Gerry Adams has performed worse on live TV. His 2007 debacle in which he underwent intellectual humiliation at the hands of Michael McDowell is a case in point. But Monday night’s Prime Time was a bad outing for him. It is hard to see how it could have been anything else in the absence of Jim Gibney being the interviewer. The deodorant of peace has never managed to suppress the stench of war that lingers around the Sinn Fein president. And until he goes away the stench shall continue making its way up noses and will invite the question ‘what’s causing that smell?’ The entrance price to the political establishment in the South is considerably higher than in the North where an artificially deflated fee gets just about anybody in, few questions asked.
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.
