HOW TASTELESS
Gerry Adams – ex-leader of IRA’s political wing – to publish ‘peace process cookery book’. I hope it chokes him, says Lord Tebbit
IT’S not the book you’d expect Gerry Adams to be writing.
But the Irish Republican leader has announced bizarre plans to publish a ‘peace process cookery book’.
The former president of Sinn Fein – the political wing of the IRA – said the book could contain recipes served during the 1998 talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement.
Entitled The Negotiators’ Cook Book, it is expected to be printed before Christmas. The news that Mr Adams – who defended the IRA despite its atrocities during the Troubles – was trying to rebrand himself as a cuddly cookery writer was attacked by one of the group’s victims last night.
Lord Tebbit, who had to be pulled out of the wreckage of the 1984 Brighton Bomb attack which paralysed his wife, told the Mail: ‘I hope it chokes him.’
Mr Adams, who has always denied having been a member of the IRA, gave details of the book during a talk at a festival in west Belfast on Monday.
And he also revealed he was a fan of many British children’s books such as the works of Enid Blyton, Biggles, Roy of the Rovers and the Just William series.
He told his audience that his cookbook would contain recipes with ‘some of the best-kept secrets’ of the 1998 peace process. The former Sinn Fein leader later tweeted a photo of its cover, along with the message: ‘Not 2 Long 2 Christmas. A Wee Taste Of A Great Stocking Filler From Ted & Pádraic agus Mise. [and myself].’
He has written the book with Ted Howell and Padraic Wilson, both senior Republican figures.
The Irish Times reported that the politician, who still represents County Louth in the Irish Parliament, told an audience that Sinn Féin had been ‘blessed’ with several cooks who helped feed the team during lengthy negotiations in the lead-up to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
The peace deal helped to end 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. ‘The British never fed us, they never had any food,’ he said. ‘But as intrepid republicans and being blessed by one or two great cooks these are the recipes that sustained the Irish negotiating team.
‘It contains some of the best-kept secrets of the Irish peace process.’
Mr Adams, who stepped down as Sinn Fein president at the start of the year, is apparently a keen amateur chef himself, often tweeting pictures of his own attempts in the kitchen.
He has already published a number of books, including memoirs and historical works, and is also expected to release a book of short stories next year, which he said has been five years in the making. The former Sinn Fein leader was speaking at a Féile an Phobail event in west Belfast on Monday night. In his first solo appearance at the festival, Mr Adams said he preferred writing fiction to non-fiction.
Returning to the political field, he urged people against identifying as ‘Northern Irish’ in the next UK census in 2021. He recalled being puzzled as a teenager when an official form asked him to state whether he was British or Irish.
‘I was surprised that a form would ask such a question,’ he said. ‘There’s a census coming up and please don’t let anyone put “Northern Irish”. Some people are on a little journey and we should assist them in that journey at this time.’
Mr Adams told the audience that as a boy he devoured many British children’s stories as well as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by US author Mark Twain.
He also revealed that for many years Irish republicans had not kept proper records of their negotiations with the British. ‘There would be meetings and no record of the meetings,’ he said.
Mr Adams described going into the National Library in Dublin for research, saying: ‘If you want to write fiction, you need time for day-dreaming.’
‘The British never had any food’