Adams under pressure to reveal location of sex abusers

Taoiseach Enda Kenny demanded that Mr Adams confirm whether abusers who committed crimes in the North were placed in safe houses in Donegal, Louth and Dublin.

The claim was made during one of the most dramatic Dail sittings in recent years, as Sinn Fein struggles to deal with the fallout of the Mairia Cahill affair.

Mr Kenny, who yesterday held a 90-minute meeting with Ms Cahill, said Mr Adams needs to come clean on whether "expelled" republican sex abusers are still living in the Republic.

"Are those people still here? Is this true? Do you know of any activities they are involved in now?"

Amid heated exchanges, Mr Adams sparked outrage after appearing to describe leading IRA figures who subjected Ms Cahill to a kangaroo court-style probe as "decent".

"These are not nameless, anonymous people, these are decent people," he said.

The Taoiseach also accused the Sinn Fein leader of "laughing" while answering questions. "I am not laughing," Mr Adams responded. Mr Adams's credibility as a leading Opposition figure has been severely damaged following his apparent attempts to defend the individuals who organised Ms Cahill's traumatic interrogation.

During the extraordinary Dail sitting, the Louth TD apologised to abuse victims who were "let down" by the IRA.

But he came under strong criticism from Mr Kenny after he appeared to say that the people alleged to have organised the IRA's kangaroo court probe into Ms Cahill's abuse are "decent".

Mr Adams refuted the Taoiseach's interpretation of what he had said.

The claim was made just hours after Mr Kenny met Ms Cahill to discuss her rape at the hands of an alleged IRA figure.

Tormented

In an interview with the Irish Independent, an emotional Ms Cahill said she has been tormented by the memories of her abuse and her subsequent interrogation as part of the IRA's kangaroo court.

She said she would welcome the prospect of Irish government figures holding a meeting with the two women and one man who she says placed her face-to-face with her abuser.

"I think, yes, people should meet that man and those two women who placed me into a room with my sexual abuser and allowed him to repeatedly tear strips off me by repeatedly hurling insults," she said.

"I wish somebody would meet them and ask them a question from me. Ask them was that the right thing to do to an 18-year-old, completely traumatised person, who had already suffered horrendous abuse in previous times," she added.

Ms Cahill vowed to continue to press Mr Adams to come clean on his party's knowledge of her abuse and the alleged cover-up. Mr Kenny added that Ms Cahill's story will have "serious consequences" and he described her as "courageous, brave young woman who is a force to be reckoned with".

Ms Cahill is a former Sinn Fein member whose grand- uncle, Joe Cahill, was one of the founding members of the Provisional IRA.

She claims that she was raped by the suspected IRA figure in 1997. Her story was highlighted in a BBC 'Spotlight' documentary last week.

Speaking after her meeting with the Taoiseach yesterday, Ms Cahill again insisted that she had discussed her ordeal with Mr Adams.

"I met him from 2000 right through to 2006. I mean, we weren't discussing his teddy bears, he knows exactly what we were discussing."

She says Mr Adams's admission that the IRA were involved in her abuse, made at an event on Tuesday night, further vindicates her story.