Ed Moloney @ The Broken Elbow examines more clumsy management from Sinn Fein of the fall out from the Gerry Adams tweet of the N Word.
First there was ‘Dumb’ – Gerry Adams in a late night tweet using the ‘N’ word and immediately sparking a debate about his possible senility or sobriety.
The use by Gerry Adams
of the pejorative term “nigger” in one of his tweets has seen his reputation
pulled into a maelstrom of controversy. The Irish Independent, hopeful that it might yet depict Adams as a Grand Imperial Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, has been quick out of the traps to label the Adams tweet a racist slur.
Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh, 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s. Completed PhD at Queens upon release from prison. Left the Republican Movement at the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement, and went on to become a journalist. Co-founder of The Blanket, an online magazine that critically analyzed the Irish peace process. Lead researcher for the Belfast Project, an oral history of the Troubles.