Life
1948- [Gerald Adams; pseud. “Brownie”]; b. 6 Oct. in West Belfast; oldest of ten
children and son of a builder’s labourer, both parents being involved
in the Irish Republican movement; his mother [née Hannaway], claims ancestors
engaged in Fenian Rising of 1867;father was wounded in an attempted assassination
in 1942, for which he served five years imprisonment, released the year
prior to Gerald Adams’s birth; an uncle, Dominic Adams was a senior Republican;
family moved to Ballymurphy housing estate; ed. Christian Brothers; summer
visits to West Donegal Gaeltacht; entered St. Mary’s Grammar Sch.; commenced work at 17 as barman in Duke of York public
house, continuing there until he was ‘relieved of his duties’ (14 Aug.1969);
joined Sinn Féin republican movement as ‘helper’, 1964;
elected to Executive of NI Civil Rights Association, 1967; civil rights
demonstrations outlawed, 1969; led towards Provisional Irish Repubican Army (IRA) by Jimmy Steele
and sided with the Provisional IRA, 1969-70 - by his own account following riots caused
by Ian Paisley’s insistence that the Tricolour be removed from the Divis
St. Flats; reputed to have been OC of Ballymurphy Prov. IRA, 1969, and
later Adj-Gen. Belfast Brigade, 1971; m. Collette McArdle, 1971; arrested
without proof of IRA memberhip, July 1972, and interned in Long Kesh (aka
The Maze); released to negotiate with William Whitelaw, UK Sec. of State,
in London, 1972; writes articles in An Phoblacht from Long Kesh
as “Brownie” (‘We fight for [...] small farmers being pushed
off the land by big ranchers’); Gearóid, a son, b. 1975, while
his father was in prison; writes Bodenstown speech with Danny Morrison,
for Jimmy Drumm, 1977; elected co-Vice President of Sinn Féin,
1977; President of Sinn Féin; commanding officer of IRA operations,
replacing Martin McGuinness as chief of Army Council, 1979; ceased active
service,1982; wrote to Bobby Sands that Sinn Féin was ‘tactically,
strategically, physically and morally opposed to a hunger strike’, 1980;
MP for West Belfast, 1983-92, but did not take it up at Westminster; shot
in neck by loyalist, 1984; lead Sinn Féin towards acceptance of
legitimacy of Southern State in 1986 Ard Fheis, isolating Ruairi Ó
Bradaigh, then 14 years in the presidency of the political branch of the
Provisional movement; lost his seat to Dr Joe Hendron (SDLP), 1992; engaged
in talks with John Hume, 1993; told rally in Belfast, ‘they [the
IRA] haven’t gone away, you know’, Aug. 1995; won back his former
parliamentary seat, May 1997; led Sinn Féin in Stormont talks on
declaration of ceasefire, Jul 1997; elected to N. Ireland Assembly, June
1998; contrib. to The Irish Times and other mainstream newspapers
from Autumn 1998; called Francis Begley, Shankhill bomber who died among
his nine victims, a ‘martyr for Ireland’, and helped carry his coffin;
negotiated IRA cease-fire with John Hume, 1993-94; an autobiography, Our
Day Will Come [trans. of slogan ‘tíochfaidh ar lá’], appeared in Sept. 1996 as Before
the Dawn (1996); listed as ‘Member, Northern
Ireland Assembly, 1981’, in Westminster members registry, 1997; granted visa to enter America by presidential administration of Bill Clinton, 1994; continues
as President of Sinn Féin, though not himself holding an Assembly
seat in the post-Belfast Agreement period; issued personal memoir of peace
process as Hope and History (2003); denies IRA involvement in Belfast multi-million pound bank robbery; later indicates that the IRA may have been involved and challenges Irish premier to have him arrested if he himself is believed to have had foreknowledge, Dec.-Jan. 2005. FDA WJM
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Works
Fiction, Falls Memories (Dingle: Brandon Press 1982),
and Do. [nre edn.] (Dingle: Brandon 1994) 114pp.; Cage Eleven
(Dingle: Brandon Press 1990), 160pp.; The Street and Other Stories
(Dingle: Brandon Press 1992, 1994) 160pp. [stories].
Commentary,The Politics of Irish Freedom (Dingle: Brandon 1986), 192pp.; reiss. with 2 added chaps. as Free Ireland: Towards a Lasting Peace (Dingle: Brandon 1995), 256pp.;Signposts to Independence and Socialism (Dublin: Sinn Féin Publicity Dept. 1988), 31pp.; Pathway to Peace (Cork: Mercier 1988) 92pp.; Selected Writings (Dingle: Brandon Press 1994), 320pp.; An Irish Voice: The Quest for Peace (Dingle: Mount Eagle 1997; Colorado: Roberts Rinehart 1997), 287pp.
Autobiography, Before the Dawn (Dingle: Brandon; London: Heinemann 1996), 346pp.+12pp. pls.; and Do., in US as Before the Dawn: An Autobiography ([NY:] Morrow 1996), 332pp.; Do. [rep. edn.] (Dingle: Brandon 2001); An Irish Journal (Dingle: Brandon Press 2001), 288pp.; Hope and History (Dingle: Brandon Press 2003), 416pp.
Discography, Gerry Adams: The Man We Love to Hate [Panorama Prog.] (London: BBC 1995) [video-cassette].
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- Colm Kenna, Gerry Adams: A Biography (Cork: Mercier Press 1990), 175pp;
- J. H. Whyte, Interpreting Northern Ireland (OUP 1991), pp.135-36 [infra];
- Thomas MacCarthy, ‘Gerry Adams and Political Fictions’, in Stet Magazine [Cork] (Dec. 1993), [q.p.];
- John Devitt, ‘Stories of Belfast’, review of The Street, in Irish Literary Supplement, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Spring 1994), p.36 [infra];
- Hunter Davies, interview with Gerry Adams, in Independent UK (21 Feb. 1995), [infra];
- Kevin Toolis, Rebel Hearts: Journey with the IRA’s Soul (London: Picador 1995) [noticed in Times Literary Supplement, 5 April 1996, p.32);
- David Sharrock, ‘The Troubles with Gerry’, Guardian Weekly (3 March 1996), p.23 [infra];
- Shirley Kelly, ‘The Making of a Republican: Interview with Adams’, Books Ireland (Sept. 1996), pp.213-15;
- Mairtín Crawford, ‘Sinn Fein’s Reluctant Leader’, Fortnight (Oct. 1996), pp.30-31 [infra];
- Paul Bew, ’Home Thoughts of a Republican,’ review of Before the Dawn, Times Literary Supplement (15 Nov. 1996), p.14 [infra];
- Thomas Flanagan, review of Before The Dawn, Washington Post, [Book World], (26 January 1997), [infra];
- Roy Foster, ‘Sinn Feign’, review of Before the Dawn, The New Republic [US] (4 Aug. 1997), pp.27-32;
- David Sharrock & Mark Devenport, Man of War Man of Peace?: The Unauthorised Biography of Gerry Adams (London: Macmillan 1997), 488pp. [infra];
- Mary Kenny, ‘If anyone can, he can’, review of An Irish Voice (Mount Eagle 1997), Selected Writings [1994] (Dingle: Brandon Books 1997);
- Gerry Moriarty [Northern Editor], ‘IRA may need to disarm and disband - Adams’ (The Irish Times, Sat, 7 Aug. 2004) [infra].
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Notes
COPAC lists Falls Memories (1985); The Politics of Irish Freedom (1986); A Pathway to Peace (1988); Cage Eleven (1990); Selected Writings (1994, 1997); Free Ireland : towards a lasting peace (1995); Before the
dawn: An Autobiography (1996, 1997); An Irish Journal (2001); An Irish
Voice: The Quest for Peace (1997); Signposts to Independence and Socialism (1988); The Street and Other Stories (1992, 1993); An tSráid agus Scéalta
Eile (1997). Also, Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis ’85, presidential address by Gerry
Adams MP to the 81st Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, Mansion House, Dublin, Sunday
3rd November 1985 (1985); The Politics of Revolution : The Main Speeches
and Debates from the 1986 Sinn Fein Ard-Fheis including the presidential
address of Gerry Adams (1986); Presidential address by Gerry Adams to
the 82nd Annual Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis (1987); 89th Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (1989).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)