Gerry Adams | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Adams in 2018 | |
| President of Sinn Féin | |
| In office 13 November 1983 – 10 February 2018 | |
| Vice President | |
| Preceded by | Ruairí Ó Brádaigh |
| Succeeded by | Mary Lou McDonald |
| Leader ofSinn Féin inDáil Éireann | |
| In office 9 March 2011 – 10 February 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin |
| Succeeded by | Mary Lou McDonald |
| Teachta Dála forLouth | |
| In office February 2011 – February 2020 | |
| Member of the Legislative Assembly forBelfast West | |
| In office 25 June 1998 – 7 December 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Pat Sheehan |
| Member of Parliament forBelfast West | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 26 January 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Joe Hendron |
| Succeeded by | Paul Maskey |
| In office 9 June 1983 – 16 March 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Gerry Fitt |
| Succeeded by | Joe Hendron |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gerard Adams (1948-10-06)6 October 1948 (age 77) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Parent |
|
| Education | St. Mary's CBS, Belfast |
Gerard Adams (Irish:Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh;[1] born 6 October 1948) is a retiredIrish Republican politician who was thepresident of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as aTeachta Dála (TD) forLouth from 2011 to 2020.[2][3] From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he won election as aMember of Parliament (MP) of theUK Parliament for theBelfast West constituency, but followed the Sinn Féin policy ofabstentionism.
Adams first became involved in Irish republicanism in the late 1960s, and was an established figure in Irish activism for more than a decade before his 1983 election to Parliament. In 1984, Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by theUlster Defence Association (UDA).[4] From the late 1980s onwards, he was an important figure in theNorthern Ireland peace process, entering into talks initially withSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leaderJohn Hume and then subsequently with theIrish andBritish governments.[5] In 1986, he convinced Sinn Féin to change its traditional policy of abstentionism towards theOireachtas, the parliament of theRepublic of Ireland. In 1998, it also took seats in the power-sharingNorthern Ireland Assembly. In 2005, theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) stated that its armed campaign was over and that it was exclusively committed to peaceful politics.[6]
Adams has often been accused of being a member of the IRA leadership in the 1970s and 1980s, though he consistently denied any involvement in the organisation. In 2014, he was held for four days by thePolice Service of Northern Ireland for questioning in connection with the 1972 abduction andmurder of Jean McConville.[7][8] He was released without charge and a file was sent to thePublic Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland,[9] which later stated there was insufficient evidence to charge him.[10][11][12] Adams announced in November 2017 that he would step down as leader of Sinn Féin in 2018, and that he would not stand for re-election to his seat inDáil Éireann in 2020.[13] He was succeeded byMary Lou McDonald at a specialardfheis (party conference) on 10 February 2018.[14]
Adams was born in theBallymurphy district ofBelfast on 6 October 1948.[15][16] His parents, Anne (née Hannaway) andGerry Adams Sr., came fromrepublican backgrounds.[16] His grandfather, also named Gerry Adams, was a member of theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) during theIrish War of Independence. Two of his uncles, Dominic and Patrick Adams, had been interned by the governments in Belfast andDublin.[17] InJ. Bowyer Bell's bookThe Secret Army,[18] Bell states that Dominic was a senior figure in theIrish Republican Army (IRA) of the mid-1940s. Gerry Adams Sr. joined the IRA at age 16. In 1942, he participated in an IRA ambush on aRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) patrol but was shot, arrested and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment.[15] Adams's maternal great-grandfather, Michael Hannaway, was also a member of the IRB during itsbombing campaign in England in the 1860s and 1870s.[19] Michael's son, Billy, was election agent forÉamon de Valera at the1918 general election inWest Belfast.
Adams attendedSt Finian's Primary School onFalls Road, where he was taught byLa Salle brothers. Having passed theeleven-plus exam in 1960, he attendedSt Mary's Christian Brothers Grammar School. He left St Mary's with sixO-levels and worked in bars.
In the late 1960s, acivil rights campaign developed in Northern Ireland. After being radicalised by the Divis Street riots during the1964 United Kingdom general election campaign, Adams joinedSinn Féin andFianna Éireann.[20] Adams was an active supporter and joined theNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967.[20] The civil rights movement was met with violence fromloyalist counter-demonstrations and the RUC, and British troops were called in at the request of theGovernment of Northern Ireland.
Adams was active in rioting at this time and later became involved in therepublican movement. In August 1971,internment was reintroduced to Northern Ireland under theSpecial Powers Act 1922. Adams was captured by British soldiers in March 1972 and in aBelfast Telegraph report on Adams's capture he was said to be "one of the most wanted men in Belfast".[21][22] Adams was interned onHMS Maidstone, but on the Provisional IRA's insistence was released in June to take part in secret, but abortive talks in London.[20] The IRA negotiated a short-lived truce with the British government and an IRA delegation met with British Home SecretaryWilliam Whitelaw atCheyne Walk in Chelsea. The delegation included Adams,Martin McGuinness,Sean Mac Stiofain (IRA Chief of Staff),Daithi O'Conaill,Seamus Twomey,Ivor Bell and Dublin solicitorMyles Shevlin.[23]
Adams was re-arrested in July 1973 and interned at theHM Prison Maze. After taking part in an IRA-organised escape attempt, he was sentenced to a period of imprisonment. During this time, he wrote articles in the paperAn Phoblacht under the by-line "Brownie", where he criticised the strategy and policy of Sinn Féin presidentRuairí Ó Brádaigh andBilly McKee, the IRA'sofficer commanding in Belfast. He was also highly critical of a decision taken by McKee to assassinate members of the rivalOfficial IRA, who had been on ceasefire since 1972.[24] In 2020, theUK Supreme Court quashed Adams's convictions for attempting to escape on Christmas Eve in 1973 and again in July 1974.[25]
In 1977,Ballymurphy priestDes Wilson (who had officiated at Adams's wedding) assisted with an early attempt by Adams to open channels to dissidentunionists. He helped set up meeting withDesmond BoalQC, a unionist barrister who had been first chairman ofIan Paisley'sDemocratic Unionist Party.[26][27] At the time, Boal was co-operating withSeán MacBride as joint mediator in confidential negotiations between the Provisional IRA and theUlster Volunteer Force about a federal settlement for Ireland.[28] A short time later, Wilson drove Adams to a meeting withJohn McKeague, founding member of theRed Hand Commando, then flirting with the idea of an independent Ulster. Inasmuch as they were "frank", Adams found the meetings "constructive", but could find no common political ground.[29] Wilson was of the view that Adams was "one of the very few people who could actually bring a military campaign into a political campaign".[30]
Adams has consistently denied ever being a member of theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).[31][32][33]
However, journalists such asEd Moloney,[34]Peter Taylor,[35] andMark Urban,[36] and historians, such asRichard English[37] andJohn Bowyer Bell,[38] have all named Adams as part of the IRA leadership since the 1970s. Furthermore, several former IRA members, includingBrendan Hughes,[39]Ivor Bell,[40] andSeán Mac Stíofáin,[41] have said Adams was also a member of the organisation. Practically all academics agree that Adams joinedthe IRA in the mid-1960s, was theOfficer commanding (OC) of the 2nd battalion of theBelfast Brigade from 1971 to 1972, became theadjutant for the brigade in 1972, and had become the OC of the brigade by 1973.[42]
Moloney and Taylor state that Adams became the IRA's Chief of Staff following the arrest ofSeamus Twomey in early December 1977, remaining in the position until 18 February 1978 when he, along with twenty other republican suspects, was arrested following theLa Mon restaurant bombing.[43][44] He was charged with IRA membership and remanded toCrumlin Road Gaol.[45] He was released seven months later when theLord Chief Justice of Northern IrelandRobert Lowry ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution.[45][46] Moloney and English state Adams had been a member of theIRA Army Council since 1977, remaining a member until 2005, according to former IrishMinister for Justice, Equality and Law ReformMichael McDowell.[47][37][48]
Rightly or wrongly, I am anIRA Volunteer and, rightly or wrongly, I take a course of action as a means to bringing about a situation in which I believe the people of my country will prosper.
— "Brownie" (reportedly a pseudonym of Adams's) in an article written inAn Phoblacht while Adams was a prisoner inLong Kesh in 1976[49][50][51]
In 1978, Adams became joint vice-president of Sinn Féin and a key figure in directing a challenge to the Sinn Féin leadership of president Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and joint vice-president Dáithí Ó Conaill. The 1975 IRA–British truce is often viewed as the event that began the challenge to the original Provisional Sinn Féin leadership, which was dominated by southerners like Ó Brádaigh and Ó Conaill.
One of the reasons that the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin were founded, in December 1969 and January 1970, respectively, was that people like Ó Brádaigh, Ó Conaill and McKee opposed participation in constitutional politics. The other reason was the failure of theCathal Goulding leadership to provide for the defence of Irish nationalist areas during the 1969 Northern Ireland riots. When, at the December 1969 IRA convention and the January 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, the delegates voted to participate in the Dublin (Leinster House), Belfast (Stormont) and London (Westminster) parliaments, the organisations split. Adams, who had joined the republican movement in the early 1960s, sided with the Provisionals.
In the Maze prison in the mid-1970s, writing under the pseudonym "Brownie" inRepublican News, Adams called for increased political activity among republicans, especially at local level.[52] The call resonated with younger Northern people, some of whom had been active in the Provisional IRA but few of whom had been active in Sinn Féin. In 1977, Adams andDanny Morrison drafted the address of Jimmy Drumm at the annualWolfe Tone commemoration atBodenstown. The address was viewed as watershed in that Drumm acknowledged that the war would be a long one and that success depended on political activity that would complement the IRA's armed campaign. For some,[who?] this wedding of politics and armed struggle culminated in Danny Morrison's statement at the 1981 Sinn Féinardfheis in which he asked "Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, witha ballot paper in one hand and the Armalite in the other, we take power in Ireland?" For others, however, the call to link political activity with armed struggle had already been defined in Sinn Féin policy and in the presidential addresses of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, but this had not resonated with young Northerners.[53]
Even after the election ofBobby Sands as MP forFermanagh and South Tyrone, a part of the mass mobilisation associated with the1981 Irish hunger strike by republican prisoners in theH blocks of the Maze Prison, Adams was cautious that the level of political involvement by Sinn Féin could lead to electoral embarrassment.Charles Haughey, theTaoiseach ofIreland, calledan election for June 1981. At anard chomhairle meeting, Adams recommended that they contest only four constituencies which were inborder counties. Instead, H-Block/Armagh candidates contested nine constituencies and elected two TDs. This, along with the election of Sands, was a precursor to an electoral breakthrough inelections in 1982 to the1982 Northern Ireland Assembly.[54] Adams, Danny Morrison, Martin McGuinness,Jim McAllister andOwen Carron were elected as abstentionists. TheSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) had announced before the election that it would not take any seats and so its 14 elected representatives also abstained from participating in the Assembly and it was a failure. The 1982 election was followed by the1983 Westminster election, in which Sinn Féin's vote increased and Adams was elected, as an abstentionist, as MP for Belfast West. It was in 1983 that Ruairí Ó Brádaigh resigned as President of Sinn Féin and was succeeded by Adams.
In 1983, Adams was elected president of Sinn Féin and became the first Sinn Féin MP elected to theBritish House of Commons sincePhil Clarke andTom Mitchell in the mid-1950s.[20] Following his election as MP for Belfast West, the British government lifted a ban on his travelling to Great Britain. In line with Sinn Féin policy, he refused to take his seat in the House of Commons.[55]
On 14 March 1984 in central Belfast, Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt whenUlster Defence Association (UDA) gunmen fired about 20 shots into the car in which he was travelling. He was hit in the neck, shoulder and arm. He was rushed to theRoyal Victoria Hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove three bullets.John Gregg and his team were apprehended almost immediately by aBritish Army patrol that opened fire on them before ramming their car.[56] The attack had been known in advance by security forces due to a tip-off from informants within the UDA; Adams and his co-passengers had survived in part because RUC officers, acting on the informants' information, had replaced much of the ammunition in the UDA's Rathcoole weapons dump with low-velocity bullets.[57] Some, including Adams himself, still have unanswered questions about the RUC's actions prior to the shooting.[58] AnUlster Defence Regiment NCO subsequently received theQueen's Gallantry Medal for chasing and arresting an assailant.[59][full citation needed]
Many republicans had long claimed that the only legitimate Irish state was theIrish Republic declared in the1916 Proclamation of the Republic. In their view, the legitimate government was the IRA Army Council, which had been vested with the authority of that Republic in 1938 (prior to theSecond World War) by the last remaining anti-Treaty deputies of theSecond Dáil. In his 2005 speech to the Sinn Féinardfheis in Dublin, Adams explicitly rejected this view. "But we refuse to criminalise those who break the law in pursuit of legitimate political objectives. ... Sinn Féin is accused of recognising the Army Council of the IRA as the legitimate government of this island. That is not the case. [We] do not believe that the Army Council is the government of Ireland. Such a government will only exist when all the people of this island elect it. Does Sinn Féin accept the institutions of this state as the legitimate institutions of this state? Of course we do."[60]
As a result of this non-recognition, Sinn Féin had abstained from taking any of the seats they won in the British or Irish parliaments. At its 1986ardfheis, Sinn Féin delegates passed a resolution to amend the rules and constitution that would allow its members to sit in the Dublin parliament. At this, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh led a small walkout, just as he and Sean Mac Stiofain had done sixteen years earlier with the creation of Provisional Sinn Féin.[61][62][63][64] This minority, which rejected dropping the policy ofabstentionism, now distinguishes itself from Sinn Féin by using the nameRepublican Sinn Féin, and maintains that they are the true Sinn Féin.
Adams's leadership of Sinn Féin was supported by a Northern-based cadre that included people like Danny Morrison and Martin McGuinness. Over time, Adams and others pointed to republican electoral successes in the early and mid-1980s, when hunger strikers Bobby Sands andKieran Doherty were elected to the British House of Commons andDáil Éireann respectively, and they advocated that Sinn Féin become increasingly political and base its influence on electoral politics rather than paramilitarism. The electoral effects of this strategy were shown later by the election of Adams and McGuinness to the House of Commons.
Adams's prominence as an Irish republican leader was increased by the1988–1994 British broadcasting voice restrictions,[65] which were imposed by British Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher to "starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend".[66] Thatcher was moved to act after BBC interviews of Martin McGuinness and Adams had been the focus ofa row over an edition ofAfter Dark, a proposedChannel 4 discussion programme which in the event was never made.[67] While the ban covered 11 Irish political parties and paramilitary organisations, in practice it mostly affected Sinn Féin, the most prominent of these bodies.[68]
A similar ban, known asSection 31, had been law in the Republic of Ireland since the 1970s. However, media outlets soon found ways around the bans. In the UK, this was initially by the use of subtitles, but later and more often by an actor reading words accompanied by video footage of the banned person speaking. Actors who voiced Adams includedStephen Rea andPaul Loughran.[69][70] This loophole could not be used in the Republic, as word-for-word broadcasts were not allowed.[71] Instead, the banned speaker's words were summarised by the newsreader, over video of them speaking.
These bans were lampooned in cartoons, by comedians and satirical TV shows, such asJasper Carrott,Spitting Image, and inThe Day Today, and were criticised byfreedom of speech organisations and media personalities, including BBC Director GeneralJohn Birt and BBC foreign editorJohn Simpson. The Republic's ban was allowed to lapse in January 1994, and the British ban was lifted by Prime MinisterJohn Major in September 1994.[72][73]
Sinn Féin continued its policy of refusing to sit in theWestminster parliament after Adams won the Belfast West constituency. He lost his seat toJoe Hendron of the SDLP in the1992 general election,[74] regaining it at the following1997 election. Under Adams, Sinn Féin moved away from being a political voice of the Provisional IRA to becoming a professionally organised political party in bothNorthern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
SDLP leaderJohn Hume identified the possibility that a negotiated settlement might be possible and began secret talks with Adams in 1988. These discussions led to unofficial contacts with the BritishNorthern Ireland Office under theSecretary of State for Northern Ireland,Peter Brooke, and with the government of the Republic under Charles Haughey – although both governments maintained in public that they would not negotiate with terrorists.[citation needed] These talks provided the groundwork for what was later to be theBelfast Agreement, preceded by the milestoneDowning Street Declaration and theJoint Framework Document.[75]
These negotiations led to the IRA ceasefire in August 1994. TaoiseachAlbert Reynolds, who had replaced Haughey and who had played a key role in the Hume/Adams dialogue through his Special AdvisorMartin Mansergh, regarded the ceasefire as permanent. However, the slow pace of developments contributed in part to the (wider) political difficulties of the British government of John Major. His consequent reliance onUlster Unionist Party (UUP) votes in the House of Commons led to him agreeing with the UUP demand to exclude Sinn Féin from talks until the IRA haddecommissioned its weapons. Sinn Féin's exclusion led the IRA to end its ceasefire and resume its campaign.[76]
After the 1997 United Kingdom general election, the new Labour government had a majority in the House of Commons and was not reliant on unionist votes. The subsequent dropping of the insistence led to another IRA ceasefire, as part of the negotiations strategy, which saw teams from the British and Irish governments, the UUP, the SDLP, Sinn Féin, and representatives of loyalist paramilitary organisations, under the chairmanship of former United States SenatorGeorge Mitchell, produce theGood Friday Agreement in 1998.[16] Under the Agreement, structures were created reflecting the Irish and British identities of the people of Ireland, creating aBritish-Irish Council and aNorthern Ireland Legislative Assembly.[77]
Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland of theRepublic's constitution, which claimed sovereignty over all of Ireland, were reworded, and a power-sharing Executive Committee was provided for. As part of their deal, Sinn Féin agreed to abandon its abstentionist policy regarding a "six-county parliament", as a result taking seats in the newStormont-based Assembly and running the education and health and social services ministries in the power-sharing government.
On 15 August 1998, four months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, theOmagh bombing by theReal IRA, killed 29 people and injured 220, from multiple communities. Adams said in reaction to the bombing: "I am totally horrified by this action. I condemn it without any equivocation whatsoever."[78] Prior to this, Adams had not used the word "condemn" in relation to IRA or their splinter groups' actions.[78][79]
In March 2007, Adams was re-elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in March 2007, and subsequently met with DUP leaderIan Paisley face-to-face for the first time. These talks led to theSt Andrews Agreement, which brought about the return of the power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland.[80] When Sinn Féin came to nominate its two ministers to theNorthern Ireland Executive, for tactical reasons the party, like the SDLP and the DUP, chose not to include its leader among its ministers.
In January 2009, Adams attended the United States presidentialinauguration of Barack Obama as a guest of US representativeRichard Neal.[81]
Adams was re-elected as MP for West Belfast with 71.1% of the vote in May 2010,[82] but resigned his seat the following December,[83] in order to seek election as aTD (member of the Irish Parliament) for the constituency ofLouth at the2011 Irish general election.[84][85][86] He topped the poll in the constituency with 15,072 (21.7%) first preference votes,[87] and was duly elected to Dáil Éireann where he succeededCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin as Sinn Féin parliamentary leader.[88]
In December 2013, Adams was a member of theGuard of Honour atNelson Mandela's funeral.[89][90]
On 30 April 2014, Adams was arrested by detectives from thePolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Serious Crime Branch, under theTerrorism Act 2000, in connection with themurder of Jean McConville in 1972.[91] He had previously voluntarily arranged to be interviewed by police regarding the matter,[92] and maintained he had no involvement.[93] Fellow Sinn Féin politicianAlex Maskey stated that the timing of the arrest, "three weeks into an election", was evidence of a "political agenda [...] a negative agenda" by the PSNI.[94] McConville's family had campaigned for the arrest of Adams for the murder.[95] McConville's son Michael said that his family did not think the arrest of Adams would ever happen, and were glad that the arrest took place. Adams was released without charge after four days in custody when a file was sent to thePublic Prosecution Service, which would decide if criminal charges should be brought.[96][97][98]
At a press conference after his release, Adams criticised the timing of his arrest, reiterated Sinn Féin's support for the PSNI and said: "The IRA is gone. It is finished."[99] Adams denied that he had any involvement in the murder or was ever a member of the IRA,[9][93][100] and said the allegations came from "enemies of the peace process".[9] On 29 September 2015 the Public Prosecution Service announced Adams would not face charges, due to insufficient evidence,[101] as had been expected ever since aBBC report dated 6 May 2014 (2 days after the BBC reported his release),[11] which was widely repeated elsewhere.[12]
On 19 May 2015, while on an official royal trip to Ireland,Prince Charles shook Adams's hand in what was described as a highly symbolic gesture of reconciliation. The meeting, described as "historic", took place in Galway.[102]
In September 2017, Adams said he would allow his name to go forward for a one-year term as president of Sinn Féin at the Novemberardfheis, at which point Sinn Féin would begin a "planned process of generational change, including [Adams's] own future intentions". This resulted in speculation in the Irish and British media that Adams was preparing to stand down as party leader, and that he might run forPresident of Ireland in thenext election.[103][104][105] At theardfheis on 18 November, Adams was re-elected for another year as party president, but announced that he would step down at some point in 2018, and would not seek re-election as TD for Louth.[13]
Adams's presidency of Sinn Féin ended on 10 February 2018, with his stepping down and the election ofMary Lou McDonald as the party's new president.[106]
On 13 July 2018, a home-made bomb was thrown at Adams's home in West Belfast, damaging a car parked in his driveway. Adams escaped injury and claimed that his two grandchildren were standing in the driveway only ten minutes before the blast. Another bomb was set off that same evening at the nearby home of former IRAvolunteer and Sinn Féin officialBobby Storey. In a press conference the following day, Adams said he thought the attacks were linked to theriots in Derry, and asked that those responsible "come and sit down" and "give us the rationale for this action".[107][108]
In 2017, Adams launched a defamation case against theBBC over a programme it ran that alleged he sanctioned the murder of an informer. The case stems from a 2016 BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight TV documentary. The programme focused onDenis Donaldson, a member of Sinn Féin, who was also in the IRA. He was murdered in 2006, four months after Adams revealed that he was an informer for theMI5. At the time, the murder was condemned by all, including Adams. Adams also denied any involvement in his murder.[109] In May 2025, Adams won the case, with the jury ruling the programme defamatory and awarding him €100,000 (approximately £85,000) in damages.[110] Following the trial, Adams said: "I've always been satisfied with my reputation ... we all have flaws in our character, but the jury made the decision and let's accept the outcome."[111]
In 1971, Adams married Collette McArdle.[112] Their son Gearoid who was born in 1973,[113] went on to playGaelic football forAntrim GAA senior men's team and became its assistant manager in 2012.[114]
In 2013, Adams's brother Liamwas found guilty of 10 offences, includingrape andgross indecency committed against his own daughter.[115][116] After the allegations of abuse were first made public in 2009, Gerry Adams alleged that his father had subjected family members to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.[117][118] Liam was jailed for 16 years,[119] and died ofpancreatic cancer in February 2019 at the age of 63 while inMaghaberry Prison.[120]
In 2016, Adams sparked controversy by posting "WatchingDjango Unchained—A Ballymurphy Nigger!" on social media.[121] This was widely reported,[122][123][124] and Adams deleted it and apologised.[125]
Adams has been portrayed in a number of films, TV series, and books:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Sinn Féin press release, 26 January 2004.BBC News understands there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr Adams with any offence.
No charges would be brought against Mr Adams unless significant new evidence comes to light, according to reports ... There is "insufficient evidence" to pursue a prosecution against Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in relation to the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, according to reports. The BBC said it understood that no charges would be brought against Mr Adams unless significant new evidence comes to light.
The IRA that Adams joined in the mid-nineteen sixties was, in effect, moribund, though Adams has always denied IRA membership.
The Sinn Fein president was questioned for four days in connection with the murder of Jean McConville and membership of the IRA.He has strongly denied all those allegations. ... He again said he was innocent of any involvement in Mrs McConville's murder.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Vice President ofSinn Féin 1978–1983 Served alongside:Joe Cahill,Dáithí Ó Conaill | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of Sinn Féin 1983–2018 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President ofSinn Féin in theDáil Éireann 2011–2018 | Succeeded by |
| Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) | ||
| New assembly | Member of theNorthern Ireland Assembly forWest Belfast 1982–1986 | Assembly abolished |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBelfast West 1983–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBelfast West 1997–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Northern Ireland Forum | ||
| New forum | Member of theNorthern Ireland Forum forWest Belfast 1996–1998 | Forum dissolved |
| Northern Ireland Assembly | ||
| New assembly | Member of the Legislative Assembly forBelfast West 1998–2010 | Succeeded by |