Abuse victim says she ‘exploded’ after Mary Lou ‘sneered’ at her in the Dáil
Sinn Féin TD denies Máiría Cahill’s allegation
IRA abuse victim Máiría Cahill has backed up Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty’s version of a Leinster House confrontation with Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald.
The minister and Ms McDonald have clashed over whether the Dublin TD “sneered” at the former senator following a Dáil debate on abuse in 2014.
Ms McDonald has categorically denied the allegation but Ms Cahill has now told the Irish Independent that she was in the smoking area on the night in question when the pair met by chance.
“She (Ms McDonald) smirked. I took it exactly how I felt it was intended. I exploded and said, ‘Are you going to tell the truth today?’ She said, ‘I always ‘tell the truth’. She was sneering,” Ms Cahill said.
In a ‘Hot Press’ interview, Ms Doherty was asked for her view on the deputy leader of Sinn Féin. She replied: “The day we had statements on Máiría Cahill (in the Dáil), Máiría was in that day with her cousin Eilis O’Hanlon, sitting up in the gallery.
“Afterwards, I brought her to the smoking area and Mary Lou happened to be there and sneered at her and slagged her. Only I witnessed it myself, I don’t think I would have thought it would have been possible for it to come out of her mouth.”
However, Ms McDonald has categorically rebuffed the claims, describing the comments as “deeply malicious”.
She said: “I do not slag people off. If I have a difference with someone, I have it honestly and respectfully and openly. That event simply did not happen.”
Ms Cahill has been an outspoken critic of Sinn Féin since going public about her rape at the hands of an alleged IRA member in 1997, when she was aged just 16.
She was later forced to face her abuser at a ‘kangaroo court’ organised by IRA members.
The PSNI did bring a case against the alleged rapist, but it subsequently collapsed.
Ms McDonald stood firmly by Gerry Adams as he came under intense pressure over his handling of the controversy.
Mr Adams said the IRA had “long since left the scene” so there was “no corporate way of verifying” Ms Cahill’s claims about an IRA investigation.
Asked about Ms McDonald’s denial of a confrontation, Ms Cahill told the Irish Independent: “This might be another case of selective memory for Sinn Féin.
“The one person who has been consistent in both her dealing with me and in her dealing on the abuse claims was Regina Doherty.
“I do think she came to me for no other reasons than she was trying to help and was appalled by what was happening.”
Ms Cahill said Sinn Féin “lied through their teeth” after she had gone public.
She said there was a small group in the smoking area on the evening in November 2014 when Ms McDonald came around the corner, carrying a stack of files.
She alleged that the Sinn Féin TD smirked at her and then
there was the exchange about Ms McDonald telling the truth.
Ms Cahill added: “She stayed then with a while with another member of Sinn Féin. I wasn’t happy and made it known I wasn’t happy about the way I was treated by her.
“At the time, the one com- ment that came back to me over and over was that the main shock for people in the South was how Mary Lou conducted herself during that episode.
“If anyone has damaged her reputation, it’s herself.
“She has nobody to blame but herself.”