective Garda Frank Hand, 27, was shot dead during the robbery, and three Provisional IRA members were later convicted of his murder.
They were initially sentenced to death, but this was later changed to 40 years in prison,
Lynch, who was 21-years-old at the time, was apparently approached by a member of the IRA and asked to arrange for money and guns to be hidden in a safe place as a robbery was being planned.
Earlier this month, Sinn Féin's Brian Stanley got into trouble for a couple posts to his Twitter account.
In one, he appeared to make light of an IRA attack which resulted in the deaths of a number of British soldiers, and in another he appeared to mock Leo Varadkar's sexuality.
While Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has defended Mr Stanley, arguing that his comments were "taken out of context", some members were rightly outraged by his behaviour.
Former Sinn Féin activist Christine O'Mahony's posted a number of tweets critcising Stanley in the wake of the controversy, only to have Mr Lynch reportedly turn up at her house, telling her to remove the critical posts.
She deleted the tweets and subsequently resigned from the party.
Ever since, Sinn Féin has been criticised for fostering a "culture of intimidation".
Tánaiste Varadkar said: "The fact that Mary Lou McDonald has tried to explain all this stuff away and play it down sounds out the wrong message.
"They need to send out a very clear message. There is a culture in Sinn Féin of bullying and intimidation."
