What do Gerry Adams and the pope have in common? To their true believers, they are infallible.

There was a strange atmosphere in the chamber yesterday during Leaders’ Questions. The issue of the day was the continuing shambles that is Irish Water, but the questions surrounding Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and the way he dealt with alleged rape victim Maíria Cahill hung heavy in the air.

The issue wasn't mentioned by the Taoiseach – who meets Cahill this morning, or the Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, who has been very vocal on the subject since meeting the Belfast woman last week. Nor did any of their deputies shout comments across the floor at Adams as he spoke. This was unusual for them. The usual suspects from the heckling ranks rarely miss a chance to take an underhand swipe at the Sinn Féin boss. It seems even they recognised the sensitivity of the situation, loath to be accused of playing politics.

Toxic entity

But when Adams rose to label Irish Water a “toxic” entity, deputies from

Fine Gael

and Fianna Fáil raised their eyes to heaven. When he spoke of “looking after the interests of citizens” they looked sullenly in his direction. The mood was similar to the chilly response in the Dáil when Gerry Adams apologised last year for the IRA murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe.

Yesterday in the House, Adams was surrounded by most of his parliamentary party. Sitting next to him was Cork East TD, Sandra McLellan. Sinn Féin’s other female deputy, Mary Lou McDonald, wasn’t present. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon, after the long and formulaic questions to the Taoiseach session, that the Maíria Cahill controversy was aired.

When it was raised by Micheál Martin during the Order of Business, Gerry Adams was on his own on the Sinn Féin benches. Few deputies from any side were in the chamber. His intervention was unexpected.

“The story of Ms Maíria Cahill is one that has generated enormous interest on the island, has created a lot of anger and has touched many,” began the Fianna Fáil leader, as Adams turned to look at him across a row of empty seats. Martin said the Dáil, in a number of instances, had held strong debates on “the issue of sexual abuse perpetrated by institutions such as the church and others.”

Justice denied

He said that while some of them were not under State control, “strong statements were made about how those institutions protected the perpetrators and denied justice to the victims”.

In his opinion, the Maíria Cahill issue similarly merited a debate and he asked that time be made to facilitate it.

Adams fidgeted in his seat while the Taoiseach gave his response. He listened, stony faced, as the Taoiseach said he would be meeting Cahill today and, given the "horrific" nature of the case, he preferred to hear what she had to say first. Michael Colreavy of Roscommon-South Leitrim was the first Sinn Féin TD to arrive and he took his seat behind his leader.

Then Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin came in, followed by Sandra McLellan, who rushed in breathless, holding her mobile phone. Then came Pearse Doherty. They joined their leader, who objected in no uncertain terms to what Kenny and Martin had said.

Adams looked and sounded furious. He said he had no objection to the House looking at any allegations of abuse. He rounded on the Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil leader for making “grievous accusations” against him, accusations “that I reject utterly”.

Then he pointed a finger at Micheál Martin “who is just sitting within feet of me”.

Why hadn’t they come to him for his version of events. And he thundered there had been no “cover-up by me, or Sinn Féin, on this issue.”

Micheál Martin turned and looked straight at him. “Well, I don’t accept that. I think there has been a cover-up and I make that charge here on the floor this house.”

Adams, positively seething, accused Martin of playing politics and thundered that he hadn’t “the gumption” to put his accusations to him or look for his version of events.

"You're not the victim" shouted Minister of State Simon Harris. Then the Sinn Féin leader went straight into a long question about the rights of seaweed harvesters around the coastline. But the tension remained.

Seaweed harvesting

The Taoiseach returned, robustly, to the Maíria Cahill question. “The false assumption of a war being waged doesn’t justify shootings or disappearances or kangaroo courts” he declared, as Adams remarked that he had said so too. Enda said if the sort of allegations being made about Sinn Féin were made against Fine Gael, he wouldn’t last five minutes in his job.

“Neither should you,” shouted Adams. Behind him, his party colleagues looked angry and affronted on their leader’s behalf. The Taoiseach then brought Adams’s deputy leader into the frame. Mary Lou – who wasn’t in the chamber – has been staunch in her support of the man who has been her party’s unchallenged leader for 31 years.

“You can’t have blind allegiance from your deputy leader saying I believe Gerry, fully and completely [and] I can give you a categoric guarantee that there is no cover-up anywhere within the SF party about this or within the IRA.” He said there were indications others might come forward with similar stories to Maíria Cahill and and that was why he was looking forward to their meeting today.”

Gerry Adams angrily repeated his charge that the Taoiseach was playing politics and reiterated that there is no Sinn Féin cover-up.”

He spent the rest of the Order of Business checking his phone and texting. At one point, he looked up to the public gallery and nodded in greeting to solicitor Paul Tweed, who was with a small group and in the company of Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames, who had been been hugely critical of Sinn Féin in the Seanad earlier.

Tweed had been in Dublin to successfully fight a case for superstar Justin Timberlake against Heat magazine.

A strange, unsettling afternoon.