Gerry Adams is a politician without a past

VIEWED in isolation, the accusations against and attacks on Gerry Adams this week were unfair. 

Last Tuesday the BBC’s Spotlight programme centred on an interview with an anonymous figure who claimed to have been a member of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin and having worked as an agent for the British security forces.

This man, “Martin”, claimed that Adams sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson in 2006. Donaldson had, under pressure, outed himself as a British agent a few months previously. His confession was a serious blow to the Republican movement in which he had been a major figure for over two decades.