‘IRA rape victim’ set to be SDLP councillor

MAIRIA Cahill, who claimed she was raped by an IRA man, is to become an SDLP councillor in the North.

The west Belfast woman waived her right to anonymity in 2010 to say she had been raped by a suspected IRA member when she was a teenager in 1997.

The ex-Labour Party senator in the Oireachtas will be co-opted on to Lisburn and Castlereagh Council.

The man she accused was later acquitted of criminal charges after she withdrew her evidence. Charges were also dropped against those allegedly involved in an IRA internal inquiry into her allegations.

Ms Cahill, who comes from a strongly republican family, later joined dissident group Republican Network for Unity, the political wing of the Oglaigh na hÉireann terrorist group. She later strongly distanced herself from the group.

In 2015, she joined the Labour Party and was elected to the Seanad.

She said she is very happy to take on her latest challenge as a councillor, but she will not be quitting the Labour Party.

She said: ‘I will continue to develop real and meaningful engagement with the Unionist community and I look forward to getting stuck into local issues.’