Gerry Adams has described the IRA’s abduction and murder of Jean McConville as “very regrettable”.
The former Sinn Fein president made the comments in a letter hitting back at a newspaper opinion piece which he said was “based on a Walt Disney version” of the Troubles.
His remarks, in reference to the hit TV drama Say Nothing, follow an article in the Irish Times.
Mr Adams – who led Sinn Fein for three and-a-half decades until 2018 – was responding to the piece by the Irish Times’ Political Editor Pat Leahy entitled: “Smart people still insist the truth of a patent absurdity – that Gerry Adams was never in the IRA.”
The article outlined the challenges Sinn Fein has faced over the past 12 months and referenced the recent election result in the Republic, where Mary Lou McDonald’s party were unable to secure enough TDs to form a government.
It also made reference to Mr Adams and the Troubles, claiming the “secrecy and trauma” of the conflict “must cast a sort of mental shadow over the organisation and the people in it”.
As Sinn Féin seeks to understand what has happened to it in the past 12 months and chart the road ahead, I think an underappreciated dynamic – and not a healthy one for the party – is the secrecy and trauma of its past,” Mr Leahy wrote.
"The visible part of this is that smart and able people have to insist that a patent absurdity – that Gerry Adams was never in the IRA – is true.
"One of the things that Say Nothing shows is not just that people did unspeakable things in the pursuit of their cause, but that the moral toll on some of them was crushing.”
Mr Adams has always denied any involvement in the IRA terror campaign. He has never been prosecuted for links with any of its activities.
He was most recently portrayed in the nine-part Disney+ series, which tells the story of Mrs McConville, a Belfast widow and mother of 10 who was murdered and secretly buried during the Troubles.
Despite a disclaimer at the end of each episode, the series portrays Mr Adams as a member and leader of the IRA. It also features an episode dedicated to his arrest – and later release without charge – by the PSNI on alleged involvement with the McConville case.
Responding to the Irish Times article in a published ‘Letter to the editor’, Mr Adams claimed the “trauma” during the Troubles “has little to do with Sinn Fein’s fortunes in the last 12 months”, as he also threw his support behind “the very capable leadership of Mary Lou McDonald”.
He also said the leaders of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael “refuse to speak” to the Sinn Fein leader.
"Even the late Ian Paisley did not say no as stridently as Micheal Martin. Ian came to appreciate the primacy of dialogue. The FF-FG leaders do not.”
Mr Adams added: "Sinn Fein’s election results and why so many citizens did not vote is worthy of deeper analysis than that offered by Pat Leahy. I don’t think for a second it has anything to do with “the secrecy and trauma of its past
The main thrust of Pat Leahy’s column is based on a Walt Disney version, promoted as entertainment, of a particularly horrific phase of our recent history and based on the totally discredited Boston College Tapes fiasco.”
That is a reference to the Boston College project, which sought to compile an oral history of the Troubles. It featured interviews with republican and loyalist paramilitaries discussing their involvement in various attacks, including murders, with the tapes to be published after the interviewees’ deaths.
Mr Adams added: “These dealt with the IRA’s very regrettable killing and secret burial of Jean McConville. Those who contributed to these tapes confessed to their involvement.
"They also opposed Sinn Fein’s peace strategy and the wider peace process. Some were involved with so-called dissident groups.”
by WrongdoerGold1683
12 comments
Well if it isn’t the consequences of my actions
Gerry adams, the most fingered man in Ireland
Merry Christmas
There was no alternative
Gerry is about to star in another Disney sequel called ” The Lion Bastard”
Hello, Gazmac.
Obsession is not just a smell from Calvin Klein.
Honestly say nothing just made me feel more sure in my belief that the ira was the inevitable consequence of the states actions.
At an individual level the ira did things that were genuinely horrific but it was a product of the material conditions that existed at the time, it’s unreasonable to expect oppression to not lead to resistance
Well isn’t this just the wholesome content everyone craves on Christmas day … warms the heart!
So this is Christmas…
The net is closing
Comments are closed.