Adams Now Has More Baggage Than an A380 Aircraft

By Ivan Yates
Irish Independent
December 5, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/adams-now-has-more-baggage-than-an-a380-aircraft-29811279.html

Gerry Adams

As a Wexford TD, I came to know and like Bishop Brendan Comiskey, appointed Bishop of Ferns in April 1984. I was extremely friendly with two priests of the diocese. I enjoyed dinner parties at which Brendan was also a guest. All three men were strong advocates of ecumenism, pioneering new protocols for mixed marriages.

When allegations first emerged of clerical sex abuse, my instinct was one of sympathy and support for the bishop's handling of the matter. Eventually, Comiskey had to resign in 2002 for his stewardship of deviant priests such as Father Sean Fortune.

My judgment was proven mistaken as events unfolded. He tried to handle matters through internal church procedures, rather than as overt criminal activity requiring instant referral to the gardai and judicial processes.

The conviction and jailing of Liam Adams in Belfast for repeated rape and abuse of his daughter Aine last week reminded me of parallels between Gerry Adams and Brendan Comiskey. Much can be undone by a serious error of judgment. For a period of nine years (2000 to 2009), Adams did not tell the police what he knew from his brother about his guilt. He treated this information as a private family matter.

Northern Ireland's attorney general is currently reviewing whether the Public Prosecution Service should have pressed charges against him – he's unlikely to face any.

Behavioural standards applicable to political leaders represent a much higher threshold. It is unthinkable that if an identical set of circumstances applied to Enda Kenny, Micheal Martin or Eamon Gilmore that they could survive as party leader.

Adams enjoys an impregnable position as president of Sinn Fein. To the party faithful, he is their Nelson Mandela. His list of achievements is quite remarkable. He took over party leadership in 1983, when Sinn Fein enjoyed 13pc electoral support in the North. Today it secures the largest first preference vote, at 27pc. The party has seen off the SDLP as the main voice of the minority community. Through changing demographics, it is likely to move ahead of the DUP.

Down south, its growth has been equally impressive, from 1pc to securing the election of 14 TDs and three senators and 12pc of the vote. Current opinion polls tally the party further enhanced at around 15pc to 17pc support levels.

Adams's 30-year tenure as leader has seen remarkable change since the darkest days of the H-Block hunger strike: abandonment of abstentionist public representation; Hume/Adams dialogue; IRA ceasefires; Good Friday Agreement; participation in the Assembly and power-sharing executive with the DUP; repelling threats from dissident republicans.