Mary Lou McDonald’s attempt to ‘spread muck all around the floor of the Dáil’ regarding the child sex offender references scandal ‘does nobody any favours whatsoever,’ Máiría Cahill has warned.

Ms Cahill waived her right to anonymity in 2014 to go public with allegations that she was subjected to an IRA ‘kangaroo court’ when she came forward with claims she was raped by an IRA member.

She said she was forced to confront her abuser during the IRA ‘internal inquiry’ in March 2000 – and accused Sinn Féin of covering up the abuse she suffered.

In 2018, she labelled Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald’s apology to her as ‘woefully inadequate’.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Ms Cahill suggested Sinn Féin’s response to the current controversy over work references given to former staffer Michael McMonagle ‘hasn’t been that different’ to its reaction to her own story.

“For the last two weeks in the North of Ireland, there has been a drip feed of information coming out which effectively, has caused confusion in the public arena,” she said.

“You cannot build a safeguarding culture on secrecy and that's always been my bottom line.”

Ms Cahill claimed Sinn Féin has a “pattern” of behaviour when it comes to dealing with the media regarding sex abuse cases – suggesting the party only gives out information when it is forced to do so and even then, does so in a ‘drip feed’ manner.

“What happens then is you end up with smoke balls all over the place,” she said. “I don't want that to happen in this case.

“This case is an issue of child protection. It's far too important.”

Mary Lou McDonald in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk

She said Mary Lou McDonald spoke one way when she appeared on The Pat Kenny Show yesterday – and showed a totally different side when she spoke in the Dáil later that day.

Speaking to Pat, Deputy McDonald admitted that Sinn Féin had ‘dropped the ball’ in relation to the scandal.

In the Dáil yesterday afternoon, she suggested senior members of Government parties had written character references for “convicted rapists and child abusers”.

“With Pat Kenny yesterday, she sounds perfectly plausible and all of that's fine, we have to give her the benefit of the doubt on it,” said Ms Cahill.

“She then goes into the Dáil and takes a completely different tone and starts spreading muck all around the floor of the Dail.

“That does nobody any favours whatsoever in relation to this issue.

Character references

She also noted that there is a “world of difference” between giving someone character references in court and offering someone a character reference to get a job.

She pointed out that, in a court scenario, there are “checks and balances in place on a sex offender,” however, when you give an offender a work reference, there are no checks and balances and that, “potentially puts people at risk”.

 

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Ms Cahill said she was especially disappointed at what has unfolded in recent weeks because Deputy McDonald had promised her in 2018 that “what happened to me could never happen within Sinn Féin again”.

“She said her party had robust child protection policies and procedures,” she said.

“Well, as she said yesterday, they dropped the ball in relation to having robust child protection policies and procedures.

“They can put that right now and the first step to putting that right is actually being fully transparent.”

Work references scandal

It emerged in recent weeks that two Sinn Féin staffers gave former party press officer Michael McMonagle work references, despite the fact that he had already been suspended by the party after it emerged he was under investigation for child sex offences.

Mr McMonagle then used the references to secure a position as Communications Manager for the British Heart Foundation.

He has since pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Sinn Féin has said it became aware of the work references two days after his guilty plea, with the two men who gave them resigning with immediate effect.

PSNI investigation

Ms Cahill noted that when the charges were first brought forward in court, Sinn Féin told the media that the PSNI had “not made contact” with it and urged anyone with any information to go to the police.

“I find that incredible actually for a party,” she said.

“When someone is being investigated by the police to the point of charge in court that the party is telling people, if they have any information, to bring it forward to the police.

“What I want to know is, what information did Sinn Féin bring forward, if any?”

You can listen back to Máiría Cahill's interview here: