Readers Blog: Adams will still hold sway after he retires

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is planning to retire from republicanism. This is not his first time. Mr Adams has been coming and going.

He is in so deep it will not matter whether he is officially president or not, because he will have enormous influence.

Can we really imagine Gerry Adams saying farewell to republicanism and his quest for a united Ireland? Gerry is always there in the background, as evidenced in the nauseating talks at Stormont.

However, this time his departure seems to be more substantial, with tributes paid to family members at the recent Sinn Féin annual ard fhéis.

Nevertheless, he is not due to leave until next year, denoting a critical time for power-sharing in Northern Ireland. Naturally, Mr Adams feels a great responsibility to republicanism, not least because he was one of the key decision-makers throughout the height of the Troubles.

Adams had a notorious reputation as a double-talker and an apologist for the IRA. Allegations from IRA commander, Brendan Hughes, that Adams ordered the killing of Jean McConville, have not gone away. McConville was one of 16 people never to be seen again.

Adams’s decision to withhold evidence against his brother, Liam, in 2011, on a rape allegation, was severely criticised. A rape allegation that subsequently proved to be true. Can anybody really doubt that Gerry Adams has had a pivotal role in republican paramilitarism?

Maurice Fitzgerald

Shanbally

Co Cork