Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams: Pride shines out amidst the racism and the violence

THE bulletholes from the August 1969 sectarian pogrom against the people of the Falls area are still visible on the front wall of St Comgall’s Primary School, Divis Street. Last Thursday lunchtime, a few yards from where whole terraces of houses were burned out, scores of community activists from across Belfast came together in Ionad Eileen Howell to discuss another pogrom. This time the pogrom was rooted in violent racism.

GERRY ADAMS: An open letter to my Orange Order neighbours

AS June heads towards July the distant beat of your drums is pounding out their rhythm. The marching season for all of the Loyal Orders is well under way and the 12th of July is fast approaching. One July, sitting during yet another negotiation into the early hours with Tony Blairm the rat-a-tat-tat of Lambegs sundered the quiet. We paused as he asked if I knew what that was. “Yes,” I replied, “that’s the Orangemen.”“Jungle drums?” he said.

Gerry Adams: Our new Lord Mayor owes a lot to Granny Donnelly

THERE was a time when younger people I used to bump into would say to me by way of introduction “You used to know my Mammy.” “Or my Daddy.” Nowadays they say to me “You used to know my Granny.”

GERRY ADAMS: How the Bunscoil carved its place in our city’s history

A FEW weeks after the Good Friday Agreement was agreed in April 1998 I brought a delegation of the Board of Governors of Bunscoil Phobail Feirste on the Shaws Road in West Belfast to meet the British Secretary of State Mo Mowlam.

GERRY ADAMS: Fianna Fáil turn away from their foundational aim

LAST Saturday the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in Dublin marked the centenary of that party. At its foundation in 1926 it was agreed that the party would be titled ‘Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party’.

GERRY ADAMS: The people are ahead of the politicians on Irish unity

AT the time of writing this week’s column Keir Starmer is still the Leader of the British Labour Party and Prime Minister. On Monday he delivered a ‘Save Keir Starmer’ speech which may or may not work for him. Can he survive the voices of opposition within Labour? That is a matter for his party.

GERRY ADAMS: Springhill heroes invoke warm local memories

WHEN I was a wee buck growing up in Ballymurphy there was a river at the back of the houses across from our home place at the corner of Glenalina Road and Divismore Park. The river ran the length of our street and the length of Ballymurphy Road before exiting below the Whiterock Road and into the City Cemetery. From there it meandered down to and under the Falls Road beside the bus depot and onwards to the Bog Meadows. You can see it there to this day. The stretch which used to border our street was long ago captured and incarcerated in a pipe below ground.

GERRY ADAMS: We're standing at the crossroads

SINN Féin, but especially, the party in Belfast, pulled out all of the stops at the weekend to ensure that the Ard Fheis was a huge success. The ICC Waterfront Hall was buzzing with republican voices from across our island and beyond talking about the big issues confronting all of us nationally and internationally. The number of young people attending and taking part in the debates was particularly encouraging.

GERRY ADAMS: Our seagoing heroes deserve a permanent tribute

FOR as long as the English have occupied Ireland there have been political prisoners. As long as there have been political prisoners there have been daring and ingenious escapes. In the most recent period of conflict it is estimated that around 100 republicans participated in escapes, including the great escape from the H-Blocks in 1983. That was the biggest ever in British penal history. Others tunnelled their way out; clambered over walls; escaped in a helicopter; shot their way out; blew a hole in a wall; hid in a bin lorry; or dressed as priests; or in one case as a woman. I was a Samuel Beckett type of escapee. I failed. But I never gave up. I failed better.

GERRY ADAMS: Fuel protest has been disastrously handled by FFFG

THE blockade of fuel depots, motorways, towns and Dublin city centre was entirely avoidable if the FFFG government had taken the growing crisis around the cost of living and increasing fuel and energy bills seriously months ago. Instead, Micheál Martin and Co stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the mounting anger.

GERRY ADAMS: A fitting tribute to John in a fitting place

I JUST spent an enjoyable couple of hours in the company of my good friend, American trade union leader John Samuelsen, and the staff of Áras Uí Chonghaile and Fáilte Feirste Thiar – the West Belfast Tourist Board. Unbeknownst to John, both organisations had agreed to name one of the Áras rooms after him and a former Transport Workers; Union, (TWU) President, Mike Quill.

GERRY ADAMS: Micheál Martin has zero interest in pursuing unity

AN Taoiseach Micheál Martin was the first guest to participate in a new six part series of the podcast, ‘How to Gael’ under the title – ‘How to Unite Ireland.’

GERRY ADAMS: London civil case claimants were given a way out

THE Civil Case against me in London came to an end last Friday when the claimants and their lawyers accepted a ‘drop hands’ settlement of the extant claim on the conditions that:

GERRY ADAMS: Increased demand for Irish education must be met

THE Irish language has more than two thousand years of unbroken history behind it. Apart from Greek, it has the oldest literature of any living European language. It is the badge of a civilization whose values were vastly different from the one which has sought to subjugate us. Of course, Irish culture is wider than the Irish language and wider than Gaelic games, music, dance and story-telling. Add to this the myriad traditions of urban and rural Ireland, of ancient and modern customs, of Protestant, Catholic and other religious tendencies, of the influence of the new Irish who have come to our shores from all parts of the globe, and we have some sense of the diversity of our island people. All of this is great cause for celebration and is as thoroughly Irish as any other aspect of our society.

GERRY ADAMS: Belfast this year wears its brightest Irish colours

WE are in the midst of Seachtain na Gaeilge. It used to run for one just week, but its popularity is now such that it has been extended in order to cover the period from March 1 to 17 – St Patrick’s Day.

Soccer: Reds enjoy back-to-back wins after victory at Ports

Gaelic Games: Lámh Dhearg host Senior Awards night at Beechlawns

CELTIC STORIES: German pints and derby drama in what may be a season-defining week for the Hoops

Soccer: Cliftonville earn huge win over title chasing Linfield

Trócaire condemns acts of war in the Middle East

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: DUP: Why the hell didn’t the Chucks come with us?

SQUINTER: I'm back in Dougie’s good books

DÚLRA: Five-star peregrines look down on us from above

Gerry Adams

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