Gerry Adams speaks of his dream of Irish unity on Mayo visit
by Dr. Richard Martin
Recently, I found myself in a field halfway between Swinford and Charlestown on a sunny, hot July Sunday morning.
A man from Ballymurphy in West Belfast was there to plant an oak tree.
Martin Neary is an 81-year-old farmer who has bequeathed his 39-acre farm to Mayo County Council to be transformed into a woodland park. His only stipulation is that the land is never sold or redeveloped.
It is an incredible act of generosity and selflessness.
More than 39,000 native trees have been planted already on the site. Martin is hale and hearty and in time to come will eventually be buried on the land.
His desire to be buried on his homestead is what prompted his incredible act of generosity. In 2015 he won an appeal to An Bord Pleanála, after initially being denied permission to build a private burial plot on his land.
As a committed lifelong republican it was his wish that Gerry Adams would someday visit and plant an oak tree.
When I heard Adams was coming to Mayo I couldn’t miss it. He is without question one of the most divisive figures in Irish history.
Tim Pat Coogan once described him as ‘the shogun’ of the Republican movement. Who is he? What is he really like? I think the only person that could answer that is Martin McGuinness. The complexity of Adams is reflected in the complexity of our history.
When the troubles broke out in 1969 he was catapulted into the leadership of the republican movement.
He, along with six other republican leaders, went to Cheyne Walk in London in 1972 to negotiate a truce with Willie Whitelaw (Secretary of State for Northern Ireland).
At the time he was interned on HMS Maidstone but the republican side refused to engage in any dialogue with the British unless he was part of the travelling team. He had to be released in order for the talks to go ahead.
He was only 24 at that time. Martin McGuinness was also present at the meeting in Cheyne Walk. He was 22. That they were both at such an important meeting at such a young age shows the esteem and respect they were held in by the republican movement.
At Cheyne Walk, Adams was met by British government officials who were caught off guard by his affable and charismatic personality. Frank Steele recollected: "I'd been briefed that although Adams was a young man he was a senior member of the Belfast battalion [of the IRA].
"Therefore I expected - putting it frankly - an aggressive streetwise young tough. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when instead a very personable, likeable, intelligent, articulate and persuasive young man appeared."
The talks with Willie Whitelaw fell through. Neither side were able to reach a place of compromise. It is said that Adams said very little and was thoughtful and reflective throughout the meeting.
Adams and McGuinness both in time became the leadership of Irish Republicanism. In 1998 an internationally binding truce was signed. The Good Friday Agreement.
Twenty-six years after the initial rapprochement with the Brits in Cheyne Walk. Twenty-six years later all parties were willing to reach a compromise.
A lot of blood was spilled and atrocities were committed by all combatant forces.
Approximately, 3,600 people were killed during the Troubles. In the end, thankfully, the peace was won and all sides could claim some form of victory.
Adams and McGuinness both reached the same crossroads Michael Collins had reached in 1922. There was no absolute victory nor absolute defeat in sight. And there never would be.
That being the case the only option is compromise around a table. It is my belief and contention that the Good Friday Agreement could never have happened only for Adams. It was he and he alone who steered the republican movement in that direction over a lengthy period of time.
The event took place on the morning of July 13th. The day after the glorious 12th in the north. The day the Orangemen march in remembrance of their victory at the Battle of the Boyne over 300 years ago.
It’s a time of year that a lot of people leave the north. Including Gerry Adams. After all, who wants to listen to your neighbour banging a drum and reminding you how their Protestant prince defeated your Catholic king in a battle 300 years ago? After a while it could get a little bit annoying I’d bet. It’s not a very neighbourly act. Even King Billy would need ear plugs after a while.
Gerry Adams spoke at the Swinford event. Mayo SF stalwarts Rose Conway-Walsh, Gerry Murray and Joe McHale were all present. I noticed Adams had two security men with him, even now 27 years after the GFA was signed.
From a young age he has always lived under the threat of death.
In his address he said the following: “And as the Orange Order, over this weekend, celebrate or mark the 12th of July, we should remember that Davitt was ideologically and instinctively opposed to sectarianism.
"And he actually saw, he spoke at an Orange Hall up in the North in which he told the Orange men that they, they were as much victims of the English rule in our country as the rest of us. And he also would remind us…….that orange is one of our national colours.
"So whatever about that sectarianism which we have to stand against, we do have to find a way of ensuring that the Orange men have ownership in the New Ireland as well as any of the rest of us.”
His words gave me pause to reflect over the last few days. The figurehead of Irish republicanism is telling us we must embrace the orange traditions on this island or we will never achieve true and lasting unity.
We all know that the Catholics/Nationalists got a raw deal in the six counties when the treaty was signed and partition was enacted. But did they have to rise up in revolt in the way they did? Could they not have taken the SDLP/Hume approach?
Was the Troubles a waste of human life or a necessary painful path that had to be taken to lead us to a peaceful united Ireland?
Seamus Mallon once said that the Good Friday Agreement was the Sunningdale Agreement for slow learners. Which is correct, but it was the Unionists who weren’t prepared to compromise in 1974.
Adams would say yes. That a war had to be fought for a settlement to take place. Both communities had to reach a place where the only way forward was achieving a lasting peace.
Republicans in the north resent our historical double standards.
In his speech Adams said: “During the tan war, the IRA and Cumann na mBan, here in Mayo, attacked the RIC, burned barracks, destroyed tax offices, organised Sinn Féin courts, gathered intelligence and fought back the guerrilla campaigns.
"But if we listen to the revisionists, we know they did this with powder puffs. They did this in a very, very gentle, this freedom of the IRA, in a very gentle way.”
He delivered those lines in a jovial jokesy manner and there was a ripple of laughter in the crowd but the meaning was clear.
Northerners resent the moral judgement. The simplistic approach that the good old IRA violence of 1916 through to 1922 was good and that the IRA violence from 1969 onwards was bad. After all did Padraig Pearse and his comrades march into the GPO with water balloons, rotten eggs and pea shooters?
If Pearse, Collins and company could do it why couldn’t the men in east Tyrone and south Armagh rise up in arms against British rule? What is the difference? They see our criticism of the Provisional IRA as totally hypocritical and there is a palpable anger that they were left behind in 1922 in a state that didn’t want them.
What is my take on Gerry Adams? Ultimately, I believe that history will be kind to him. Over 3,600 lives were lost in the Troubles. If Adams wasn’t in the fray that figure could’ve been 20,000.
Those of us who are prepared to engage the brain and appreciate the complexity of the conflict in the north will understand that he transformed a movement that was devoted to violence, revolution and war into a movement devoted to politics and Irish unity through peaceful means.
Today, Sinn Féin are in effect the SDLP with attitude. They have come a long way. It could never have happened only under the stewardship and guidance of Adams.
Where does a united Ireland feature in the overall scheme of things? In a recent July Ireland Thinks opinion poll, a united Ireland was 2%. Housing at 51%. Cost of living at 32%. Immigration at 24% and healthcare at 15%.
It begs the question, are SF focusing on what they should be focusing on?
If they can’t win 50 plus seats in the next general election it can only be described as a catastrophic failure, and deep down the party think tank must be wondering is Mary Lou the woman to bring them there?
Would they be better off having her go for the presidency and then anointing a new leader with a fresh impetus? Pearse Doherty? Mairead Farrell?
The politics of SF is left of centre. They are in effect a socialist party. What are their solution with regard to waiting lists?
Castlebar people are now going to the emergency department in Roscommon to avoid the waiting times in our local hospital. We all know that the establishment civil war parties are running out of road and don’t seem to have the ability to tackle the existential crisis of our time.
But I’m not hearing the specifics of what SF will do. Their approach to resolving the housing crisis seems totally off the wall. I heard Rose Conway Walsh try and explain it to Aidan Crowley prior to the last general election. They are both highly intelligent.
After 20 minutes I was lost. And so was Crowley. Good policy can be explained in a minute. Great policy can be explained in 20 seconds.
The national children’s hospital is the great scandal of our times. Wrong location. Over budget. Over run. The taxpayer has been royally ripped off. And vital services for the sick children have been denied as the building still awaits completion. In the end the innocent suffer.
Back to Adams's speech: "And now we're coming to categorise Michael Davitt on the 160th anniversary of his birth and the centenary of his death. And Davitt was an idealist, a nationalist, a Fenian, a Republican, a revolutionary, a labour activist, a writer, a journalist, a historian and an internationalist. But, most of all, he was a proud man.
"And he's a figure who I think we don't know enough about. But he packed into his 60 years of life more activism and he helped to promote more innovative methods of struggle than anyone else I can think of. His commitment and activism changed the lives of countless millions.
"If you want a measure of the efficiency and the effectiveness of activism, it changes people's lives for the best. Michael Davitt certainly did that. He experienced the hardships here in the rural West.
"He went to England in search for work. And in England he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He ended up in prison, like many others, including from our generation, most notably the two hunger strikers, Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg.
"And, like them, Davitt endured great hardship within the English penal system. And, again, we don't have enough information about that but, in my opinion, the Fenian prisoners were treated with great brutality. Some went insane as a result of their incarceration and of the way they were treated.
"And some of them, writing about their experiences, said that one of the worst things was silence. They weren't allowed to talk. For years, they weren't allowed to talk.
"But of course, they found ways to talk and they found ways to communicate. When Davitt came back here to Mayo, he founded the Land League. And his mantra was very straightforward.
"And it's as applicable today as it was then. If people stand together, there's nothing we cannot accomplish.
"The Land League campaigned for the three Fs, fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale. And in one of its most famous actions, outside Balmoral against Captain Charles Boycott, the Land League introduced a new word into the English language and a new form of protest and activity, which has been copied by countless others around the world. And that is the boycott.
"Davitt's vision was for a future which was socially equitable. It was for social reform as well as land reform.
"It was for free education, housing for workers, universal suffrage and much more. And he was for Irish national independence. And that was a very radical programme at the time.
"In 1899, when he withdrew from the British Parliament, he said: ‘I have tried to appease the dissents of justice in this House of Commons on behalf of Ireland. I leave convinced that no just cause, no cause of right will ever find support from this House of Commons unless it is backed up by force.’
"He died in 1906 and he was big hearted, he was generous, he was a champion of the disadvantaged, he was a founder of the GAA and he was also a founder of Glasgow Celtic Soccer Club. By the time it dawned, others in Mayo took up the struggle for Irish freedom.
"Fifty years later a new generation of Mayo Republicans took up the struggle and foremost among them was Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg. Michael Gaughan was captured in England, he was convicted of possession of weapons, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. And on March 11, 1974, he and Frank Stagg went on hunger strike.
"And Michael endured the horror of being forced fed 17 times. And the last time was on the evening of June 3, 1974, in Parkhurst Prison. And the following day, the British penal authorities announced that he was dead.
“Michael was just 24 years old. He was brought home. Thousands attended his funeral in Ballina.
"And Frank Stagg died on February 12, 1976, after 62 days of his second hunger strike. And all of this had to do with penal strategy, penal policy, which was about trying to break Republican prisoners.
"The strategy failed due to the selflessness of the 22 Republican political prisoners who died in hunger strike and the determination of thousands of others.
"And Bobby Sands got it right when he said: ‘Never in 800 years have they succeeded in breaking the spirit of one person who refuses to be broken’. And next month, on August 24, the National Hunger Strike March will take place in Belfast.
"It's also important, 50 years after the deaths of Michael and Frank, that we realise that Irish Republicanism is stronger than any time since partition. And that we are closer to achieving our aim of ending the union with Britain and reuniting our island nation and building a society underpinned by equality, fairness and economic justice. And that was the vision of the revolutionary generation of more than a century ago.
"And when I was speaking to Martin Neary before we came here, he said the Good Friday Agreement provides the way to end the union and to bring about a united Ireland. So it isn't just a matter of building the strength of Sinn Féin, it's how we use that strength to complete the task that Martin referred to.
"Mary Lou McDonald leads the Opposition in Oireachtas. Michelle O'Neill is First Minister in the North. We have 243 councillors right across the island of Ireland.
"We have MPs. And, the union's majority, which was once described as perpetual, is gone. Few people would have imagined this could have been brought about.
"But it was brought about by strategic planning, by hard work, by the faithfulness of the folks who come before us. So we have to keep building Sinn Féin and we have to work with others.
"That's a big challenge for Republicans. To find other people to work with as we seek the fundamental political and constitutional change that we're all about. And we have to think nationally.
"The national strength is reflected in how strong we are locally and how we find ways to harmonise in the national and the local and the social and the economic. And that means planning in every stride, every county and in every province. And we have to embed Irish unity into the work of every area across this county.
"Our task is to develop an Irish unity plan here in Mayo and to work with others to get the Irish government to plan for the referendums on the future contained in the Good Friday Agreement.
"Michael Davitt didn't have a peaceful means to bring about an end to British rule, neither did Frank Stagg or Michael Gaughan.
“So we cannot allow Micheál Martin to dodge his responsibilities and his obligation as An Taoiseach to establish the unity referendums along with the British government. And we also need to be very, very clear about this.
"A united Ireland, a new Ireland, a real republic on the island of Ireland would be good for the people of Mayo as well as the people of Antrim or all of the six counties. So we have work to do. We know we've never faltered.
"Mayo Republicans have never been afraid to face up to challenges. We actually have the ability to end British rule. It's there.
"But it won't happen of its own accord. But, as Bobby Sands once said, the day will dawn when the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom in their hearts.
"It's then we will see the rising of the moon. So that's hard work, hard work for all of us, new phases of struggle, active campaigning."
The crusade continues.