Gerry Adams was a prominent Irish politician who played a key role in the peace process that ended the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland.
He is the leader of Sinn Féin, a party that advocates Irish unification and an end to British rule in Northern Ireland.
He was also a key negotiator in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which established a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.
He is also a writer and speaker who has published several books and is involved in many international activities.
File
- Full name: Gerard Adams
- Date of birth: October 6, 1948
- Age: 75 years old
- Gender: Male
- Place of birth: Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Nationality: Irish
- Occupation: Politician, writer, speaker
- Height: 1.78 m
- Parents: Gerard Adams Sr. and Annie Hannaway
- Siblings: Six brothers and four sisters
- Spouse: Collette McArdle
- Children: One son, Gearóid
- Relationship status: Married
- Net worth: $14 million
Early life and education
Gerry Adams, who will be 75 in 2023, was born on October 6, 1948, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He grew up in a working-class Catholic family with a history of involvement in Irish republicanism.
His grandfather, Michael Hannaway, was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and his father, Gerard Adams Sr., was a veteran of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. His mother, Annie Hannaway, was the granddaughter of Joe McKelvey, who was executed by the Irish Free State in 1922.
Adams attended St Finian’s Primary School and St Mary’s Christian Brothers Grammar School in Belfast.
He left school at 16 and worked as a bartender, an apprentice plumber and a sheet metal worker. He also studied politics and history at Belfast Business College.
Personal life
Gerry Adams married Collette McArdle in 1971. They had a son, Gearóid, born in 1983.
Gearóid is a Gaelic footballer who plays for County Antrim. Adams and his wife live in Louth, Republic of Ireland, where he represents the constituency as a TD.
Adams is a fluent Irish speaker and a supporter of the Irish language and culture. He is also a fan of football, rugby and handball. He has a dog named Snowie, who often appears in his social media posts.
Career
Gerry Adams joined Sinn Féin in the late 1960s and was active in the civil rights movement, fighting against discrimination and oppression by the Protestant majority against the Catholic minority.
He was detained without trial several times by the British authorities in the early 1970s and was also targeted by loyalist paramilitary groups. He survived an assassination attempt by the Ulster Defence Association in 1984.
Adams became president of Sinn Fin in 1983 and was elected as Member of Parliament for Belfast West the same year. He pursued a policy of non-voting, meaning he did not take his seat in the British Parliament in protest against British rule.
He also represents Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was established in 1998 under the peace agreement.
He resigned from both posts in 2010 and 2011, and moved to the Republic of Ireland, where he was elected as Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth.
He served as leader of Sinn Féin in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament, until 2018, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mary Lou McDonald.
Adams was a key figure in the peace process that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended the armed conflict in Northern Ireland and established a power-sharing government between unionists and nationalists.
He was involved in secret negotiations with the British and Irish governments, as well as with other political parties and paramilitary groups. He also helped persuade the IRA to declare a ceasefire in 1994 and disarm in 2005.
Adams was also involved in various international causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the Palestinian struggle for independence, and the Basque independence movement in Spain.
He met leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro. He also advocated for human rights, social justice and environmental issues.
Argumentative
Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), the armed wing of Sinn Féin, which waged a campaign of violence against the British state and loyalist forces in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1997.
However, many sources, including former IRA members, have claimed that he was a senior IRA commander and was involved in some of the organization’s most notorious actions, such as the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972, the La Mon restaurant bombing in 1978, and the kidnapping and murder of Jean McConville in 1972.
Adams was arrested and questioned by police in 2014 in connection with the McCoville case but was released without charge.
Adams also faced criticism for his stance on several social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
He has advocated the legalization of both drugs, which has caused controversy among some of his traditional supporters, especially within the Catholic Church.
He has also been accused of being insensitive or inappropriate in some of his statements, such as when he used the N-word in a tweet in 2016 or when he joked about shooting a dissident Republican in 2015.
Social media
- Twitter Username: None
- Instagram Name: None
List of movies played
- Hunger
- The wind shakes the barley
- Bloody Sunday
- Long Good Friday
- Patriotic games
Book
- Never Give Up: Featured Articles
- Negotiation Guidebook
- My little book of tweets
- Before Dawn: An Autobiography
- Streets and other stories
Net worth
Gerry Adams has an estimated net worth of $14 million and earns his income from selling political books and speaking engagements.
