Léargas: A Podcast by Gerry Adams

Gaels call for Citizens Assembly In a powerful video message 12,000 Ulster Gaels are appealing to our fellow Gaels in Munster, Leinster and Connaught to sign and endorse a letter to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin asking the Irish government to take the lead in planning for Irish Unity by establishing an All-Island Citizens Assembly “reflecting the views of citizens North and South to achieve maximum...

Rewriting History "The first casualty when war comes is the truth” said US Senator Hiram Johnson in 1917. We know only too well from our own recent experience of reporting on the decades of conflict how true this is. However, it misses the equally important other side of the coin – the victor writes the history." Ratcheting up the Brexit crisis  For now the DUP and Johnson still appear d...

The Sunday World apologises My case had to do with an article in the Sunday World in September 2015.. For me this was always about asserting my own integrity and I think the case succeeded in that. It is my intention to donate the proceeds of the settlement to good causes. These will include the Irish language sector, Green Cross, The Bobby Sands Trust, The Moore Street Preservation Trust, the hom...

Criostóir de Baróid Criostóir de Baróid died two weeks ago, surrounded by his family in Marymount Hospice in Cork where his wife Máire had died in February. About 20 people from Ballymurphy travelled to Cork by car and train to participate in Criostóir’s funeral. They were there to pay their respects to a man, who in the 1970’s along with his son Ciaran became a part of the extended Ballymurphy fa...

ALICE Toner lived in Ballymurphy Drive, not far from our house in Divismore Park.  I was deeply saddened by her death. I knew Alice and her husband Fra all of my adult life. Like my own family, they moved into Ballymurphy shortly after it was built. She and Fra were long-standing republicans.  Alice was born Alice Scullion in 1929. She was from Varna Street in the Falls area. Varna Street is now g...

Christy returns to Belfast to salute H-Block heroes: THE first time Christy Moore sang ‘Ninety Miles from Dublin’ in West Belfast – his song about the obscenity of the H-Blocks – was in the old Ballymurphy Tenants Association building on the Whiterock Road in the summer of 1980. Tom Cahill had asked Christy to come to the city and play a set. Still not sure of the words, Christy had a piece of pap...

Michael Davitt GAC In October 2006 and again in August 2021 I was asked to give a talk on Michael Davitt to the members of Davitts GAC on the Falls Road as part of the Davitts Culture, Sport and History Weekend. I enjoyed the craic. My thanks to Chairperson Tommy Shaw, Terry Park and others for a good evening.   The Future of Moore Street Last Thursday the relatives of the Signatories of the 1916 ...

Jeffrey at the Crossroads Is the Union the only reason why some working class unionist voters persist in voting for parties like the DUP when that party clearly doesn’t represent them on social and economic issues? In fact the DUP often acts against the class interests of working class Protestants, Unionists and Loyalists especially those from deprived communities, suffering from the effects of To...

Biden tells Johnson a few home truths While sitting beside Johnson at a press conference in the White House President Biden told the media that neither he, “nor I might add would many of my Republican colleagues like to see a change in the Irish accords, the end result having a closed border in Ireland.” Many other US leaders were equally resolute in their rejection of any suggestion that there co...

NEXT week will mark 40 years from the end of the 1981 hunger strike. Much has been written this year and many events have taken place to remember those who died. For me Ten Men Dead by David Beresford and Nor Meekly Serve My Time, compiled by Brian Campbell, remain two of the outstanding books of that period. Jim McCann’s 6000 Days is a very welcome and amazing recent addition to these publication...

ACCORDING to media reports there was great elation among Palestinians when the news broke that six political prisoners had succeeded in tunnelling their way to freedom from the high security Gilboa prison in northern Israel.  The six were Zakaria Zubeidi; brothers Muhammad and Mahmoud al-Arida; Eham Kamamji,;Yacoub Kadiri; and Munadil Nafayat. Photographs after the escape show a hole in the floor...

Are you listening Jeffrey? Unionism, especially its DUP component, has been talking up unionist and loyalist resistance to the Irish Protocol since before Boris Johnson dirty-joed them, broke his commitments to them, negotiated and then signed up to the Protocol. There is some evidence of this in the loyalist street disturbances earlier this year and the sacking of Arlene Foster and of Edwin Poots...

FOR years I used to gather up acorns and chestnuts and hazelnuts and little sycamore seeds and all manner of other seeds. My growing methods are fairly basic. I collected as many as I could and then planted them out in pots or growbags and let nature do the rest. I worked on the general assumption that if I planted a lot there was a greater chance that I would harvest a lot.   I’m not talking of h...

Nicknames.  When I was at primary school my nickname was Addies. It didn’t last beyond Saint Finian’s for some reason.  My brothers, or at least some of them, had the same moniker. I don’t know about the girls but years later I discovered our Gearóid’s old school books had Addies scribbled on them.  Different generation. Same nickname. In prison nicknames were common. Cleaky, Floorboards. Honkyton...

An Féile Abú Well done Féile an Phobail and to all of the staff who plan and prepare Féile. Many thanks to all those volunteers who work around the clock every August to make it all come together.  Black Mountain  Thanks also to Féile for hosting the launch of my latest book Black Mountain And Other Stories. Harry Connolly- Féile Chair- was very kind and Timothy O Grady travelled from Poland to be...

Imagine lying in your bed as the sun begins to rise above the horizon. You are awakened by loud banging on your front door. The sound of breaking glass and the splitting of wood as the door finally surrenders to the sledge hammer. Sitting up half asleep as the noise of booted feet come charging up your stairs and your bedroom door is kicked in. The screams of your children, or wife or partner or y...

The internal machinations of the Labour Party in Britain are a matter for that party but the policies it adopts and advocates in relation to Ireland have for decades adversely impacted on the lives of citizens here.  A month ago the current British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer visited the North and provided a valuable insight into the double-think that has long been at the core of the British...

The demand for truth: One after another their faces appeared on my twitter feed. The very young. The older. Children and young people. Mothers and sisters and daughters. Sons and brothers and fathers.  Uncles. Aunts. Grandparents. Many with smiling faces from better times. Birthdays. Weddings. A night out. Black and white and colour images. The faces of victims – the legacy of decades of conflict....

Together we can make a better future: The Unity Referendum provision of the Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic pathway to a United Ireland. It is part of an international treaty and agreement. It is part of the inexorable process of change that has been ongoing for years and that will continue in the time ahead.  The conversation on the unity referendum and the constitutional...

The Springhill Massacre families are to be commended – like those hundreds of others in similar circumstances - for their courage and resilience in the face of British government intransigence. Last weekend the families of many of those killed by British state agencies took part in protests across the North against the PPS decision. Among them were relatives of those killed in the Ballymurphy Mass...

Time Running out – Save Moore St At the beginning of June the British-based property company Hammerson lodged three planning applications for major developments on and around Moore Street. The applications will effectively destroy much of the 1916 Rising Heritage of the site. Some of the buildings in the terrace that runs for 10-25 Moore Street and where the last meeting of the 1916 leaders was he...

MY sister Frances died last week.  Death is part of the story of life. Is é seo ar sceal. Sibling grief is a very special grief. Brothers and sisters usually know each other for the whole of their lives. So during these sad days Margaret and Paddy and Anne and Seán and Maura and Deirdre and Dominic and me are reflecting, no doubt in our own ways, on childhood memories and all the good times and ba...

Boris is a Chancer: Last week was not a good week for Boris Johnson. Even before the weekend’s G7 summit began in Cornwall the news agenda was already dominated by reports that the US government had issued a démarche to the British in advance of President Biden’s arrival. I must admit I had never heard of a démarche. During my years of negotiations with the Irish, British, US and other governments...

Master Plan for Moore Street Unveiled Most readers know that Moore Street in Dublin City Centre holds a special place in the history of Ireland. It was in Moore Street and the surrounding streets and laneways and at the nearby GPO that a fierce battle was fought between the 1916 republican forces and the British Army. Number 16 Moore Street was where five of the seven signatories of the Proclamati...