“In the end I realised it was all about PR and protecting his own image.”
The issue of Gerry Adams’ claimed desire to preserve Áine Tyrell’s anonymity was raised in Mark’s post, and in the Sunday Tribune interview [added link] Áine Tyrell challenges other parts of the Sinn Féin president’s version of events.
The same applies to the youth projects where Liam worked, Áine says. She frequently brought this up with the Sinn Féin president during two years of meetings from late 2003 until late 2005. “I’d heard Liam was working in youth projects in west Belfast but not which ones. I repeatedly raised this with Gerry. I said I was concerned that Liam was seeking jobs working with children. Gerry told me that was Liam’s way of trying to make up to the community for what he’d done to me.”
On the meetings themselves.
Áine’s two-year long series of meetings with the Sinn Féin president to discuss his brother began after her father sent her £100 at Christmas. “I didn’t want his money. I took it to Gerry. We held a series of meetings where we discussed getting Liam to admit to me what he’d done.”
Many of her meetings with the Sinn Féin president took place in his west Belfast home. Others were in the Cultúrlann on the Falls Road, and one was in Clonard Monastery. On many occasions Gerry Adams’ brother Paddy was also present.
Áine’s uncle, Bob Corrigan, says: “I was unhappy that nobody was ever allowed to accompany Áine to the meetings. I believe that was deliberate. They wanted Áine there on her own, without support. I don’t accept that Gerry or Paddy Adams were seriously trying to address the matter about Liam. They were giving her false hope and stringing her along so she wouldn’t go public.”
Áine says that at first she believed Gerry Adams was sincere in their mettings.
“Looking back he was buttering me up. In the end I realised it was all about PR and protecting his own image. He would put me on a guilt trip. He was always saying how bad Liam felt, how he was suicidal. Did Gerry not realise I was struggling with depression myself?”
And media coverage
Áine says that Gerry Adams was always concerned that the story about Liam would break in the media. “In 2007, he heard the Sunday World were planning to do a story about it. He frantically phoned me about 20 times. He wanted to obtain a court injunction with my help to stop the story. He said he needed to make sure it didn’t get into the press in order to protect me.”
Áine refused to assist him. The story, which didn’t reveal Liam Adams’ identity but concerned his alleged sexual abuse, appeared in the Sunday World that April.
It was Áine who last year contacted UTV’s Chris Moore to tell her story. After last month’s programme, Áine says Gerry again mentioned media coverage: “He advised me against talking to journalists again. ‘You’ve no experience dealing with the press,’ he said.”
Áine has spoken to Gerry Adams several times since then but no longer wants any contact with him. She won’t answer phone calls from withheld numbers in case it’s him.
Bob Corrigan says that, in spring 2007, around the time of the Sinn Féin ard fheis, Gerry Adams told him that the story about Liam could appear in the media. “He said, ‘My people are ready to deal with it if it does break’. I took that to mean he had a plan of action already worked out.”
Additionally
[Áine] also wants to challenge another part of Gerry Adams’ account of her story: “He says that a member of his family accompanied myself and my mother to social services about Liam in 1987. That’s untrue. We went on our own to social services. Gerry says he has documentary evidence to support his claim. We’d like to see that.”
‘Gerry told me that was Liam’s way of trying to make up to the community for what he’d done to me.’
Nauseating. The worst example ever of the Andersonstown News idea that the ultimate victim is always ‘the community’.
It’s strangely similar to the Catholic Church’s old focus on priests’ personal repentance and search for forgiveness rather than on taking practical steps to protect children from them.
This is a dead story.
There has been a complete collapse in the momentum of this story…I would say this happened about a week and a half ago.
Apart from this blog, do you hear massed crowds outside Adams’ offices looking for his resignation?
No.
Apart from yourselves and the Tribune the story is dead.
Perhaps it’s because people began to realise the ridiculously one-sided nature of it.
The complete lack of balance in terms of the focus on Adams in comparison to the role of the police and the social services convinced many weeks ago of the nature of this story.
It’s dead. Even the Irish News gave up – although they’re still covering the Robinson stuff.
So, finally, could someone tell me what crime Adams has actually committed here?
Anyone?
Gerry Adams is a catholic, a republican and a successful politician. Three things that don’t sit well with the Seáiníní and the gombeen journalists in this twisted sectarian little statelet.
Aye, poor Gerry the downtrodden victim of people who maliciously got themselves abused as children.
…….. the pipes, the pipes are calling.
“Apart from yourselves and the Tribune the story is dead.”
UW
You seem to have overlooked the most important people in this story the victims. I doubt this story will ever be dead for them, hence their need for completion.
UW and socaire, how many more skeletons are likely to emerge from this PRM closet?
Liam Clarke: Adams can’t deny his position is shaky
Ultimate love is reserved for the revolution itself
Sexual violence and terrorism have always been inextricably linked, writes Eilis O’Hanlon
And the DUP isn’t being forgotten either:
DUP’S new sex shame
So, finally, could someone tell me what crime Adams has actually committed here?
Anyone?
Posted by UlsterWatcher on Jan 24, 2010 @ 04:52 PM
In terms of the law UW he’s done nothing wrong. But he has demoralised the Republican struggle, been dishonest and decietful to the Republican community, He put our children at risk without a thought, like the statement “Liam’s way of trying to make up to the community for what he’d done to me.” come on at least be honest, Who would let a peadophile work with other children, maybe he thought it was normal considering the circumstances within his own family, I dont know but whatever, it was totally wrong, uncaring and indefensible.
RTE give it a good airing yesterday on the Pat kenny show, and poor Mary Lou McDonald was put up as the Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein sacrificial lamb.
Mary Lou the poor dear, was bleating all over the place and in the end Suzanne Breen had to step in and put the old piece of mutton down. As her screeching and suffering was not a edifying noise.
You can hear Mary Lou online under Latest Show:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
Ulsterwatcher: I think that the (anthropological) theory that items are retained as ‘news’ as long as something puzzling remains unanswered fits the bill.
What has Adams done wrong? He has demonstrated that he just doesnt get it about child abuse. Which makes him opening a new youth initiatives last week all the more sickening.
Well said, Tacapall.
I must pay tribute however to a woman who hasn’t hidden behind a nom de guerre. Suzanne Breen should be commeneded highly for her courage and determination. She is a formiddable opponent for SF and a significant proponent for the Truth.
He didn’t even send me a birthday or a Christmas card. The only present I ever received from him was a signed copy of his autobiography, Before The Dawn, in 1996.”
Sums Gerry Adams up perfectly, it’s all about him.
So yet nothing more about the press story that Liam Adams was recruited by the British Army’s FRU in the 80s?
No comments? No Martin Ingram?
Outside NI, how long would any party leader last if he had done / not done what Gerry Adams has allegedly done / not done in this case?
We should all be ashamed of this – that our political system is so corrupt and deficient that this situation persists – and I would say the same if it was Paisley or any otehr politician. its not about politics – its about basic human values
“The only present I ever received from him was a signed copy of his autobiography, Before The Dawn, in 1996″
…well he had to do something to shift them.
… I hear that this book is one of those on Amazon where the unsigned copies fetch a premium. Anyway, for those desperate enough you can now get a copy for 23p!
‘This is a dead story.
There has been a complete collapse in the momentum of this story’
in 1972 the same thing was said about the Washington Posts persistent coverage of watergate. ah, come to think of it, it was mostly republicans saying that then… and now?
No Martin Ingram?
Yes, he’s here. But he’s using an alias now.
We live in the land of dead stories; a land in which every atrocity, no matter who committed it is willingly swept under the carpet (for the common good, you know).
The slaughter of innocents; Shergar; Northern Bank; RUC/Loyalist Collusion; Shoot to Kill – all dead stories….
Dead stories are what keep Gerry in his place and all the rest of us in ours.
JoeCanuck
Thats those spooks for ye eh, always changing identities….I’m guessing his old mates in Branch are settling some old scores at the moment.
At least it looks like it.
posted by Kathleen Collins
Gerry Adams told a group last week that expensive lawyers have advised him not to sue the paper.
In today’s Sunday Times Liam Clarke states gerry adams has been caught in several lies and if he sues the paper then the lawyers can use his public told untruths to demonstrate gerry adams can not be trusted.
For those who say this is a non story….think about people in negotiations with sinn fein and gerry adams…do they believe him? He is a liability to negotiations and a liability to fund raising. So–if he is going to hurt negotiations and hurt fund raising…why keep him around?
Gerry Adams and any other accused and or their possible accomplices should be suspended from Sinn Fein, the Assembly and anywhere else until after trials and investigations are done.
It is what would happen anywhere else.
expensive lawyers have advised him not to sue
You’re such a tease, Kathy.
Where can we find the inexpensive ones?
“This is a dead story.”
If the number of posters telling us this and the number of times they’ve come on here to tell us is any guide then it must be.
Kathy C
So—if he is going to hurt negotiations and hurt fund raising…why keep him around?
Yes, just cast him aside because he doesn’t bring in the dollars any more. You’re such sick people, you US republicans.
Gerry Adams has now clearly identified himself as a pathological liar.Is Martin McGuiness dense or is it the “none so blind as those who do not want to see” syndrome. I suspect the latter or worse still,both .Gerry Adams is a disgrace. To quote Cathy C “he is a liability to negotiations”.How much longer is Martin McGuiness and the leadership of SF going to keep their heads buried in the sand.
This is not about political point scoring,it is about very basic human values, the dreadful cover-up of rape and physical and mental child abuse,the details of which are sickening and grossly disturbing. What a disgrace! What a cruel scandal!!
I salute the indescribable courage of these victims.It’s time we stood together in an honourable effort to support them.How great, how prolonged their suffering.Together let us voice our profound condemnation,North,South East and West of this Island.
Of course why keep someone around, who if he is not part of perversion has certainly hidden it.
Why tolerate anyone who could be accused of rape.
If this is all the republican movement is good for, they should keep it, in as confined a space as possible.
“You’re such a tease, Kathy.” – joeCanuck
Oh, the irony (given comment No 18). Now repeat after me: Agreeing with Mr Ingram is not the same thing as being Mr Ingram.
If, however, your intent is to create the impression that Mr Ingram’s claim (the one you challenged on another thread and that I supported) that it is the policy of the British government (more pertinently, the Security Services) to keep the leadership of the Shinners in place is so off-the wall that no other person could agree with it (and therefore anyone who does agree with it must be the same person) then I’ll give you a an F+ for effort.
With that degree of subtlety, never juggle chainsaws for a party trick…
“Gerry told me that was Liam’s way of trying to make up to the community for what he’d done to me.”
Strange form of atonement… a paedophile sentencing himself to a few years of doing community service in close proximity to vulnerable kids. Presumably the £100 he sent to Aine was a self-imposed fine. Did Gerry actually expect Aine to accept this explanation for why someone they both believed to be a paedophile would be following a classic pattern among paedophiles of seeking access to vulnerable children or was this a case of a sociopath getting his jollies from manipulating others by telling a story so fantastical that it could only be believed by someone completely under his control?
“Gerry Adams has now clearly identified himself as a pathological liar.”
Now?
Nevin
Mary Lou’s appearance, and Suzanne Breen’s response, on Today with Pat Kenny was noted here.
Cynic
“Outside NI, how long would any party leader last if he had done / not done what Gerry Adams has allegedly done / not done in this case?”
Moreso that, as wild turkey suggests, what he says he did isn’t supported by either the available evidence or the contemporary witnesses.
In fact, both contradict his version of events.
JIMMY, Point taken.
Pete, I put up the direct link again for the benefit of those who read 1640′s comment – immediately before mine.
Were you surprised that BBC’s Sunday Sequence totally ignored the Tribune and Times sex abuse stories in its Sunday papers review?
Nevin
It wasn’t a rebuke. Although the post I mentioned does include an actual direct link.
And nothing surprises me anymore…
pete and nevin sittin up a tree
I was puzzled by your intervention, Pete, so I thought, out of generosity, I’d provide a simple explanation
I’d agree with the observation made by a friend that Sunday Sequence’s avoidance of the story was ‘a disgrace’.
Happy days, alf
When was Before the Dawn published?
In it Adams has this to say about the brother he was supposed to be estranged from…
“I also want to thank collette, our Paddy, my father, brothers and sisters ESPECIALLY LIAM”
And he sent that to his niece?
Dixie
“When was Before the Dawn published?”
First edition – 1996.
Same year Liam Adams was attempting to become the Sinn Féin candidate for Louth in the Dáil elections.
Whilst those Dáil elections were in 1997, Amazon dates the first edition publication of Before the Dawn as September 1996.
And from the timeline – “In October 1996 the Louth Sinn Féin selection convention is held, reportedly chaired by Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.”
posted by Kathleen Collins
Hi Joe Canuch, actually it was gerry adams doing the teasing. It was reported in the story Adams last Tuesday he had spent all that evening in Dublin with “very rich lawyers”. The cost quoted was from 400 to 500 thousand pounds to go to court to sue the paper.
Hi John O’Connell, I’m a realist. One of the main reasons gerry adams came to the US over the years was to fundraise…get money out of us ‘sick’ republians as you call us. If he can’t get the money…then why come. He’s tarnished goods and people don’t give money to tarnished goods. Strange that a technique of Denis Donaldson who was outed as a brit spy who was in the ranks of sinn fein was to insult American republicans.
Hi Alias, interestingly let’s look at who’s gone since the begining of negotiations in 97. Ian paisley of the DUP…out. John Hume of sdlp…out. Trimble of UUP…out. The only major player left is gerry adams. And oh how the british are working to keep him in power. If it doesn’t make you think…well it makes me think–why are they so motivated.
Pete, do you recall when Liam Adams married for the second time? You’ve probably got it on your timeline.
“The cost quoted was from 400 to 500 thousand pounds to go to court to sue the paper. ”
Actually I think that was said to be the cost of losing, which may be an indication of the advice he was given on the strength of his case.
Nevin
The timeline’s here.
It’s believed to have been late 1996.
KathyC
Donaldson was not the only one to insult American Republicans. Most, if not all Irish republicans are socialist, from the mildly left of the SDLP, to the extreme left of Sinn Fein. If any one of them lead America to believe anything else – they lied.
Hypocrisy is something all politicians do very well of course, but in the north? these guys could give lessons.
The problem is, as bad as they are, who is going to replace them. We need F/F and F/G to grow a back bone and challenge in the north, when that happens we will have begun to move forward.