Léargas: A Podcast by Gerry Adams

Choosing the Struggle by Martina Anderson

Last Saturday a packed St. Mary’s gave a huge welcome to Martina Anderson who was launching her personal and hugely important autobiography – Choosing the Struggle. This is an honest and heartfelt account of Martina growing up in Derry, her experience of poverty, witnessing the excesses of the British Army and RUC and the injustice of the northern state, and deciding to take a stand against these by joining the Irish Republican Army.

It is wonderfully well written with her description of her arrest and imprisonment in Engl...

The Re-Conquest of Ireland

Well done Mayo in the all-Ireland football final. Commiserations to Kerry. Both teams played their hearts out but in the end Mayo were worthy winners.

Next month on August 30 I will be in Ballina, Mayo for the 45th anniversary of the 10 hunger strikers who died during the 1981 hunger strike. The event will also remember the three Mayo Hunger Strikers, Jack McNeela (1940), Michael Gaughan (1974) and Frank Stagg, (1976). 22 Republican prisoners died on hunger strike in the 20th century. 

Gerry Kelly

My...

Andy Burnham

As I conclude this column on Monday afternoon Andy Burnham is taking up his position as British Prime Minister. As I dispatch these lines he is addressing the media and supporters outside 10 Downing Street. I wish him well. I also hope he will be the last British Prime Minister to interfere in Irish affairs. Our ambition is for the people of Ireland to govern ourselves. As soon as possible. When that happens we will govern Ireland in the interests of Ireland. Mr Burnham, like every British PM governs in the interests of the...

Another step in the right direction

The decision by Micheál Martin last week to oppose Sinn Féin’s “Planning for Constitutional Change Bill 2026” was no real surprise. His opposition to any meaningful planning for Irish Unity has been transparently obvious for many years. Despite Fine Gael spokespersons declaring that Fine Gael would not oppose the Sinn Féin Bill they then chose to support An Taoiseach. No surprise there. Simon Harris is Tánaiste to Micheál Martin’s Taoiseach. For Fine Gael to step away from a united government approach would have likely had se...

Unionism and Unity

This week significant developments that can shape the future direction of constitutional politics on this island are taking place in Leinster House. On Tuesday Sinn Féin’s Bill setting out a practical plan to achieve a united Ireland is up for discussion. Fine Gael is moving ahead with its plan for a blueprint for Irish Unity for November. And other parties, including the Social Democrats and Labour have expressed their support for Unity and notwithstanding Micheál Martin’s opposition, it is obvious that there are many within Fianna Fáil who und...

Momentum around Unity Grows

I want to begin by commending the SDLP for organising last week’s conference – The Future of these Islands: Preparing for Change. It was a well-attended day-long event, held in Belfast, on the issue of Irish Unity. Among those who contributed to the series of discussions was Dublin Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy and others, including leading figures in the SDLP like the party leader Claire Hanna.

Add this to Fine Gael’s announcement that it is planning to publish...

The Unity Bill passes its First stage

The “Planning for Constitutional Change Bill 2026”, which I referenced in last week’s column, has passed its first hurdle in the Dáil. It will now go to second stage on 7 July and then on to the Committee stage before returning to the Dáil later in the year.

The Bill sets clear goals and timetables for measures that have to be taken to properly plan and prepare for constitutional change on the island of Ireland. It does so in accordance with the provisions of the Good Fri...

Stand-Up to Racism

The bullet holes from the August 1969 sectarian pogrom against the people of the Falls area are still visible on the front wall of St. Comgall’s Primary School, Divis Street. Last Thursday lunchtime, a few yards from where, on that occasion, whole terraces of houses were burned out, scores of community activists from across Belfast came together in Ionad Eileen Howell to discuss another pogrom. This time the pogrom was rooted in violent racism.

In the days before families and workers from the various ethnic groups, who now mak...

This podcast with Roís- Máire was recorded shortly after  the horrific stabbing incident in North Belfast and before the racist pogroms which followed. It was also before the PSNI warned the Belfast Ard Mheara that her life was in danger. It has been a difficult week especially for those citizens evicted from their homes. We stand in solidarity with them. Racism is the first cousin of sectarianism. The majority of people are opposed  to both these negative evils. Elon Musk and others who support these despicible actions from afar should shut up. The good people who helped our...

A Chairde,

As June heads towards July the distant beat of your drums is pounding out their rhythm. The marching season for all of the Loyal Orders is well underway and the 12 July is fast approaching. One July, sitting during yet another negotiation, into the early hours with Tony Blair the ratatat of Lambegs sundered the quiet. We paused as he asked if I knew what that was. Yes ,I replied that’s the Orangemen.

“Jungle drums?” he said.

I am minded to remind you that the Battle of the Boyne was fou...

Unionism and the Future

Last week, at a meeting of the Executive the DUP chose to block the Good Jobs Bill. Why did they do this? The Bill will be good for all workers. It makes no distinction based on religion, politics, ethnicity or gender. Workers who vote unionist would benefit as much from this Bill as would workers who vote nationalist or for neither of these.

The legislation, being proposed by Caoimhe Archibald, the Minister for the Economy, contains common sense measures making it easier for Trade Unions to represent w...

A few weeks after the Good Friday Agreement was agreed in April 1998 I brought a delegation of the Board of Governors of Bunscoil Phobail Feirste, on the Shaws Road in west Belfast, to meet the British Secretary of State Mo Mowlam. I asked for the meeting after the Department of Education had again denied funding to the school for the construction of permanent school buildings. The Department had just announced a £33 million schools building programme which excluded Irish medium schools and nurseries. I did an intense series of engagements with Mo Mowlam in the run into this meeting and s...

Cúpla Focal

I often quote the late Seán Mac Goill. Seán was one of the visionaries who gave us the new Bombay Street after the pogroms of 1969, the urban Gaeltacht on Bóthar Seoighe, The Andersonstown News and many other outstanding projects going back to the 1960s. Seán and his peers and their families were immersed in the Irish language and the wider cultural revolution across Belfast. It was they who laid the foundations for today’s revival and successes. Seán’s name is immortalised in the Gael Ionad Mhic Gioll in B...

In conversation with Gerard Shannon on his new book ‘Rory O'Connor: To Defend the Republic’ 

Available to buy in An fhuiseog.ie 

The Disunited Kingdom

At the time of writing this week’s column Keir Starmer is still the Leader of the British Labour Party and Prime Minister. On Monday he delivered a ‘Save Keir Starmer’ speech which may or may not work for him. Can he survive the voices of opposition within Labour? That is a matter for his party.

The reality is that his leadership of Labour and its success in the 2024 general election had little to do with Starmer and more to do with voters’ deep antipathy toward the Conservative party. With a landsl...

Springhill Heroes

When I was a wee buck growing up in Ballymurphy there was a river at the back of the houses across from our home place at the corner of Glenalina Road and Divismore Park. The river ran the length of our street and the length of Ballymurphy Road before exiting below the Whiterock Road and into the City Cemetery. From there it meanders down to and under the Falls Road beside the Bus Depot and onwards to the Bog Meadows. You can see it there to this day.  The stretch which used to b...

Standing at the crossroads

Sinn Féin, but especially, the party in Belfast pulled out all of the stops at the weekend to ensure that the Ard Fheis was a huge success. The ICC Waterfront Hall was buzzing with republican voices from across our island and beyond talking about the big issues confronting all of us nationally and internationally. The number of young people attending and taking part in the debates was particularly encouraging.

There were 167 Motions on the clár for discussion. They ranged across the cost of living crisis, housing, Irish un...

The Great Fenian Escape

For as long as the English have occupied Ireland there have been political prisoners. As long as there have been political prisoners there have been daring and ingenious escapes. In the most recent period of conflict it is estimated that around 100 republicans participated in escapes, including the great escape from the H-Blocks in 1983. That was the biggest ever in British penal history. Others tunnelled their way out; clambered over walls; escaped in a helicopter; shot their way out; blew a hole in a wall; hid in a bin lorry o...

Irish government and the Fuel Debacle

The blockade of fuel depots, motorways, towns and Dublin City centre was entirely avoidable if the FFFG government had taken the growing crisis around the cost of living and increasing fuel and energy bills seriously months ago. Instead Micheál Martin and Co. stuck their heads in the sand and ignored the mounting anger.

Another Israeli Offensive likely in Gaza

As I write this the talks between Iran and the USA, over the illegal Israeli/US war against Iran, appear to have foundered.

American Trade Unions and Ireland

Last Friday I spent an enjoyable couple of hours in the company of my good friend American Trade Union leader John Samuelson and the staff of Áras Uí Chonghaile and Fáilte Feirste Thiar – the west Belfast Tourist Board. Unbeknownst to John both organisations had agreed to name one of the Áras rooms after himself and a former Transport Workers Union, (TWU) President Mike Quill. 

Keeping the Faith for Unity

This Easter the Good Friday Agreement is 28 years old. It only seems like yesterday that we...

Wear an Easter Lily

Easter is only days away. This Sunday will mark 110 years since the momentous events of Easter Week 1916 and the declaration of Independence and equality contained in the Proclamation. It is also the centenary of the sale of the first Easter Lilies which were designed in 1925 by Cumann na mBan to raise funds for the Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund.

In the 100 years since then thousands of women and men have been imprisoned in defence of the Irish peoples’ right to national self-determination and each year Easter Lilies are sold in...

London Civil Case - Thank you for your support

The Civil Case against me in London came to an end last Friday when the Claimants and their lawyers accepted a ‘drop hands settlement of the extant claim on the conditions that:

1.    the Claimants file and serve a Notice of Discontinuance by 10 am 20 March 2026; and

2.    that there be no order for costs’

In other words, they accepted an offer, made by me the previous evening, that they discontinue their claim. I instructed my legal team to make the offer because it was a...

London Civil Case coming to an end

This week I spent Lá Féile Pádraig in Derry/London. As you read this my time in the Royal Courts of Justice should be coming to an end. Regrettably, the court case prevented me from joining in the St Patrick’s festivities in Belfast or here. I am assured the London Irish have a vibrant, hugely enjoyable celebration of Irish music, culture and language so good luck to all the Paddys and Patricias.

The civil case is expected to conclude on Thursday, although, that could...

Dia daoibhse from London

I’m writing this week’s column in London. Today, Monday, I’m in the Royal Courts of Justice in a civil case that has been brought against me by three claimants, innocent victims, who were injured in three IRA bomb attacks in 1973 and 1996. They are alleging that I was party to those attacks.

There was a small crowd of former British soldiers outside the Court and some in the court room itself. There were also some people with tricolours showing their support.

Today the legal teams for th...

A Turning Point in Irish History

50 years ago on Sunday past I was in Cage 11 in Long Kesh prison camp. It was a Monday. It was also 1 March 1976, the date on which the British Labour government’s decision to end political status took effect.

Political status had been introduced in June 1972 after a hunger strike by republican prisoners and as part of the context for negotiations that were to take place between republicans and the British.

In March 1974 a Labour government, led by Harold Wilson, came to power and emb...

I am against Monarchies

Currently, the British state is convulsed around allegations surrounding a member of its Royal family. Norway too is in the midst of a crisis around its monarchy. The law of both states will take their course, as is right.

However, these controversies raise for me the very existence of monarchies. A family elite which through past colonial conquest and patronage, and in alliance with business and societal elites, continues to enjoy a place of wealth and privilege and influence. Given that the British state includes a part of Ireland...