There’s a chance given the season that’s in it and that the fact that it was broadcast on Friday night that you missed Insight on UTV. It dealt with the story of  Aine Tyrell who was abused by her paedophile father Liam who is the brother of Gerry Adams. Gerry Adams knew of the abuse for the past 22 years since Aine told him when she was 14. There are currently 23 charges of rape and abuse outstanding against Liam Adams.

If you get a chance to watch it I’d recommend it for the many questions it throws up. Among them the way in which the leader of one of the political parties in the country has handled what may be seen by some as a family matter, but surrounds issues of child protection and keeping secrets akin to the legacy of abuse that many in the south are more than aware of.

The documentary outlines attempts by Aine Tyrell to get assistance from her Uncle, Gerry Adams, in locating and confronting her father and getting him to hand himself in. There are comments from Gerry Adams which jump out at me including one seeing himself as one of the victims of the situation (!) akin to Pope Benedict earlier this week sharing the pain of the victims of clerical abuse in Ireland.

The story also involves Fr. Aidan Troy, the well known priest then from the Holy Cross Parish in Ardoyne,   who in 2007 acted as a mediator for Aine’s father – Aine says that Fr. Troy urged her not to go to the police because it ‘would make a circus about who his brother is.’

Liam Adams is missing but another uncle of Aine’s believes that Adams and other people know where he is.  Many believe that Liam lives in the South, his house in Belfast is up for sale.  Aine is no longer in contact with Gerry Adams.

Former IRA member Anthony McIntyre writes that Liam Adams was being touted as a possible Sinn Fein Dáil Candidate in 1997. If this is correct then this is ten years after Gerry Adams was first made aware of the abuse.  Yet Gerry says he believed Aine from the very beginning?

I didn’t hear Gerry say that anyone who knows where Liam is should tell the police – he did say that he would go to the PSNI if he hears himself.  Am I naive in thinking that the contacts and party organisation that Adams has throughout the state surely it should not take long?  More reports of the programme are available on Slugger.