Pat Kenny’s radio show this morning came from the Old Gaol on the Ardee Road in Dundalk with local candidates – including Gerry Adams – in front of an audience of voters and party workers.
John ‘Jumbo’ Kierans, editor of the Irish Daily Mirror and a Louth constituent had a chance to ask the Sinn Fein president about the IRA. Here’s what happened next.
John Kierans:“Pat, I’d like to ask Gerry: We all talk about the need for honesty in this election. I’d like to ask him has he been a senior member of the IRA and can he clarify that issue once and for all.”
[crowd claps and cheers]
Gerry Adams: “I wish you’d asked me a question that you don’t know the answer to. The answer to that question is no. And one thing I would just like to mention here because it’s the elephant in this room. All of these other parties are going to put €30.6bn into these bad banks. That’s your money John…”
Kierans: “That’s fine but we need honesty here. As a voter in Louth, right, I want to move away from the politics of the past.”
Adams: “No, you don’t.”
Kierans: “Yes I do. Yes I do.”
[more laughter and shouting]
Kierans: “I respect the work you’ve done on the peace process. but what we need is honesty and everybody is texting in and asking this question… I’m giving you the chance to answer this question honestly. Have you been a senior member of the IRA, yes or no?”
Adams: “What part… You’re like a, you’re, I don’t know. What part of no do you not understand?”
Pat Kenny: “Gerry can I just clarify something, why this keeps coming up
Adams: It keeps coming up because guys like that are not interested in giving Sinn Féin a fair crack of the whip.”
Pat Kenny: “People actually simply don’t believe you, and that’s the reason it keeps coming up. They say how is it possible that someone so central in negotiations wtih the British government in the early days when you were a prisoner and so on. They say ‘how is it credible?’ That’s their difficulty. They don’t mind you being in the IRA. They don’t mind Martin McGuinness being in the IRA. It’s just your answer.”
Adams: “Why don’t you ask Eamon Gilmore the same question? [cheers and clapping] People will make their own mind up on that issue.”
Pat Kenny: So you’ll live with the sort of credibility gap that for some people exists?
Adams: “I have gone beyond worrying about this issue. I’m worried about real issues. Because remember this: I didn’t create the economic crisis; Sinn Féin didn’t create the economic crisis…”