As a prisoner to the past, sometimes sorry is the hardest word for Adams

DAMNED if does, damned if he doesn’t.

The decision by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams to apologise on behalf of the republican movement for the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare, Limerick, in 1996, was a highly significant one, politically. The reaction to his apology has been mixed.

The issue must have been on a list of apologies that Sinn Féin, in its role as spokesman for the IRA now that “P O’Neill” is no longer in place to issue statements for the disbanded organisation, needs to make as it continues its process of normalisation in democratic politics.