Enda Kenny: Gerry Adams must reveal abusers

Enda Kenny has called on Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams to tell authorities where sex abusers or rapists, allegedly moved from the North by the IRA, are living.

Mr Adams has been at the centre of claims by rape victim Maíria Cahill that the Republican movement covered up her abuse, an allegation he denies.

Two more women have come forward and alleged that they were also victims of sexual abuse by a republican but were frustrated in how their claims were handled.

Speaking at the Fine Gael presidential dinner in Dublin, Mr Kenny said he deplored Sinn Féin efforts to “evade their responsibility” for the Republican movement’s handling of these issues.

“We now know that the IRA moved known child abusers from Northern Ireland to this state,” he said.

“These people have not gone before the courts in either jurisdiction. They are not subject to the sex offenders’ register.

“The authorities in the areas to which these people were relocated are not aware of their backgrounds and that potentially puts some children at risk.

“For those who have information about sex abusers or rapists out there in the community, that needs to be brought to the attention of the authorities.”

He said Mr Adams should be the first to tell authorities where people were moved to here.

Ms Cahill, 33, says she was raped in 1997 by an IRA activist and was later interrogated by IRA members over her claims.

RTÉ last night said two Belfast women have said they withdrew their claims of sexual abuse by a prominent republican as they lost confidence in how the North’s authorities were pursuing the allegations.

It was reported that the women were teenagers when they allegedly suffered serious sexual abuse over a three-year period in the late 1990s.

The women say they went to the PSNI in 2010 with their claims but were concerned about how they were dealt with, as they were caught up with issues to do with claims by Ms Cahill.

Deputy Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald yesterday told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics said she had accepted from the beginning Ms Cahill’s allegations of sexual abuse.

She said she did not want to say too much while the North’s Director of Public Prosecutions reviews Ms Cahill’s case and others, but reiterated that she disagreed with claims that Sinn Féin had covered up abuse cases.

When asked yesterday, Ms McDonald did not say if she had asked Mr Adams to contact the authorities and give details of exiled abusers from the North.