Belfast Calling

By AM Wednesday, October 5, 2011

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I believe that society owes it to those it failed to protect in the past, to expose the wrong done to those children and ensure that every step is taken to pursue the perpetrators and those who failed or purposely refused to carry out their duties to protect children and to investigate and prosecute criminals - Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Sinn Fein TD.

A Dublin court has ordered the extradition of Liam Adams to Belfast so that he may answer charges of child rape. He is a former chairman of Sinn Fein’s Louth Comhairle Ceantair, a position he held despite the party president being both aware of and believing child rape allegations against him. If the accused man waives his right to appeal he could be sent North to face trial in the coming days.

This was a case that caught the public eye the instant it emerged. The West Belfast native, already pronounced guilty by his older brother Gerry, the current TD for Louth, seemed less in the public eye than his eldest sibling. The Dail Deputy went on public record to state his belief in the allegations against his brother made by his daughter Aine Tyrell.  She claimed her father had started raping her when she was a four year old child. Whether the comments by Gerry Adams have prejudiced the case to the extent that it will affect the outcome remains to be seen.

The rape victim has long expressed serious misgivings about the role of her prominent uncle in the affair, saying that Gerry Adams:

heard the Sunday World were planning to do a story about it. He frantically phoned me about 20 times. He wanted to obtain a court injunction with my help to stop the story. He said he needed to make sure it didn’t get into the press in order to protect me ... He advised me against talking to journalists ... All I hear is, ‘We can’t address this or that question because of Aine. We have to protect Aine, she is the victim’. They don’t know me so I find it hard to believe they have all this sympathy for me. I want them to stop using my name. I don’t need protecting. It’s all a smokescreen.

Adams had good cause to want journalists excluded. His handling of the matter might not so easily have been read off as the latest in a long line of cynical manoeuvres aimed at self preservation were it not for the detail brought to light by the Dublin based Sunday Tribune, no longer in circulation.  Those doubtful that Gerry Adams was protecting Liam rather than his own political career had their suspicions reinforced when the then MP for West Belfast threw his brother to the wolves in a televised interview with UTV’s Chris Moore. The investigative journalism of the reporter working the Sunday Tribune case, Suzanne Breen, soon had the Sinn Fein boss on the ropes, punching through his weak defences.  Rarely do papers take the bull by the horns and openly label the leader of a political party a liar. This was one of those rarities.

The paper showed beyond all reasonable doubt that Liam Adams continued to be a fully functioning member of Sinn Fein long after Gerry Adams had claimed he was sent packing. It gave the party the appearance of the Catholic Church moving those it suspected of abuse from place to place.  Gerry Adams in a feeble attempt to fend off any exposé of this nature insisted he could not tell his party colleagues that he suspected his brother of being a child rapist out of a desire to comply with Aine Tyrell’s demand for anonymity. Tyrell however disputed this saying it ‘was nonsense. I'd have accompanied Gerry to meet his colleagues in Sinn Féin, to talk to the ard comhairle about what Liam had done so they could expel him from the party.’

Sinn Fein at the time seemed distinctly uncomfortable by all of it. It struggled to persuade anybody outside the party that Gerry Adams’ account, which the Sunday Tribune shredded, did not amount to a cover up a la the Catholic bishops. Its response was often incoherent and bordering on the hysterical. Broadcasters were told ‘shut your gob’ while women in the party were ridiculing themselves by hectoring journalists that they should not intrude on the tragedy of a family rather than rally to the defence of a woman claiming to have been serially raped by her father. Going on a rant that it was all a conspiracy by dissidents or those hostile to the peace process had little purchasing power.  Anybody aligning themselves with such logic risked becoming susceptible to the charge that they lacked the moral courage to tackle a stand-alone issue. 

Because of the personalities involved this case has attracted a lot of pre trial interest and speculation. Many people have reached the conclusion that Liam Adams is guilty before he has an opportunity to present his case. He deserves to face trial. He also deserves a fair trial.  If he cannot get that he should not be tried at all. Regardless of the allegations against him justice should be fair not foul.