IRFF25 Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man

Irish republican leader Gerry Adams is one of the most important, polarizing political leaders and visionaries of our time. He played a central role, along with others, in creating the Irish peace process and ending generations of conflict. Adams, along with Martin McGuinness, was key in persuading the IRA to embrace an alternative to armed actions. In July 2005, following an appeal by Adams, the IRA  ended its armed actions and engaged with the International Independent Commission on Arms. Imprisoned and shot, Adams was demonized and censored and labelled by the establishment media as a subversive and terrorist. In the end however the British and their allies and the Irish government were forced to recognize his electoral and democratic legitimacy and to negotiate with him and his party Sinn Féin. The Good Friday Agreement in April 1998 was the result.  In A Ballymurphy Man Adams speaks of the role of Irish America and of the influence both personally and for the Irish republican movement of the ANC and Nelson Mandela. An intensely private man always protecting his family from the public eye, this is the first time Adams has sat down to tell his story, interweaving the conflict he lived through as a teenage activist, becoming party leader and political representative, and an internationally recognized and respected leader.