Adams ‘not under pressure’ over Liam
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has once again insisted he did not know his brother, Liam, who faces sex abuse charges, worked for his party in his west Belfast constituency.
The republican leader has faced calls to explain how Liam Adams chaired a local branch of Sinn Fein in west Belfast in 2000, three years after Gerry Adams says he had him expelled from party ranks.
“I don’t know every member of the party in west Belfast,” Mr Adams said on Saturday.
“I am also a very busy activist – a lot of this happened at a time of intense hyper-activity – but I didn’t know.”
Liam Adams faces charges he sexually abused his daughter Aine Tyrell in the 1970s and 80s.
The Sinn Fein President revealed in a UTV documentary he knew about the allegations since 1987.
Liam Adams was expelled from Sinn Fein in 1997, when Gerry Adams learned of his brother’s potential selection as an election candidate in Co Louth.
Gerry Adams told UTV’s Insight programme he interfered to block the selection and have him removed from the party.
But Sinn Fein revealed that three years later Mr Adams became re-involved with the party in Andersonstown – which is Gerry Adams’s west Belfast constituency.
While he did not re-apply to be a member, he did chair a branch in Andersonstown for a period, party chairman Declan Kearney explained on Friday.
Gerry Adams said he felt constrained from fully defending himself by a need to protect the privacy of family members and by a desire not to prejudice any future court proceedings against his brother.
“I don’t feel under-pressure”, he told UTV.
“The issue is being used by hostile elements in sections of the media and by some political opponents to undermine me”.
Liam Adams gave himself up to Irish police in Co Sligo in the Republic before Christmas. But Gardai could not detain him as they did not have the correct warrant.
Ian Paisley Jr has asked a Stormont Assembly committee to investigate if Gerry Adams breached its rules by failing to act about his brother’s alleged sex abuse.
The DUP MLA submitted questions to Assembly Ombudsman Tom Frawley who will assess if the complaint merits being passed to the Assembly’s Committee on Standards and Privileges.
