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Mairia Cahill has opened up a can of worms for Sinn Fein
The Sunday World today reveals a dossier of sex abuse dealt with ‘internally’ by the Provos – which permitted at least eight suspects to escape justice.
We can also reveal that Marty Morris, the IRA man at the centre of the Mairia Cahill sex abuse allegations is the chief suspect in the rape of another woman in west Belfast.
Last week we also named Morris as the alleged abuser of Mairia and two other members of the extended Cahill family. Now a fourth case has come to light.
We have also learned that another IRA volunteer, who was close to Marty Morris, was badly beaten and ordered out of the country after a republican kangaroo court found him guilty of raping a young woman from the St. James’ area of the city.
Marty Morris himself was a member of the IRA team which investigated allegations of rape against this man, and Morris was a member of a punishment squad which attacked him prior to him being forced out.
Both sex assaults have remained closely guarded secrets until this week when two former IRA men approached the Sunday World to reveal details of the cases.
The men say they came forward because they are disgusted at the way the republican movement handled these and other allegations of sexual abuse by IRA members.
In Lurgan alone THREE men accused of sex crimes including rape were ordered out of the town – and sent to the Republic to live.
“It was a disgrace,” said one of the former IRA men. “we weren’t capable of dealing with these things and probably the worst thing about it is that double standards were often applied. It was a case of different strokes for different folks.
“If the alleged perpetrator was well connected with people in the leadership, then they generally got a better deal and the issue was usually hushed up.”
And he added: “As Sinn Fein grew as a party, its reputation became sacrosanct. Anything that needed to be done to protect the party was done.”
We have been told that three years before Mairia Cahill claimed she was first attacked, a 35 year-old woman living in Ballymurphy alleged she was raped by Marty Morris.
She was known to have had a drink problem brought on as a result of bringing up a family during the Troubles.
At the time, Morris was a member of the IRA’s so-called Civil Administration Team (CAT), which dispensed justice in west Belfast, in the absence of a police force which was acceptable to the local community.
The new organisation – which replaced the traditional IRA auxiliaries – was the brainchild of Gerry Adams, and was headed up by veteran republican Frank Cahill, a brother of former IRA chief-of-staff Joe Cahill.
Frank Cahill famously gave the order to shoot Gerry Adams’ paedophile brother Liam, for a series of anti-social crimes including theft.
The 35-year-old mother-of-two’s sons had fallen foul of local republicans who accused them of anti-social behaviour.
Morris, as a senior member of the CAT organisation was tasked by Frank Cahill with visiting the alleged rape victim’s home to discuss her boys’ behaviour.
One of the men we spoke to claims he waited outside the house when Morris was inside speaking to her.
And when Morris emerged a short time later, she appeared at the door and pointing to Morris, she screamed: “He’s just raped me!”
The former IRA volunteer insists that Morris turned around and said to the woman: “Sure no-one will believe you. You’re an alcoholic and your sons are hoods!”
We were told the 35-year-old woman was so traumatised by the attack, she eventually quit Belfast to start a new life in England
The ex-IRA men also told the Sunday World that around the same time, the other alleged rapist who was close to Marty Morris, was arrested by the west Belfast CAT team after the daughter of an IRA active service volunteer accused him of raping her.
The pretty dark-haired young woman was from the St James’ area of west Belfast. Her father had convictions for IRA bombing and had served a lengthy jail sentence.
The Provo rape suspect was questioned about the alleged sex attack and after being found guilty, he was subjected to a punishment beating at the hands of other IRA members, including Marty Morris.
The attack took place at the Giant’s Foot area of Beechmount, off the Falls Road. He was then dismissed from the IRA and ordered out of the country, never to return.
“The truth of the matter is that Marty Morris’s associate got off lightly, because of his connection to Marty. It was all swept under the carpet and never mentioned,” said the former IRA man.
“I know that her father was furious and he later left the IRA.”
In another case which has been previously highlighted in this newspaper, we can reveal details of serious sex abuse allegations levelled against a former IRA prisoner linked to legendary provo JB O’Hagan.
O’Hagan was a founding member of the Provisionals when they were founded in 1970.
He gained notoriety on Halloween Night 1973, when he escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin along with IRA bosses Seamus Twomey and Kevin Mallon, when a hijacked helicopter landed in the exercise yard.
The sex suspect linked to O’Hagan was also in the IRA and was later jailed for IRA activities. On his release he began working for Sinn Fein and he settled in west Belfast.
Following a house party at the home of a female friend, he was accused by an 11-year-old child of rape. A second child also accused him of abuse.
An IRA investigation ordered him to move south of the border, although recent Sunday World inquiries revealed he is back living in Co. Armagh.
In another case, a man who regularly carried a flag in an IRA colour party in Derry was forced out of the city
after several women made allegations of rape against him.
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This Derry flag carrier was forced out after three women made rape allegations against him
And in the early days of the Troubles, Terry Ginley, a republican sympathiser from Andersonstown, Belfast, was exiled on suspicion of being a sex pervert. He has since died.
The Sunday World first exposed the Provo sex abuse cover-up way back in January 1997.
Then we revealed that the IRA had given a convicted sex offender from Lurgan an option – get out of the country or get kneecapped.
Sean McCaughey had already been convicted of a sex assault after a St Patrick’s Day party when a gang of masked IRA men
called to his house accusing him of another sex crime.
The then 37-year-old, the brother of a well-known republican, fled south and went to live in Dundalk.
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Sean McCaughey had already been convicted of a sex crime when he was ordered out of the country after another allegation
We also revealed at the time that another ex-Provo from the Co Armagh town, a convicted cop killer, had been banished from his home by an internal IRA inquiry team probing a sex assault on two women. And the summer before that, another Lurgan man, the son of well-known republican, was ordered out after it was alleged he had raped three women.
At the time, an irate female source in the Co Armagh town told us: “The IRA has two standards – one for ordinary people and the other for relatives of its members.”
Earlier this week, the Irish News reported it had learned of at least six cases of republicans who had moved across the border following allegations of sex abuse.
The report said that the PSNI is currently investigating allegations against the relative of a senior Sinn Fein member.
It claimed that originally three victims made allegations of historical sex abuse.
Two of the victims had decided not to pursue the case while one has reported the allegations to police.
It is understood the man under investigation is now living in Co. Donegal.