Maíria Cahill – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

Maíria Cahill – A statement

The Firemen on October 26, 2014, 11:30 pm

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The following statement has been given to many news sources including Slugger and we reproduce it here without any commentary. It is very strange to see myself being described as a dissident republican, when I would not even consider myself a republican anymore. The Irish Mail On Sunday story correctly states that I was, involved with a group going by the name “Republican Network for Unity”. The story however, was inaccurate and slanted. I was indeed the National Secretary of …

Adams: “Sinn Féin has not engaged in any cover-up of abuse at any level of this party.”

David McCann on October 25, 2014, 1:45 pm

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Speaking at a party candidate event earlier today in Belfast, Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams TD made another statement about the Cahill case; below are his remarks to members of his party The allegations of Maíria Cahill have been at the centre of the media and political system North and South, in recent times. Over the course of the past week Maíria Cahill has made serious allegations against myself and named Sinn Féin members. While I am very mindful of the …

Sinn Fein’s contradictory stance between moral certitude of the Provisionals and its modern promises to Ireland

Mick Fealty on October 25, 2014, 9:59 am

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In 1997 Ray Burke informed RTE after his hour long session in the Dail that ‘the line is in the sand, from this day on this is D day, I move on’. Within a month he resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs following an allegation of corruption which led to the setting up of what became the Flood Tribunal. Burke was jailed for tax fraud in 2004. By contrast the retribution of the state seems to hold little fear for Sinn Fein, in the sense …

Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín: “I have no doubt that in the IRA modus operandi of the time that people were moved…”

Pete Baker on October 24, 2014, 5:25 pm

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With the out-going MP for Newry and Armagh, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy, declaring his ignorance of alleged abusers in the republican movement being moved out of Northern Ireland – BBC report “I’ve never heard that in all my life as a republican,” [Conor Murphy] said. …it’s worth extracting from the Fireman’s post some quotes from the interview on Newstalk Breakfast with Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín – who, according to the SF website, is a “current member of the Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle.” Here’s …

“Assertion in blog is shameful and cruel” – McDonald

The Firemen on October 23, 2014, 8:44 pm

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Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald has posted a twitter response to a blog circulating on social media which describes Maíria Cahill’s alleged rape ordeal as “a year long sexual liaison”. The blog describes the alleged rapist as a man “whom many a 16-year-old would likely fancy”. The blog prompted a twitter question from Maíria Cahill to Ms. McDonald who replied two hours later. The anonymous blogger who reportedly resides in West Belfast and calls himself “Ruaidri Ua Conchobai” …

Madden and Finucane on the ending of the #Cahill court case…

The Firemen on October 22, 2014, 8:51 pm

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Madden and Finucane Solicitors, acting on behalf of Padraic Wilson, Seamus Finucane, Briege Wright and Maura McCrory have issued a letter stating their opposition to Mairia Cahill‘s version of events: It states that those accused have been subject to a lengthy police investigation and that Cahill has been “afforded every resource the state could offer”. The letter states that Padraic Wilson had previously been a member of the IRA had been dismissed by a court previously and claims that Mairia Cahill, “would …

A process on the past is pointless if there is “no corporate way of verifying”.

Mick Fealty on October 22, 2014, 3:33 pm

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There was a lot of whinging about the politicisation of this difficulty (or ‘diff’s in Twitterised ‘unspeak’) over Mairia Cahill’s story, Barney Rowan makes a very important and very real political point over at Eamonn’s place: What jumped out at me was the line that the IRA had long left the scene and that there is “no corporate way of verifying” if an investigation had been conducted. Am I reading that line correctly? Is that what Adams meant? That the …

“Adams’s claim… is worthy of the most cynical bishop”

Pete Baker on October 21, 2014, 4:20 pm

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From today’s editorial in the Irish Times Adams’s claim that there was “absolutely no cover up by Sinn Féin at any level”, is worthy of the most cynical bishop. It appears to be based on the fact that the IRA came to accept that she had indeed been abused. But its response was not to assist in bringing the culprit to some external forum of justice, or to counsel and assist the victim, but to offer to shoot him. That …

Martin: “Sinn Fein is failing even the most basic standards of republicanism”

Mick Fealty on October 21, 2014, 11:00 am

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Micheal Martin’s response to Gerry Adam’s blog statement is also worth replicating here more or less in full: “After instigating a vicious campaign of vilification against Mairia Cahill over the course of the last week, it is of course welcome that Gerry Adams has belatedly acknowledged that his organisation did carry out internal investigations of sexual abuse allegations. However, it is deeply disappointing that even as he abandons a key claim he fails to do the right thing by Ms Cahill. …

Adams on Cahill & how the IRA dealt with these issues in the past

David McCann on October 20, 2014, 8:53 am

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Over on his blog Leargas, Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams TD has written the following post on the recent Spotlight programme on Mairia Cahill; The recent allegations made by Maíria Cahill are of serious concern to myself and Sinn Féin. While I refute completely Maíria’s allegations against myself and Sinn Féin it does raise the significant issue of how allegations of abuse had been handled in the past by republicans. Abuse respects no political boundaries. It affects all classes, creeds …

Mairia Cahill: Uncomfortable truths for Sinn Fein

The Firemen on October 20, 2014, 1:24 am

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Tonight we received this EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT from Maíria Cahill: Let us all remind ourselves of what Sinn Fein’s position was when the party spokesperson Pearse Doherty was asked repeatedly outside Leinster house about Micheal Martin’s assertion that the IRA dealt internally with cases of abuse. “Unfounded and untrue, its as clear as I can make it”. That sounds like a denial to me. On Thursday Dessie Ellis, and again tonight, Gerry Adams confirmed that the IRA did indeed internally investigate …

Cahill brings up matter of recordings of her meetings with Adams…

Mick Fealty on October 18, 2014, 8:45 pm

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Mary Lou McDonald stumbled a little today on RTE’s Saturday with Brian Dowling programme when the host read out a tweet from Mairia Cahill referencing recordings of her meetings with Gerry Adams. There are recordings which exist in relation to those IRA meetings in those flats. @MaryLouMcDonald — Mairia Cahill (@mairiac31) October 18, 2014 She mentioned it yesterday in fact, but it wasn’t picked up by the mainstream (8.30 on): listen to ‘Adams: “credibility completely shot to shreds”’ on audioBoom Perhaps she …

Maíria Cahill: “Issue transcends petty politics to put the safety of children first”

The Firemen on October 18, 2014, 8:00 am

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Maíria Cahill who claims she was raped as a teenager by a man believed to be a member of the IRA and later “interrogated” by the IRA about the incident, appeared on RTE Six One News last night to further clarify allegations of a cover up by Sinn Féin and suggested sexual abuse was more widespread than she originally feared. She claimed her situation is not an isolated case and appealed on the show for members of Sinn Féin who …

Mary Lou McDonald: “I know she has knowledge of my case…”

The Firemen on October 17, 2014, 10:36 pm

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listen to ‘”I would call on Mary Lou McDonald to come and meet me” – Maíria Cahill’ on audioBoom And so she might, if it weren’t that she found Gerry so “absolutely emphatic”… The Firementwitter.com/The_Firemen

Cahill demands full disclosure from Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Fein

Mick Fealty on October 17, 2014, 9:36 am

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If you missed it, it is well worth watching Mairia Cahill on Vincent Browne last night… It’s an extraordinarily well conducted interview by Browne who stays focused the whole way through. Ms Cahill seems to start pretty nervously which provoked a few (mercifully few) Twitter to talk about doubting her story. Other still questioned the timing of these revelations, still measuring this all as a deliberate political attack on an emergent Sinn Fein. On one level the answer is pretty simple. …

Mairia Cahill “I am appalled. Gerry knows the truth. He knows I know the truth.”

Mick Fealty on October 16, 2014, 9:43 pm

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So here’s a long response from Gerry Adams to the allegations on RTE’s News At One today, followed by Mairia Cahill’s criticism on Newstalk at lunchtime: listen to ‘Gerry Adams “more than economical with the truth” – Maíria Cahill’ on audioBoom The real meat of the day though was in a Press Conference at Leinster House following a meeting between Ms Cahill and Micheal Martin of Fianna Fail. The Irish Times reports: In response Ms Cahill said: “I am appalled. …

#CahillScandal: Are we validating rape as normal pyschosexual behaviour?

Mick Fealty on October 16, 2014, 9:46 am

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Ed Moloney correctly notes that what Mairia Cahill outlined on Tuesday night’s Spotlight was (and remains) a scandal. If you doubt it, ask yourself why up to 13 individuals tried and failed at the High Court to have their names removed from the programme? The picture painted by Cahill is of Sinn Fein corporately acting on the orders of the IRA: that much fabled and little talked about Movement to cover up multiple rape. Moloney also suggests the possibility that the PSNI colluded with former Provisionals …

Gerry Adams’ ‘delinquent’ story on the Cahill case?

The Firemen on October 15, 2014, 10:17 pm

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UPDATED Alleged ‘abuse’ victim Maíria Cahill took to Twitter to reject a statement issued by Gerry Adams via the Sinn Féin website. Adams was reacting to allegations made on BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight: In his statement Adams said: In the Spotlight programme, broadcast last night, Mairia Cahill made an accusation relating to a meeting with myself. I totally refute the allegations Mairia made about our conversation. I met Mairia in good faith, at the behest of her cousin and my …

Nov 2013: Mary Lou McDonald tells Morning Ireland she had never heard of the Cahill case

Mick Fealty on October 15, 2014, 6:08 am

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RTE Morning Ireland, 28th November 2013 Rachel English interviews Mary Lou McDonald regarding remarks made by Micheal Martin after he’d had a private briefing with Ms Cahill… Rachel English: If I can give you a quote from what he [Micheal Martin] said yesterday “I have to say from information we have picked up, and we have talked to other people, this may have been a broader trend within the Republican movement. If he has those concerns is his not right …

#SpotlightNI: Rape made known to former west Belfast MLA and kept within Sinn Fein

Mick Fealty on October 15, 2014, 12:56 am

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It’s hard to know what to say about tonight’s Spotlight programme, except to recall that the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung who once noted that the possession of secrets acts like a poison which alienates their possessor from the community. It was the public confession of Aine Adams in late 2009 that finally persuaded Mairia Cahill to try unburden herself of a secret she had been carrying since she was just 16 years old. The details are clearly still distressing for her to …