A duty to defend the people’

NEW YEAR INTERVIEW | GERRY ADAMS TD, PRESIDENT OF SINN FÉIN

AFTER A BANNER YEAR for Sinn Féin and five elections since January 2011, An Phoblacht’s ROBBIE SMYTH (below left) caught up with party president Gerry Adams in Dublin and found him tired and itching to get back home. We found a Gerry Adams who refuses to be simply reflective on over four decades in political life but who is looking forward to 2012, whether it’s leading a referendum campaign against the new EU austerity treaty or being “the real opposition”. Sinn Féin has, he says, “a duty to defend the people and a duty to defend citizens. We don’t have a choice. There is just no choice.”
He spends his working week in the Dáil, which he describes as a “challenging” and “dysfunctional institution” although he says being elected a TD has been “a humbling experience”. The essence of Gerry Adams, though, is that he is at heart a political activist and in the course of his interview the message is clear: “We know which side we’re on.”

The Fine Gael/Labour coalition
Adams has been shocked by the “barefaced audacity” of the Government, “that they can be elected on a mandate of change and then, within a wink of an eye, they are joined up and using exactly the policies, Fianna Fáil policies, that they were so rightly critical of in opposition”.
In particular, Adams highlights the cronyism of salary increases to Government advisers and “the business of taking the benefits off young people with disabilities” which was “beyond comprehension”. He focuses on how “this group of political leaders sat down in Cabinet and decided collectively that they were going to take incomes off young people with disabilities”.

Leader’s Questions and speaking in the Dáil
“I think it is a rare time that you will get a straight, clear answer to a straight, clear question. It is a very dysfunctional institution, a mixture of an English public school debating society with a lot of cynical fouling going on, playing off the ball.
“Mary Lou McDonald in the course of making a half-hour speech was interrupted 65 times. It was quite deliberate, quite conscious, to put people off their game. It involved Government ministers and even the Government Whip. To tell you the truth, I find it quite challenging to go up there and they would be roaring back and across the floor.”
Adams says that Sinn Féin is “trying to be constructive”. He highlights the pre-Budget submission where “we agreed with the targets set for deficit reduction but then showed how this could be achieved in a socially responsible way, as opposed to the Budget which the Government put in which was really about protecting the wealthy and punishing lower-income and middle-income families and the working poor”.

Adams as Gaeilge
From his first Leader’s Questions Adams has consistently used Irish in his Dáil interventions, something which has surprisingly caused a lot of comment from those who say we should encourage people to use Irish. “I took a very very conscious decision to use what Irish I have and that’s what I do. I find there’s a response from people in there, from other TDs, from ushers, the restaurant staff, the cleaning staff, off anyone you meet. They will talk to you in Irish if you use Irish.”

What’s good about being in Leinster House?
“If you are very alert that you have a mandate and you can use it both wisely and shrewdly, you can bring about positive change in people’s lives. It is possible to do that, no matter about the strength of the right wing or the conservative parties, you can still make a difference in people’s lives. That’s what’s good about it and that’s what the biggest challenge  is.”
Adams notes the artistic and cultural heritage of Leinster House. “You have all these iconic figures, the little balcony that sits around the pit in the chamber. Up behind us is James Connolly, Austin Stack — you pass them on your way in — as well as Cathal Brugha. Markeivicz is at the top of these stairs,” he says, pointing up to where we’re sitting. “You have all these iconic figures, thinkers and writers and there’s very little in this republic that reflects their vision.
“It is interesting. I wonder do other TDs when they are voting as lobby fodder, when we sometimes make them walk through the lobbies and they walk past the busts of these republican leaders, when they are voting to have social benefits reduced or welfare benefits reduced, do they reflect on that? I like to think that they do but I do wonder.”

Crisis in the European Union
The key issue for Adams is the role played by Enda Kenny and the Irish Government in the EU crisis.
“Who is setting the agenda? If you are Taoiseach you have to have some say on the agenda. To the best of my knowledge, the Taoiseach has not put one item on the agenda in the number of summit meetings he has attended.”
Adams believes that the Taoiseach agrees with the Fiscal Compact. “He agrees with centralised fiscal controls, he agrees with austerity. We make the mistake of saying he isn’t a good enough negotiator, he was cajoled or we are peripheral. That is a mistaken view of what is going on. He agrees with it.”

So what would Sinn Féin do differently?
“There was not one proposal put forward in the 2012 Budget in terms of job stimulus, retention of jobs or creation of new jobs. There was not one proposition to deal with indebtedness.” He angrily cites the fact that the proposed treaty means continuing bail-outs “to all these toxic, criminal banks”. Sinn Féin has an alternative view.
“I think we have had a consistent vision of a European Union which is a social Europe, which is based upon equality, which does value both citizens and the type of community that can bring about investment. One that can also bring about workers’ rights, that can protect the environment, that won’t be going off on militaristic adventures, that isn’t federalist.”

Uniting Ireland
“I think one of our two big successes in 2011, apart from the elections, was the Uniting Ireland initiatives. Under the leadership of Lucilita Breathnach we had six very successful conferences. It was quite amazing to be at them all because each of them was different and we are going to continue with that initiative.”
The Galway conference had a parrticular atmosphere, Adams says. “You could almost feel a social movement trying to find its way out. We discussed a whole range of issues. And there clearly are people in the community sector, in the voluntary sector, who have a vision of a different type of Ireland. The sense of public service, volunteerism, is very very strong.”
It was, he says, “a forum, which had very active people, coming to be part of almost a town hall meeting or citizens’ assembly, arguing out what they would do”.

The Presidential election
The Presidential election was an important episode of 2011, according to Adams, “not just because Martin, to a very large extent, influenced the outcome”. It was “gripping television”, says Adams, “and it does show you how people are astute and will make their own minds up”.
More importantly for Adams was that Martin McGuinness brought a “truly all-Ireland dimension” into debate, highlighting “the rights of Irish citizens, now denied to people in the North and within the Diaspora to vote for the President”.

Constitutional change
This brings Adams to the proposed Constitutional Convention which he thinks will be “a very important” project. “Enda Kenny now appears to have agreed that the Diaspora will find some way to have representation — and that there will inclusion for citizens from the North also.”
Adams wants to broaden out the Coalition Government’s commitment to constitutional change.
“Why don’t we reimagine a real republic? This shouldn’t just be about tampering with one or two decrepit bits of the Constitution, or bits that need to be updated. Why not go further now we have the opportunity?”
He also highlights children’s rights, “an issue that Caoimhghín [Ó Caoláin] has championed for ages now”.

Growing Sinn Féin in 2012
“We need more people in Sinn Féin,” insists Adams. “There are a huge amount of people out there who share our analysis and we want them to help us change society.
He highlights “the fact that we have changed our rules to permit membership of Sinn Féin outside of a cumann structure, which didn’t suit everyone. I think it is both a sign of maturity by the party and also a great openness for people who want to be active in republican politics.”
On a broader level, Adams praises the voluntary and community sector, which he says is “the cement that is holding, in these austere times, communities together”. As a lifelong activist himself, he is clearly impressed by their commitment and he adds: “We should very respectfully be meeting those people on the basis of equality because they are working away as hard as any of us would ever work.”

Upcoming anniversaries
“We are going to have a very interesting series of anniversaries, not just republican, so we want to mark the Ulster Covenant. Why not have a democratic discussion about that? We want to mark the 1913 Great Lock-out.”
On the issue of First World War commemorations, Adams believes “we should have a democratic view of that which is mindful of the suffering of those who died. Let’s have a good anti-imperialist discussion. It isn’t in any way denigrating the bravery of the ‘lions led by donkeys’.”

2012 – The year ahead
“2012 presents us with huge possibilities. We have a duty to defend the people and a duty to defend citizens. We don’t have a choice. There is just no choice. We know what side we are on.
“We need to be out there. There is a better way of sorting all this out. A new republic, a united Ireland, is possible. We just need to keep building it. We had, in Sinn Féin party terms, a good year right across the island and internationally; the people have had a terrible time.
“You want to measure the progress of Sinn Fein? It isn’t the size of the party, the number of seats we have, or how many seats around a Cabinet table we get — it’s what changes we have been able to bring about to improve the people’s quality of life. I think we have opportunities to do this over this next 12 months. This Government is on the road to nowhere.”