RHETORIC AND MR ADAMS

Mr Gerry Adams is not unintelligent

Mr Gerry Adams is not unintelligent. His statement, published by this newspaper yesterday, offers a coherent and well argued case for Sinn Fein's participation in all party talks. Readers who may be tempted to dismiss it as cliche ridden and repetitive may reflect that there is a limit to the number of ways in which a man can say he is in favour of peace.

Tirelessly repeating the same arguments, with slight variations, is also, of course, one of the recognised techniques of propaganda. Mr Adams assures bus that "Sinn Fein's contribution to the efforts to bring about a peace settlement has been significant, consistent and central to creating the opportunity which I firmly believe still exists." No doubt he believes that is true; and in the verbal evidence of the last six or eight years, no doubt a consistent and significant line could be traced supporting the claim.

Words, however, are not enough. What Mr Adams does not say is just as eloquent as what he has said. In one of the most revealing passages in yesterday's statement - that in which he purports to answer Mr Bruton's question whether he has asked the IRA for a ceasefire he replied that the Government knew "I have been in regular contact with representatives of the IRA leadership in an effort to restore the peace process". Yet as recently as May 16th, after Mr Major's article appeared in this newspaper, he was quoted as saying that there was "no point in me going to the IRA, or anyone else for that matter, unless I am sure I am going to get a positive result". When did he change his strategy?

Similarly, when he says that "Sinn Fein is not the IRA, Sinn Fein is not involved in armed struggle, Sinn Fein does not advocate armed struggle", he is aware that this has not always been the case, and that when Mr Danny Morrison notoriously spoke of the armalite and the ballot box, he reflected the authentic tradition of Irish republicanism stretching back beyond Mr Sean Lemass's description of the newly democratised Fianna Fail in the 1920s as a "slightly constitutional party". Just when did Sinn Fein's definitive break with the IRA take place? Up until recent years, IRA representatives regularly addressed closed sessions at annual ard fheiseanna; many leading party members have been prominent in the IRA; until shortly before the Forum election Mr Adams himself, though identifying with the peace movement, never denied his close access to IRA thinking.

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One cannot demand to be accepted as a democrat and at the same time be equivocal on Jerry McCabe's murder and the Manchester bomb which represent much more than "personal anguish" and "political difficulties". Mr Adams has made considerable efforts to change the face of Irish politics, and these must be acknowledged. But a gap of credibility must remain as long as there are doubts on these serious matters.