Senate seat a vindication of Mairia’s long campaign

A woman who alleges she was raped by an IRA suspect as a teenager has vowed to work for abuse victims after being elected to the Irish senate.

Ms Cahill won 122 votes on the first count and was deemed elected.

The man she accused of raping her was prosecuted but later acquitted of all charges against him after two separate court cases in 2014.

Ms Cahill has waived her right to anonymity to tell her story.

But breaking her silence this evening she said she no longer considered herself to be a republican, and she was sorry for remaining involved with the RNU after she stepped down from its executive.

Ms Cahill said her involvement in the dissident organisation – which rejects the 1998 Agreement and opposes the Dublin and Stormont governments – had coincided with a “difficult” point in her life in 2010.

“She will bring to the Seanad a new voice, particularly in relation to issues of young people getting employment and the development of social enterprise”, she said.

Given her own lineage as the grand niece of Joe Cahill, one of the founding members of the Provisional IRA, that was a remarkable step for her to take.

The campaign that has been waged against her on a continuous basis does absolutely no service to political discussion and democracy in this country and the kind of online warriors who have carried out an absolutely unprecedented campaign of vilification, I think a few of them should pause to consider what the impact of that may be.

She said she resigned because she did not want the position and that she was pregnant at the time.

Speaking to RTE this evening she said he regretted joining the Republican Network for Unity, and for becoming its National Secretary.