No-one has an exact date for when it happened, but sometime during the 1970s or early 1980s, Gerry Adams disappeared and was replaced by Gerry Adams. Whilst Gerry looks and sounds like Gerry, they are most definitely not the same person. I understand how this can be confusing at first, so for the purpose of clarity, I shall call the real Gerry Adams, 'Real Gerry', and the tree hugging, quirky Tweeting, plastic duck collecting, naked trampolining with his dog, Sinn Fein Gerry will be referred to as 'Theme Park Gerry', for reasons that I shall now explain.
Theme Park Gerry is a Disneyfied cartoon character. A reimagined version of the real Gerry Adams, played by an actor inside a costume, following a carefully crafted script. Whilst followers of Sinn Fein are prone to reaching the point of rapture whenever two or more gather at his feet, seasoned and cynical observers say that Theme Park Gerry's utterances about his reimagined past, are as plausible as Gordon Brown's claim that he enjoyed listening to the Arctic Monkeys.
As we all know, politicians or celebrities often have a public persona. The challenge for us, the audience, is to determine how much of the public persona is genuine, and how much is self-serving propaganda. This can be a tricky business when there is conflicting information, claims and counter claims, allegations and denials-a-plenty.
There is a school of thought within certain sections of society, including Irish Republicanism, that Theme Park Gerry is a character in an elaborate narrative, produced for the purpose of perception management. Some people who have freely admitted to PIRA membership, such as the late Billy McKee, have stated that Theme Park Gerry is a fabrication and that Real Gerry, unlike Theme Park Gerry, was not only a member of the Provisional IRA, but that he had reached the dizzy heights of the PIRA Army Council (PAC).
Billy McKee on Gerry Adams
Billy McKee on Gerry Adams
This excerpt from the above article, provides a flavour of how some within Irish Republicanism, view the Theme Park Gerry narrative.
McKee once said about Gerry Adams: "He was Chief of Staff, Army Council and OC Belfast, yet he says he was never in the IRA. For him to get up and say that, was the daftest thing I have ever heard."
Two self-confessed members of PIRA's Belfast Brigade, Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, have also insisted that Real Gerry was also Terrorist Gerry, a member of PIRA and their Officer Commanding, right from the early days of the troubles. Other members of PIRA and journalists, have also detailed the alleged career of Terrorist Gerry, in various books, newspaper articles, TV and radio broadcasts.
Perhaps understandably, Theme Park Gerry is always quick to dismiss any claims that he is Terrorist Gerry with the awkward and illegal past, but the level of public incredulity, with regards to Theme Park Gerry's back story, combined with the allegations of informed commentators, means that those of us watching from the sidelines, are now left with the difficult task of separating fact from fiction.
We could of course simply embrace the rather implausible and often mocked, Disneyfied reimagination of Gerry's past, and accept that it is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Perhaps Terrorist Gerry is just the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding, or a smear, propagated by opponents. Alternatively, we could take the time to reflect upon what came before and try to make an informed judgement about the Real Gerry Adams.
Dear reader, I think it is only fair to Real Gerry, that we delve into the past and examine what others have said about him. Let me, a proud citizen of Belfast, who lived and worked in Northern Ireland throughout the so called troubles, be your tour guide, on a magical mystery tour around the lesser known parts of Gerry Adams.
In the next blog, we will travel back to the summer of 1972, a year that I remember as being filled with extreme violence and a callous indifference to death. For me, it was the year we entered the centre of a maelstrom and somewhere in the midst of the chaos, if we look in the right places, we might just find the real Gerry Adams, before he was disappeared.
If you would like to read part 2 of this blog, you can read it here.
We could of course simply embrace the rather implausible and often mocked, Disneyfied reimagination of Gerry's past, and accept that it is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Perhaps Terrorist Gerry is just the result of an unfortunate misunderstanding, or a smear, propagated by opponents. Alternatively, we could take the time to reflect upon what came before and try to make an informed judgement about the Real Gerry Adams.
Dear reader, I think it is only fair to Real Gerry, that we delve into the past and examine what others have said about him. Let me, a proud citizen of Belfast, who lived and worked in Northern Ireland throughout the so called troubles, be your tour guide, on a magical mystery tour around the lesser known parts of Gerry Adams.
In the next blog, we will travel back to the summer of 1972, a year that I remember as being filled with extreme violence and a callous indifference to death. For me, it was the year we entered the centre of a maelstrom and somewhere in the midst of the chaos, if we look in the right places, we might just find the real Gerry Adams, before he was disappeared.
If you would like to read part 2 of this blog, you can read it here.
