The Political Vilification Of Gerry Adams Still Goes On

You either love the guy or hate the guy. I just like him. One thing is absolute: there would have been no peace in Northern Ireland without him while others have tried to claim the fame for it, and not least shifty Bertie and the rabid mad cleric, Ian Paisley. But the political vilification of Gerry Adams still goes on and that of his party, Sinn Fein, and it will not stop. 

Bertie Ahern and Gerry Adams are polar opposites. Gerry looks good in a suit while Bertie looks like he lives in one. Their politics are different. Bertie was always in it for the money despite having no bank account, that anyone has found anyway, while Gerry was in it to make Ireland a better place. Bertie made sure it was a poorer place after leaving his party just before he would have been fired with a lot of work left to do. It was the day the party died and his one too. 

Bertie did not even need a digout for his reward for the corruption and bankrupting of the State was huge. A massive €3000 weekly pension and a thank you cheque of over €300,000 on his way out the back door where even tradesmen dare not go. He definitely needs a bank account now. Shifty Bertie indeed, and not a hair on his head touched or a mark on his conscience left. In fact, come to think of it, I hate him. Maybe that was a bit strong but I most assuredly do not like him.

Back to Gerry. He has had numerous threats made against his life and not all of them on the football pitch. Then the threats became real and they did try to take his life and more than once or twice. They were, of course, the erstwhile chums of Ian Paisley along with the RUC and the alphabet soup of all the other soccer hooligans in the hood carrying tattoos on their dense heads and AK47’s in each hand in case you had misunderstood or carried a different point of view. Why does he keep going? Yet it looks like Paisley will be made, you just wait and see, a fully paid up member of the Catholic church and a Saint replete with his own set of wings. 

Gerry has a bank account, well, I don’t really know, but in the interest of fairness and balance, it is at least likely. If he was in it for the money he would have been long gone by now and living safely in some bog neck town where nothing much happens and a bald tyre is a major event, and unless he has a few offshore accounts he is as rich and as poor as the most of us in this green land. You will not find sticky fingers here and he is lucky that he still has them in any case. 

Still, he has been accused of child abuse, as an accessory in mind at least but the media are still not satisfied and want him to be the actual abuser. They want him to be the rapist of Maria Cahill and will not let truth get in the way of a good story. Still, Gerry soldiers on. His past can tell you where he is going. 

There is little that has not already been done to Gerry Adam. He is used to being vilified, being threatened, being lied to and being lied about. He has shown support to those needed it, shown strength when everyone else had left the field, shown courage when to those that it had left. He does not need Ireland as much as it now needs him and his party. But Gerry will only go when he wants to. If nothing that has been proven over and over again, he is not for turning either. 

Gerry Adams embraced the peace and if he and his party get into Government they should be given the chance to change the fortunes of Ireland. And if they do not succeed where everyone else has failed, then they should be given the proverbial boot. 

They say it is called democracy and the worst form of government except for all the other forms of government that have been tried from time, as Winston Churchill said, but it is all we got and it is time for Gerry Adams to step up to the plate or at least be allowed to if he is chosen by the people. 

Barry Clifford

(previously published in November 2014)

To be continued very soon…………….