"Your newspaper’s offensive and almost hysterical treatment of a deeply complex, emotional family trauma falls far below objective journalistic standards"
Gerry Adams Response to Sunday Tribune
21.1.2010
Reports obtained from:
(1)
Sunday Business Post, (2)
Léargas, (3) Irish
Republican News
(4) Madden &
Finucane Solicitors, (5)
BBC News, (6)
Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday-Thursday, 19-21 January, 2010
Thursday, 21 January, 2010
Wednesday, 20 January, 2010
Monday, 18 January, 2010
Statements of Padraic Wilson and Seamus Finucane in response to Sunday Tribune newspaper article (4)
Friday-Monday, 15-18 January, 2010
Sunday, 17 January, 2010
Tuesday, 12 January, 2010
A Family Trauma (2)
Sunday, 10 January, 2010
Sunday, 27 December, 2009
Tuesday-Thursday, 19-21 January, 2010
Analysis: Time for abuse inquiry
By Bernadette McAliskey (see Devlin)
There is something singularly distasteful about the glee with which Gerry Adams is currently pursued, pilloried by his opponents,and hung out to dry by his party, while society contents itself with texting trivial and dubious jokes on this subject and on the 'Robinson affair'.
As a matter of urgency -- before this pretence of a democratic, secular and modern administration unravels itself in abject disgrace, it needs to exercise its responsibility for protection of children and young people, and initiate an investigation into sexual abuse and exploitation in this jurisdiction, and the role of organisations in protecting perpetrators or failing to protect victims. The period covered should possibly be since partition -- as there are people alive who were child en when the jurisdiction was created -- but most definitively from the 1960s to the present, the longest period of protracted and violent political conflict.
Allegations now in the public domain add to previous allegations buried in the haze of the Troubles and reflect an enduring culture of corruption, an 'appalling vista' of arrogance and abuse that underpins the tolerance of the abuse of children (and women) to protect the structures of authority. That this is not confined to Sinn Fein does not lessen their responsibility. There is something singularly distasteful about the glee with which Gerry Adams is currently pursued, pilloried by his opponents,and hung out to dry by his party, while society contents itself with texting trivial and dubious jokes on this subject and on the 'Robinson affair'.
It is as if by removing a few symbolic heads the party, the political system and society can purge itself and the matter can be buried again. Where is the routine and popular chorus of demands for a public inquiry from any part of this segregated society? Is it silenced by tacit grassroots knowledge of the enormity of the iceberg whose tip stands exposed? Is every victim expected to individually bare their trauma and pain -- without support, protection or remedy -- to the mercy of a voyeuristic media or the individual integrity of a few probing journalists willing to listen?
Are the accused to be tried, convicted or exonerated in the media, depending on who has the best spin-doctors, which journalist has the deepest motive, largest budget, the most integrity or the least to lose?
Are the weakest and most vulnerable to be sacrificed yet again on the altar of political horse-trading and expediency?
The Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, political executive and assembly share the power and responsibility to immediately establish an investigation into the degree to which those in positions of authority within the Church, state, political, military, paramilitary and voluntary organisations have protected the abuser rather than the abused,and to appropriately hold those responsible to account.
All of this is more pressing than whether the United Kingdom government runs the Police Service of Northern Ireland directly from London or through its subsidiary administration in Belfast. The commission of inquiry could comprise the Human Rights Commissioner, the Children's Commissioner and, not one, but four Victims' Commissioners. They have at their disposal a legal infrastructure for individual remedy, and precedence of the Irish inquiry for organisational remedy and restitution as appropriate.
Why is it not already happening? Is this society willing, yet again, to settle tor political expediency and a few scalps?
If there is any integrity or courage left in this place, we need to take a stand against the political corruption and protectionism that is the hallmark of politics here, starting with an inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in Northern Ireland. Protecting the last illusions of serving Faith and Fatherland, Mother Ireland and the glorious dead is a shallow excuse for betrayal of the innocents.
To quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet 'there is something rotten in the state...'
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2010
Sinn Fein denies mishandling abuse claim
By BBC News
.....the depiction of Gerry Adams as a presiding genius coolly ignoring
the abuse of children to protect the reputation of the movement, is inaccurate
and wildly unfair. It focuses on the person while ignoring the political context
which alone can explain the
actions and inactions concerned.
It needs to be said, too, that some seem so anxious to get Adams they are
content to let the police off the hook. Eamonn McCann
(see
McCann)
Leading Sinn Fein member Padraic Wilson has moved to detail how he dealt with a case of sexual abuse after it was reported to senior party members.
The Sunday Tribune newspaper reported how a woman said she was raped at the age of 16 by a Belfast IRA man.
The woman, Ms Cahill, is the grandniece of veteran republican Joe Cahill.
She claims Gerry Adams knew of her accusations and said Sinn Fein members Seamus Finucane and Mr Wilson, who were IRA members at the time, also met her.
She has strongly criticised the republican movement's handling of her case saying that IRA members made her come face-to-face with her alleged abuser so they could "read the body language" between them.
She also believes the IRA facilitated the man's move across the Irish border to live in Donegal.
At the time of the alleged abuse in the summer of 1997, Ms Cahill, a former national secretary for Sinn Fein's youth wing had been working for the West Belfast Festival radio station.
She was staying with the republican and his wife while her parents were on holiday.
Her alleged attacker is understood to be a former member of the provisional IRA's punishment squad.
'Dismissive'
Ms Cahill said at one meeting Padraic Wilson, now Sinn Fein director of international affairs, had been dismissive of her concerns.
Mr Wilson has denied he behaved in such a way.
Mr Wilson and Mr Finucane have released statements confirming their involvement in trying to resolve the complaint and said they urged Ms Cahill to approach social services.
"I did speak with the victim and another member of her family. At all times I emphasised that the only way that the situation could be dealt with was by bringing it directly to the attention of social services," said Mr Wilson.
"This was not a route that the victim or her family were, at that time, prepared to take."
Mr Finucane said Ms Cahill did not wish to involve the RUC in the investigation.
"I am sorry that she felt that I was dismissive of her complaint but this was far from the case," he said.
"I want to make it clear that I did my best to resolve this serious matter."
'No resolution'
The allegations have added to pressure on Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams who is already facing criticism that he knew of sexual abuse allegations against his brother Liam and did not do enough to alert his party about the claims.
On Tuesday, Ms Cahill released a statement through the Rape Crisis Centre which said the article in the Sunday Tribune was an "accurate and truthful account"
"Sinn Fein has stated that Gerry Adams refutes the allegations I made," she said.
"Gerry Adams first spoke to me about my case in August 2006. I had meetings with him at which I expressed my feelings on the way I was being treated until 2006.
"I have no interest in attacking Gerry Adams, I have been fond of him at times in my life, he was sympathetic at times.
"However, I stand by my assertion that my meetings with him were pointless, because there was no resolution.
"My surname is not important. It does not define me, but it does show that there was no hierarchy of victims. There seems to be however, a hierarchy when it came to perpetrators of abuse."
Copyright © BBC News 2010
Media Statement on behalf of the victim of abuse by person named “X” by the Sunday Tribune
“I feel very let down by the decision of the Sunday Tribune to publish my interview with Suzanne Breen on 17th January 2009. At no time did I give permission for any details of the sexual abuse I suffered as a child to be published. The editor of the Sunday Tribune gave me an assurance through my solicitors that I would not be identified as someone who has made allegations to the police regarding sexual abuse.
Due to the publication of the Sunday Tribune article I have been easily identified within my local community as being the victim of sexual abuse. I have suffered immense hurt, upset and distress as a result of the publication, and I feel that I have been manipulated by the newspaper. My legal protections of anonymity under the criminal law and my right to private life under the European Convention on Human Rights have been flagrantly breached. Neither my local community nor my family were aware that I was a victim of sexual abuse before the publication of the Sunday Tribune article.
My primary concerns are for the well being of my children and immediate family and that justice against my abuser is able to take its course without any interference”.
C/o Michael Madden, Madden & Finucane Solicitors
Statements of Padraic Wilson and Seamus Finucane in response to Sunday Tribune newspaper article of the 17/01/2010
Statement from Padraic Wilson (Family advisor)
"Quotes from the victim .......... are inaccurate"
The Sunday Tribune in its edition of January 17th carried a series of articles concerning allegations of sexual abuse. Two women who were the victims outlined traumatic abuse to which they had been subjected. They should be commended for that.
On the front page and in an article on page 11 reference was made to myself in relation to one of the cases.
Quotes from the victim attributed to me are inaccurate. I did speak with the victim and another member of her family. At all times I emphasised that the only way that the situation could be dealt with was by bringing it directly to the attention of social services.
This was not a route that the victim or her family were, at that time, prepared to take. That very point is made by the victim herself in the Sunday Tribune. I had no dealings with the person alleged to be responsible for the abuse.
My only involvement was to try and give constructive advice in a very sensitive and traumatic situation. It was not within my gift to deliver the outcome demanded by the victim.
As no charges have been brought at this stage in relation to this case, I have been advised by my legal representative to make no further comment about this matter so as not to interfere with any potential future legal proceedings.
The Sunday Tribune also described me as the ‘go between’ with the International Independent Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). This is also inaccurate. I have never met or been involved with anyone from the IICD.
Padraic Wilson
Statement from Seamus Finucane (Solicitor)
I want to confirm that I did have a role to play in trying to resolve the complaint of sexual abuse made by Ms Cahill. This was a very sensitive issue and very traumatic for her. Ms Cahill did not wish to involve the RUC in the investigation of this complaint due to the fact that the alleged perpetrator's partner was a relative of Ms. Cahill.
At that time our view was that complaints of this nature should be referred to the social services whose staff were expertly trained to deal with sexual abuse.
I am sorry that she felt that I was dismissive of her complaint but this was far from the case. I want to make it clear that I did my best to resolve this serious matter.
Seamus Finucane, Madden & Finucane Solicitors
Friday-Monday, 15-18 January, 2010
Councillor suspended as abuse controversy continues
By Irish Republican News
Councillor Briege Meehan has been suspended from Sinn Fein after being questioned by the PSNI over allegations of abusing her stepdaughter, it has emerged.
It is understood that Mrs Meehan -- widow of veteran north Belfast republican Martin Meehan -- was stood down from the party more than a year ago.
A member of the Meehan family said that they we re concerned at the length of time it has taken for the PSNI investigation and the fact that no charges have to date been brought against Briege Meehan.
A spokesman said: "The Meehan family would prefer if [Briege Meehan] no longer used our dead father's legacy for her own gain as she is currently tarnishing his memory."
The development came as Sinn Fein faced a continuing controversy over its handling of child abuse claims involving party members.
A party spokesman said the allegations against Mrs Meehan, first revealed in the Sunday Tribune newspaper, had not been made public due to the nature of the inquiry and said: "The welfare of children is paramount."
The Newtownabbey Borough Council member, aged in her fifties, is being investigated for alleged serious abuse of a stepdaughter who was in her care in the late 1970s.
Briege Meehan became involved with Mr Meehan, a prominent IRA and Sinn Fern figure, after his first wife Mary died in 1977. Mr Meehan, who was 62 when he died of a heart attack in 2007, was in prison at the time of the alleged abuse.
At the weekend, the Sunday Tribune also carried allegations by the grand-niece of IRA veteran Joe Cahill against an unnamed IRA man in west Belfast.
Meanwhile, Gerry Adams has responded to the continuing controversy over his handling of sex abuse allegations against his brother Liam. Last week, Mr Adams said he he was unaware his brother, who currently faces sex abuse charges, worked for his party in his west Belfast constituency as late as 2005.
It was the latest in a series of embarrassing revelations of Liam Adams's activities within Sinn Fein by the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune. He currently faces charges he sexually abused his daughter Aine Tyrell in the 1970s and 80s.
Mr Adams said his political opponents were using the issue in an attempt to undermine him. He said he also felt constrained from fully defending himself by a need to protect the privacy of family members and by a desire not to prejudice any future court proceedings against his brother.
POLICING ABUSE
At the time of these alleged crimes, there was no support in republican communities for the then RUC police. British forces working in Ireland generally operated a policy of overlooking child abuse and other sex crimes by republicans if those responsible agreed to work for the state as informers and agents.
Up to the mid-nineties, abuse victims in republican areas were generally advised to avoid the RUC, who tended to exploit the victims for their own military purposes.
Since then, Sinn Fein's position in relation to dealing with allegations of child abuse is that the issue be brought immediately to the attention of the statutory agencies with responsibility for dealing with it, including the police.
The party has categorically denied it covered up sex abuse allegations against Briege Meehan and the still unnamed IRA figure, and yesterday launched a blistering attack on the Tribune newspaper.
"The Sunday Tribune is clearly involved in a smear campaign against Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein officials have spoken in recent days to both the journalist involved and the editor of the paper and neither sought a response from Gerry Adams or the party in respect of today's stories. That says much about their motivation.
"Our position on these matters is crystal clear," Sinn Fein said. "At all times the welfare of children is paramount. The people who should investigate allegations of abuse are the statutory authorities charged with this task - the PSNI/Gardai and the Social Services."
Mr Cahill's grand niece, who did not want to be named, told the Sunday Tribune the IRA investigated her claims but just moved her alleged abuser to a location the 26 Counties.
Sinn Fein said the newspaper "while high of sensationalism and innuendo does not produce facts to substantiate their claims."
"The Sunday Tribunes decision to publish an edited version of Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein's response to the questions put to us by the Sunday Tribune is equally telling. The matter is in the hands of our legal representatives and we will be lodging a detailed and formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission," a spokesman said.
"It is not the job of Sinn Fein to establish guilt or innocence and we will await the outcome of the police investigation."
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2010
Adams 'failed to take action against alleged abusers'
By Sunday Business Post
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was under further pressure today after fresh claims he covered up sex abuse allegations against fellow republicans – one of them an elected member of his party.
Already facing tough questions over his handling of sex charges against his brother Liam, alleged victims of two other suspected abusers have accused the west Belfast MP of failing to act against them.
The two women say Mr Adams was made aware of their allegations but did not take action – either by alerting the authorities or expelling them from Sinn Féin.
Their explosive claims, which were outlined in the Sunday Tribune, come in the wake of the scandal involving Mr Adams’s brother Liam – who is on the run from police on charges of abusing his daughter.
One of the women, a grand niece of former IRA leader Joe Cahill, alleged she was repeatedly raped at the age of 16 by a prominent IRA member.
The other alleged victim claimed she was sexually abused as a child by someone who is now an elected Sinn Féin representative in the North.
A Sinn Féin spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Mr Cahill’s grand niece, who did not want to be named, said the IRA investigated her claims but just facilitated her alleged abuser in a move south of the border.
She said she met Mr Adams about the claims but described the exchanges as “pointless”.
After surviving a suicide attempt she said she confronted the Sinn Féin president.
“I told him I’d been treated disgracefully and never once had the republican movement told me to go to the police or social services,” she told the Tribune.
The other woman, who said police are investigating her claims, said she was disgusted that Sinn Féin had not taken action against her alleged perpetrator.
“When I went to the PSNI, another family member informed Gerry Adams face to face of what X had done to me,” she told the paper.
“Gerry said he was aware of the stories that X had abused me, but hadn’t known the details. Gerry promised to have X expelled from Sinn Féin immediately. I feel very let down by the republican movement.”
The allegations come just days after Mr Adams was confronted with more details about his brother Liam’s involvement in Sinn Féin.
His younger brother is wanted by the authorities north of the border to face charges of abusing his daughter Aine Tyrell in the 1970s and 80s.
The high profile republican has faced repeated queries about his handling of the allegations, which he became aware of in 1987, since Ms Tyrell went public last month.
In particular, he has been forced to defend claims he did not do enough to inform the authorities when he found out his estranged brother was working in youth groups in west Belfast and Co Louth over the last 15 years.
This week he was also forced to explain how he did not know his brother worked for Sinn Féin in the heart of his own parliamentary constituency.
Liam Adams chaired a local branch of Sinn Féin in west Belfast in 2000 – three years after his elder brother claimed he had him expelled from party ranks in Louth..
“I don’t know every member of the party in west Belfast,” Mr Adams insisted.
“I am also a very busy activist – a lot of this happened at a time of intense hyper-activity – but I didn’t know.”
In December Gerry Adams also revealed his late father Gerry Snr subjected family members to emotional, physical and sexual abuse over many years.
He said he discovered the allegations levelled against his brother in 1987 and had brought Liam’s daughter Aine, then aged 14, to confront her father.
He said statutory bodies including the police were told of the claims at that point.
Three years ago, after his niece went to police, Gerry Adams said he made a statement to the PSNI in support of her and against his brother.
Liam Adams gave himself up to gardaí in Co Sligo before Christmas. They could not detain him as they did not have the correct warrant.
Ian Paisley Jr has asked a Stormont Assembly committee to investigate if Gerry Adams breached its rules by failing to act about his brother’s alleged sex abuse.
The DUP Assembly member submitted questions to Assembly Ombudsman Tom Frawley. Mr Frawley will assess if the complaint merits being passed to the Assembly’s Committee on Standards and Privileges.
Mr Adams said his political opponents were using the issue in an attempt to undermine him.
He said he also felt constrained from fully defending himself by a need to protect the privacy of family members and by a desire not to prejudice any future court proceedings against his brother.
Later a Sinn Féin spokesman categorically denied the claims. He said the party was now considering legal action against the Sunday Tribune.
He said the allegations were founded on innuendo and sensationalism and not facts.
“Gerry Adams and the party refute absolutely any allegation of covering up instances of abuse,” he said.
“Our position on these matters is crystal clear. At all times the welfare of children is paramount. The people who should investigate allegations of abuse are the statutory authorities charged with this task – the PSNI/Gardaí and the Social Services.
“If an allegation of sexual abuse is made against a Sinn Féin member, the party ensures that the matter is reported to the relevant statutory authorities. The member is suspended from the party without prejudice.
“This is in contrast to other political parties which have allowed members against whom allegations are being made to remain politically active until the completion of the legal process.
“A Sinn Féin representative is suspended without prejudice from party membership and all party activities. including work as a public representative.
“This suspension was activated after the PSNI commenced an investigation into an allegation of historic abuse.
“It is not the job of Sinn Féin to establish guilt or innocence and we will await the outcome of the police investigation.”
Copyright © Sunday Business Post 2010
Gerry Adams Response to Sunday Tribune
Prior to the weekend the Sunday Tribune sent a series of questions to me relating to my brother Liam Adams.
The paper did not publish the full response it was given but produced an edited version. I think it only fair that readers have a chance to read the full piece.
Response to Sunday Tribune
For the last few weeks the Sunday Tribune has been accusing me of not answering questions, of ‘dodging and weaving’ and avoiding the issues which were being raised. These assertions were made by Suzanne Breen in various media outlets. What Suzanne Breen failed to say was that neither she nor the Sunday Tribune had asked me any questions. Neither did they ask me for an interview and no attempts were made to contact me. Neither Suzanne Breen nor any other Sunday Tribune journalist bothered to turn up at any of the press events I hosted.
It was only when Sinn Féin briefed some journalists that our national Chairperson Declan Kearney was compiling a report of my brother Liam’s role in Sinn Féin for external as well as internal distribution, and after the Irish News carried this on Thursday, that your questions arrived.
Sinn Féin received them on Thursday night.
By Thursday morning our National Officer Board had already met to receive the report. The Party leadership structures were briefed on Thursday night that the report would be circulated to the membership on Friday morning and prior to its release to the media at lunchtime.
From the outset Sinn Féin made it clear that Liam Adams had been a member of the party. And as soon as the party had the details of the nature and duration of his role within the party we immediately made it public. This process took a number of weeks to complete.
Your newspaper’s offensive and almost hysterical treatment of a deeply complex, emotional family trauma falls far below objective journalistic standards. Your eagerness to attack me ignores the needs and rights of victims and survivors in my family and other family members who are private citizens.
It also ignores the reality that court proceedings are pending. Media coverage of this case will almost certainly be part of the defence.
The PSNI have written to me as a witness in the case. Three years ago after Áine went back to the police I also made a statement to the PSNI.
The PSNI letter explicitly advises me to refrain from speaking to the media about the case as it could possibly prejudice any future trial.
With this advice in mind I showed the questions from the Sunday Tribune to my solicitor Seamus Collins of PJ McGrory & Co. His advice is that he agrees with the contents of the letter from the PSNI that I should refrain from commenting further about these matters and he has advised me in the strongest terms not to respond to these questions. He believes that by answering the questions any future trial could be seriously compromised.
Nothwithstanding this, it is my intention and with my solicitors advice in mind, to deal with the matters you raise on the basis that what follows is already in the public domain.
Party Chairperson Declan Kearney has dealt with those questions that are a matter for the party directly and which were addressed in a report which he compiled over the last number of weeks and which was presented to Ard Chomhairle members on Friday morning.
My focus has been to ensure that due process takes place and that justice is done. My concern throughout has been for my niece. The decisions I took and the approach I adopted were taken on the basis of the professional advice I was given in seeking to help Áine and the experience that I and my brothers and sisters acquired in coping with the consequences of my fathers serious abuse of some of our siblings.
This professional advice and experience convinced me that my role was to support the victims, protect the victim’s right to anonymity – while that was their wish – and to help bring closure and empower victims and their relatives.
Consequently, I did not tell anyone in Sinn Féin of the allegations. There has been no cover up by Sinn Féin. The party did not know of the allegations against Liam Adams. Therefore it could not take any action even within the party’s rules and regulations. It did nothing wrong.
Neither was there any cover-up by me. The facts are straightforward: when Áine made her allegations against her father it was one of my family members who accompanied her and her mother to the Social Services. The RUC were also informed. The statutory bodies with responsibility for dealing with child sexual abuse know of these allegations. The manner in which they then dealt with this requires scrutiny. The Sunday Tribune has conducted no such scrutiny. The RUC received a complaint of sexual abuse of a minor. What did it do?
Three years ago Áine decided to go again to the police. I also made a statement to the PSNI. I am therefore a witness in a pending court case involving my brother. After the allegations were levelled against my brother, I only became aware on one occasion of his membership of the party. That was in 1997 when I heard that he was thinking of putting his name forward as a candidate. I blocked that and moved to get him to withdraw from the party.
I was not aware that he later involved himself with Sinn Féin in Lower Andersonstown . His decision to do this was reprehensible and deplorable. Had I known I would have acted to have him leave the party.
Over the years I had occasion to meet Liam. I volunteered this fact in a part of the UTV Insight programme that was not broadcast. Though I was estranged from Liam I never denied being in contact with him on family or other occasions. I used some of these opportunities to speak to him about Aine’s situation.
During this time also only a small number of my family members knew of the allegations against Liam. For me not to have participated in significant family events for him would have raised questions and risked breaking the confidences I had given. It would also have hurt other members of his family.
To summarise some other points:
As I told the UTV Insight programme I informed his second wife of the allegations against Liam.
I did not think it was appropriate for him to be canvassing during the Dail election in 1997 and I told him so afterward.
In respect of references to him in my book ‘Before the Dawn’ which deals with my life growing up in west Belfast , I included references to other siblings also. My account of my childhood memories is exactly that. It would have been highly irresponsible and wrong of me to make any reference to the allegations against Liam in the book.
Your information is incorrect. I did not say that I informed both youth projects. When he worked in the Clonard Youth Club I tried to get him to leave and when he wouldn’t I ensured that the authorities in Clonard were made aware of the allegation. It has also since transpired that the RUC cleared him to work in this project despite being aware of the allegation.
In the case of the Blackie I approached him myself and told him to leave the job or I would go to the management of the project about the allegations. In this instance, he eventually resigned his position. It has also emerged that the PSNI cleared him to work in this project despite being aware of the allegation and in the face of radically changed legislation imposing more stringent checks.
During this time I was trying to facilitate a process between Liam and his daughter Áine. My approach to this and other family matters was guided by professional advice and also by experience and that of my brothers and sisters in coping with my father’s abuse of family members. The professional advice was to support the victims, protect the victims right to anonymity, while that was their wish and to help bring closure and empower victims and their relatives. This is what I sought to do at all times.
We will be forever indebted to the professional counsellors who helped us. Finally, any professional in this field will tell you that confidentiality is a critical consideration. This right extends also to members of my family and their dealings with counsellors and other professionals helping us deal with this trauma.
Over the last number of weeks Sinn Féin Chairperson Declan Kearney has compiled a report relating to the nature and duration of Liam Adams’ membership of Sinn Féin.
Following the UTV Insight programme we acknowledged that he had been a member of the party.
Having spoken to Gerry Adams, national party leadership, party members and examining available documentation we have established the following facts.
After Liam moved from Dundalk to Belfast, was he active in Sinn Fein in Belfast, and if so in what role?
From 2000 and for a number of years Liam Adams involved himself in localised party work in Belfast. Liam Adams did not re-apply to join the party as would be required by party procedures. He held a number of positions in a cumann in Lower Andersonstown, including chair, treasurer and other subsidiary roles for short periods.
Was Liam ever in Leinster House as a guest of a Sinn Fein politician? We have no record of any such visits Party guidelines
You have accused Gerry Adams of breaking the Sinn Féin constitution which you claim states when a member becomes aware of sexual allegations against another member they are bound to inform Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle whilst maintaining the anonynimity of the accused.
This is not in the Constitution nor is it accurate. Robust guidelines were adopted by the Ard Chomhairle in 2006. These make it clear that the nature of the allegations and the identity of the accused should be communicated to the statutory agencies immediately as well as the relevant party structure. If the accused is a Party member, he/she is immediately suspended without prejudice by the National Party Chair pending the conclusion of the appropriate statutory investigations. Posted by Gerry Adams at 4:13 PM
A Family Trauma
Gerry Adams
Just before Christmas this Blog noted that I might deal with ‘some of the events in the life of my clan and in my own life … at some other time.’
In recent weeks some elements of the media have been critical of my handling of the issues arising from the allegations of sexual abuse against my brother Liam by his daughter Áine. Some have alleged cover-ups by me and by Sinn Féin.
Some political opponents have also very cynically sought to exploit this personal family trauma in a most offensive way.
Some have tried to compare my family’s efforts to deal with the trauma of child abuse, including the ordeal of discovering that our father was an abuser, with other issues in the political process at this time. This is disgraceful and deeply upsetting to our family.
There was no cover-up. No evasion. The fact is that it was one of my family members who, when we first became aware of the allegations, accompanied Áine and her mother to the Social Services.
A complaint was also made by Áine and her mother to the RUC.
Therefore the agencies with legal responsibility for dealing with these allegations were informed. There was no attempt to conceal or disguise or cover-up the allegations against Liam Adams.
Subsequently, I confronted Liam Adams on Áine’s accusation which he denied. I believed Áine.
After that he, and then separately Áine left the country for some considerable time.
When Liam Adams came back, although we were estranged, we were, as I made clear in a part of the Insight interview which UTV did not broadcast, in contact on a number of occasions and I continued to raise this issue with him.
When Áine came back to live in Ireland I offered to go to the police with her. I offered to go public with her and I told her I would support her in whatever action she might decide. Áine told me she wanted Liam to admit what he had done. There commenced a very long and difficult process in which I tried to create the circumstance for him to do precisely what his daughter wanted. He failed to do so.
I received professional advice during this period.
I was told by those with experience in helping victims of physical, sexual, domestic or psychological abuse that, unless the victim is a minor, it is not for anyone else to presume to take decisions for a victim or to publicly identify a victim. That the rights of the victim are vital and should be respected.
This has guided me throughout these last 20 years in dealing with the allegations against Liam Adams, and then the shock of learning that my father was an abuser.
When Áine went to the PSNI I made a statement to the police against my brother and in support of Áine’s case.
The criticism levelled against me is that Liam Adams was a member of Sinn Féin. While I was aware that he was in Dundalk - as I have said publicly I met him there –I was not aware of his membership of the party until I learned that his name was being mentioned as a possible candidate.
When I heard this I contacted him directly. His name did not go forward and as a result of my efforts he later left the party.
I want to make it clear that republicans in Dundalk and senior party colleagues were not aware of the allegations against Liam Adams. The simple fact is in my opinion he should not have been a member of Sinn Féin.
I have also acknowledged on a number of occasions publicly that I have regrets about how I dealt with aspects of this issue. I say this, with hindsight and in the context of today’s standards. However, it is important to state that for me this was first and foremost a private family matter in which all of us were reeling from the revelations around our father and some of us were trying to provide support and closure for those abused by him and for Áine. I did my best.
All of this has been and is extremely difficult and distressing and painful for me and my wider family. We decided to publicise the abuse in our family in the hope that our experience will assist other victims and survivors cope with what may have happened to them, and to demonstrate that it is possible to survive abuse.
As of now, despite the public attention, the case against Liam Adams has not proceeded. It is distressing that despite repeated assurances from the PSNI that the Gardaí had been fully informed, that a European Arrest Warrant was not ready when he handed himself into Gardaí in Sligo. It now seems that this is still several weeks away. The sooner this happens and the matter is brought before the courts the better. My niece Áine deserves justice and has my ongoing support.
Gerry Adams
Power-sharing in North now hanging by a thread
By Tom McGurk, Sunday Business Post
It is very tempting to ridicule the extraordinary state of affairs that has crashed down on the Robinson family.
Throughout the years, Peter Robinson - never one of life’s warmer creatures - has been buoyed by his wife’s unfailing support.
A bizarre mixture of Sarah Palin and Laura Ashley, Iris Robinson has been exactly the sort of person that only a place as politically dysfunctional as the North could throw up and elect to high office.
It is not possible for this writer, who witnessed the emergence of the DUP in the 1970s, to forget the naked level of sectarianism that flowed through its veins.
Among the ‘weapons’ used to outmanoeuvre the Ulster Unionist Party down the years was its political wink andelbow language of anti-Catholicism.
It opposed every political attempt to resolve the crisis for 30 years, and this resulted in a political wasteland in which paramilitarism flourished and hundreds died. By the time it achieved the ‘cream’ of political office, the North had been reduced to a political slum.
Morally, too, it always situated itself on a self-erected high ground, from where it could service both its Bible belt and fundamentalist wing, as well as lecturing anyone else who cared to listen.
Paisleyism began in the 1950s as a religious mission, and it turned political in the 1960s with the emergence of ecumenism and liberal societal values.
As post-war economic forces in the North began to deconstruct the old unionist political monolith, Paisleyism attempted to halt the slide.
Two generations later, it all came crashing down on the back of its leader’s wife breaching her political representative legal requirements in order to fund her teenage lover’s business career. Truly Faustian.
One wonders how the DUP ‘Ballybackwards’ will swallow this story of adultery, corruption and naked greed? Were the DUP a normal political party, Mrs Robinson could retire and her husband might survive, on the basis that he could argue to colleagues that his loyalty to her temporarily overcame his better political judgment. But the DUP is not a normal political party. Its unique politicoreligious structure, which for so long protected people with attitudes like the Robinsons’, will now almost certainly abandon him.
Quite simply, all of this could not have come at amore difficult political moment for Peter Robinson, given both the deepening crisis within power-sharing over the devolving of justice and policing to the North and the extent to which the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) party led by Jim Allister is eating into traditional DUP support. To make matters even more difficult for Robinson, time is not on his side, with Britain’s general election only months away.
At his press conference last week, Robinson tried to brazen out the unanswered questions, and to implicate the BBC in a campaign to smear him.
However, he is a man with too many political enemies to imagine that this will suffice. When the small print of the sensational facts of his wife’s behaviour disappears from the front pages, the emerging political fallout is likely to make a severe impact on senior members of the DUP.
Primarily, their consideration is the question of what impact the scandal is likely to have on the upcoming competition for votes between the DUP and TUV.
In the meantime, the immediate question is - given that the Iris Robinson affair looks like it has many more press miles in it - how can the party ever shake it off while her husband is still its leader?
Interestingly, Allister is raising, not the personal morality issue, but the integrity issue. On the party’s website, under a headline proclaiming ‘Time for absolute candour’, he wrote: ‘‘I have no desire to comment on the personal difficulties afflicting the Robinson family but, following the Spotlight programme, there are public interest questions which now must be investigated and addressed with utter transparency and candour. The history and ease of obtaining funds from developers is one such area requiring thorough investigation and explanation."
For some time, there have been questions around the operation of Castlereagh Borough Council and the levels of extensive property development it sanctioned.
It must be said, there is no evidence so far that they behaved in any inappropriate way, other than the recent revelation. Viewers of last Thursday’s BBC Spotlight programme will have been struck by Mrs Robinson’s demand for stg£5,000 in cash, out of the stg£50,000 she borrowed for her lover from two leading property developers.
According to newspaper reports earlier this year, the Robinsons together received £571,939 a year in various salaries and expenses. For some time, there has been criticism of their lifestyles, which include expensive homes (one in Florida, an apartment in London and a large mansion currently under construction in Belfast) and Mrs Robinson’s taste in flashy, expensive cars. Last year, for example, it was revealed that they claimed parliamentary expenses of £30,000 for food alone, over a period of four years.
But the biggest loser in all of this may yet be power-sharing. This weekend, Sinn Féin was due to meet to discuss the refusal - yet again - of the DUP to agree to the devolution of justice and police. The meeting was postponed, but the crisis is growing.
For Sinn Féin - given that this formed part of the St Andrew’s Agreement signed by the DUP - this is essentially now a crisis for the British and Irish governments.
Post-Paisley, there is now growing hostility, if not indifference, within the DUP to power-sharing.
Many would prefer direct rule, simply to get Sinn Féin out of government. Nor is the crisis within the DUP on the devolution of policing and justice made easier by the TUV depiction of it as ‘‘something which, on principle, should never happen, so long as there are terrorists in government’’.
This weekend, the North’s power sharing arrangement is hanging by the most slender of threads.
Iris Robinson may have unleashed a series of unexpected consequences that will bring down a political construct that took years and millions of political man-hours to erect. Nobody is the winner in of all this.
Copyright © Sunday Business Post 2010
Turmoil for Adams
By Irish Republican News
Gerry Adams has spoken of how his late father abused family members when they were children following an explosive family fall-out which has deeply embarrassed the Sinn Fein President.
The disclosure regarding his father, Gerry Adams snr, came after Mr Adams himself was accused by his niece of not doing enough in response to similar accusations against his brother.
The West Belfast MP said he had known for around 11 years that his father was an abuser and had argued against him having a republican funeral when he died six years ago.
Mr Adams made the shocking disclosure as he called on his younger brother Liam to hand himself in to the PSNI to face allegations of child sex abuse brought by Liam Adams's daughter Aine Tyrell.
The MP said that in the course of trying to deal with the abuse allegations against his brother, he had found out that his father, Gerry Adams snr, was abusing members of the family.
'SHOCK'
"I was almost 50 years old," he told Irish television.
"Up to that point I thought we were like any other family with a loving father and it was a deep shock."
He said his father had been in denial for many years and died a lonely man in a nursing home because of his actions.
Mr Adams is one of 10 children and said that while some of his siblings had revealed they were abuse survivors, he himself had "no recollection of being abused".
He said he had felt for a long time that the family should go public about their father's actions but that other siblings had not felt able to do so.
A statement was issued later by the family saying they "lived with the consequences every dey" and had decided to reveal the abuse to help the victims to move on.
"l don't want to name anybody who was abused but in the course o dealing with the issue of Aine and the injustice done to her, a family member told me that they had been abused," Mr Adams said.
"I immediately brought all my siblings together and we tried to deal with it. Then I went and spoke to my father about it. I confronted him about it.
"Up until his death or shortly before his death I talked to him about this.
"He was in denial for quite a lot of that time."
Mr Adams said he had faced a dilemma when his father died six years ago as to whether to give him a republican funeral.
"I didn't want him buried with the tricolour," he said. "I think he besmirched it."
Mr Adams said it was a difficult time for his family and asked for privacy from the media.
"It obviously tests your faith in humanity when an iconic figure like my father engages in the psychological and emotional and physical and sexual abuse of a child, of his child," he said.
"But with attention, with understanding, with resolve and with love we can find our way through all of this."
Mr Adams has faced accusations that he failed to address the allegation of sexual abuse against his brother.
In a television interview on Friday night, his niece told a television documentary that her father had abused her since the age of four.
A warrant has been issued for Liam Adams's arrest by the PSNI.
Ms Tyrell said the Sinn Fein president had known about her sex abuse claims for the past 20 years. She also said that her father had confessed to his brother that he had abused her.
The programme revealed that Liam Adams, who is in his fifties, had been able to secure work in a youth club in west Belfast. He is wanted for 23 charges of rape and abuse between 1978 and 1983.
Ms Tyrell said she had decided to go public because she felt let down by the police, social services, the Catholic Church and her uncle Gerry.
She said that she and her mother Sally Campbell had told Gerry Adams about the abuse in 1987. He drove the mother and daughter to County Donegal to confront his brother but Liam denied the allegations. Ms Tyrell criticised the Adams family for not doing more to achieve justice for her over the past two decades.
"I wrote Gerry [Adams] a letter then saying: Look. I'm stopping contact. I accept your apology. OK. you didn't have the means to deal with child abuse then but at the end of the day I'm better than meeting in the Culturlann [west Belfast community centre] for a rushed meeting."
RECRUITMENT
A number of questions have been asked regarding the handling of the matter by the British authorities.
In particular, Aine Tyrell's mother has said that when she to took her daughter to the RUC to make the allegations against her former husband, the RUC seemed "more interested in recruiting her as an informer than dealing with Aine's abusing father".
It also remains unclear how Liam Adams was able to receive police clearance to work in youth facilities between 1998 and 2003 in the face of the allegations.
Liam Adams remained heavily involved in republican circles in Dundalk and Belfast and even sought nomination as a Sinn Fein election candidate for the Louth constituency in the 1997 general election.
Speaking on Irish radio again today [Monday], Mr Adams said when he first became aware of the situation in 1987, the allegation was reported to the then RUC police.
As he and his siblings issued a public statement to disclose their struggle with their father's abuse, the West Belfast MP repeated a call for his brother to give himself up.
"I'd want to reiterate again if Liam is listening to this programme or if anyone who knows where he is is listening to this programme that they should get him to turn himself in," he said.
DENIAL
Mr Adams denied that his brother ever had his support for the nomination as a Sinn Fein election candidate. He said that as soon as he heard of the possibility his brother might be nominated, he actually moved to ensure that such a thing could not happen.
"I moved immediately both to stop that and to get him dumped out of Sinn Fein without telling people why. But I moved very, very quickly. He wasn't a contender, there was no nomination for Liam Adams in the Dundalk area. There was no convention in which his name was put forward, there was no contest in which he was part of."
Mr Adams said: "I wouldn't say that I handled this perfectly. Of course I wouldn't. But I tried to do my best by Aine and I tried to do my best by others within my family and as far as I could, we tried to ensure that no other child was at risk.
"I told everyone within Liam's limited circle of the allegation made against him. When I discovered in the Belfast situation that he was working in a youth facility I went to those who had responsibility for that facility and told them of the allegation.
"He also had RUC or PSNI clearance to work in those facilities. I also pressed Liam to come out of it and in the second case he did what I demanded of him. I'm not suggesting that I handled this perfectly. I now know much, much more about how you handle these issues than I did at the time."
Copyright © Irish Republican News 2009