Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I also pay tribute to Maíria Cahill for her bravery in coming forward as a victim of sexual abuse. The shame and tragedy is that none of the institutions that could have or should have acted in the interests of the victim did so. The IRA did not. When it acted to cover up the crime of one of its members, when it acted to confront a victim with her abuser, when it moved abusers into different jurisdictions it was not acting in the interests of the victims. The British State did not act either. On the one hand, it wanted to use Maíria and other victims to prosecute people for membership of the IRA, which is an entirely separate question, and on the other, elements of the British State wanted these allegations and cases to go away, supposedly to protect the peace process. The establishment parties in the South have not acted in the interests of Maíria or other victims, by using this issue in the way that they have to strike political blows and as a political stick to beat Sinn Féin for purposes that relate entirely to their position in the opinion polls. There is no question that these are the things that must change. The victim should come first and should be at the centre of how we deal with sexual abuse.

There is no question that sexual abuse is horrifically rife in the South and the North, right across our societies. In the North it is not just the IRA that was guilty or had sexual abusers within its ranks. There are horrific stories of abuse and cover-up amongst loyalist paramilitaries. The role that the British State played in the Kincora Boys' Home scandal is outrageous and a cover-up continues of the systematic abuse and rape of young boys by senior Unionists. The British State in the form of the RUC and MI5 was entirely aware of it and used that knowledge not to prosecute those people for abuse but to use them for its own ends.

The members of the IRA are not the only ones who are guilty, but they are guilty in this instance. That guilt should be accepted. It is welcome that it is has been accepted that Maíria Cahill was abused. She was also subjected to a second abuse. I refer to how the investigation process was conducted. She was confronted by her abuser and there was a cover-up of what happened. Instead of an acceptance of what happened, different stories have been put about by the republican movement. One story that has been put about in the North and on social media points towards victim-blaming. Atrocious remarks have been made on social media. I refer also to the baiting of Maíria Cahill and the attacks on her character. Many people will have seen the sharing by prominent Sinn Féin members of a blog that outrageously asked whether this was "possibly a year-long clandestine sexual relationship between these two people". There is no phrase for that other than victim-blaming. It should be condemned, as should the other things that have gone on, and continue to go on by means of word of mouth at this time, on social media.

The other main story or response is the idea that there was no alternative. It has been suggested that the attitudes of working-class communities and particularly Catholic communities in the North to the RUC, which were absolutely understandable and based on the reality of experience, meant that the IRA had no option other than to engage in this process, which ultimately turned into a cover-up. There was an alternative and there is an alternative, which is to be supportive of Maíria Cahill's choices, including her right to choose to go to the police while understanding the reasons many women would choose not to do so. Rather than relying on an unaccountable army as judge, jury and executioner, a democratic, open, community-based and victim-centred approach should have been taken. That alternative existed and it still exists. We need an acknowledgment not just that Maíria Cahill is telling the truth about the abuse she suffered and the cover-up to which she was subjected, but also that these things happened, that they were wrong and that they will not happen again in the future.

I will conclude by proposing that all historical cases of child abuse and sexual abuse should now be properly investigated, with prosecutions against perpetrators and all those accused of covering up such abuse.

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