A PRESIDENT STEPS DOWN

I have known Gerry Adams  for more than half my lifetime.

Now when he has stepped down from Presidency of Sinn Fein  I wish him well, as he has wished myself and many other friends well.  His advice and experience will remain a treasure in his Party and outside it.

 I have seen  the interplay of forces between  different "social classes" in which a nationalist politician  advised British interested parties that Gerry Adams could not write his own speeches and had to get a priest to do it for him. I have  seen how almost every initiative for peace that I was associated  with was  either cold-shouldered or opposed by people who wanted peace but believed some classes of people could not  make peace  and had to be presented with it as if it were a gift possessed by those who had lots of material gifts already and therefore were, so to speak,  a peace- making class of some kind. Peace without change was theirs to allot.

People have said , especially in contrasting Gerry Adams with Martin McGuinness, that Gerry was remote and unapproachable - this from people who refused not only to talk, but even to listen to him.

People talked about a past military "baggage"  who seemed to believe peace was only to be got by discrediting  opponents  rather than exploring each others'  minds .

When we were struggling for employment in West Belfast Gerry Adams supported peaceful efforts which others condemned. When people were travelling to Ireland, Britain, Continental Europe, Canada, the  USA,  asking support  for Principles of fair conduct to ensure fair employment for our neighbours we were opposed in public and in private by representatives of political parties, churches, diplomatic officials. Gerry Adams supported our efforts for Peace Through Equality.  The best we   were offered officially was equity - where the master treated all the servants with equal reward and punishment.  That is not equality. We had the humiliation of listening to representatives even of our own churches saying these principles of fair employment would prevent investment in N.Ireland. The truth was that with such principles for the first time in our history we could assure investors that  they could now find workers in Ireland all of whom were appointed on ability to do the job rather than membership of secret organisations. In other words we  promised efficiency.  Some important people wanted the defeat of republicans more than the prospect  of efficiency. 

Time and time again people like Father Alex Reid asked church and other leaders to get those in conflict around the table - they had nothing to lose, everything to gain - to talk to  and with them . They refused , saying that to talk to "them " would "give  them status". 

They had not accepted that   the vote of the people gives representatives status  - that principle was abandoned along with the other principle that no-one can be said to have broken a law unless and until proved to have done so beyond reasonable doubt -- a   principle being broken almost every day still  by those who accuse others of being lawless ,whether with evidence or not.  

I was content but surprised to see  lines of political people, who would not have allowed Martin McGuinness to speak,  reverently attending his funeral, and  clergy many of whom would have supported politicians and media  in that  boycott. It took a long time to persuade such people that to despise the people's representatives is to despise the people who choose them but eventually the message had to be heeded by some of them.

The support Gerry Adams  gave to peacemaker Father Alex Reid was important especially when many other people  said  Alex was being  naive and manipulated. Gerry Adams knew well that people like Alex went  talking to members of the Red Hand Commandos, the UDA, the UVF, politicians , church officials, SDLP,  anybody willing to talk and listen, all to help people find reasons to share  respect for people who  were their neighbours.

The first time I saw Gerry Adams on a public platform was when he addressed a school hall full of young people after riots in the street . He calmly and assuredly told them that rioting in the street was not going to make life better for  them or any of us , but organising , becoming one together and learning the reason for what was being done to us would set us on the way. During many years West Belfast was one of the few places where all the political parties, all the churches, pacifists like Dan Berrigan , Herman Verbeek , representatives of people engaged in political struggles elsewhere in the world were invited by the residents to speak  with them . West Belfast  probably learned more about oppressive politics , helpful and unhelpful  leadership and their own potential   than  people in most other cities did.  But they had to do it in face of cold-shouldering and even  opposition from those who could and should have helped. 

Those who helped were appreciated, and if politicians, voted for.

I have never believed in the existence  of " physical force republicanism".  In republican history military action came after years of effort to create fair government , even on terms dictated by those who ruled  unjustly ; if military action had to come it had to  be a last resort not a first one. For those who conquered other countries into bad government and created  empires military force was a first resort not a last one.

I  have  remembered that many times while watching the painful struggles from peace into war and from war into peace.

When August 1969 came and whole streets were burning and war came - not "Troubles" but war by any standard - I believed and still believe that for the police, military and politicians who made those  attacks, this, along with  the ensuing thirty years war was to be their Final Solution.

For those who flung up barricades and hurled stones and faced into the thirty years war - not "Troubles" but war by any standard - this was their Last Resort.

The war was between the Final Solution and the Last Resort.

To lead people into war is easy. Mr Blair did it. Mrs Thatcher did it. Hitler did it.

To lead people from war into peace is difficult and often opposed by nice people .

Martin McGuinness led from war into peace. So did Gerry Adams .

Most people in Ireland and Britain, apart from a courageous few, stood aside and  refused even to admit  what the conflict was about.….......

So we know whom to blame for the war. And whom to thank for the peace.