‘I believe the future is bright’-Adams
SINN FEIN PRESIDENT STEPS DOWN AFTER 35 YEARS AS LEADER
FORMER Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams spoke of his confidence that a United Ireland can be achieved by ‘a peaceful and democratic means’ in a final statement from Stormont last Friday.
Having lead the party for 35 years, he thanked those he had worked and expressed confidence that the new leadership of the party – Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill – ‘will help make Sinn Féin even bigger and stronger in the time ahead.’
‘ There are many challenges facing the people of this island,’ he stated. ‘Sinn Féin is the only major party committed to ending the crisis in our health services, in housing and homelessness and in rural communities.’
‘A united Ireland has to be worked for,’ he said. ‘ Sinn Féin is about bringing the people of this island together in a new Republic, a new Ireland in which the rights of citizens are protected, where poverty is eradicated and where we can all live in peace and unity and equality.
He recalled that when he joined Sinn Féin 50 years ago, it was a banned party. ‘ The nationalist people of the North had been abandoned and were subject to discrimination and inequality. We were on our knees. We are now off our knees. We have a Good Friday Agreement.’
‘It is in some difficulty at this time. But it offers the way forward. There is now a peaceful and democratic path to Irish unity. A way to unite Orange and Green and end division. Everyone who wants a new and agreed Ireland should embrace that.’
Deputy Adams, who won his Dail Eireann seat in 2011, after resigning his West Belfast seat in Westminister, has also said that he won’t contest the next General Election. Cllr Ruairi O Murchu has been nominated as the party’s candidate North Louth for the next General Election.
Meanwhile Sinn Féin is launching a document outlining how a United Ireland would benefit Irish enterprise and businesses across the island in Dundalk today.