Gerry Adams

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gerry Adams
Adams in 2018
President of Sinn Féin
In office
13 November 1983 – 10 February 2018
Vice President
Preceded byRuairí Ó Brádaigh
Succeeded byMary Lou McDonald
Leader of Sinn Féin in Dáil Éireann
In office
9 March 2011 – 10 February 2018
Preceded byCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Succeeded byMary Lou McDonald
Teachta Dála
for Louth
In office
February 2011 – February 2020
Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Belfast West
In office
25 June 1998 – 7 December 2010
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byPat Sheehan
Member of Parliament
for Belfast West
In office
1 May 1997 – 26 January 2011
Preceded byJoe Hendron
Succeeded byPaul Maskey
In office
9 June 1983 – 16 March 1992
Preceded byGerry Fitt
Succeeded byJoe Hendron
Personal details
Born
Gerard Adams

(1948-10-06) 6 October 1948 (age 75)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Political partySinn Féin
Spouse
Collette McArdle
(m. 1971)
Children1
Parent
Websitesinnfein.ie/contents/20204

Gerard Adams (

British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency
.

Adams first became involved in Irish republicanism in the late 1960s, and had been an established figure in Irish activism for more than a decade before his 1983 election to Parliament. In 1984, Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by several gunmen from the

John Gregg.[4] From the late 1980s onwards, he was an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, entering into talks initially with Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and then subsequently with the Irish and British governments.[5] In 1986, he convinced Sinn Féin to change its traditional policy of abstentionism towards the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland. In 1998, it also took seats in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2005, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) stated that its armed campaign was over and that it was exclusively committed to peaceful politics.[6]

In 2014, Adams was held for four days by the Police Service of Northern Ireland for questioning in connection with the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville.[7][8] He was released without charge and a file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland,[9] which later stated there was insufficient evidence to charge him.[10][11][12] Adams announced in November 2017 that he would step down as leader of Sinn Féin in 2018, and that he would not stand for re-election to his seat in Dáil Éireann in 2020.[13] He was succeeded by Mary Lou McDonald at a special ardfheis (party conference) on 10 February 2018.[14]

Early life

Adams was born in the Ballymurphy district of Belfast on 6 October 1948.[15][16] His parents, Anne (née Hannaway) and Gerry Adams Sr., came from republican backgrounds.[16] His grandfather, also named Gerry Adams, was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) during the Irish War of Independence. Two of his uncles, Dominic and Patrick Adams, had been interned by the governments in Belfast and Dublin.[17] In J. Bowyer Bell's book The Secret Army,[18] Bell states that Dominic was a senior figure in the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of the mid-1940s. Gerry Adams Sr. joined the IRA at age 16. In 1942, he participated in an IRA ambush on a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) patrol but was shot, arrested and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.[15] Adams's maternal great-grandfather, Michael Hannaway, was also a member of the IRB during its bombing campaign in England in the 1860s and 1870s.[19] Michael's son, Billy, was election agent for Éamon de Valera at the 1918 Irish general election in West Belfast.

Adams attended

O-levels and worked in bars. He was increasingly involved in the Irish republican movement, joining Sinn Féin and Fianna Éireann in 1964, after being radicalised by the Divis Street riots during that year's general election campaign.[20]

Early political career

Adams wearing an Easter Lily (2008)

In the late 1960s, a civil rights campaign developed in Northern Ireland. Adams was an active supporter and joined the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967.[20] However, the civil rights movement was met with violence from loyalist counter-demonstrations and the RUC. In August 1969, the Northern Ireland riots resulted in violence in Belfast, Derry and elsewhere. British troops were called in at the request of the Government of Northern Ireland.

Adams was active in rioting at this time and later became involved in the republican movement. In August 1971,

Official IRA, who had been on ceasefire since 1972.[24] In 2020, the UK Supreme Court quashed Adams' convictions for attempting to escape on Christmas Eve in 1973 and again in July 1974.[25]

In 1977,

QC, a unionist barrister who had been first chairman of Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party.[26][27] At the time, Boal was co-operating with Seán MacBride as joint mediator in confidential negotiations between the Provisional IRA and the Ulster Volunteer Force about a federal settlement for Ireland.[28] A short time later, Wilson drove Adams to a meeting with John McKeague, founding member of the Red Hand Commando, then flirting with the idea of an independent Ulster. Inasmuch as they were "frank" , Adams found the meetings "constructive", but could find no common political ground.[29] Wilson was of the view that Adams was "one of the very few people who could actually bring a military campaign into a political campaign".[30]

IRA membership allegations

Adams has stated repeatedly that he has never been a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).[31] However, journalists such as Ed Moloney, Peter Taylor and Mark Urban, and historian Richard English have all named Adams as part of the IRA leadership since the 1970s.[32][33][34][35]

Moloney and Taylor state Adams became the IRA's Chief of Staff following the arrest of Seamus Twomey in early December 1977, remaining in the position until 18 February 1978 when he, along with twenty other republican suspects, was arrested following the

Crumlin Road Gaol.[38] He was released seven months later when the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Robert Lowry ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution.[38][39] Moloney and English state Adams had been a member of the IRA Army Council since 1977, remaining a member until 2005 according to Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell.[40][41][42]

2014 arrest

On 30 April 2014, Adams was arrested by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Serious Crime Branch, under the Terrorism Act 2000, in connection with the murder of Jean McConville in 1972.[43] He had previously voluntarily arranged to be interviewed by police regarding the matter,[44] and maintained he had no involvement.[45] Fellow Sinn Féin politician Alex Maskey stated that the timing of the arrest, "three weeks into an election", was evidence of a "political agenda [...] a negative agenda" by the PSNI.[46] McConville's family had campaigned for the arrest of Adams for the murder.[47] McConville's son Michael said that his family did not think the arrest of Adams would ever happen, and were glad that the arrest took place. Adams was released without charge after four days in custody a file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service, which would decide if criminal charges should be brought.[48][49][50]

At a press conference after his release, Adams criticised the timing of his arrest, reiterated Sinn Féin's support for the PSNI and said: "The IRA is gone. It is finished."[51] Adams denied that he had any involvement in the murder or was ever a member of the IRA,[9][45][52] and said the allegations came from "enemies of the peace process".[9] On 29 September 2015 the Public Prosecution Service announced Adams would not face charges, due to insufficient evidence,[53] as had been expected ever since a BBC report dated 6 May 2014 (2 days after the BBC reported his release),[11] which was widely repeated elsewhere.[12]

Rise in Sinn Féin

Adams at a commemoration in County Fermanagh (2001)

In 1978, Adams became joint vice-president of Sinn Féin and a key figure in directing a challenge to the Sinn Féin leadership of President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and joint vice-president Dáithí Ó Conaill. The 1975 IRA-British truce is often viewed as the event that began the challenge to the original Provisional Sinn Féin leadership, which was dominated by southerners like Ó Brádaigh and Ó Conaill.

One of the reasons that the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin were founded, in December 1969 and January 1970, respectively, was that people like Ó Brádaigh, Ó Conaill and McKee opposed participation in constitutional politics. The other reason was the failure of the Cathal Goulding leadership to provide for the defence of Irish nationalist areas during the 1969 Northern Ireland riots. When, at the December 1969 IRA convention and the January 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, the delegates voted to participate in the Dublin (Leinster House), Belfast (Stormont) and London (Westminster) parliaments, the organisations split. Adams, who had joined the republican movement in the early 1960s, sided with the Provisionals.

In the Maze prison in the mid-1970s, writing under the pseudonym "Brownie" in

Bodenstown. The address was viewed as watershed in that Drumm acknowledged that the war would be a long one and that success depended on political activity that would complement the IRA's armed campaign. For some,[who?] this wedding of politics and armed struggle culminated in Danny Morrison's statement at the 1981 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in which he asked "Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in one hand and the Armalite in the other, we take power in Ireland?" For others, however, the call to link political activity with armed struggle had already been defined in Sinn Féin policy and in the presidential addresses of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, but this had not resonated with young Northerners.[55]

Adams with Martin McGuinness and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin in 1997

Even after the election of

Jim McAllister and Owen Carron were elected as abstentionists. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) had announced before the election that it would not take any seats and so its 14 elected representatives also abstained from participating in the Assembly and it was a failure. The 1982 election was followed by the 1983 Westminster election
, in which Sinn Féin's vote increased and Adams was elected, as an abstentionist, as MP for Belfast West. It was in 1983 that Ruairí Ó Brádaigh resigned as President of Sinn Féin and was succeeded by Adams.

In 1983, Adams was elected president of Sinn Féin and became the first Sinn Féin MP elected to the British House of Commons since Phil Clarke and Tom Mitchell in the mid-1950s.[20] Following his election as MP for Belfast West, the British government lifted a ban on his travelling to Great Britain. In line with Sinn Féin policy, he refused to take his seat in the House of Commons.[57]

Assassination attempt by the UDA

On 14 March 1984 in central Belfast, Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt when several

Queen's Gallantry Medal for chasing and arresting an assailant.[61]

President of Sinn Féin

Many republicans had long claimed that the only legitimate Irish state was the

Ard Fheis in Dublin, Adams explicitly rejected this view. "But we refuse to criminalise those who break the law in pursuit of legitimate political objectives. ... Sinn Féin is accused of recognising the Army Council of the IRA as the legitimate government of this island. That is not the case. [We] do not believe that the Army Council is the government of Ireland. Such a government will only exist when all the people of this island elect it. Does Sinn Féin accept the institutions of this state as the legitimate institutions of this state? Of course we do."[62]

As a result of this non-recognition, Sinn Féin had abstained from taking any of the seats they won in the British or Irish parliaments. At its 1986 Ard Fheis, Sinn Féin delegates passed a resolution to amend the rules and constitution that would allow its members to sit in the Dublin parliament. At this, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh led a small walkout, just as he and Sean Mac Stiofain had done sixteen years earlier with the creation of Provisional Sinn Féin.[63][64][65][66] This minority, which rejected dropping the policy of abstentionism, now distinguishes itself from Sinn Féin by using the name Republican Sinn Féin, and maintains that they are the true Sinn Féin.

Adams' leadership of Sinn Féin was supported by a Northern-based cadre that included people like Danny Morrison and Martin McGuinness. Over time, Adams and others pointed to republican electoral successes in the early and mid-1980s, when hunger strikers Bobby Sands and Kieran Doherty were elected to the British House of Commons and Dáil Éireann respectively, and they advocated that Sinn Féin become increasingly political and base its influence on electoral politics rather than paramilitarism. The electoral effects of this strategy were shown later by the election of Adams and McGuinness to the House of Commons.

Voice ban

Adams's prominence as an Irish republican leader was increased by the

After Dark, a proposed Channel 4 discussion programme which in the event was never made.[69] While the ban covered 11 Irish political parties and paramilitary organisations, in practice it mostly affected Sinn Féin, the most prominent of these bodies.[70]

A similar ban, known as Section 31, had been law in the Republic of Ireland since the 1970s. However, media outlets soon found ways around the bans. In the UK, this was initially by the use of subtitles, but later and more often by an actor reading words accompanied by video footage of the banned person speaking. Actors who voiced Adams included Stephen Rea and Paul Loughran.[71][72] This loophole could not be used in the Republic, as word-for-word broadcasts were not allowed.[73] Instead, the banned speaker's words were summarised by the newsreader, over video of them speaking.

These bans were lampooned in cartoons and satirical TV shows, such as

John Birt and BBC foreign editor John Simpson. The Republic's ban was allowed to lapse in January 1994, and the British ban was lifted by Prime Minister John Major in September 1994.[74][75]

Movement into mainstream politics

Adams with President Bill Clinton in 1995

Sinn Féin continued its policy of refusing to sit in the Westminster Parliament after Adams won the Belfast West constituency. He lost his seat to Joe Hendron of the SDLP in the 1992 general election,[76] regaining it at the following 1997 election. Under Adams, Sinn Féin moved away from being a political voice of the Provisional IRA to becoming a professionally organised political party in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

SDLP leader

Joint Framework Document.[77]

These negotiations led to the IRA ceasefire in August 1994. Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, who had replaced Haughey and who had played a key role in the Hume/Adams dialogue through his Special Advisor Martin Mansergh, regarded the ceasefire as permanent. However, the slow pace of developments contributed in part to the (wider) political difficulties of the British government of John Major. His consequent reliance on Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) votes in the House of Commons led to him agreeing with the UUP demand to exclude Sinn Féin from talks until the IRA had decommissioned its weapons. Sinn Féin's exclusion led the IRA to end its ceasefire and resume its campaign.[78]

After the 1997 United Kingdom general election, the new Labour government had a majority in the House of Commons and was not reliant on unionist votes. The subsequent dropping of the insistence led to another IRA ceasefire, as part of the negotiations strategy, which saw teams from the British and Irish governments, the UUP, the SDLP, Sinn Féin, and representatives of loyalist paramilitary organisations, under the chairmanship of former United States Senator

British-Irish Council and a Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly.[79]

Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic's constitution, which claimed sovereignty over all of Ireland, were reworded, and a power-sharing Executive Committee was provided for. As part of their deal, Sinn Féin agreed to abandon its abstentionist policy regarding a "six-county parliament", as a result taking seats in the new Stormont
-based Assembly and running the education and health and social services ministries in the power-sharing government.

Sinn Féin in government

Peter King
in 2001

On 15 August 1998, four months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the

Real IRA, killed 29 people and injured 220, from many communities. Adams said in reaction to the bombing "I am totally horrified by this action. I condemn it without any equivocation whatsoever."[80] Prior to this, Adams had not used the word "condemn" in relation to IRA or their splinter groups' actions.[80][81]

When Sinn Féin came to nominate its two ministers to the Northern Ireland Executive, for tactical reasons the party, like the SDLP and the DUP, chose not to include its leader among its ministers. When later the SDLP chose a new leader, it selected one of its ministers, Mark Durkan, who then opted to remain in the committee.

Adams was re-elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 8 March 2007, and on 26 March 2007, he met with DUP leader Ian Paisley face-to-face for the first time. These talks led to the St Andrews Agreement, which brought about the return of the power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland.[82]

In January 2009, Adams attended the United States presidential inauguration of Barack Obama as a guest of US Congressman Richard Neal.[83]

Election to Dáil Éireann

Gerry Adams with Euclid Tsakalotos at the Sinn Féin ardfheis in March 2015

On 6 May 2010, Adams was re-elected as MP for West Belfast, garnering 71.1% of the vote.[84] In 2010, Adams announced that he would be seeking election as a TD (member of Irish Parliament) for the constituency of Louth at the 2011 Irish general election.[85] He subsequently resigned his West Belfast Assembly seat on 7 December 2010.[86]

Following the announcement of the 2011 Irish general election, Adams

Guard of Honour at Nelson Mandela's funeral.[91][92]

On 19 May 2015, while on an official royal trip to Ireland,

Prince Charles shook Adams' hand in what was described as a highly symbolic gesture of reconciliation. The meeting, described as "historic", took place in Galway.[93]

In September 2017, Adams said he would allow his name to go forward for a one-year term as president of Sinn Féin at the November ardfheis, at which point Sinn Féin would begin a "planned process of generational change, including [Adams'] own future intentions". This resulted in speculation in the Irish and British media that Adams was preparing to stand down as party leader, and that he might run for President of Ireland in the next election.[94][95][96] At the ardfheis on 18 November, Adams was re-elected for another year as party president, but announced that he would step down at some point in 2018, and would not seek re-election as TD for Louth.[13]

End of Sinn Féin presidency

Adams and his successor Mary Lou McDonald, pictured here in 2014

Adams' presidency of Sinn Féin ended on 10 February 2018, with his stepping down and the election of Mary Lou McDonald as the party's new president.[97]

On 13 July 2018, a home-made bomb was thrown at Adams' home in West Belfast, damaging a car parked in his driveway. Adams escaped injury and claimed that his two grandchildren were standing in the driveway only ten minutes before the blast. Another bomb was set off that same evening at the nearby home of former IRA volunteer and Sinn Féin official Bobby Storey. In a press conference the following day, Adams said he thought the attacks were linked to the riots in Derry, and asked that those responsible "come and sit down" and "give us the rationale for this action".[98][99]

Personal life

In 1971, Adams married Collette McArdle.[100] They have a son named Gearoid (born 1973),[101] who has played Gaelic football for Antrim GAA senior men's team and became its assistant manager in 2012.[102]

In October 2013, Adams' brother Liam

Maghaberry Prison, in February 2019.[108]

On 1 May 2016, Adams sparked controversy by

chattel slavery of African Americans.[116][117][118]

Media portrayals

Adams has been portrayed in a number of films, TV series, and books:

Published works

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Further reading

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by Vice President of Sinn Féin
1978–1983
Served alongside: Joe Cahill, Dáithí Ó Conaill
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of Sinn Féin
1983–2018
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of Sinn Féin in the Dáil Éireann
2011–2018
Succeeded by
Northern Ireland Assembly (1982)
New assembly Member of the
West Belfast

1982–1986
Assembly abolished
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Belfast West

19831992
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Belfast West

19972011
Succeeded by
Northern Ireland Forum
New forum Member of the
West Belfast

1996–1998
Forum dissolved
Northern Ireland Assembly
New assembly Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Belfast West

1998–2010
Succeeded by