Gerry hasn’t gone away just yet - you know
IN the lead up to last weekend’s events, which saw Gerry Adams replaced as Sinn Fein Party President by Mary Lou McDonald, there were many television programmes, radio slots and column inches in newspapers devoted to analysing his career and his impact over the generations.
At one time or another we have heard all descriptions, ranging from terrorist to peacemaker, but perhaps the one that best-fitted my own viewpoint, was one I heard former Minister and now media pundit Ivan Yates use to describe the Louth TD, saying he was Ireland’s equivalent of Marmite.
Marmite, made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing is often spread on toast, has a very particular flavour to it and divides opinion, as you either love it or hate it.
Gerry Adams evoked similar feelings in many, you either loved him or hated him, well perhaps hate is too strong a word, but certainly you were either for him or against him. Few had ambiguous feelings towards the man who led the Republican political movement for 34 years.
Here in Louth, the two camps are as evenly divided as elsewhere in the island, although it is impossible to deny that his arrival in Louth, bolstered Sinn Fein support both in the county and across the other twenty five counties, yielding a historic second seat for the party in Louth and a record 23 TDs following the 2016 General Election.
You suspect that history will be kind to his legacy and that there will be greater recognition for his role in the peace process as time marches on and we gain a more mature and considered view of the evolution of Sinn Fein from a party on the fringes supportive of the IRA’s campaign to a party which entered power sharing with the DUP and encouraged and persuaded the IRA to lay down their arms and support a democratic path to their goals of a united Ireland.
The one big regret we all must have is that the roadway to a peace process was not started years earlier. Had it done so, hundreds of lives may have been spared.
Why we could not have had a sustainable peace process years earlier is a question that remains. What was the catalyst in the 1990s that did not exist earlier.
Could the violence not have been stopped earlier? Could the peace process not have started earlier? Could the Republican movement not abandoned their terror campaign earlier? Could the British not engaged earlier?
There is plenty of fault and
EXPECT HIM TO CANVAS HARD AS THE SIDE OF HIS CHOSEN SUCCESSOR, CLLR RUAIRÍ Ó MURCHÚ
blame to throw around for the length of time it took for peaceful politics to replace violence and all parties and all sides have to accept their part.
The answers to who is to blame and where fault lies, are not definitive, perceptions play a role and different parties, the British Government, the Irish Government, Unionists, Republicans, Nationalists ask the questions from different starting points, which makes agreement virtually impossible.
What is clear of course as we approach the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, is that Sinn Fein played a key role in that agreement in securing an IRA ceasefire which has sustained and Gerry Adams was at the helm of the party throughout this juncture. Without his support, the peace process would have been even more challenging and might not have survived.
All of us living on this island owe the key players, of which Gerry Adams was undeniably one, a major debt of gratitude in delivering a peace process which ended decades of murder and mayhem, regardless of how imperfect and incomplete the process remains.
Imperfect peace is better every time than the decades of violence which preceded.
Meanwhile he continues in his role as a Louth TD until the next General Election and it is likely that we will see more of him in the coming weeks and months than we have when he had a national role, as he works to ensure Sinn Fein retain their hard won two Louth seats.
Expect him to canvas hard as the side of his chosen successor, Cllr Ruairí Ó Murchú.