For sale: spitting images of Gerry Adams, Nelson Mandela and Peter Mandelson

A PUPPET of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is to be auctioned in Dublin next week and is expected to sell for over €1,000.

The puppet was used on the satirical British television show Spitting Image in the 1980s and 1990s. The award-winning ITV show, which regularly attracted millions of viewers, featured puppet caricatures of famous people, including then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, US president Ronald Reagan and members of Britain’s royal family.

Spitting Image was broadcast in 132 episodes from 1984 until 1996. A decade later hundreds of the puppets, designed by Peter Fluck and Roger Law, were auctioned at Sotheby’s and bought by private collectors. The top seller – which made over €13,000 – was the puppet of Mrs Thatcher.

Some turn up periodically for resale. Three have now been consigned to Whyte’s fine art auctioneers in Dublin and will go under the hammer in a sale of historical memorabilia on Saturday, April 22nd.

In addition to “Gerry Adams”, Whyte’s is also selling puppets depicting Nelson Mandela and Peter Mandelson, the former British secretary of state for Northern Ireland and architect of Tony Blair’s New Labour, who is depicted as a snake.

Whyte’s said the puppet of Mr Adams shows him “ complete with suit, mackintosh coat and instantly recognisable glasses” and that he “regularly featured on the show, particularly at the time of the broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin”.

In 1988, Mrs Thatcher’s government banned organisations in Northern Ireland believed to support terrorism from directly broadcasting on the airwaves. The ban affected both republican and loyalist groups but the principal target was Sinn Féin, regarded as the political wing of the IRA.

Broadcasters in Ireland were already subject to a similar prohibition since the 1970s. Mrs Thatcher hoped the ban would deprive terrorists of publicity.

To overcome the ban, broadcasters used actors to voice the words of the banned persons.

But the ban on Gerry Adams was frequently lampooned by Spitting Image. The broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin was eventually lifted by the Irish government in 1993 and by the British government a year later.

Whyte’s expects the Gerry Adams puppet will make most money. The pre-sale estimates for the puppets are: Gerry Adams (€1,000 to €1,250); Nelson Mandela (€800 to €1,000); and Peter Mandelson (€500 to €700).