Adams - Hope and history: making peace in Ireland

Hope and History

Also by Gerry Adams

A Pathway to Peace

An Irish Journal

An Irish Voice

Before the Dawn

Cage Eleven

Falls Memories

Free Ireland: Towards A Lasting Peace

Selected Writings

The Politics of Irish Freedom

The Street and Other Stories

Who Fears to Speak...?

GERRY ADAMS

Hope and History
MAKING PEACE IN IRELAND

Published in Australia in 2003 by
Hardie Grant Books
12 Claremont Street
South Yarra, Victoria 3141, Australia
www.hardiegrant.com.au

First published in Britain and Ireland in 2003 by
Brandon
an imprint of Mount Eagle Publications,
Unit 3 Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Road, London N22 6TZ, England
and Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Copyright text Gerry Adams 2003

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:

Adams, Gerry, 1948 .
Hope and history: making peace in Ireland.

ISBN 1 74066 120 6.

1. Peace movements Northern Ireland.
2. Northern Ireland Politics and government. I. Title.

941.60824

Cover design by id communications, Tralee
Cover photograph: AP/RN
Typeset by Red Barn Publishing, Skeagh, Skibbereen
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

Every effort has been made to incorporate correct information and statistics.
The publishers regret any errors and omissions, and invite readers to contribute up-to-date or
additional relevant information to Hardie Grant Books.

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Contents

Human beings suffer.

They torture one another.

They get hurt and get hard.

No poem or play or song

Can fully right a wrong

Inflicted and endured.

History says, Dont hope

On this side of the grave,

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up

And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a farther shore

Is reachable from here.

Believe in miracles

And cures and healing wells.

From The Cure at Troy
by Seamus Heaney

Do Dhrithle le gr

This book would not have been written without the help of Richard McAuley, who read reams of records of meetings, minutes, letters and other documents, and gave up a huge amount of his time to dredge up texts, check dates and research other information. I am grateful to him and to Chrissie who tolerated it all. Siobhn OHanlon is the keeper of the records who diligently collected and filed every possible piece of documentation in the period following the opening of Sinn Fins dialogue with the British government until recent times. T m buoch dot, a Shiobhn.

Others shared their memories of the time. Without Fr Alec Reid and Fr Des Wilson there would not have been an Irish peace process at this time. Martin McGuinness, Pdraig Wilson, Dawn Doyle read my first draft; I am still waiting on responses from them. Rita OHare had her say; so did Mitchell and Ted and Pat Doherty. Any mistakes which may have slipped through are entirely their fault. Through Ritas good offices Niall ODowd, and Eric and Mark in An Phoblacht supplied me with bits and pieces.

Steve MacDonogh first published my writing in 1982; I am grateful for his editorial guidance and for his patience with this tome as it grew in size and missed a few deadlines in the process. My thanks to Steve, Mire, Siobhn, Terry and everyone at Brandon.

My thanks also to my friends and comrades and to everyone else who tolerated me at a very busy time in our lives as I got this story out of my system. A special word of thanks to the Sinn Fin negotiating team and to everyone who helped us; to Big Eamonn who looked after me since after I was shot through many miles of struggle. Thanks also to all the republicans and nationalists who had faith in us and in themselves, and to our allies throughout the world.

Special thanks to that generation of republicans in Ireland, the United States, Britain, Australia and elsewhere, who laboured in the lean years and kept faith through dark days. These men and women are personified by Joe Cahill. There are many people of my generation whose names I do not mention. Every one of them contributed to this story, and they have their own place in it and their own version of it. To have named everyone who contributed would require a telephone book. I thank them all.

Many discussions occurred in the homes of citizens, republicans who gave our team the use of their bedrooms or back kitchens. Not the most conducive conditions for Sinn Fins decision-making process but better than our electronically monitored offices or other facilities. I thank them also.

In the course of the period relived in these pages many comrades and friends were killed. I regret that I cannot mention them all. They have been with us in all of our dealings with the British government. I extend solidarity to all their families.

Others have died since, some of natural causes. Again, these are too numerous to mention, but Mary Hughes, Tom Cahill and Terence Cleaky Clarke were big influences in our struggle and in my life.

Finally, to Colette who continues to put up with me and to Gearid and Risn and Drithle for much happiness and even more dirty dishes. Mlebuochas agus gr daoibh.

Gerry Adams,
Belfast, Ireland
August 2003

Sometimes I go to the edge of the world: to the north-west of Ireland, where on dark, clear nights the skyscape stretches for ever. Im there now, trying to figure out how to tell the story of the Irish peace process. Here on the edge of Europe, a huge expanse of ocean stretches in front of me to New York and the Americas. Inland, at my back, across rugged mountain ranges lies the road to Belfast. Beyond, separated from Ireland by a narrow sound of water, is Britain.

Sitting here now, reflecting on all that has passed, my mind is crowded with memories, with different and conflicting emotions. How do I make sense of all of this so that it becomes your sense? Its difficult to absorb all that has happened. The reader may think that people close to these events have a sense of whats happening, but thats not always the case.

For example, an image has remained with me of a friend of mine, Jim Gibney, in the days after he was released from prison after serving a six-year prison sentence. This was around March 1988 the month three unarmed IRA volunteers were shot dead by undercover British troops in Gibraltar. When they were being buried some days later in Belfasts Milltown Cemetery, there was a loyalist attack on the mourners at the gravesides. Three people were killed and scores were injured. A day or two later, at one of these funerals, two armed undercover British soldiers who drove into the cortge were seized by the crowd and shot dead by the IRA.

This maelstrom of events from the killings at Gibraltar, through the long journey home of the remains, the Milltown Cemetery killings and the subsequent killings of the two British soldiers were among the most frightening, dramatic, tragic episodes of the recent past.