February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
There was, however, no note of irony in Adams’s speech, which spelled out for supporters in New York the state of play in the peace process and the run-up to Nov. 26’s elections — and he adopted a somewhat conciliatory note toward the Ulster Unionists.
Adams could have been forgiven if he had sounded angry. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Ulster Unionist party leader David Trimble said he was putting the process on hold, unconvinced that the IRA’s latest round of weapons decommissioning was sufficient — another delay in a peace process that has faltered on so many occasions.
“Hurt and annoyance,” was how the veteran Sinn Fein leader described the feelings of Irish republicans after the carefully choreographed day ended in failure.
However, there is no time for recriminations, Adams told his audience of about 1,100 guests who had paid $500 to spend Thursday evening with the Sinn Fein leader.
“A lot has happened since last November,” he said, sounding weary at first. But much of the developments were positive ones.
“We had one of the calmest summers of my adult lifetime,” Adams said, noting that work by community leaders on the ground and at interface areas is starting to pay off.
Then he addressed the events of Oct. 21, when the peace process hit yet another all-too-familiar bump on the road.
“People said, ‘You must have known that David Trimble wouldn’t go for it,’ ” Adams said, recalling the events of the day that failed to deliver. “They said, ‘Sure he hasn’t gone with anything else.’ “
But Adams refused to point the finger.
“There is a deep crisis in Unionism,” he said, then reminded his audience, “All of this is light years away from the one-party state that used to exist.”
Much or the recent negotiations have taken place in meetings where Adams and Trimble have sat down face to face, which itself is a positive development.
And there was more — in one meeting, Adams recalled, he and Trimble finally shook hands in one of the meetings.
“In fairness, he reached across the table and we shook hands,” Adams said. “Just think about this for a moment. Ten years ago we had the Shankill bombing and three workmen were killed.
“And Greysteel happened 10 years ago,” he added, recalling the “trick or treat” pub shooting that appalled people around the world.
“There are hundreds of people alive who would have been dead. You have to remember that we have come a seismic way forward.”
But Unionism still remains an obstacle, Adams said, because “Unionism finds it difficult to embrace change.”
“We are from a generous philosophy,” he said. “We don’t want a Catholic country for a Catholic people. . . . The business of talking to Unionism is a huge challenge.”
Looking ahead, Adams anticipated a stronger than ever Sinn Fein team after the elections to face the challenges ahead.
“This election — how are we going to do? We can’t take the voters for granted, but it’s my view that we are going to do very, very well,” he said.
Adams’s appearance at the Sheraton netted Friends of Sinn Fein over $500,000, according to Larry Downes, president of Friends of Sinn Fein.
Another appearance in New Orleans at Tulane University saw Adams warmly received by an audience of about 600 people. Downes said that that visit garnered between $5,000 and $10,000. Adams also met with the editorial board of the Times-Picayune Newspaper in a “very cordial” meeting.
Local Ancient Order of Hibernians leaders hosted Adams at a dinner in New Orleans and he laid a wreath to Irish immigrants who died working on the city’s canal system in the 19th century.
Adams, who was also in the U.S. to promote his latest book, “A Farther Shore,” said to applause that once he had wrapped up his engagements, it was “straight back into a three-week election campaign.”
“We are not quitters,” he reminded his audience to more applause. Behind Adams a banner proclaimed and quoted from Hillary Clinton’s biography, which he said he had read over the summer. In the book, Clinton mentions Harriet Tubman, a freed slave in the U.S. who constantly put her life in jeopardy to help other slaves escape during the 19th century.
Tubman had reminded those she helped escape, never to give up.
“She told them, ‘If you want a taste of freedom, keep going,’ ” Adams said.