Adams: I’ll stand down as Sinn Fein chief

SINN Fein president Gerry Adams will stand down as leader of the party next year after over three decades.

Adams, first elected in 1983, is one of the longest serving party leaders in the world, beaten only by Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s ruler for 37 years.

The 69-year-old told his party conference on Saturday he will not stand for re-election to the Irish parliament, saying: ‘Leadership means knowing when it is time for change.’ Yesterday he said that those killed during the Troubles cannot be brought back, but that it is possible to ensure history is not repeated.

As he announced his departure from frontline politics on Saturday night he received a standing ovation from over 2,500 delegates who gathered at Dublin’s RDS venue to hear his plans for the future.

Critics noted that he did not mention any victims of IRA violence in his speech. Commenting on the criticism, he said: ‘There have been many victims. I have a particular affinity with those who were victims of the IRA because obviously throughout my political life I have defended the IRA. But I understand how people feel.’

Speaking on RTE’s The Week In Politics, he added: ‘The war is over. One of the great achievements, and that will not bring back the dead, but one of the great achievements in Irish history – John Hume was there, others were there, but I and Martin McGuinness were there – was to bring about a peace process. We have to go forward.’

Adams said he lost family members during the Troubles, that he himself had been shot and that his neighbours in West Belfast are still waiting for an inquest after the Ballymurphy massacre in 1971.

He added: ‘We can’t bring those folks back but what we can do is to ensure it never ever happens again. One of our second achievements has been to bring about democratic, peaceful means, bringing about political change that didn’t exist before.’