Gerry Adams: ever in the IRA?

[Leopold Bloom]

First of all, I'm not (for once) attempting to provoke anyone by bringing this up, but genuinely curious.

Why has Adams always so emphatically denied IRA membership?

The following is an extract from an article by the RSF commentator Anthony McIntyre:

Protest as he might, no serious appraisal of the role of Gerry Adams can avoid the nature of his relationship with the Provisional IRA. His continuous denials that he has ever been a member of the organisation have few takers. Many are of the view that his anger at public discussion of his purported links with the IRA is a recent phenomenon, something which coincided with the emergence and progress of the peace process. But as far back as 1983 when ‘peace process’ was a term yet to enter Irish political lexicon, Adams could be found publicly and vociferously protesting his non-involvement. In response to an article in the Irish Times which described him as ‘Provisional IRA vice-president’, instead of ‘Provisional Sinn Fein vice-president’, his solicitors objected on the grounds that to associate Adams with the Provisional IRA amounted to a ‘monstrous libel.’

Among the population at large in Northern Ireland ... [the article] has rendered our client's prestige and integrity in doubt and diminished the pristine temper of his political character … Not only has his character thus been ravaged but in the tumultuous cauldron of Northern Ireland, as it is, our client, being a prominent political figure, has his very life and limb, and of those about him, endangered as a result of this libel …(the article) has rendered our client in his political business and private life, among his friends and acquaintances and political allies, subject to suspicion and disaffection and among his political foes, disapprobation, contempt and an aggrandisement of derision.

The forcefulness of the accusation has if anything strengthened over time. 21 years after the complaint to the Irish Times Adams resorted to claiming he was flabbergasted when confronted with the current Taoiseach’s expressed assumption that he indeed had been an IRA member. Nor has the derision his solicitors complained about diminished. Even many of his own colleagues just laugh when they hear the denials.


The entire article can be read at:
http://www.phoblacht.net/am11115g.html

[johnfás]

Theres also a British document of secret negotiations in the 1970s with the IRA and Gerry Adams was their representative, flown out of jail for the occassion.

I'd scan it after my exams and put it up, its from last terms work.

[morryah]

Why has Adams always so emphatically denied IRA membership?

Because it's a proscribed organisation and he would be arrested? Just a guess.

[Leopold Bloom]

Yes, johnfas, but the question is: why has he always been so emphatic in his denial of PIRA involvement?

It seems that nobody (particularly his own SF supporters) believes him.

[Leopold Bloom]

Why has Adams always so emphatically denied IRA membership?

Because it's a proscribed organisation and he would be arrested? Just a guess.

That's clearly not the case: Martin MacGuinnes wasn't arrested.

[Gerrry]

[quote=Leopold Bloom]

Why has Adams always so emphatically denied IRA membership?

Because it's a proscribed organisation and he would be arrested? Just a guess.

That's clearly not the case: Martin MacGuinnes wasn't arrested.[/quote:1o7rvk62]

Martin McGuiness served time for IRA membership so he can say publicly that he was in the IRA in the past

[Stíofán]

He admitted IRA membership regularly in a long running An Phoblacht column, which was written under a fake name (pseduem – how do you spell that word?) which everyone knew was Adams. But good luck trying to get a straight answer out of any SF posters to your question!

[meriwether]

[quote=Gerrry]

Why has Adams always so emphatically denied IRA membership?

Because it's a proscribed organisation and he would be arrested? Just a guess.

That's clearly not the case: Martin MacGuinnes wasn't arrested.

Martin McGuiness served time for IRA membership so he can say publicly that he was in the IRA in the past[/quote:36wq7ah3]
Wasn't Adams interned for IRA membership?

[Leopold Bloom]

His solicitor's letter:

Among the population at large in Northern Ireland ... [the article] has rendered our client's prestige and integrity in doubt and diminished the pristine temper of his political character … Not only has his character thus been ravaged but in the tumultuous cauldron of Northern Ireland, as it is, our client, being a prominent political figure, has his very life and limb, and of those about him, endangered as a result of this libel

Now that's quite a denial.

[Cael]

Perhaps he is really telling the truth. Since the oath IRA Volunteers must take requires them to swear allegiance to the Irish Republic, of which the IRA Army Council is the Governmental Authority, and as its clear that Adams never gave any allegiance to the Irish Republic, then its clear that the oath he took was a false one, so he was never really an IRA Volunteer.