MÁIRÍA Cahill last night welcomed an apology and damages issued by The Guardian "for the distress" caused by articles written by former columnist Roy Greenslade.
The newspaper said two articles had "cast doubt on the motivations of Ms Cahill" after she had told of being raped by a member of the IRA.
The articles were published in 2014 in response to a BBC Spotlight programme that examined her claims of abuse when she was 16.
Mr Greenslade had called into question her claims and said the BBC, which investigated Ms Cahill’s ordeal, "were too willing to accept Cahill’s story and did not point to countervailing evidence".
"That is not to say that she was not raped," he wrote in The Guardian.
"Nor does it negate her view that the IRA handled her complaint clumsily and insensitively."
However, earlier this year it emerged Mr Greenslade was a supporter of the IRA.
He wrote in the British Journalism Review that he backed the IRA’s armed campaign while he was working as a journalist in England.
The former Daily Mirror editor also said he had made contributions to the republican newspaper An Phoblacht during the Troubles under the pseudonym George King.
In its apology yesterday, The Guardian said Mr Greenslade's "opinion pieces criticised a BBC Spotlight NI programme which featured the sexual abuse of Mairia Cahill in the late 1990s, when she was 16, and questioned Ms Cahill’s possible political agenda in going public with her story".
"Mr Greenslade failed to disclose his support for the Provisional IRA and the Guardian now acknowledges that the articles cast doubt on the motivations of Ms Cahill and apologises for the distress which was caused to her," it said.
Ms Cahill said the apology and damages awarded "goes some way to recognise the harm caused and compensate for the hurt and distress caused to me".
