{"id":253447,"date":"2025-07-10T12:20:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T12:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/253447\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T12:20:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T12:20:21","slug":"new-gerry-adams-documentary-reveals-republican-figureheads-humanity-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/253447\/","title":{"rendered":"New Gerry Adams documentary reveals republican figurehead\u2019s \u2018humanity\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The director of a new film about Gerry Adams\u2019s life and 60 years of activism says its most revelatory aspect is the former Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> leader\u2019s \u201chumanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The documentary A Ballymurphy Man, directed by Trisha Ziff, premiers in Galway this weekend and will be screened next month at F\u00e9ile an Phobail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fruits of several intimate interviews over a five-year period and supported by a wealth of archive footage and photographs, the two-hour film features almost exclusively the testimony of the one-time West Belfast<\/a> MP and Louth TD.<\/p>\n

Mr Adams recalls his childhood in Ballymurphy <\/a>and his part in that community\u2019s response to unionist backlash against the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n

\"Removal<\/a>\"PSNI<\/a><\/p>\n

Using his own words, the documentary charts his increased involvement in the republican movement and the escalation of the IRA\u2019s campaign as British soldiers are deployed on the streets of west Belfast and elsewhere across the north.<\/p>\n

He speaks of being arrested and beaten, of his time in the cages in Long Kesh, and of how his relationship with Colette, his wife of nearly 55 years, prospered against a background of constant upheaval.<\/p>\n

The film moves roughly chronologically through the conflict, hunger strikes and peace process, with little focus on the years following the Good Friday Agreement but concluding with Mr Adams\u2019 retirement from frontline politics. <\/p>\n

The Leeds-born, Mexico-domiciled director has known the film\u2019s subject since 1981, when they met after she established the Camerawork photography and film workshop in the Bogside, living in Derry for five years. They reacquainted in the United States post-1994 ceasefire, which also saw Mr Adams visit Mexico during the Zapatista conflict.<\/p>\n

Ms Ziff\u2019s other work includes a successful 2006 Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum exhibition based on Cuban photographer Alberto Korda\u2019s famous portrait of Che Guevara, leading to her documentary film debut with Ch\u00e9volution (2008), on the same theme. <\/p>\n

\"ziff\"Film director Trisha Ziff <\/p>\n

The V&A\u2019s decision to remove Mr Adams \u2013 then an MP and an MLA \u2013 from the list of those invited to the exhibition opening caused controversy at the time. He remarked: \u201cOn the basis of the current reason offered by the V&A of refusing to invite politicians, it would appear that if Che was alive, he would be barred from his own exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Ziff says was surprised when in 2018 the then TD, who was preparing to leave office and step down as Sinn F\u00e9in president, agreed to take part in what she says is her \u201cbest ever film\u201d.<\/p>\n

She concedes that it is pitched primarily at an international audience and that much of it will be familiar to an Irish audience, the older ones at least.<\/p>\n

Similarly, she admits a sympathy for her subject\u2019s cause and feels a responsibility to counter the many \u201chatchet jobs\u201d that she says have been done on Mr Adams, \u201cincluding by the BBC\u201d, she says in reference to his recent libel case against the broadcaster. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a history of censorship around the depiction of Gerry Adams\u2019s character,\u201d she told The Irish News. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the vilification in how he is presented and framed yet here you see him talking in a in a very non confrontational, open way. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s revelatory {but} it\u2019s not sensational. I chose, on purpose, not to do that. That\u2019s what the dominant media do. My film is a reflective portrait of a man in his seventies looking back over his life.\u201d <\/p>\n

That Mr Adams is a \u201cpink sock-wearing\u201d, well-read and reflective individual is \u201cnot new to people in his community\u201d, Ms Ziff says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the person they would meet on the street or at the checkout and the supermarket. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in politics would know but for somebody outside that world, that\u2019s not the Gerry Adams they know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Tiff, now in her late sixties, describes the film as \u201ca man revealing his story\u201d and rejects suggestions that IRA violence is downplayed. <\/p>\n

\"b\"The publicity poster for A Ballymurphy Man <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is is quite clear about his position on different things, issues that he was critical of,\u201d she says in an allusion to Mr Adams on-screen pronouncements on the Enniskillen and Shankill bombs as \u201cwrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it does gloss over IRA violence. I think he talks about the legitimacy of the IRA, from his point of view; he\u2019s very clear about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those expecting fresh revelations or confessions about the 76-year-old republican figurehead\u2019s deeper involvement in armed struggle will be disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe film reveals someone who likes to walk; talks about playing with his child when he got out of prison; the fantasy games he played with his child; a whole person; a person that reveals a humanity that we haven\u2019t seen,\u201d says Ms Ziff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about propaganda, it\u2019s not a whitewash. It\u2019s just showing somebody in their fullness.\u201d<\/p>\n

:: Gerry Adams – A Ballymurphy Man will be screened at Galway Town Hall on Saturday July 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The director of a new film about Gerry Adams\u2019s life and 60 years of activism says its most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,39680,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-253447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gerry-adams","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114828910726058348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}