Outgoing Adams ‘empathises’ with IRA victims as new leaders emerge

Gerry Adams has said he understands how victims of IRA violence feel as he prepares to step aside after 34 years as leader of Sinn Fein.

Mr Adams, who will be 70 next year, said yesterday that those killed during The Troubles could not be brought back, but that it was possible to ensure history was not repeated.

He said he and the late Martin Mcguinness helped to bring about political change and that there was no reason for anyone else to die because of political conflict in Ireland.

Mr Adams was speaking just hours after he told a Sinn Fein Ard Fheis that he will step down as party president next year and will not contest the next general election in Ireland.

He has been one of the longest-serving party leaders in the world, but the changing of the guard has arrived as two women emerged as potential successors.

Mary Lou Mcdonald is the clear favourite to take over the role.

She was described recently by her party colleague Caral Ni Chuilin as “one of the most formidable women in politics”.

Born in May 1969, she was raised in the affluent Rathgar area of Dublin and was educated at Notre Dame, a private fee-paying school in the city. She is a graduate of Trinity College, University of Limerick and DCU.

Some eyes are also on Sinn Fein’s Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’neill as a possible contender.

Born in January 1977, Ms O’neill was raised in the village of Clonoe in rural County Tyrone and hails from a family of prominent Irish republicans.

Her father, Brendan “Basil” Doris, was a former IRA prisoner who became a Sinn Fein councillor in Dungannon.