I.

Introduction

Gerry Adams, born in 1948, president of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which is dedicated to securing the reunification of Northern Ireland with Ireland. A member of the British Parliament from West Belfast in Northern Ireland from 1983 to 1992 and again since 1997, Adams has declined to take his seat, saying that he does not recognize the authority of the British government. Although some people doubt his ability to influence the IRA, he has been a key figure in negotiations to end the violence in Northern Ireland.

II.

Early Years

Gerry Adams was born in West Belfast, the eldest of ten children. After attending grammar school he became a bartender and was involved in the defense of Catholic areas of Belfast during the violent conflicts between Catholic republicans (those who wanted Northern Ireland to unite with Ireland) and Protestant loyalists (those who favored maintaining Northern Ireland’s link with Great Britain) in 1969 and 1970. The British security forces believed him to be a senior member of the IRA during the 1970s, although he has strenuously denied this. He was interned (imprisoned without trial) in 1971, but released in July 1972 to take part in talks with the British secretary of state for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw. The talks resulted in a brief cease-fire between the Catholic and Protestant factions.

Adams was arrested again in 1973 on the suspicion of being a senior member of the IRA. After attempting to escape incarceration before his trial he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released in 1976. His autobiography, Cage Eleven (1993), describes his experiences as a prisoner. In February 1978 he was once again charged with membership in the IRA and placed under custody, but was later released due to insufficient evidence.

III.

Rise to Prominence

In the late 1970s Adams became the leading proponent within Sinn Fein for a reassessment of its policies and its commitment to armed struggle. He believed that political action was also required to achieve the party’s aims. This set in motion Sinn Fein’s political development during the early 1980s, when the party began to take an active part in local and general elections.

In 1983 Adams was elected president of Sinn Fein. A year later he was the victim of an assassination attempt and was shot several times while riding through central Belfast in the back of a car. In 1986 he published Politics of Irish Freedom, a presentation of his political views. During the late 1980s he also mildly criticized IRA killings of civilians, which he argued were detrimental to the Republican cause.

A.

IRA Cease-Fire

Together with John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Adams played a large part in the declaration of a cease-fire by the IRA in August 1994, one of the conditions required by the British government before Sinn Fein would be allowed to participate in discussions about the future of Northern Ireland. After the cease-fire was declared, the British government removed the restrictions that it had placed on Adams’s public appearances, and he became free to travel in mainland Britain. In October 1994 United States president Bill Clinton lifted an official ban on government contacts with Sinn Fein and met with Adams in March 1995.

Despite the cease-fire, Adams was unwilling to press the IRA to completely give up its arms before all British troops were withdrawn from Northern Ireland. At the same time, the British refused to allow Sinn Fein’s participation in the talks before the complete decommissioning (surrendering of weapons) of the IRA. This reluctance on both sides caused a delay in the start of the all-party peace talks, and in February 1996 the IRA resumed its campaign of violence. Adams refused to condemn the resumption of violence, a decision that seriously damaged his credibility as leader of the Sinn Fein/IRA Republican bloc.

B.

Election to Parliament

In the British general elections in May 1997, Adams was elected to the British Parliament, along with his deputy, Martin McGuinness. This marked the first time that Sinn Fein had held two seats in the House of Commons. However, because Adams and McGuinness refused to take their seats, they were barred from making use of the House of Commons facilities. In the aftermath of the elections, Adams was vocal in his demands that Sinn Fein be included in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations, saying that his election demonstrated public support for Sinn Fein.

IV.

Adams and the Peace Process

In July 1997 the IRA renewed its cease-fire, and after the British government dropped its demands that the IRA completely disarm, Sinn Fein was allowed to join the Northern Ireland peace negotiations. In December Adams met with British prime minister Tony Blair at the prime minister’s official residence. This meeting represented the first time the head of an Irish republican movement had officially met with the British prime minister in London since Michael Collins met Prime Minister David Lloyd George in 1921.

A.

Power-Sharing Accord of 1998

As Sinn Fein’s primary representative at the talks, Adams played an important role in drafting the historic power-sharing Good Friday Agreement between Protestants and Catholics in 1998. The accord, which provided for an elected assembly and an executive cabinet to govern the province, was announced on April 10. One month later Sinn Fein declared its official support. In late May the accord was overwhelmingly approved in referendums in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Elections were held in June for the new, 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly. Sinn Fein won 18 seats, finishing fourth behind the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). David Trimble of the UUP became head of the executive cabinet. See also Northern Ireland Conflict.

B.

The Path to Disarmament

In September 1998 Adams announced that Sinn Fein considered violence “a thing of the past” in Northern Ireland politics. But despite his public rejection of violent methods, Adams insisted that the IRA would not surrender its arms before Sinn Fein claimed the two seats allocated to it in the executive cabinet. The issue aroused fears of a possible collapse of the peace agreement because Trimble and the UUP refused to appoint any Sinn Fein cabinet members until the IRA began to disarm. Adams was unwilling to compromise on this issue, maintaining that IRA disarmament could not be considered apart from the achievement of other key reforms initiated by the peace process, including a reduction of the United Kingdom’s military presence in Northern Ireland, police reforms, and an end to Protestant domination of the province. The stalemate over IRA disarmament remained a key stumbling block in the peace process. It delayed the formation of the provincial government for more than a year and prompted the British government to suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly several times.

In October 2001 Gerry Adams and other leaders of Sinn Fein took the unprecedented step of urging the IRA to begin disarmament. The move followed the UUP’s decision to resign from the power-sharing government because of the IRA’s continued unwillingness to disarm. Later that month, the IRA announced that it had begun to decommission its weapons. In November the Northern Ireland Assembly resumed operations with the participation of Sinn Fein and the UUP.

Northern Ireland’s peace process faced a new crisis in October 2002 amid mounting allegations of IRA misconduct. In early October the IRA was accused of using Sinn Fein’s access to government buildings in Belfast to engage in political espionage at Stormont, the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly and other government institutions. Adams dismissed the allegations as a politically motivated attempt to undermine Sinn Fein’s power within the provincial government. In October the British government again suspended the Northern Ireland Assembly and its executive, reinstating direct rule.

Adams was involved in intense negotiations throughout 2003 seeking to restore the Northern Ireland executive. Although an agreement seemed within reach in October, when the IRA decommissioned more weapons, Trimble’s UUP was still wary of cooperation with Adams and Sinn Fein, and the assembly remained suspended. Nevertheless, elections to the assembly were held in November. The results were a mixed blessing for Adams. Sinn Fein overtook the SDLP to become the largest nationalist party in the assembly, while the DUP, which had long been resolutely opposed to working with Sinn Fein, replaced the UUP as the largest unionist party. Although Sinn Fein held indirect negotiations with the DUP through 2004, and seemingly came close to making a deal, negotiations once again foundered on the question of IRA disarmament. Adams’s ambition to establish Sinn Fein as a constituent part of a self-governing Northern Ireland remained frustrated.

In early 2005 Adams came under pressure to conclusively distance himself from the IRA. In April he called on the IRA to disband, provoking an internal debate that resulted in the announcement in July that the IRA would end its armed campaign. Two months later an independent commission announced that the IRA had completed the process of decommissioning its weapons. In early 2007 a Sinn Fein party convention voted to begin cooperating with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which is predominantly Protestant, in efforts to maintain law and order.

C.

Power-Sharing Accord of 2007

Elections were held in March 2007 for a new Northern Ireland Assembly, which had remained suspended since 2002. The DUP and Sinn Fein again emerged as the two leading parties. Britain announced that the parties must come to an agreement on sharing power, or else the assembly would again be suspended. On March 26 Adams and DUP leader Ian Paisley held their first-ever face-to-face meeting and agreed to forge a joint platform for government. Self-rule was restored in Northern Ireland in May 2007, when the new power-sharing government took office with Paisley as first minister and Sinn Fein negotiator Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister.