Assertions made by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in the Dáil that his party was not – and is not – involved in a cover-up of incidents involving sexual abuse by IRA members fail to convince. They are as persuasive as the claim that he himself was never a member of the IRA. Does it matter? Of course it does. There are basic rules in any properly functioning democracy and an elected representative who deliberately misleads parliament breaches them. Apart from that, crucial question remain about how the victims of rape and sexual abuse and their IRA attackers were treated.
Mr Adams has accepted that the young woman at the centre of this political storm, Mairia Cahill was raped. But he denied her assertion that she was brought face-to-face with her attacker in a so-called republican court and that attempts were subsequently made to cover up the matter. In a conditional apology to other victims, he conceded if he or Sinn Féin had been at fault, he would acknowledge that, before declaring there was "no evidence" to support claims that abusers had been moved across the border. As for his own bona fides, the Sinn Féin leader said his appeal for information had brought a response from an anonymous republican source that had been passed on to the Garda Síochána.
Sinn Féin may have calculated that the best way to defuse this controversy and distract its supporters was through allegations of vindictive political motivation, accompanied by high profile Dáil statements. That would explain its formal request for a debate in the first place and its subsequent disruptive activity. But it has not worked out like that. New material has been injected into the public domain. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has called for a cross-border investigation and disclosed that up to 28 victims of IRA abusers are considering their options while Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty has said she will supply the Garda with names of eight alleged abusers, who were moved across the border.
Dáil exchanges were, indeed, harsh and hurtful. But they were no more condemnatory than earlier statements by Sinn Féin TDs concerning members of the Catholic Hierarchy and their treatment of abusive priests and victims. Back then, the defence offered by bishops was comprehensively rejected. This time, party members rallied in support of Mr Adams, his conditional apologies and lame explanations.
A party whose elected representatives pepper pronouncements with the mantra “let’s be clear”, has engaged in distractions, evasions and obfuscation. These sexual crimes are not historic wartime events. Some post-date the Belfast Agreement. If Sinn Féin wishes to be treated as a normal political party in this State, it will have to behave like one. That will involve recognising and dealing with “legacy issues”.