Gerry Adams (and his cohort) also came to view the armed strategy as being a zero sum, no-win situation. The difference is that they - and Adams in particular - stayed, developed a new strategy and eventually brought the Republican movement with them. This broke the deadlock and introduced new thinking.
Heres were your wrong im afraid old bean . Your memory must be dreadfully faulty . Theres no new thinking here at all , MI5 were putting all this on the table back in 1972 . The SDLP were secretly putting it to the republican movement from that period - Daithi OConaill rebuffed John Humes offer of a blank cheque should they get into the power sharing institutions back in that period .
And the issue here isnt the armed strategy - remember they personally ridiculed and pilloried earlier leaders for calling ceasefires in the past in order to personally undermine them , right into the 90s when they had been planning this stuff for a very long time before. Their strategy involved the acceptance of British rule in Ireland as legitmate, not an unarmed rejection of it by any means . Thats a huge difference . Irish legitmacy - the right of our sovereignty to be inalienable and indefeasible , our inherent right to national self determination free from foreign occupation - was abandoned and British legitimacy in Ireland accepted .
Their strategy and the long term British strategy of Ulsterisation , normalisation , criminalisation and making some form of British rule workable and acceptable were one and the same thing . It wasnt new , it was Britian strategy since the early 70s and the failure of the orange statelet .
They did this at considerable personal risk. That they pulled this off without getting shot by their own still amazes me, .
well not really , they posed as diehard militarists for many years to cement their position and then took a very long time picking off , isolating and neutralising any of their internal opponents until they arrived at a situation where there werent really any left . Putting the likes of Fred Scappitici and other MI5 agents , actually handpicking British security force agents to be in charge of your organisations internal security , and others like denis donaldson in charge of liasing and organising nationally and internationally , over many years , made this job considerably easier and risk free . Lying through your teeth for decades also helped considerably .
And denis Donaldson did end up shot .
Just for future reference old bean heres the intelligence report from Briagdier general Michael Oatley of MI5 and cheif spook Frank Steele dating back from 72 and their frequent vists and sounding out of their well placed agents and assets in the Bogside and Creggan no go areas . Youll note that despite the Britsh army and RUC being unable to enter these areas Britians cheif spooks could come and go as they pleased outwardly posing as NIO officvials interested in reforms . Martin McGuinness of course knew they were the spooks top brass, having personally sat accross a table from them . And on every occasion it was Martin McGuinness using his very cultivated persona of ultimate militarist hardliner who advocated talks with these people , whose object was the destruction of republican seperatism and the defence of the realm .
the other 2 pages here
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/publicrecords/1973/fco87_221_2.jpg
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/publicrecords/1973/fco87_221_3.jpg
and the white paper on constituional proposals for power sharing and devolved british rule , pretty much what we have now .
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/hmso/cmd5259.htm
as does the fact that there was no large-scale feud
all those who live in these communites should be very grateful for that but im quite sure that was also down to a lot of people other than Gerry Adams .
THAT is why, instead of whinging and uttering banalities on the other G. Adams thread, you should have the grace to acknowledge his contribution to the Peace strategy that has helped the British govt out of the corner they had painted themselves into.
I think youll find he was the chap who painted himself , and indeed everyone else , into a corner . As Ive said just have a read of what the British had ben putting on the table since 72 .
2. (for Irish posters) I am well aware that the Republican Movement that Gerry A and co built - and certainly the Tankie entity that is Sinn Féin - would tolerate no such dissidence from it's orthodoxy today. That does not change Adams' contribution, which history (and future generations) will judge.
Im sure his place in history alongside Mahmoud Abbas is well assured . Tony Blair seems to think so . The hand of history was on their shoulders too at one point i believe . Large numbers of his own supporters have already judged him and have voted with their feet as im sue your well aware .
