Much of what was said by Sinn Féin president at critical juncture in stuttering peace process was crafted in Downing Street by Jonathan Powell.
A man who is now a key figure in Britain’s intelligence apparatus wrote key sections of a seminal speech Gerry Adams gave about the IRA’s disbandment, declassified files prove.
The Sinn Féin president’s words in October 2002 came at a critical point in the peace process where the IRA was on the back foot after a series of incidents.
It had got discovered smuggling guns in from Florida, got caught training FARC rebels in Colombia, faced a backlash over the post-September 11 war on terror, and was known to still be widely involved in criminality and so-called ‘punishment shootings’.
That had contributed to unionism deserting David Trimble for the DUP, with the First Minister clinging to office but lacking real authority even within his own party.
Against that backdrop, an IRA spy ring at Stormont was exposed at the start of October 2002, prompting the government to suspend the institutions before Trimble walked out.
Just three weeks later Adams turned to a highly unlikely source to help write a speech about the IRA: the Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff, Jonathan Powell.
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