Adams recalls fond DUP memories
Gerry Adams has revealed his favourite DUP representatives as he bows out of Stormont to run in the forthcoming elections in the Republic of Ireland.
The Sinn Féin president has been a fixture of Northern Ireland’s political landscape for decades, as both an MP and MLA for west Belfast.
But, while he is hoping to win a seat in the Dáil as a TD for Co Louth, Mr Adams has admitted to UTV there is one person in particular he will miss – Gregory Campbell.
“He said there’d be no power-sharing arrangements, he said there’d be no Sinn Féin in government, he said there’d be no DUP and Sinn Féin in government, he said there’d be no transfer of policing and justice powers, he said there’d be no justice minister,” Mr Adams smiled.
“So I’ve come to watch him, because all the things he said weren’t going to happen … have happened. In Leinster House, if I’m lucky enough to get elected, maybe Gregory would come with me?”
It’s a bit like an H block corridor, but you can leave here – you couldn’t leave the H block.
Gerry Adams, on Parliament Buildings
While he says some DUP members still won’t acknowledge him, Mr Adams does have a lot of time for Stormont’s Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson.
“Sammy’s a bit of a clown and he acts the eejit at times when he shouldn’t, but I like his sense of humour.”
The Sinn Féin president also has a great deal of respect for Baroness Eileen Paisley, the wife of former DUP leader Ian Paisley.
“Eileen Paisley, on a personal level, has been very good. She sent Colette, my wife, a nice little prayer book there just recently,” he said.
“She and I, on the margin of a couple of events, had a little chat on the side and I think there’s a great humanness and a sense of humanity about her.”
On a more serious note, Mr Adams paid tribute to the DUP leadership for the progress made in recent years in moving Northern Ireland forward through power-sharing.
“Many people would never have thought that we could have made a deal with the DUP and that myself and Ian Paisley could have come to the agreement that we came to,” he said.
“Fair play to Ian Paisley on his part and fair play to Peter Robinson on his part that, despite the difficulties, they have led their party into what is the only way forward.
“A unionist leadership which has to manage basically what will end up as the end of the union has a very, very difficult job to do.”
Looking back on his political career, Mr Adams pointed to the Omagh bomb and attacks on the security forces – including the murders of two soldiers at Massereene barracks in Antrim and of Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon – as being among the worst of the lows.
“Not only were people killed, in my opinion, for no good reason – but if the people in the process here and in the political institutions had not been as robust about defending it as they were, we could have taken a slide back,” he said.
Being “granted an audience” with colleague and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness may be among Mr Adams’ career highs – “He insisted that everybody else calls him Martin, but that I have to call him ‘Minister’ …” – but he can also look to his DUP counterparts for some of his memorable moments.
“When Ian Paisley retired from the position that he was in as First Minister and we went down privately and made a small presentation to him, just away from the media, I think he was genuinely pleased about all of that,” the Sinn Féin leader said.
“And also in quiet ways, there are DUP people here and other unionist members here who in quiet moments you’re able to have a good yarn with – both about personal matters and in some cases spiritual matters but, for this place more importantly, political matters.”
