Matt Treacy assess the political odyssey of former Provisional IRA chief of staff Gerry Adams.  


By Matt Treacy
Gerry Adams’ announcement that he is retiring from politics brings to an end one of the most significant public lives of the past century. 

Photo Credit: Domer48
He is without doubt a major historical figure whose influence on events in Ireland was hugely significant.

I cannot claim to have known him well. I did know him but I was not at the level where my political acumen was of much interest to him. Most of the conversations I had with him were brief ones about hurling. He used to read my GAA column at the back of An Phoblacht and when he met my daughter in the Leinster House restaurant he remembered me mentioning her in a piece I had written about the Dublin junior camogie team that won the All Ireland in 2003. That is why people like him, sometimes more than that.

I was at meetings where grown men were clearly verging on fear of him, which says more about them than Adams I suspect. I have met few people who have that kind of presence and he was the most impressive. The meetings only tangentially involved me so I did not have to deliver any sort of result, as it were. So I could observe the courtiers. Those who did were not comfortable. It was clearly his influence which produced any end result in political gains for what were once, the Provies.

Before one meeting began he was humming a song and asked me did I know what it was. Fagamuid suid mar a tá said. The Limerick Rake. My estimation had possibly increased when I knew that but I declined the invite to sing.

He is a clever chap and one with an eclectic but broad appreciation of many things. And a weird sense of humour.

Now for the bad parts. I suspect like other people of his acumen with ambition that he surrounded himself with flawed people. Some of those closest to him like Brendan Hughes the Officer Commanding the H Blocks during the first hunger strike who once professed to have loved him in the way that men do their comrades who have seen the best and worst of them, believed similar.

The fact that so many of that inner circle have been exposed as British paid informers and rapists and god knows what else, suggests either a serious misjudgement of character or a willingness to use such people for ulterior ends. I don’t know. I was never at a level where I had to make such decisions, but I suspect the latter. Sometimes it is good not to be embraced by power. Probably it is always best not to be embraced by power. Lord Acton, to quote the much abused and overused dictum, was indeed correct.

There is also the manner in which he has denied his past. Some regard that as part of his own personal reinvention. I have no idea, but for many republicans and especially for many of his own peer group his denial of having been a member of the IRA is regarded as a denigration of their own history.

Is it something to be ashamed of? As with all the other participants in the conflict the IRA did do shameful things. Does that mean that all of those who were members are tainted with some eradicable historical guilt? That we should all bow our heads in shame for eternity and deny our past as do Adams and Gerry Kelly and others?

While Adams’ denial of membership made sense when it was an indictable offence, that no longer applies. The IRA was stood down and disarmed and disavowed its historical objective under Adams’ watch. He was at one time Chief of Staff and always after that remained the main power no matter who held that position and he was at all the IRA conventions that made the crucial decisions regarding the ceasefires. They were not the sort of events that people just wandered in to.

Be all that as it may. The decision to call off the IRA campaign was correct. And there is no excuse for attempting to have another one. What happened after the ceasefires is more questionable. There was no reason that republicans should have embraced Stormont and effectively agreed to administer the British controlled part of Ireland for the British. There is a democratic alternative to that without accepting their rules.

That the party claiming the historical title of Sinn Féin and all that entails should have become part of the docile acceptance of the surrender of sovereignty to the EU is also of note. That was never put for debate before the members and never voted upon.

There is also the fact that Sinn Féin has wholeheartedly embraced a political agenda which has included the introduction of abortion by default in the north. I remember when Adams and McGuinness were infuriated over the decision by the Ard Fheis in 1985 to support abortion and ensured that this was overturned the following year. I also know current Sinn Féin TDs who promised emotionally that they would never support abortion on demand. Then I saw them arguing for this in front of television audiences.

Adams like the rest of them voted for the government legislation and in some cases for the most extreme amendments proposed by the ultra left, and against proposals by Peadar Tóibín and others that sought to ameliorate the legislation.

So. If I was ever to get to meet Gerry Adams again there are lots of things I would like to discuss with him. As I said in regard to my own personal interactions, I liked him and that is how I judge any person. History and such shall be his judge on other matters and none of us know what that will be.


Matt Treacy is a writer and a former republican prisoner.

Gerry Adams And The Embrace Of Power

Matt Treacy assess the political odyssey of former Provisional IRA chief of staff Gerry Adams.  


By Matt Treacy
Gerry Adams’ announcement that he is retiring from politics brings to an end one of the most significant public lives of the past century. 

Photo Credit: Domer48
He is without doubt a major historical figure whose influence on events in Ireland was hugely significant.

I cannot claim to have known him well. I did know him but I was not at the level where my political acumen was of much interest to him. Most of the conversations I had with him were brief ones about hurling. He used to read my GAA column at the back of An Phoblacht and when he met my daughter in the Leinster House restaurant he remembered me mentioning her in a piece I had written about the Dublin junior camogie team that won the All Ireland in 2003. That is why people like him, sometimes more than that.

I was at meetings where grown men were clearly verging on fear of him, which says more about them than Adams I suspect. I have met few people who have that kind of presence and he was the most impressive. The meetings only tangentially involved me so I did not have to deliver any sort of result, as it were. So I could observe the courtiers. Those who did were not comfortable. It was clearly his influence which produced any end result in political gains for what were once, the Provies.

Before one meeting began he was humming a song and asked me did I know what it was. Fagamuid suid mar a tá said. The Limerick Rake. My estimation had possibly increased when I knew that but I declined the invite to sing.

He is a clever chap and one with an eclectic but broad appreciation of many things. And a weird sense of humour.

Now for the bad parts. I suspect like other people of his acumen with ambition that he surrounded himself with flawed people. Some of those closest to him like Brendan Hughes the Officer Commanding the H Blocks during the first hunger strike who once professed to have loved him in the way that men do their comrades who have seen the best and worst of them, believed similar.

The fact that so many of that inner circle have been exposed as British paid informers and rapists and god knows what else, suggests either a serious misjudgement of character or a willingness to use such people for ulterior ends. I don’t know. I was never at a level where I had to make such decisions, but I suspect the latter. Sometimes it is good not to be embraced by power. Probably it is always best not to be embraced by power. Lord Acton, to quote the much abused and overused dictum, was indeed correct.

There is also the manner in which he has denied his past. Some regard that as part of his own personal reinvention. I have no idea, but for many republicans and especially for many of his own peer group his denial of having been a member of the IRA is regarded as a denigration of their own history.

Is it something to be ashamed of? As with all the other participants in the conflict the IRA did do shameful things. Does that mean that all of those who were members are tainted with some eradicable historical guilt? That we should all bow our heads in shame for eternity and deny our past as do Adams and Gerry Kelly and others?

While Adams’ denial of membership made sense when it was an indictable offence, that no longer applies. The IRA was stood down and disarmed and disavowed its historical objective under Adams’ watch. He was at one time Chief of Staff and always after that remained the main power no matter who held that position and he was at all the IRA conventions that made the crucial decisions regarding the ceasefires. They were not the sort of events that people just wandered in to.

Be all that as it may. The decision to call off the IRA campaign was correct. And there is no excuse for attempting to have another one. What happened after the ceasefires is more questionable. There was no reason that republicans should have embraced Stormont and effectively agreed to administer the British controlled part of Ireland for the British. There is a democratic alternative to that without accepting their rules.

That the party claiming the historical title of Sinn Féin and all that entails should have become part of the docile acceptance of the surrender of sovereignty to the EU is also of note. That was never put for debate before the members and never voted upon.

There is also the fact that Sinn Féin has wholeheartedly embraced a political agenda which has included the introduction of abortion by default in the north. I remember when Adams and McGuinness were infuriated over the decision by the Ard Fheis in 1985 to support abortion and ensured that this was overturned the following year. I also know current Sinn Féin TDs who promised emotionally that they would never support abortion on demand. Then I saw them arguing for this in front of television audiences.

Adams like the rest of them voted for the government legislation and in some cases for the most extreme amendments proposed by the ultra left, and against proposals by Peadar Tóibín and others that sought to ameliorate the legislation.

So. If I was ever to get to meet Gerry Adams again there are lots of things I would like to discuss with him. As I said in regard to my own personal interactions, I liked him and that is how I judge any person. History and such shall be his judge on other matters and none of us know what that will be.


Matt Treacy is a writer and a former republican prisoner.

12 comments:

  1. I find these recollections of personal interactions useful in bridging the gap in knowledge between public and private personas. Has there ever been a wider disparity in a public figure of importance?

    Ps is this correct?

    “... While Adams’ denial of membership made sense when it was an indictable offence, that no longer applies...”

    Historical membership is no longer prosecutable?

    ReplyDelete
  2. " I did know him but I was not at the level where my political acumen was of much interest to him.
    ...
    The fact that so many of that inner circle have been exposed as British paid informers and rapists and god knows what else, suggests either a serious misjudgement of character or a willingness to use such people for ulterior ends."


    People with political acumen and integrity do not appear to be the sort of people he surrounded himself with -but then again there has been a question mark over his own head as an agent of influence.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "I was at meetings where grown men were clearly verging on fear of him, which says more about them than Adams I suspect."

    All that, along with their treatment of Peadar Tóibín, is further confirmation of the 'Provos' as very much a cult!

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  4. And like all cults you had to have faith in the leadership.

    Otherwise reason would unravel them.

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    Replies
    1. That's the thing with cults Eoghan, they attract mostly vulnerable or immature people who haven't as yet developed a good sense of 'self'. The cult member unfortunately and unbeknowingly trades his/her rationality for a lazy off-the-shelf identity.

      Filling the previous void is such a heady experience for these vulnerables that it makes it almost impossible to depreogram them without expert intervention.

      Delete
  5. HJ, do you have any further confirmation on who authored the worst ending to an epic saga, the writers of Season 8 Game of Thrones, or post Loughgall Adams?

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    Replies
    1. Dáithí,

      Game of Thrones is makey-upy. No legitimate comparison!

      Delete
    2. HJ, I wouldn’t like to guess which is more fictional, for example the more we read about periods like the hunger strike, the more it’s clear someone’s been making stuff up.

      Delete
    3. Sure Dáithí there's still lots of ambiguity about who decided what and indeed who the real influencers were.

      What we are sure of is that Adams and others, subsequent to the '75 ceasefire, set about taking over control of the movement. Whether Adams had been drifting towards electoralism and/or a twin pronged strategy for long before the '81 hunger strike, or if it was a decision made on the hoof by Gerry and his coterie as events unfolded, all remains to be told.

      Bobby's election and Owen Carron's retention of the seat weren't that surprising to those familiar with Sinn Féin's and Independent Republicans' electoral successes over the preceding 25 years. Philip Clarke, then a republican prisoner won the same seat in 1955. His comrade Tom Mitchell took the neighbouring seat in Mid Ulster. (In '57 in the 26 counties, Eighneachán Ó hAnnluain in Monaghan, John Joe McGirl in Leitrim, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in Longford/Westmeath and John Joe Rice in Kerry South all won seats for Sinn Féin).

      11 years previous to Bobby Sands success, the Fermanagh/South Tyrone seat was taken by Frank McManus, whose brother Pat had died on active service during the border campaign. McManus lost the seat in February '74 in a four-way tussle. However, only nine months later, in November of '74 Frank Maguire, ex-internee and former OC Crumlin Road Gaol, retook the seat in a straight fight with the UUP. In another 4 way contest in '79 (UUP, DUP and independent SDLP candidate Austin Currie) he successfully defended the seat until his untimely death in '81.

      All in all, electoral success was always there in the republican consciousness. How far back had Adams decided to capitalise on this very few can tell; what we do know though is that if he were to do so, he and his cabal would need to secure the Presidency of Sinn Féin and then have policy changed to participation in what were previously regarded as illegal Partitionist Assemblies north and south.

      In moving towards electoralism did he and his cronies see benefits in martyrs being brought from the prisons every few weeks?

      Quite possibly, but difficult to prove beyond doubt.
      We do know though, according to Richard O'Rawe's accounts, that they dragged their heels in bringing the hunger strikes to a speedy conclusions and allowed six brave men to die. (and probably many more but for the efforts of the clergy and their families).

      Adams has lied about his involvement the IRA, he consistently lied to the membership about the Movement's direction, about decommissioning and about policing. He lied about his relationship with his paedophile brother and fuck knows what else!

      No one with a brain in their head could believe a word from his twisted gob.


      Delete
    4. That’s a wonderful summary HJ, thanks.

      Delete
  6. As an outsider who occasionally had a look inside, I now try to view Gerry Adams with the dispassionate stance of a minor historian. I met Gerry once by accident at a Sinn Féin rally in Dunville Park in 1992 - Joe Cahill spoke. A Frenchwoman whom I had just met in The Crown asked me to come along to the rally. At the time I was visiting my friends on Broadway off the Falls and thought, "Sure, why not?" The Frenchwoman wove through the crowd with me in tow. She spotted Gerry, they passed some pleasantries, and then Gerry and I were introduced. We shook hands. I thought, "Oh fuck, now the British Army and MI5 have me on film shaking Gerry's hand." I'd already been harassed by the RUC two years previously. They smelled NORAID. They were wrong. I'm from Kentucky, not Southie.

    My friend Billy, a Stick who grew up on Leeson Street and lived on Broadway with his family in 1992, loathed Gerry - or more accurately his wife, a typical Irish mother, loathed him because her oldest son had been shot in the ankles three times only one week before the rally for being a recidivist joyrider. The family was still in shock obviously, and Billy's wife was not going to shut up and take the Provo medicine. It cost them dearly. Gerry was persona non grata in the series of houses where they lived after having breeze blocks put through their windows.

    As Matt Treacy suggests, the IRA campaign had to come to an end. Gerry made that happen. He also did it in a surreptitious, some would say devious, manner that got a lot of people killed and the lives of others ruined, all while setting the stage for Sinn Féin's craven entry into Stormont.

    Not many people in the states outside of New York City and Boston remember Adams. Those who do have a fixed image of the "terrorist" in a tweed jacket: he led the IRA and he and that other guy, what's his name, the guy from the dairy farm, put an end to that silly religious war they had over there.

    Matt's correct, "History and such shall be his judge on other matters and none of us know what that will be."

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    ReplyDelete