In this surreal Trumpesque setting, the person who served both as IRA chief of staff and army council member, Gerry Adams, is denying under oath that he was any such thing. He was only ever in Sinn Fein, presumably working under such deep cover that even the Provisional IRA's first chief of staff was mistaken in thinking he belonged to the IRA.
Adams hasn't yet taken to suggesting that fifty five years of writing, journalism, research and analysis all mixed him up with his late father of the same name. The father after all was a paedophile, the type of guy an organisation like the IRA would admit to its ranks: a man of such sewer ethics that disappearing people would be par for the course. Naturally, Gerry the younger would see it as his life's work to stop in its tracks such a malign organisation. A peacemaker, only a churlish cynic would put him down for that.
Adams professed fidelity to the IRA despite it not being the path he chose to go down, claiming that he would never resile from the organisation. This leaves observers to wonder why when, according to his evidence, the IRA was replete with resentful types who incessantly told lies about him. At one point it looked as if he was about to claim that the IRA was only formed to thwart the progress of his political career. His mission in that context was to bring the IRA to peace and to secure the surrender that eventually occurred.
Detractors and ne'er-do-wells like myself need to be reminded that back in the day there were lots of things going on during the North's violent political conflict. A war zone is a particular busy and trying place for a peacemaker. Not everything that happened can be remembered. Seriously, against such a heady backdrop, there are some things beyond the recall of even a Legion Of Mary leader consumed by reciting rosaries for peace. Gerry can't reasonably be expected to know Liam was his brother. Catholic families were large. With so many children running about, a devoted peacemaker can't be faulted for an inability to keep on top of who his siblings were. Our blessed peacemaker attended a Christian Brothers school so there were brothers everywhere. Hard to tell one from the other. Besides there were bigger fish to fry. If a guy doesn't know his own brother, it is even less likely that he might know the people he accompanied to London for peace talks as their spiritual advisor, to be in the IRA.
And on it went.
The IRA was made to look ridiculous through the evidence of Gerry Adams. Key figures were vindictive liars out to get him. He did not hesitate to support the right of the IRA to wage armed struggle but in court there seemed to be no armed action that he agreed with. They seemed to do nothing that he could approve of. Hence his mission to stop the IRA and its bungled operations.
Courts are the most unlikely of venues to be associated with humour. They can be as funny as a mortuary. Still, Adams has transformed that through sworn testimony that has been nothing short of comedy gold. Think of the pope with some Jesuitical dissembling explain how he has never been a member of the Catholic Church even though cardinals and bishops who served alongside him testify to the contrary. Aged as he is, there is still time for him to carve out a lucrative career on the comedy circuit. Not quite the Big Yin, but the Big Ly Yin.
In the round Gerry Adams is not to be blamed for not wanting to admit to membership of the organisation he directed, for which he could still be arrested by the DUPSNI and imprisoned. It is the farcical fiction that he weaves that draws down the ridicule when he could simply respond 'no comment' to any query about his IRA role.
Whatever the outcome of the case, one abiding truth will remain. No one ever has lied more about Gerry Adams than Gerry Adams.
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That's exactly it, a " No comment" would have assuaged all comers. Taken the sting out of most barbs aimed his way. Absolutely everyone who grew up in Belfast and further afield has zero doubts about what his role was so why the protracted crap? Was the constant denial because he had sights on Taoiseach on day?
ReplyDeletePerhaps he should have always said "No comment" instead of denial. Too late now for reversal but somebody must have whispered in his ear at some point to always deny.
His antics in the court case are farcical though.
I think he had always sights set on higher things, deluding himself that a higher calling was his destiny. While he would come to realise that the Taoiseach spot was beyond him as he was an albatross around the neck of the SF vote, he most likely had an eye on the Presidency. So the emphasis was placed on getting a constitutional referendum that would allow the diaspora to vote. Irish America would buy into the bollix more. This probably explains why Fianna Fail resurrected Bertie Ahern - knowing that in Irish America he would have had the appeal to be a foil to Adams.
DeleteThe IRA took his career so far but in the end became an obstacle to it progressing much further. So it had to be redacted. He had the foresight to sense that.