Máiría Cahill not satisfied after meeting Sinn Féin leader By Shane Harrison

BBC NI Dublin correspondent Published duration 20 November 2018

image caption Máiría Cahill has alleged she was raped by a senior IRA member when she was a teenager

Máiría Cahill has said she is very disappointed after meeting the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.

Ms Cahill alleges she was raped as a teenager by an IRA man and that Sinn Féin and the IRA tried to cover it up.

She had requested a meeting after a recent Police Ombudsman report quoted a PSNI officer as saying they received "no co-operation" from Sinn Féin members during their investigation.

Ms Cahill said she went into the discussions on Tuesday with low expectations but came out with even lower ones.

In 2010, Ms Cahill, whose great-uncle Joe Cahill was one of the founders of the Provisional IRA, told police she had been raped by a senior IRA member when she was a teenager.

Two other women said they were abused by the same man.

PSNI 'failed women'

Ms Cahill told BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme in October 2014 that the IRA interrogated her on a number of occasions about the allegations and covered up what happened.

image caption Mary Lou McDonald apologised to Ms Cahill in September after the publication of the report

In September, the Police Ombudsman released its report into the PSNI investigation of Ms Cahill's alleged sexual assault and three officers were disciplined as a result of it.

The report concluded that police failed the women.

Prior to the meeting with the Sinn Féin leader in Dublin, Ms Cahill told Irish national broadcaster RTÉ she had "been treated despicably" by the party and its members.