“neither honest nor transparent”
In addition to the interview with Áine Tyrell in the Sunday Tribune, Suzanne Breen spelt out the detail of something I mentioned in the Liam Adams Timeline. Despite Gerry Adams’ claims of consistency and his party’s vice-President’s claimed commitment to revealing the “full facts”. From the Sunday Tribune article
Gerry Adams appeared on [UTV's Insight Special] saying he had believed Áine from the moment in 1987 that she told him what his brother had done. He had always supported her, he said. Tyrell’s interpretation differed. She insisted he had failed her. But it wasn’t Tyrell’s words that meant this story was far from over. It was what Gerry Adams did and didn’t tell reporter Chris Moore that would lead to claims of a huge cover-up by the Sinn Féin president.
Continued
Adams told Moore that, after hearing Tyrell’s allegations, he’d been estranged from his brother for 15 years. Two days later, the Sunday Tribune proved that was far from true. We published photographs of the Sinn Féin president at Liam’s wedding to his second wife almost 10 years after he had been told Liam was a paedophile.
To attend a family funeral, where Liam might also have been present, would have been understandable. But to attend Liam’s wedding – to stand smiling and relaxed with him at the reception wearing a green Saoirse ribbon for IRA prisoners – was another matter. Gerry Adams obviously had a very odd understanding of the word ‘estrangement’.
But that wasn’t all we revealed. Gerry Adams never told UTV’s Chris Moore – on tape or in any pre-recording conversations – that his brother Liam had been in Sinn Féin. His account to Moore was neither honest nor transparent.
It’s worth emphasising, despite what subsequent UTV reports suggest, that there was no mention of Liam Adams’ membership of Sinn Féin in the UTV Insight programme and Slugger understands that Chris Moore has confirmed that there was no mention of that membership, nor of the prospect of Liam Adams becoming a Dáil candidate in County Louth in 1997, in any of the conversations he had with Gerry Adams.
As the Sunday Tribune article adds
Two days later, the Sunday Tribune revealed that Liam Adams had been a high-profile Sinn Féin member in Dundalk in the 1990s. So senior was Liam Adams in Sinn Féin that he had sought the nomination to be the party’s Co Louth candidate in the 1997 Dáil election, but had failed. The nomination was secured by local veteran republican Owenie Hanratty at a selection convention in the Imperial Hotel in October 1996.
And we exposed something else. UTV had reported that Liam Adams had worked for youth projects in Belfast. The Sunday Tribune revealed he’d also worked for a youth project in the Muirhevnamor estate in Dundalk.
Hours after our revelations, RTE broadcast an interview Gerry Adams gave to RTÉ’s Tommie Gorman. Gerry Adams admitted Liam had been in Sinn Féin. He also told Gorman how his own father, Gerry senior, had been a paedophile and had abused family members. This revelation successfully diverted attention away from questions the Sinn Féin president would have had to answer about his own behaviour.
The media focused on Gerry Adams, the victim. It was strange that Adams had never once mentioned – on tape or in pre-recording meetings – his father’s paedophilia to Chris Moore in the UTV programme when it would have been entirely relevant. To reveal it in a broadcast later smacked of news management and damage limitation.
The day after the Gorman interview, Adams told RTÉ that, on hearing Liam was in Sinn Féin, he “moved immediately” to stop his Dáil nomination and “to get him dumped out of Sinn Féin… I moved very, very quickly”.
The following Sunday we printed material that proved that he was lying. We published photographs of Gerry Adams canvassing in June in the 1997 Dáil election campaign with the brother he believed was a paedophile and from whom he was allegedly estranged. This canvass occurred eight months after Gerry Adams said Liam had been “dumped” from the party.
Another point worth noting about the version of events given to the UTV Insight programme is that, as Áine Tyrell revealed in the Sunday Tribune interview, she had “heard Liam was working in youth projects in west Belfast but not which ones. I repeatedly raised this with Gerry.”
But as she also revealed,
“I didn’t know Liam was in Sinn Féin but had Gerry bothered to tell me, I would have waived my anonymity without hesitation. I’d have accompanied Gerry to meet his colleagues in Sinn Féin, to talk to the ard chomhairle about what Liam had done to me so they could expel him from the party. But Gerry never gave me that option.”
And in today’s Belfast Telegraph Suzanne Breen relates Áine Tyrell’s contradiction of another of Gerry Adams’ claims
On Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show yesterday Gerry Adams said that during meetings: “I told Aine that if she wanted to go public on these issues I would sit on a platform with her. I told her that if she wanted to go to the police, I’d go to the police with her. These matters were reported to social services and the RUC at the time.”
However, this account is directly contradicted by Aine. “Gerry never said he would sit on a public platform with me. It wasn’t Gerry who went to the RUC or to the PSNI about Liam, it was myself and my mother who went to the RUC in 1987, and myself who in 2006 asked the PSNI to re-open the case.”
Then there are the ongoing questions about Liam Adams’ continued involvement in Sinn Féin after Gerry Adams, as the new version of events has it, “spoke to his brother and told him to leave” – “there is no record whatsoever”
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the European Arrest Warrant is on its way to Dublin, via London.
tacapall
Now would I shoot a cat! For the record I have never even seen a real gun. I dont believe in them, they give some people an inflated opinion of their own importance!
I doubt you would, and instead of importance I would say bravery.
tacapall
Well as long as we both agree it would be inflated!
By the way why didnt you leave a comment. You know how would be writers love a critic!!!
Did I not make it clear that people should address the issues raised, not each other.
Rory, I am surprised at you!
Rory Call
If what was obviously something nasty was aimed at me and not this line, find my blog or twitter me.
The subject here is or should be the alleged abuse of children and the sexual assault of vulnerable young girls
The subject here is or should be the alleged abuse of children and the sexual assault of vulnerable young girls Posted by pippakin
Why then are the majority of the comments pointed at Gerry Adams ? Lets get something clear here, if the concern was sincere towards victims of sexual assault, then I’m sure everyone would be of one voice, the fact that little or no concern has been shown towards the alledged victim speaks volumes for those running thier petty musings.
Because he has a case to answer. Up to him whether he answers it or not, of course. People will do with that what they may (within legal limits of course).
victor1
The majority of the comments may be pointed at Gerry Adams, I dont keep count. If they are it is because he has, by his attempts to answer questions, raised yet more questions and disquiet.
Few things are worse than finding the cause you believed in, the people you voted for, are covering up the abuse of children and girls.
No cause is worth that, and no one is so important they dont have to put the children first.
The victim is as important as the crime, but will not be helped by allowing others to cling to blatant lies and evasion.
Mick
If Gerry Adams has a case to answer it certainly won’t be to a bunch of bloggers running a futile little campaign.
It seems to me that the alledged victims in this case are secondary simply because of the personality involved, this I would contend is a hate campaign rather than one of justice.
If there is a genuine concern for the victims and I have got the jist of the campaign wrong, then lets see the whole topic being expanded, lets ask questions of the statutory bodies who were informed of the alledged abuse and did nothing !
Lets ask questions of the RUC the police force of the time, who were informed of the alledged sexual assaults and done nothing !
Lets ask questions of the same RUC who were more interested in recruiting the alledged victim as an informer than they were of the allegations made by her. Lets ask questions as to why the RUC cleared the alledged abuser to work with children !
In the interest of the alledged victim of the sexual assault lets do the job right, lets seek answers to all the questions posed by the story, and not just run a hate filled campaign against one person.
Pip old chum, you still don’t get it do you to paraphrase “we’re never going away ya know”
victor1
Against my better judgement I read the whole of your latest post.
It was of course more of the same. We have to ask questions pf GA because he has failed to answer any honestly.
We cannot ask the official bodies any real questions until after any or all trials take place. In fact if everyone is found not guilty they have no questions to answer!
Allegations have been made, Gerry Adams attempted to get in first and made things worse. It is for him to step aside from S/F and let the law take its course.
Pippakin
Against my better judgement I read the whole of your latest post.
It was of course more of the same.
You still haven’t got it pip old chum, Gerry’s staying and no ammount of wishful thinking is gonna change that fact, as a matter of fact, it is quite possible he could well be the next first minister of the six county state.
“lets see the whole topic being expanded”
I couldn’t agree more, but you don’t go far enough. Better still, ask questions of the NIO’s “internal housekeeping” policy, which gave carte blanche to paramilitary organisations to commit the most unspeakable crimes provided they confined their activities to their own communities.
Pip maybe you’re right and Gerry Adams should answer questions that need to be answered, but he has not as far as anyone knows, broken any laws, he does not “have to” answer any questions. In the interests of integrity, yes he does, but politicians are not the type that have that virtue. Time will tell what the people think of him. They will be the judges and if they believe as you do then he wont be voted back into office, if not then it will be the status quo.
Victor1
Gerry Adams is the butt of every joke at the moment. Every TV station covered him peeking out from the crack in the doors at Hillsborough during the Prime Ministers press conference. People are asking has he lost it.
They are entitled to ask as he has been under enormous pressure lately and he is getting it from his own, not the Brits or unionists.
When Gerry Adams loses his masculinity then he is weakened and that masculine invulnerability is wearing thin at the moment.
victor1
Oh I get it ‘old chum’.
What you are saying is you dont care what allegations hang over the heads of republicans. In your eyes anything they did can be blamed on the Brits, and if that fails, ignore it, who cares about the people, never mind the children.
If any member of S/F became first minister with this lot hanging over them there would be hell to pay. In all honesty and as nationalist I could not blame anyone for refusing to serve in such a government. I would refuse myself.
Shame on you for putting the cause before the child.
victor,
This is the way the internet works. Some one puts up a post with detail on it, and people respond. If there are enough people interested in said topic it keeps cycling through for as long as people prepared to talk about it.
This post was written yesterday with new information that came out the day before. I’ve not written about this story for days now. But I did comment on this thread twice to state why/how I think the story might inflict damage on the party.
No big deal, and it is not what I have been thinking about for the last few days. There is possibly one more thing I have in the background from last week that I would like to get out, but then, so far as I know, that’s all there is (that’s fit to print at least).
When more comes out, if more comes out, I’ve no doubt you’ll read it here. But in the meantime there are other things to be getting on with…
Like working out what’s going on inside unionism…
Are the Tories serious about getting serious with UCUNF after the next election…
Will Peter Robinson survive as leader of the DUP…
Will the SDLP ever get another leader…
Will Slugger ever get to blog another non NI related thread…
And oh, yes, when’s the fat lady of Hillsborough going to sing…
In the meantime you keep worrying about this ‘campaign’ against Gerry… We’ll keep trying to speak truth unto power…
Nice one pip old chap, its now all my fault eh ! Oh well I can live with that as my concience is clear.
Mick
I can do without the lecture if you don’t mind “the ball not the man” and all that !
Just trying to give you a straight answer victor… sorry…
http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/39443
The Kneecapper’s weekly aka An Phoblacht, has weighed in with a savage attack on the Sunday Tribune. They exonerate Gerry, preach about upholding the law, and weill generally give all fair minded readers, who think of the barbarities an Phoblacht has eulogised in the past, a good laugh.
Of course, this screed by Ms O’Shaughnessy ( does it stil use made up names?), will give the Tribune a right to reply. So maybe more revelations about the Pervies in Sunday’s Tribune.
Checking their website a few days ago, I saw Martin McGartland and otehr “ex Volunteers” had posted comments. Does An Phoblacht give them right of reply?
The SFIRA mosaic is unravelling as they have no record of moral probity.
The same 20.http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/39443 edition also has a long letter from “a Belfast woman” attacking the Rape Crisis Centre. No doubt Finucane and Wilson, like all Gerry’s old IRA buddies are “better equipped” to deal with rape victims
Not sure if Im overstepping here but, The Pensive Quill blog by Anthony McIntyre item: ‘An Open Appeal to All Republicans’ is on this subject and I recommend it to all. I am grateful for his bravery in stepping forward.
We should all: always put the children first.