The estranged wife of former IRA prisoner Pearse McAuley has spoken of her ordeal at his hands after he was jailed for domestic abuse.
Pauline Tully was stabbed 13 times in front of her children last Christmas Eve after the Co Tyrone man launched a brutal attack.
He admitted causing serious harm to Ms Tully and threatening to kill her brother Thomas Tully at Kilderry, Kilnaleck, Cavan.
He was jailed for eight years last week, with a further four years suspended.
The sentence was described as "very light" by Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald.
McAuley was previously jailed for his part in the IRA killing of Garda Jerry McCabe following a botched robbery in Adare, Co Limerick. He was collected by Sinn Fein TD Martin Ferris on his release in 2009.
The Irish News revealed that he also received a 'letter of comfort' as part of the controversial on the run scheme in connection with a 1991 escape from London’s Brixton Prison.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Marian Finucane show, Ms Tully said she was subjected to different forms of abuse by the Strabane man.
"Years ago, if somebody had said to me about being in a relationship where there was domestic violence I would have said 'the first sight of it I’ll walk out the door', but you don’t actually do that... for a start I thought, well he hasn't actually hit me, so therefore it's not domestic violence,” she said.
"But I’ve learned since that even the threat of domestic violence, and even the verbal abuse, the emotional abuse, actually is domestic violence.
"If you’re in a situation where you’re in fear of the person you’re with, then there’s something wrong."
Ms Tully refused to link McAuley’s domestic abuse to his past as a militant republican.
"I was reared in a republican family, I was a member of Sinn Féin, an elected councillor for Sinn Féin,” she said.
“I would have agreed with the republican cause, so I’m not going to start condemning different aspects of it or saying anything about it."
She added: "I’ve known people involved in the conflict all my life... just because they’re involved in a war situation doesn’t mean that they’re on a personal level violent. I’ve known many people who are not any way violent to their spouses."
The mother-of-two said she doesn’t equate a "war-like situation" with domestic violence.
"I’m not saying it doesn’t have an effect, but I think the two things are very different, and I think there are a lot of people who perpetrate violence on spouses and partners and have never been involved in a war,” she said.
“It comes from people from all walks of life and all backgrounds."
