Gerry Adams

Gerard "Gerry" Adams, MLA, MP (Irish: Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh, born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician and former president of Sinn Féin.

Gerry Adams in 2012

Quotes

• The only complaint I have heard from nationalists or anti-unionists is that he was not shot 40 years ago.
  • On IRA killing of former Northern Ireland Speaker, Sir Norman Stronge (November, 1982)

• The Brighton bombing was an inevitable result of the British presence in this country. Far from being a blow against democracy it was a blow for democracy.
  • On IRA bombing of Grand Hotel in Brighton, in which five people were killed. (November 3, 1984)

• That ageing geriatric whizz-kid seems intent on starting World War III.
  • On U.S. President Ronald Reagan, (November 3, 1984)

• There haven't been any attacks by the IRA on Protestants.
  • September 20, 1986

• I have no involvement in terrorist activity.
  • November 11, 1993

• I was a released internee; I was off the run. One of the reasons I had been chosen to be on the republican delegation for the talks was because I wasn't a wanted man... I played very little part in the meeting myself.
  • On 1972 meeting between IRA leaders and British ministers in London. (from autobiography Before the Dawn, 1996)

About Adams

• I've been listening to a phrase, Internment Without Trial. And I keep thinking of the people that were murdered without trial. I'm not talking about the police, I'm not talking about the army. I'm talking about people that were shot dead on their doorsteps, through windows, in the presence of their children, their parents and their wives. These people in their graves are crying out for retribution and it's not going to come anymore. And there are people who are not in their graves. They're in hospitals. They're in wheelchairs. There are girls who thought they were going to grow up, and never will. And young women who thought they were going to get married, and they never will, and they'd rather they were dead. And there are people too that... they don't want to be dead because their brains are destroyed, they're vegetables and they're going to be vegetables forever. And you are morally responsible for that! Morally, you are a murderer! And not only are you a murderer, but now you add the extra dimension by saying 'I want peace' and you're a hypocrite as well!
  • Hugh Leonard, The Late Late Show, 1994. This was shortly after a change in legislation that had previously prevented Gerry Adams and other members of Sinn Féin from appearing on RTÉ television.
• You've spoken about British rule of Ireland, and ending British rule in Ireland. I want to ask you this. Do you see Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future? Isn't that the truth of it, it's going to? Everybody knows it's going to. So why don't you level with your supporters and with the Irish people and say, 'it is going to remain part of the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future and now let's talk about how it can be made into a just society.' Why don't you face up to reality?
  • Michael McDowell speaking on The Late Late Show (1994).