Net Worth Of Gerry Adams

2 months ago

Net Worth Of Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams is a renowned Irish politician who played a pivotal role in the peace process that ended the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland.

He was the leader of Sinn Féin, a party that advocated for Irish reunification and the end of British rule in Northern Ireland.

He was also a key negotiator in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, establishing a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

He is also a writer and a speaker who has published several books and has been involved in various international causes.

Early Life & Education

Gerry Adams, who clocked the age of 75 in 2023, was born on October 6 1948 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He grew up in a working-class Catholic family with a history of involvement in Irish republicanism.

His grandfather, Michael Hannaway, was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and his father, Gerard Adams Sr., was a veteran of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. His mother, Annie Hannaway, was a niece of Joe McKelvey, who was executed by the Irish Free State in 1922.

Adams attended St Finian’s Primary School and St Mary’s Christian Brothers Grammar School in Belfast.

He left school at 16 and worked as a barman, a plumber’s apprentice, and a sheet metal worker. He also studied politics and history at the Belfast College of Business Studies.

Personal Life

Gerry Adams married Collette McArdle in 1971. They have one son, Gearóid, who was born in 1983.

Gearóid is a Gaelic footballer who plays for the Antrim county team. Adams and his wife live in Louth, Republic of Ireland, where he represents the constituency as a TD.

Adams is a fluent speaker of Irish and a supporter of the Irish language and culture. He is also a fan of soccer, rugby, and hurling. He has a dog named Snowie, who often appears on his social media posts.

Career

Gerry Adams joined Sinn Féin in the late 1960s and became active in the civil rights movement that challenged the discrimination and oppression of the Catholic minority by the Protestant majority.

He was interned without trial by the British authorities several times in the early 1970s and was also a target of loyalist paramilitary groups. He survived an assassination attempt by the Ulster Defence Association in 1984.

Adams became the president of Sinn Fin in 1983 and was elected as a Member of Parliament for Belfast West in the same year. He followed the policy of abstentionism, which meant he did not take his seat in the British Parliament as a protest against British rule.

He also represented Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland Assembly, established in 1998 as part of the peace agreement.

He resigned from both positions in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and moved to the Republic of Ireland, where he was elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth.

He served as the leader of Sinn Féin in the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament, until 2018, when he stepped down and was succeeded by Mary Lou McDonald.

Adams was a key figure in the peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which ended the armed conflict in Northern Ireland and created a power-sharing government between the unionists and the nationalists.

He was involved in secret talks with the British government and the Irish government, as well as with other political parties and paramilitary groups. He also helped to persuade the IRA to declare a ceasefire in 1994 and to decommission its weapons in 2005.

Adams has also been involved in various international causes, such as the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the Palestinian struggle for statehood, and the Basque independence movement in Spain.

He has met with leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, and Fidel Castro. He has also advocated for human rights, social justice, and environmental issues.

Controversy

Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), the armed wing of Sinn Féin, which waged a violent campaign against the British state and loyalist forces in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1997.

However, many sources, including former IRA members, have claimed that he was a senior commander of the IRA and was involved in some of its most notorious actions, such as the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972, the La Mon restaurant bombing in 1978, and the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in 1972.

Adams was arrested and questioned by the police in 2014 in connection with the McCoville case but was released without charge.

Adams has also faced criticism for his stance on some social issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

He has supported the legalization of both, which has caused controversy among some of his traditional supporters, especially in the Catholic Church.

He has also been accused of being insensitive or inappropriate in some of his remarks, such as when he used the N-word in a tweet in 2016 or when he joked about shooting a dissident Republican in 2015.