The End of the Adams Era

By AM Monday, January 11, 2010

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Today The Pensive Quill carries an article by guest writer Tommy McKearney

The End of the Adams Era by Tommy McKearney

However reluctant he may be to go, Gerry Adams’s leadership of Sinn Fein is surely coming to an end. Having survived perilous times for over four decades, the Sinn Fein president is being brought down unexpectedly by a domestic issue not strictly of his own making. The Adams presidency will end under a cloud of disquiet generated by a failure to deal adequately with allegations made by his niece against her father.

During the years he led Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams accomplished much and his achievements remain significant. Under his influence, republicans began to emerge from a sullen sense of inferiority that too willingly accepted suppression and ill treatment as their natural lot. Crucially, he understood the imperative of gaining political influence and that this did not always grow from the barrel of a gun. Even before the public emergence of an electoral policy during the 1980s’s hunger strikes, Adams strongly advocated the need for his movement to extend its scope. He insisted that republicanism proactively assert itself as a bone fide component of Irish society and that its adherents and agenda be accepted as such.

His personality and presence was the decisive element in creating modern Sinn Fein. Under his dominating influence, an often sceptical and sometimes fractious movement was forged into a formidable and disciplined political machine. That he was able to do so without precipitating a major split or fratricidal bloodletting was little short of miraculous. And it was his towering personality that allowed for the development of a highly regimented organisation that could contemplate making a series of difficult decisions over a protracted period of time.

There is little doubt that Gerry Adams was instrumental in bringing about an end to the Provisional IRA campaign. Nor is there any reason to question that his was the decisive voice guiding Sinn Fein through a process that eventually had his colleague Martin McGuinness elected Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. An astonishing journey that saw his party move from applauding the attempted assassination of a British Prime Minister in 1984 to sipping tea thirteen years later in Number 10 Downing Street.

Although criticised by traditionalists for compromising on what was seen as bedrock principles, Adams’s role in bringing and end to the IRA’s armed campaign was welcomed by a majority of northern republicans. After a quarter century of pitiless struggle, there was a feeling in those communities that the war had run its course and its end was timely. Also appreciated by activists and supporters alike was the view that the IRA campaign had not ended as on previous occasions, in dejection and defeat. The Peace Process did not remove partition or the union but the hard-pressed republican grassroots believed Sinn Fein’s president had delivered a tolerable démarche.

Gerry Adams has taken his party to a position of real significance over the past twenty-five years. Few would seriously deny any longer that Adams and his party have played a large part in undermining the old Orange state. Sinn Fein is now the major voice within the North’s nationalist population. The party’s view has to be taken into account on all matters in the 6-Counties and in many instances the party exercises real influence over the direction of local affairs.

Such remarkable achievements came, though, at a price to the party. In order to maintain a unanimous position on all major issues, iron discipline was imposed throughout the movement. Although required to prevent rupture around divisive issues, this has led to intellectual and political rigidity, giving way in time to obedience and eventually acquiescence. Under Gerry Adams Sinn Fein has developed as a hierarchical party, a trend reinforced by his constant referral to ‘leadership’ and ‘leadership led initiatives’. The ability to impose his will on his party has been a double-edged weapon. Although facilitating difficult political manoeuvring, a dominant leadership culture has undermined many old ideological certainties substituting political managerialism in their place. This has brought about a situation that actively discourages political debate within the party and prevents the cultivation of alternative positions and personalities.

As with so many other powerful politicians, Gerry Adams has remained in office too long. As a consequence he has failed to provide for a successor or even for a process that would allow one to emerge naturally. He has moreover, due to his very tight hands-on style of managerial leadership, left the party ill equipped ideologically. It is almost impossible to tell what the party holds as non-negotiable any longer. Such pragmatic flexibility can be advantageous but only for so long as the leader knows where he is going and how to get there. It is, though, a risky strategy when the pilot falters or if he is forced to depart.

The end of the Adams era will not of course mean the demise of Sinn Fein although the nature of his going will cost the party much of the authority it has enjoyed through his presence. Who or what will emerge to fill the vacuum and from where or indeed from which constituency is an intriguing question.

Tommy McKearney, 7 January 2010