Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

ira letter

'My abuser was given money and moved out of NI' - Mairia Cahill

Cahill also says that a letter she wrote to the IRA proves they carried out an investigation.

MAIRIA CAHILL HAS claimed that her alleged abuser was given money and moved out of Northern Ireland when she made it clear to the IRA that her and her family intended to go the RUC.

Cahill also says that a letter she wrote to the IRA Army Council in 2000 proves that she expressed her frustration at not being let go to the police.

This letter was used as part of the prosecution that was subsequently dropped and Cahill says she intends to release it. She says that the existence of the letter proves there was an IRA investigation into her abuse.

Cahill was responding to a claim by the solicitor for the two men and two women accused by her of carrying out an IRA investigation into her abuse.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Peter Madden said that, in the letter sent by Cahill to the army council, she complained to the IRA that they hadn’t carried out a “proper investigation” into her abuse.

Cahill has rejected this in a blog post published today, saying that she only wrote the letter to the IRA when she found out that they had initiated a second investigation into her alleged abuser because of further allegations against him:

PastedImage-81459 Twitpic / Mairia Cahill Twitpic / Mairia Cahill / Mairia Cahill

The second IRA investigation came about because other allegations surfaced about my abuser. When those allegations became known the man unbeknownst to me was placed under immediate house arrest by the IRA. I learned of this on 23rd July 2000. He was then given money and was moved out of the jurisdiction once myself and my family made it plain that we wanted to go to the RUC.

“The minute my family said we wanted to go to the police the IRA moved the perpetrator, so we couldn’t do so,” she added.

Madden claimed that Cahill said in her letter that the IRA’s intentions “were honourable” with regards to the two women who deal with her, Briege Wright and Maura McCrory.

Cahill has said this is incorrect and that she was talking about Siobhan O’Hanlon and Briege Wright in the letter. She said the only reason she referenced the RUC in the letter was to demonstrate her frustration at not being able to report her abuse.

Cahill adds that having listened to Madden’s interview she is considering legal proceedings “against a number of individuals and entities”.

She adds that she open to making the letter public.

Read: Four accused by Mairia Cahill are refusing to meet Enda Kenny >

Read: Enda Kenny has ‘absolutely no problem’ meeting four involved in Maíria Cahill case >