THE ‘Gerry Adams factor’

damaged Sinn Féin’s general election campaign, party members have told me. During those briefings they also told me that there is also a ‘Martin Ferris factor’. Many in Sinn Féin believe the presence of these men partly led to the party getting only 23 seats rather than the expected 30. These ‘factors’ are the connection of the two old warhorses with the Provisional IRA’s campaign against Britain.

Last week, the US Secret Service delayed Mr Adams’s entry to the White House for so long that he left. Immigration officials delayed Mr Ferris so long at Boston Airport that he too missed his US engagements. Mr Adams raged against the machine and, in a bizarre statement, compared himself with Rosa Parks. Ms Parks had suffered racism in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s. Adams, unlike Parks, was feted many times at the White House and on Capitol Hill. This happened when he was relevant and was crucial to ensuring peace in Northern Ireland. Now we are in the post-Peace Process era.

Mr Ferris, through my dealings with him, shows himself to be a more emotionally intelligent person than Mr Adams. He will know that this trouble with officials illustrates that the game is up. When Bill Clinton was in power, these men with close contacts in the IRA would have been hurried through VIP channels.

The Irish, British and US administrations now believe that Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris are yesterday’s men. This, along with the fact that the two men are now costing Sinn Féin votes in the South, means that the old guard will be gone soon.