Last Man Standing
Gerry Adams has called time on a political career that began in the age of Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, as his party stands on the brink of a historic breakthrough. The arguments about his place in Irish history are just beginning.
Gerry Adams attends a rally called in support of the former Sinn Fein president on July 16, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Charles McQuillan / Getty
When the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called a snap election for February 8, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams confirmed that he wouldn’t be standing for reelection as TD — Teachta Dála, member of parliament — for the Louth constituency. This came as little surprise: Adams is now in his seventies and had already relinquished his title as Sinn Féin president in 2017, passing on the torch to a new generation. It brings an end to an unusual parliamentary career that often symbolized the uneasy relationship between Ireland’s political class and the traditions it draws upon for historical legitimacy.
“I Was in America”
One incident from that career helps illustrate why Adams could never have been a conventional politician, even if that was what he wanted. In December 2016, the Sinn Féin leader read a statement to the Dáil about the killing of Brian Stack, an Irish prison officer, by IRA (Irish Republican Army) members in 1983. Alan Farrell, a TD for the center-right Fine Gael Party, interrupted Adams to suggest that two of his Sinn Féin colleagues, Dessie Ellis and Martin Ferris, could shed light on the circumstances of Stack’s murder.
All hell broke loose in the chamber as Ellis bellowed out an unconventional defense: “I’m not going to have people put my name out on something I have nothing to do with. I was actually in jail for the period in Portlaoise and before that I was in America.” True enough: the Irish police force had arrested Ellis in 1981 and charged him with possession of explosives, whereupon he skipped bail and fled to the United States, only to be arrested in Buffalo the following year and speedily extradited to his home country — a watertight alibi, as these things go.
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