visionary Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/world/inquiry-into-rape-claims-against-irish-militants.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0 Inquiry Into Rape Claims Against Irish Republican Army The police and child protection agencies in Ireland are investigating rape and sexual abuse allegations against more than 30 former members of the Irish Republican Army, based on tips from people who were themselves once linked with the group. Among those supplying information to the authorities is Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, an Irish nationalist political party that had close ties to the I.R.A. during the conflict in Northern Ireland. Mr. Adams, who is now a member of the Irish Parliament, confirmed that he had recently passed information to the Irish authorities, and not for the first time. “I have brought forward information that I have received, and I have no reason to doubt its authenticity,” he said in an interview Monday with the Irish state broadcaster RTE. “It came to me anonymously. It was left in the letter box of my home in Belfast.” He said he would cooperate fully with the police investigation. Irish news media reports have said that the targets of the investigation were banished from Northern Ireland by the I.R.A. and went to live in the Republic of Ireland. Mr. Adams acknowledged in a blog posting in October that in the years when the group was active in the North, it sometimes shot or expelled people accused of sex crimes. Mr. Adams’s disclosures are the latest twist in a story that first came to international prominence last month, when the BBC broadcast a documentary about a Belfast woman, Mairia Cahill, 33. It related her claims that she was repeatedly raped as a teenager by a man she said was a senior I.R.A. member, and then was secretly interrogated about the rapes by other members of the organization. Ms. Cahill took her accusations to the police in the North, but the cases against the people she accused ended in acquittals this year after she withdrew her testimony. Ms. Cahill said in a radio interview with Newstalk this week that she had recently provided the Irish police with information concerning “in and around 30” alleged abusers. “The reason I don’t put a figure on it is because it has changed,” she said. “If that is the amount of names that have come to me, I know that Sinn Fein will have knowledge of many more.” Her granduncle Joe Cahill was a Sinn Fein leader and supporter of Mr. Adams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Does this actually surprise anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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