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The
truth about Gerry Adams, IRA Sinn Fein
He
is the President of Sinn Fein, and it was of him that the New Statesman
said "... if the libel laws inhibit speculation as to his exact
relationship with the IRA, they do allow one to say that his support for
that organisation is unequivocal and his knowledge of it well
informed." (New Statesman 22.7.83).
The
Sunday Times declared that "the British (government) also believed
Adams to be overlord of both the Provisional's military and political
wings. (Sunday Times 8.5.83).
Adams,
who has also been described by the Irish Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter
Barry as a "Gunman" (An Phoblacht .16.6.83) vas interned
by the Northern Ireland Government in 1971 and released in 1972. He was
later in 1973 to be a member of an IRA team which carried on negotiations
with William Whitelaw when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
At
the launch of the Sinn Fein June 1983 election campaign, Adams defended
the Provisional IRA's campaign of violence, which, he claimed was
"legitimate." (Irish Times 27.5.83).
Adams
entry into politics has not meant any departure from encouraging violence
for his aim as he explains, "is to confront the British with an
ongoing armed struggle which is enjoying popular support and a principled
political party which refuses to compromise on the basic issue of British
involvement in Northern Ireland." Ultimately he adds, the British
"will be unable to govern." (Sunday Times 8.5.83). Thus,
as Adams' says, the political role is merely to "broaden and
popularise the struggle. For in the end the movement will have to depend
on whatever armed pressure the IRA can bring." (Sunday Times
8.5.83).
His
election in June 1983 as an MP has not moderated him, for as Adams has
declared at a Republican rally since then, "the IRA needs no
electoral mandate for its armed struggle;" (Irish Times 20.6.83)
He
opened his speech to that rally by saying "friends fellow gunmen and
gun-women," and concluded "victory to the IRA." Adams's
stance on violence, it would appear has not changed much, since when in
1981 at Bobby Sands funeral he said, "the organisation to which Bobby
Sands belonged (the IRA) will make its own response in its own time."
(Fortnight July/August 1981).
The
next day a policeman was murdered in an attack which also injured a woman
constable and young boy; another policeman was shot in the chest as youths
built barricades in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh. The culmination of Adams'
career vas his election as Sinn Fein President in November l983. He marked
the occasion with the declaration that "armed struggle is a necessary
and morally correct form of resistance in the six counties", and that
he was " ...glad, therefore, of the opportunity to pay tribute to the
freedom fighters - the men and women volunteers of the IRA". (Belfast
Telegraph 14.11.83).
In
November 1983 a series of particularly brutal murders resulted in a
challenge to Gerry Adams and Sinn Pein from Seamus Mallon, deputy leader
of the SDLP, that Sinn Fein condemn the killings Adams gave his reply at a
meeting in Cork in November. Throughout his speech he asserted the right
to carry on the armed struggle and proclaimed his belief that in a state
of war it is legitimate to kill either British soldiers or RUC men.
Referring to the murder of Charles Armstrong, chairman of Armagh Council,
and a part-time member of the UDR, he said that Mr Armstrong was a
legitimate target because he was an officer in the UDR.
Like
so many victims of the so-called "armed struggle" Charlie
Armstrong was going about his quiet civilian duties (leaving a council
meeting) when he was blown to pieces by a booby-trap bomb. - Where is the
connection between such cold blooded, cowardly bloody murder and an
"armed struggle?".
At
the same rally Adams was asked if he himself was prepared to murder a
soldier or policeman be replied: "If my role lay within the IRA and
within an armed struggle, I would have no compunction at all. As I said
before, I have no reluctance in my support for the armed struggle and if
that's where my role lay, then that is where I would be." According
to the 'Irish Times', Mr Adams said he had not stopped short of bearing
arms; the position was that he was doing a good job in his political role
at the moment. |
