Boards.ie Q&A with Gerry Adams (postponed into New Year) - your questions please

Darragh

Hey folks,

There is a chance - not by any means guaranteed, but the request has been made - that I may be able to grab 10 to 15 minutes with Gerry Adams after his Legends In Your Lunchtime talk at the National College of Ireland this Wednesday.

If you could come up with say a maximum of 20 questions you'd really like to hear him answer on video, like the last Q&As we've done, I'd be happy to put them to him on your behalf.

I will of course reserve the right, as the one asking the questions, not to put questions I feel may personally insult him. I will trust your good judgement on the difference between a fair question and one that's just set to provoke without good reason.

That said, I want it to be interesting, so your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Darragh

Lockstep

Who would Sinn Féin ideally enter government with?

Nodin

Why has PSF not been a more coherent force in the South?

kev9100

Can he guarantee that sf will not pullout of power sharing in the North?

The_Minister

Does he accept that there is a huge ideological gap between the Sinn Fein of the North and the Sinn Fein of the South? It seems likely that if unification occured, then the party would quickly split into several groups.

Does he feel that he should emulate Ian Paisley and retire, allowing younger people, not associated with the Troubles, to assume a new role in the future of the North?

Soldie

Sinn Féin are the only mainstream political party in the south that seem to prioritise Irish unification above other policies. Given the fact that Sinn Féin only have 4 seats in the Dáil, do you think that this is reflective of an electorate who, by and large, simply do not care about unification and, if so, why have Sinn Féin not evolved so as to adapt to the opinions of the voters?

gandalf

If Sinn Fein were in Government what would they do differently to the present government?

How would they handle the huge costs of running government in the Republic of Ireland? Where would they make the savings? How would they encourage an environment where innovation and investment allow people return to employment?

ANXIOUS

Can he off the top of his head come up with another situation where by scum can unload an automatic weapon into a undercover gardai car killing and seriously injuring another gardai, not be charged with murder?

Does he believe that the majority of his party would agree with Teresa Ferris comments regarding the release of said murders?

Is Mary lou mcdonald finished in your party, having lost 3 elections (?). Also seeing how her 1st preference vote fell by close to 15,000 votes. Does he think this is a backlash in dublin to your parties views.

theboss80

Does he think we will see a united Ireland in OUR lifetime? If yes then how?

Daithinski

Ask him if he would he consider shaving his beard off for charity

The_Minister

ANXIOUS wrote: »

Can he off the top of his head come up with another situation where by scum can unload an automatic weapon into a undercover gardai car killing and seriously injuring another gardai, not be charged with murder?

Does he believe that the majority of his party would agree with Teresa Ferris comments regarding the realese of said murders?

Good point.
What does he think about a TD turning up at the jail to personally escourt two convicts?

Dannyboy83

What does he think about 'Rome Rule' and the recent reports proving that the Catholic Church is a sanctuary for child rapists?

Is Catholicism still a banner under which the Celtic people can unite, or will it now become a barrier to peace, unity and integration?

What are the implications of this for his party, North & South?

Liam Byrne

Count me in on ANXIOUS and The_Minister's questions above.

How can he claim that his party can represent the will of the country when they pander to their "credibility" a tiny minority by not condemning murder and attempted robbery ?

If - by some sick twisted irony - an SF TD became Minister for Justice, would they put the will of the country or the will of that minority first ?

ANXIOUS

I've another question i've just remembered, i asked this to a socialist who was canvasing for a no vote. His answer made me laugh for hours.


1. Can you ask him if he thinks that Ireland as an island is better off over all for joining the eu in 1973? If he thinks that we have been ask him why his party campaigned against every single treaty including the one in 1973.

2. If he answers no, can you ask him then how come they still send their mep's to brussels, (Not that mary lou went much) they are quite happy not sending mp's to london.

Profiler

Does Sinn Féin actaully have an economic policy?

I mean how can anyone take them seriously when we as a nation are borrowing €450m a week and yet their answer to the problem is spend money we don't have.

"We are proposing a €3.218 billion economic stimulus package with a range of measures to get Ireland back to work. We are also proposing a €723 million household stimulus package aimed at helping to reduce the cost of living in this state." link

K-9

What would SF's policy be now if a similar "incident" occurred with "dissident" Republicans as with Garda McCabe?

Blisterman

How do you justify the fact that you refuse to sit in parliament in London, yet you claim expenses for a house there?

anonymous_joe

Were there to be a 32 county republic tomorrow, how would we integrate unionists into an all-island nation?

Liam Byrne

anonymous_joe wrote: »

Were there to be a 32 county republic tomorrow, how would we integrate unionists into an all-island nation?

...and, as Irish citizens of this new republic, where could they march ?

Dannyboy83

Our economy is fcuked
Our banks are fcuked
Our politicians are corrupt/useless
Our clergy are corrupt/criminal
Our towns are flooded/New Atlantis
1/2 million unemployed & growing
Average Industrial wage still can't buy me a house
NAMA/FAS/HSE
Massive excise duties/VAT/Rip off republic
We can't pay our own public service/welfare not to mind afford the North
Half of our citizens are trying to emigrate

Honestly Gerry,.....Why the hell would the North ever want to join us???
How about we join them instead?

The_Minister

I think we have to seperate questions that are outright antagonistic, from those that really do need to be asked.
We don't want to give Boards a bad name.

Since I submitted questions I won't comment further.

stepbar

In fairness there's no limit on the amount of negative questions I'd like to ask Gerry Adams but I'll leave it at that. I think it would be a very bad move on boards part to facilitate a q&a from someone like Gerry Adams.

Liam Byrne

I'd agree, stepbar, but The_Minister has a point.

If Adams and his sympathisers get to play the "victim" card, then they'll twist even the relevant and reasonable questions so that they don't have to answer ANY.

I'm sure whoever is compiling the questions will know which are the main, reasonable ones that most people want an answer to, and I hope that they do their best to get a straight answer from him without them being attacked unfairly or being made appear unreasonable because he just doesn't want to answer them.

drunkmonkey

I'd like to ask him, If Sinn Fein got into power in the south how would he make us competitive with the north again, will he tackle minimum wage, address the vat issue or does he have any other ideas?

stepbar

Liam Byrne wrote: »

I'd agree, stepbar, but The_Minister has a point.

If Adams and his sympathisers get to play the "victim" card, then they'll twist even the relevant and reasonable questions so that they don't have to answer ANY.

I'm sure whoever is compiling the questions will know which are the main, reasonable ones that most people want an answer to, and I hope that they do their best to get a straight answer from him without them being attacked unfairly or being made appear unreasonable because he just doesn't want to answer them.

For Sinn Fein to have any credibility the negative questions have to be asked and answered without any bullsh1te. But I suspect this wont happen.

tbh

How can Sinn Fein call, with any credit, for the majority's wishes for peace to be respected, when they themselves ignored these wishes all through the 80's?

monellia

Is there any political benefit to powersharing with the DUP?

jank

Job creation, what would he do to create jobs as this is something that is pretty much ignored by the rest of the parties.

What kind of cuts would he suggest to balance the books seeing as budget day is upon us

SEPT 23 1989

How can you sleep at night knowing that 2050 people died at the hands of your organisation,that is a collosal weight to carry around, how do you do it?

DeVore

Asking questions that are actually just criticism prefaced with "how can you.... XYZ" is going to get us nowhere.

I've no love for SF, my fathers car was put on an IRA bomb list for not discriminating between people who needed shelter in the local school he had converted.

But if we are EVER going to move forward, we need peaceful political engagement. We need to show them that can be included in a political process and given a fair hearing.

That doesnt mean asking soft questions but it does mean approaching the interview with the same neutrality and professionalism we have brought to others. We can ask hard questions but lets be as honest with them as we want them to be with us.

Finally, to the person who said we shouldnt be giving them a platform... its an extremely dangerous road to go down to say that a public political figure shouldnt be allowed air time. I think we tried the "oxygen of publicity" before and it didnt get us far.

DeV.

Dirk Gently

What progress have you made on re-organising the party in the south.

Are you going to stick with the Mary lou approach or are you going to focus less on appeasing middle class voters and revert back to promoting community leaders in working class areas.

Is your aim still a 32 county socialist republic. If not, where do you see yourselves now on the political spectrum? (redistribution of wealth etc)

getz

if you managed to get a one country ireland tomorrow,would you still expect the british tax payer to keep on bailing out the north ?or woud you expect the southern part to put up the money ?

View

When is he going to retire?

He seems to be the only "El-Presidente-for-life" of any Irish political party.

smashey

We all know, or at least we all think we know about how well Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley seemed to get on when working together in The Assembely. What was/is your realtionship with Dr. Paisley like?

View

DeVore wrote: »

Finally, to the person who said we shouldnt be giving them a platform... its an extremely dangerous road to go down to say that a public political figure shouldnt be allowed air time. I think we tried the "oxygen of publicity" before and it didnt get us far.

DeV.

Airtime isn't a right, it is a benefit. There is no obligation, moral or otherwise, for democratic parties to give parties opposed to the basics of the democratic system, a benefit that could aid in damage to the democratic system.

In the case of SF, they were left on the fringes until they started finally to abandon violence. Once they did, they got airtime and their support increased...

Executive Steve

theboss80 wrote: »

Does he think we will see a united Ireland in OUR lifetime? If yes then how?

...and "why".

Blisterman

How do you think Northern Ireland would be different today had the republican movement never resorted to violence and had stuck to purely peaceful and political means?

Also
Have you considered ending Sinn Fein's policy of abstentionism in the UK Parliament so that you can use the position of power to help the republican cause?

Bottle_of_Smoke

I wouldn't bother with the Jerry McCabe or death of 2050 questions, they've been asked these hundreds of times, we'd just get the usual rhetoric and would be a waste of a question.

So far I like the abstension question from blisterman and drunkmonkey's question on making the south competitive

TripleXXX

Gerry, what do you think of the bribes in brown paper bags corrupt state we have ?

Do you think it's the grossest hypocrisy the attention the Jerry McCabe case gets while the murder of Ritchie Barron is ignored by the same quaters ?

Dannyboy83

Ask Gerry what he thinks of Scotland's independence plans?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1130/breaking55.htm

Does this open a doorway for the North?

Fratton Fred

I would like to ask what the turning point was. When did SF/IRA realise that the only way for progress was through the ballot box and not the gun?

I would also like to ask how he expects to keep the nationalist agenda alive when people in Northern Ireland, Nationalist and unionists, have an ever improving standard of living, free health care/prescriptions etc. and the only real difference now between living in the north and the south is that living in the north means you don't have to drive as far to do your weekly shopping. In other words, if people are content, have a good standard of living and have the freedom to live as they wish, how important in real terms is unification...and why?

DeVore

View wrote: »

Airtime isn't a right, it is a benefit. There is no obligation, moral or otherwise, for democratic parties to give parties opposed to the basics of the democratic system, a benefit that could aid in damage to the democratic system.

In the case of SF, they were left on the fringes until they started finally to abandon violence. Once they did, they got airtime and their support increased...

Sorry, I should have said "peaceful political representatives"... sorry, I just took that as read.

If you espouse violence, I dont believe you should be included in the workings of civilised people.

Lets keep the questions coming, some good ones here.

DeV.

Liam Byrne

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with the Jerry McCabe or death of 2050 questions, they've been asked these hundreds of times, we'd just get the usual rhetoric and would be a waste of a question.

It's not a "waste of a question"; if we stop asking it just because he's not man enough to answer, then it's HIS fault, not ours.

If he refuses to answer yet again, then that's an answer in itself; a two-fingers to the public and the forces of law and order.

It's in SF's own hands to stop giving the two fingers to us; the question is whether they'll take the opportunity and leave their disgraceful past behind them.

If not, then it's business as usual for voters.

Nodin

DeVore wrote: »

Sorry, I should have said "peaceful political representatives"... sorry, I just took that as read.

If you espouse violence, I dont believe you should be included in the workings of civilised people.

I trust all supporters of the war against Iraq, Afghanistan and those that support direct action against Iran are included in that, or is it just Republicans that get to wear a special badge?

DeVore

I think there is a qualitative difference between SF and Labour in that regard... one waged a war for 30 years against anyone who defied (or even appeared to oppose) them. The other took their country into an (illegitimate imho) war and who will answer to their electorate for it.

There is an excellent discussion to be had around the difference between the two and I'll be happy to have it... on a different thread.

DeV.

Smcgie

Q. Does Mr Adams think it is now time for the IRA to announce were all the bodies of the dissapeared lay, before the generation with the knowledge finally ceases.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Liam Byrne wrote: »

It's not a "waste of a question"; if we stop asking it just because he's not man enough to answer, then it's HIS fault, not ours.

If he refuses to answer yet again, then that's an answer in itself; a two-fingers to the public and the forces of law and order.

It's in SF's own hands to stop giving the two fingers to us; the question is whether they'll take the opportunity and leave their disgraceful past behind them.

If not, then it's business as usual for voters.

Its been asked and answered so many times the publics made up their mind where they stand on the SF response.

Good question from Fratton Fred about keeping the nationalist aspiration alive.

Also like the mention of the Scottish independence news. Would put it to him - "if an independent scotland was to lead to a break up of the union what would it mean for Northern ireland?"

Bigdeadlydave

1. Do you feel that the last 10 years have yielded any progress towards a united Ireland?

2. What will happen when eventually an irreconcilable stumbling block is reached within the executive?

jank

Would he consider running for President of Ireland in 2011 (I think!)

Liam Byrne

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

Its been asked and answered so many times the publics made up their mind where they stand on the SF response.

It hasn't been "answered", at least not to most people's satisfaction.

The day that Adams & Co can answer that with the same view as normal, law-abiding citizens without resorting to bull**** and whataboutery is the day they'll have turned a corner.

Yes, we could take his previous answer as the definitive one, and shun him and his like appropriately, but giving him another opportunity to realise that this is a show-stopper and see the error of his allegiances and loyalty is fair enough.

And if it still shows him as a scumbag who puts criminals and thugs before people and law-enforcement, we can then vote accordingly.

jank

It hasn't been "answered", at least not to most people's satisfaction.

I think thats the problem. He could write an encyclopedia about it yet that would not be enough for some people. Best to look ahead rather than in the past.