A new memoir from the former councillor and senator Máiría Cahill has detailed the fear she faced at the hands of IRA investigators.
Ms Cahill, from west Belfast, first came to public attention after speaking out over claims she was sexually assaulted at the age of 16 by a prominent IRA member.
Her great-uncle Joe Cahill was a founding member of the Provisional IRA and a mentor to Gerry Adams.
While a career in Sinn Féin politics seemed to be her likely path in life, Ms Cahill said she instead faced a traumatising internal investigation by the IRA where the man she accused was allowed to confront her.
She also described then Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams’s response to her complaint.
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In ‘Rough Beast – My Story and the Reality of Sinn Féin’, Ms Cahill speaks of a world of paramilitary secrecy and the influence of ex-gunmen over elected politicians.
In an opening section, she recalls her fear at being summoned for a meeting with the IRA after her assault.
“Where I come from, people have been beaten, abducted and shot for having affairs with the spouses of IRA members,” she said.
“I’ve been in living rooms where IRA members turned up to ask a woman to take back her alcoholic husband.
“Another friend was visited and told that she would not be allowed to leave her jailed male partner, because it would affect ‘prisoner morale’.
“I’ve seen young people shot in the knees at night, and others taken out and punched in the face for not standing up for the playing of the Irish national anthem in a bar.
“So not knowing which IRA members I was being taken to meet, where I was going, or what exactly it was about was terrifying.”
Ms Cahill also described how she was approached to join the IRA on four separate occasions, the first being asked to smuggle guns around Belfast in a black taxi which she refused to do.
She would later accuse republican Martin Morris of sexually assaulting her multiple times, something he has always denied.
Scared of what he would do if she called out for help during the first assault, Ms Cahill said she had pretended to be asleep when she suddenly became aware of what was happening.
“I gave up and became almost like a rag doll. That’s the only way I can describe it… I tried to stop myself from screaming. Instead I screamed inside my head,” she said.
Alleging that his abuse continued for over a year, she said the culture of fear surrounding the IRA in a republican community meant it felt impossible to report the Morris allegations to the authorities.
She said what followed was multiple secretive interrogations at the hands of IRA members, often in safe houses around Belfast, with demands for embarrassing personal details of the assaults and the underlying fear of what the IRA might do to protect one of their own.
After an upsetting session where she was forced to face Morris, who dismissed her accusations, the IRA later informed Ms Cahill’s outraged parents that Morris was not guilty and remained as an IRA volunteer.
In later years, Ms Cahill was called for a meeting with the Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.
By this stage, Morris had faced more accusations of abuse and was said to have escaped an IRA house arrest in Ardoyne.
The day before, Ms Cahill had met with members of the IRA leadership who she said apologised for losing track of Morris.
She said Mr Adams sympathised with her over her experience in what had been “a unique situation”.
“We spoke about the impact the rapes and abuse had had on me,” she wrote.
“He was going on about abusers and about how they could manipulate their victims. He talked about how they made them afraid, and how they groomed them.
“'You know, Máiría, sometimes abusers are so manipulative that the people who are abused actually enjoy it.’”
Angered, she responded: “Well, I didn’t f*****g enjoy it,” and questioned when he had first been aware of the allegations.
She continued: “He took a breath and stroked his beard again. He put his hand on my knee, saying ‘I love you and we love you'.”
Rough Beast is available in bookshops and online from this Thursday.
