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MAIRIA CAHILL HAS said her involvement with an organisation opposed to the PSNI and the Good Friday Agreement was “the wrong thing to do” and a decision which she “deeply regrets’ and is “deeply sorry” for.
The Labour Seanad by-election candidate was speaking to RTÉ as she ended weeks of silence about her links to the Republican Network for Unity (RNU).
She has faced criticism in recent days for her refusal to address questions about her involvement with the RNU for a number of months in 2010.
“I am the first person to say it was the wrong thing to do, I regret it deeply and I am deeply sorry for it,” she told Philip Boucher-Hayes on Radio One’s Drivetime programme this evening.
RTÉ Radio 1 / SoundCloud
Cahill’s refusal to comment in recent weeks has been criticised by Catherine McCartney, the sister of the late Robert McCartney, who was allegedly murdered by the Provisional IRA ten years ago, and the independent Seanad candidate Jerry Beades.
Speaking to RTÉ, Cahill said she joined the organisation in 2010 having been at a “very difficult point in my life” when “every aspect” of her abuse came back to her having watched a documentary about the abuse of Aine Adams.
Cahill said her life “went into a spiral”, describing joining the RNU as “completely the wrong thing to do”. She discussed how she had been suicidal and self-harmed.
On her brief spell as the organisation’s national secretary, Cahill explained that she had no prior notice that her name was being proposed for the position.
After she was voted in she decided “two or three hours later” that she didn’t want it and said being pregnant at the time was among the reasons why she refused the post. She added:
At that time I wasn’t really thinking what the RNU was.
Cahill said she would no longer considered herself a republican and that the national question does not have “much relevance on the ground” at the moment. She also said she did not accept the legitimacy of the armed struggle in the North. She added:
I think people should be allowed to move on once they take responsibility for something.
Earlier, the Tánaiste Joan Burton defended Cahill, who she anticipates will win the election tomorrow, insisting:
She will bring to the Seanad a new voice, particularly in relation to issues of young people getting employment and the development of social enterprise, areas she has been very involved in.
Other by-election candidates include Beades, who is a former Fianna Fáil activist. Fianna Fáil itself is running Mayo GP Keith Swanick, while Sinn Féin has put forward Meath councillor Sinead Burke.
Fine Gael has formally thrown its support behind Cahill meaning she is almost certain to take the seat vacated by the retiring Labour senator Jimmy Harte.
A survey of Fine Gael TDs and Senators shows that the recent controversy over Cahill’s involvement with the RNU has seemingly not impacted her level support among the senior coalition partner.
Of the 20 Fine Gael Oireachtas members who responded to queries from TheJournal.ie today, 19 said they had backed Cahill, while one said they had spoiled their ballot.
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why all the fuss leave them up there
@PW: I think that’s what they did, removed at 8am, just in time for breakfast
@PW: gotta make way for Santa’s sleigh
Should spray them with water and leave them over night. Wouldn’t need any so called special trained staff to get them down then.
@Seán Dillon: that’s my brother your talking about
@Seán Dillon: i second that.
@Martin Scaldbag: and what
@Martin Scaldbag: Nobody cares
@Seán Dillon: Or just put some thought into designing prison roofs so it’s not possible to stay up there. I.e., steep roofs, roof access only possible with scaffolding or cherry-pickers, no parapet to stop you sliding off, etc.
@Conall: yeah good idea, unfortunately most of these prisons are old and retain the old structures for imprisonment.
@Seán Dillon: unfortunately its now considered inhumane to use water on prisoners, load of nonsense i know…
As a member of the EU we should lobby to be able to transfer Prisoners on disciplinary to other Prisons throughout the EU. So the likes of those convicts that assault staff, or as in this case endanger staff having to get them down, could be shipped off to a Romanian, Bulgarian or Baltic States Prison etc for a few months. A form of Shenigan treaty for Prisons. You could bet they would sing a different time when they returned.
@Mick.: would you not have Romanian and Bulgarian prisoners constantly acting up so they could stay at mountjoy hilton
@Darren Byrne: There are much easier Prisons to choose from in Scandinavia. But those States I mentioned know how to deal with their own disruptive convicts far more effectively than we do. The “Touchy Feely Bleeding Hearts” have very little input into their Prison Systems.
@Mick.: welcome back
Someone should have told them the magic sleigh is coming tonight to fly them away
@Kieran Monaghan: doesn’t take very much imagination to think up of a few ways to get them down quickly! And the specialist’s wouldn’t be needed either!
Specially trained negotiators? I hope the conversation was brief ‘ get the f… down or f…ing freeze.
They were prob just fixing their sky dish (that is mugs are paying for)
Get their mammies to come tell em get down like they did in Spike Island way back or just leave em dere.
Shame they were “Safely” removed….
Why the Carolina flack comments closed
@Karllye kripton: cause she beat 7 shades of shite out of her boyfriend and now she’s being prosecuted for it.
@Adrian™: that’s what he was into‘allegedly’
@Adrian™: I’ll bet if the shoe was on the other foot the media would have a field day with it
( doesn’t matter what foot it’s on for the record it’s wrong,, but I can’t stand double standards)
I would have used a sniper!
ah come on , they were looking for a chimney to come down tomorrow morning.
Another joke of a government department
Government can’t even secure our prisons….it’s a joke
And it’s up like a bird and it’s over the city, 3 men are missing I heard a warder cry………..
Does Santa have a key for Solitary to deliver present…..
Smarter than I thought. Waited for the weather warnings to clear.
Because there’s criminal proceedings and the journal respects the right to a fair trial
They should have shot them, then they would fall from the roof and hey presto problem solved and as an added bonus more prison spaces would be freed up
I’m all for leaving them up there. Or knocking them off with plastic bullet
Send up a Drone with a few pints, tell them it’s on the slate:
Protest over them having to make Xmas cards for next year .
Waiting for the drone with the xmas parcel. I’d say they’ll be a happy lot over the festive season
Punters Pal..explain?
have your say