Adams is finished, surely?

[toxic avenger]

@darkhorse

I'm not even going to quote your post, I have made no such libelous allegation and consider the imputation utterly offensive. If that is an attempt at deflection, it's poor.

[SideysGhost]

Looks like he's decided to do this the hard way. Oh dear.

*more shrugs*

Like I said, the man has form. When you've been getting away with brazen lies for decades you probably assume you'll always get away with them.

[jdaly]

This is a private family issue for Gerry Adams and has no politicial consequences
You have to consider the views of his brothers (not Liam) and sisters views and also his mother
Nothing to do with Sinn Fein or anyones abhorence of Irish nationalism

Try telling that to all the anonymous Sinn fein 'spokesmen' who keep commenting and issuing statements (there'll be a few from them tomorrow) and tell it to Gerry who keeps giving interviews while at the same time appealing for 'family privacy' after he washed the families dirty linen in public rather than keeping it as 'a private family matter'..

Of course it has political consequences as Gerry is not only an MP but the leader of a political party which sits in Stormont and Leinster House. Just imagine for a moment if Brian Cowen or even Willie Frazier was in the same position and think of the clamour there'd be, especially from Sinn Fein.
Personally I am an Irish republican and while I don't think much of nationalism as a political philosophy I do not abhor Irish Nationalism and it has no bearing on my feelings here.

[jdaly]

Gerry Adams’s spokesman yesterday insisted the photographs did “not in any way punch a hole” in Mr Adams’s statement that he acted against his brother in Louth to prevent him being selected as the party’s candidate.
Asked about the pictures in the Sunday Tribune of Gerry Adams and Liam Adams together on the canvass with Mr Hanratty, the spokesman said Gerry Adams could not prevent his brother joining a canvass in which the Sinn Féin president was participating.
“What was he to do: stand up and say on a loudspeaker that there are allegations of abuse against my brother?” he said.
The spokesman also said the sources of the claims in Dundalk against Gerry Adams were “dissidents” motivated by antagonism against the Sinn Féin leader.


Gerry Adams did block brother, says SF - The Irish Times - Mon, Dec 28, 2009


So the defence is that the brother jumped out and forced Gerry Adams to sit smiling beside him, and nothing could be done to prevent the brother acting effectively as his man in Louth. Sorry, it's not going to wash. Not even close. quote, toxic avenger

So the man who wants to rule Ireland is to be deemed as incapable of telling is brother to clear off? this is a man who has and had power in an organisation which made people dissapear and now 12 years ago he couldn't say bye t his brother who is accused of raping his own daughter , an accusation Gerry says he believes? Jeez...

[darkhorse]

Try telling that to all the anonymous Sinn fein 'spokesmen' who keep commenting and issuing statements (there'll be a few from them tomorrow) and tell it to Gerry who keeps giving interviews while at the same time appealing for 'family privacy' after he washed the families dirty linen in public rather than keeping it as 'a private family matter'..

Of course it has political consequences as Gerry is not only an MP but the leader of a political party which sits in Stormont and Leinster House. Just imagine for a moment if Brian Cowen or even Willie Frazier was in the same position and think of the clamour there'd be, especially from Sinn Fein.
Personally I am an Irish republican and while I don't think much of nationalism as a political philosophy I do not abhor Irish Nationalism and it has no bearing on my feelings here.

If Brian Cowan's original family had a similar problem then I would have complete sympathy for him and his brothers and sisters. This is why these kinds of issues rarely (by court order) come to the fore and why it should never happen.
In this case it should never have been exposed - as all anti-Irish / anti-nationalists will inevitably come out to attack Sinn fein at the earliest opportunity
My sympathies go to gerry adams and his family for the deep traumas involved in this exposure by Suzanne Breen - but I guess she is making a few quid from it.

[Seánod]

Suzanne Breen's article certainly contains important questions that will more than likely need answered in the days ahead. At the same time, the article made no attempt to examine possible reasons for any discrepancies between what Gerry Adams said and what information she had gathered; there was a clear and automatic assumption that Adams was telling lies. I think Gerry Adams' survival will definitely hinge on two key questions, and I didn't need to read Breen's article to arrive at this particular conclusion: did he support Liam Adams' continued involvement in Sinn Féin, and did he turn a blind eye to Liam Adams' involvement in youth club activities?

At first glance, the photo of the canvass looks pretty damning, and when you place it within the polemic approach taken by Breen, then it appears even more damning. And it may come to pass that it will swing things away from him. But on the other hand, he could have been in a very awkward position there, and could have been involved in behind the scenes maneuvres to get his brother expelled, rather than the gung ho approach.

I think if he is to survive politically a lot more information will need to come out, including details of who and when he informed the Belfast youth clubs re the allegations against his brother. I would agree that if these things are not clarified, there is a serious loss of moral authority.

There is a tendency to want to present Gerry Adams as a victim on the one hand, or as some sort of an evil manipulator on the other. I'm not sure if either are accurate or useful in this situation. On a human level I sympathise insofar as this is an awful thing for his niece Áine, his whole family, and himself, to have to face. On another level, he is a political leader and his actions are open to public scrutiny.

For anyone who believes that the RUC were the legitimate forces of law and order, they also have huge questions to answer in this case, even more so than Gerry Adams.

I have felt over the past number of years that Gerry Adams has.... 'faded', for want of a better word. I think he even semi-acknowledged this in an interview with the Irish Times earlier this year, when he sought to relaunch himself with renewed vigour. It was probably a natural enough thing to happen given the length of time he has been leader, and given the high energy expended on a prolonged peace process which produced an increasingly dismal dividend for the nationalist population. If there is any substantial political fall-out from this current issue, then it is hard to see him leading Sinn Féin for much longer.

[jdaly]

If Brian Cowan's original family had a similar problem then I would have complete sympathy for him and his brothers and sisters. This is why these kinds of issues rarely (by court order) come to the fore and why it should never happen.
In this case it should never have been exposed - as all anti-Irish / anti-nationalists will inevitably come out to attack Sinn fein at the earliest opportunity
My sympathies go to gerry adams and his family for the deep traumas involved in this exposure by Suzanne Breen - but I guess she is making a few quid from it.

It wasn't Suzanne Breen who exposed the trauma suffered by the Adams family under their late father but it was Gerry himself who gave the interview and I don't know if he got paid or not although his does for most of his interviews,. It wasn't Suzanne Breen who went on UTV and exposed Liam Adams as a child rapist but Gerry Adams and Liam's daughter and I don't know if Gerry got paid for that one either
Suzanne Breen exposed lies from Gerry, nothing else and I applaud her, for doing her job which includes exposing corruption in high places and why wouldn't she get paid for her work?
Maybe you believe that Gerry Adams could not stop his alleged paedophile brother canvassing with him but I am not so foolish.

Talk some sense now, darkhorse and we can debate the issue. Anti nationalists, as it happens, have been very quiet which may be because they need say nothing, Gerry is doing enough harm everytime he opens his mouth to tell more lies.

[diy01]

The comments of support for Adams on his blog are vomit-inducing.

Your strength and courage in facing the present situation is nothing more than I would expect from someone of your stature. Stay strong Gerry

you handled the whole issue very honourably, your dignity and honesty is inspiring in this tough time for you and the wider family

You won't remember, but we met in Dublin at Easter 2008 and chatted briefly. I've always been struck by your honesty and integrity

Sheep, mere sheep.

[turdsl]

You have a point, of course, but this is of a different order. This is the sexual abuse of a child by a politician's own brother, seemingly glossed over or shrugged off by the politician. He can not survive.

Mr Harris and Miss Breen have a well known agenda against Mr Adams for many years, I hope not too many families here who are looking for his scalp have never had to deal with this at their own door and if they did are they sure they would have done the right thing,, If so i commend them, also people who are jealous of Mr Adams success over the last 30 years are not the people who will remove him, they are only straws in the wind and will get no heed ,we saw that when some of them stood against S.F in the last election, it was they who were not wanted by the electorate..

[Supermanpolitician]

Adams has brass neck. It won't sit well with most people but people who concern themselves about issues of morality don't reallyvote SF to begin with.