Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams gets royal acknowledgment
Prince Charles chats with the man tied to Irish group that once terrorized the U.K.
LONDON— Prince Charles met Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams during a trip to western Ireland on Tuesday in what was billed as a hugely significant moment for Anglo-Irish relations.
Charles, holding a cup of tea, exchanged a few words with Adams at a reception in a crowded, noisy room at the National University of Ireland at Galway — the first time a senior member of the British royal family had met with Adams.
Adams has always denied being a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), though former members have identified him as a leading figure in the organization. Until 1998, the group led an armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland.
The IRA also had a direct effect on the royal family. In 1979, the IRA killed Louis Mountbatten, the prince’s great-uncle, and three others with a bomb that exploded on his fishing boat. Charles adored his great-uncle and was devastated when he died. At the time, Adams said of Mountbatten’s death: “With his war record, I don’t think he could have objected to dying in what was clearly a war situation.”
In recent years, there have been a number of significant handshakes and visits in the long road to reconciliation between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
In 2012 during a visit to Belfast, the queen extended a gloved hand to Martin McGuinness, a Sinn Fein member, deputy first minister of Northern Ireland’s provincial government and a former IRA commander.