“But he can’t skipper the republican ship forever.”
The Sinn Féin “significant activist meeting” today has been presaged by a series of media interviews with the still party President Gerry Adams, MP, MLA – even the Sunday Tribune got a quote. Whilst denying a North/South split within the party elsewhere, in that interview Adams acknowleged his Northern [Ireland] problem.
“I think there is an issue that I do not stand for election in the south and I have a constituency in another jurisdiction. That is why we have been building a southern leg of our national leadership.”
He also confirmed that the party’s Vice-President, the unelected Mary-Lou McDonald, is “the [party's] leader in the south.”
But perhaps the most interesting commentary comes from the Irish Times’ Gerry Moriarty.
But despite probing about the issue, he doesn’t fully address Ferris’s concerns that in the South there is a northern turn-off factor for Sinn Féin. The Navan meeting is important [in] charting the way ahead. He’s 60 now but says he is in good health and has plenty of energy, interest and commitment to remain at the helm. But he can’t skipper the republican ship forever.
Implicitly he asks who is there at the moment who could replace the Adams-Martin McGuinness leadership. And that again is a fair point. Mary Lou McDonald hasn’t delivered and the other great hope, Pearse Doherty, has yet to make his mark. It’s just too early to talk of replacing the Northern leadership, he feels, and anyway there are no vacancies.
“trapped by circumstances that are arguably of his own making”?
Adds Adams was also on the phone at the end of Talkback today, following a Suzanne Breen piece which included a list of hypocritical positions the party has found itself in. Adams’ response to the charges – “I’m not here to address Suzanne’s agenda.”
And when David Dunseith pointed out the impossibility of Adams’ recollection of singing Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” whilst in Long Kesh pre-1979 [Life of Brian wasn't released until August 1979], Adams stuttered, then laughed at length, before saying “Well, I don’t know about that”. And then he repeated the tale again..
Update As Rusty points out, it’s not simply a case of Adams mis-remembering.
Yeah, Pancho’s Horse.
I’m the one in an ideological cul-de-sac.
And back to the topic..
I knew you’d see sense sooner or later. Just John o’ God to convince now. And on topic – Gerry will be there ’til he leaves.
Pete Baker,
We are all in an idealogical cul-de-sac.Rats in the bottom of the bag.Its called the Belfast agreement, and it means we are all in a weird stasis where we don’t have a country and you don’t have a country.how long can we put up with it?and where do we need to go?
It is of course the unionist idealogy that has been reversed and the Republican idealogy that been forwarded.That is neither here nor there in the real game.Republicans have parked those issues in accepting the principal of consent.Do unionists need to park there issues.NO.should unionists park certain issues.A voir.
And by the way,
Gerry Adams is neither here nor there in the real game.He knows it.And finds all this fuss quite amusing.
Sure, guest.
Gerry’s always looking on the bright side of life.
Even when he wasn’t.
sure Pete,
Is that the only crumb you’ve got?
No response to the questions I’ve posed?
No desire to discuss the real game?
We have all the non-time that the Belfast agreement has given us but yours is the consent.
“Well, some would have us believe that Gerry must stay in place otherwise the Peace Process™ itself is in jeopardy.”-Pete Baker.
Once again, who?,and where is the logic therein?
Squeeze him too hard, guest, and he sulks. Or else wakens John O’ God to draw attention away from the paucity of his arguments. Or else ‘moderates’ you.
Pancho’s Horse
And we were getting on so well.
I thought ‘guest’ would like the final word.
And since that particular avenue of discussion is a cul-de-sac – as I pointed out last night..
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”-Martin Luther King.
Good man Pete.
“Well, some would have us believe that Gerry must stay in place otherwise the Peace Process™ itself is in jeopardy.”-Pete Baker.
Once again, who?,and where is the logic therein?
guest
I’ve already pointed out that I think that the logic of such an argument is fundamentally flawed.
But here’s one example, albeit from an unreliable source.
Thank you Pete,
It is indeed fundamentally flawed and the author himself draws on that reality.The idea that the end of Adams is the end of the peace process is the equivalant to the idea that he never signed the Belfast agreement.In many ways, the non-time orientation of said agreement makes Adams a target in a media driven world where we demand and demand what our leaders are doing.We have overseen the change within unionism with relative ease and time was always going to forward the end of those who signed that agreement from the other side.but what is the point ?That there is a dissident element and therefore Adams should stay to steady the Republican ship.Nonsense.He has said it and I’ll say it again;we are all in this together and the Belfast Agreement has created the space and non-time that we require to let unionists reflect.If anything needs to be now said it is that a change in Sinn fein leadership needs to be forced upon Republicans by unionists in party to their descent to reality.Not a problem and you Mr.Baker are doing a good job in making all this a “known” .
He’s said a lot of things, guest.
Not all of them entirely truthful..
such as?
Singing away.I thought we were discussing what is true?or do we need to go through the punts,trimble/cameron,empey,durkan ‘s history?