SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Gerry Adams has said he does not know whether Maíria Cahill was forced by members of the IRA to face the man who raped her.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, he made it clear that he will not be resigning as leader of his party over the recent abuse controversy.
The woman has claimed that she was brought before a ‘kangaroo court’ after reporting to the IRA that a prominent member had raped her. She also says she later went to Adams for help.
“The IRA was ill-equipped – it was inappropriately equipped – to do what it did and I have acknowledged that failure and I see that as a mistake now,” Adams said in the interview today.
However he said he rejected any suggestion of the type of systematic abuse that took place within the Catholic Church in Ireland, commenting that much of the abuse in Republican circles also took place within institutions of the state.
He also said that any Republicans, including himself, who tried to work with the young woman, “did so in a well-intended way”.
Adams said there is “no possibility” of him resigning on this issue, adding that he had “behaved at all times properly”.
The Sinn Féin leader also launched an attack on the Taoiseach and on Fianna Fáil’s leader Micheál Martin, describing some of the remarks they had made about him and his party as “scurrilous”. He said the issue should not be exploited for party political reasons”.
Martin, speaking on the same show, denied he was using the issue to gain political brownie points, pointing out that it was Mairia Cahill who came forward publicly in the firstplace to tell her story. He said Adams should listen to her, “accept that she’s telling the truth” and tell the police anything he knows.
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