EXCLUSIVE BY PETER KELLY
Gerry Adams told the Irish American audience at Manhattan’s Cooper Union commemorative event that due to the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement, “many are alive today who may otherwise have been killed, and that is the legacy, Irish America that all of you in this room should be proud of.”
The former Sinn Féin leader spoke to the audience of hundreds in lower Manhattan, sitting beside former President Bill Clinton in the front row. The two men both infamously met on Belfast’s Falls Road during the 42nd President’s impromptu walkabout during his November 1995 history making visit to Northern Ireland.
Adams is now retired from elected politics in both the Irish parliament in Dublin, Westminster parliament in London and Stormont Assembly in Belfast. He has been followed in the leadership of Sinn Féin by Dublin TD Mary Lou McDonald in Dáil Eireann and Stormont Assembly member Michelle O’Neill in Belfast.
He reminded the audience of the importance of America’s Irish diaspora to peacemaking efforts. During the embattled Irish peace process he said, “We reached out once again to our diaspora and particularly to Irish America.” The community’s contribution was decisive, creating the White House’s policy breakthrough in the months leading to and securing the IRA ceasefire. “President Clinton’s decision to give me a 48-hour visa in January 1994 was a critical initiative in the peace process,” Adams reminded.
The former West Belfast MP also spoke also about current challenges in the British government’s policy in post-conflict Northern Ireland, and encouraged the current administration to retain its focus to protect outworking of the Good Friday Agreement. To applause he warned, “The Tory (UK Conservative) government should scrap its flawed and offensive Legacy Bill. They should implement the agreement on legacy reached ten years ago.
“We appreciate the work done by President Biden to defend the Agreement. People in Ireland still need the White House to act as guarantor.”
To particularly supportive applause from President Clinton, the veteran Irish Republican declared, “the results of the last elections of the Northern Assembly need to be respected. The DUP need to take up their ministerial posts with the rest of us.”
Gerry Adams reminded the audience of the long-lasting impact of the Agreement upon Northern Ireland’s post-conflict everyday life in the past quarter century.
“Many are alive today who may otherwise have been killed. That is the legacy, Irish America that all of you in this room should be proud of. You, President Clinton, all of your positive representatives – Irish Americans helped to bring peace to Ireland.”