Gerry Adams Quotes (125 Quotes)

We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence.

This should be an incentive for all political leaders and the two governments to make sure this process works.

In this context the British and Irish governments will have to promote a new, imaginative and dynamic alternative in which both governments will share power in the north.

I understand fully that the IRA's most recent positive contribution to the peace process was in the context of a comprehensive agreement.

But I also hold the very strong view that republicans need to lead by example.

I think we have succeeded. I say to the unionists, we want to work in partnership with you. Let's go forward from here and make this work.

on their own terms -- through a court, through people being made accountable for their actions.

This is not a day for the hard word, ... This is a day for trying to absorb what has happened, giving Ian Paisley the space to absorb it also and put it to the two governments. They have to create the place where engagement takes place.

Such decisions will be far reaching and difficult. But you never lacked courage in the past. Your courage is now needed for the future.

People waking up this morning, apart from that very large number of people who suffered grievously in the course of the conflict, I'm sure feel in their bones that we're all better off for this.

Your people are being killed our people are being killed. We have to get beyond all his.

courageous and confident initiative.

I condemn the bomb attacks in London this morning. I have sent a message of sympathy and solidarity to Mr. Blair and the London mayor, Ken Livingstone. On behalf of Sinn Fein I offer my sincere condolences to the victims and the families of those killed and injured and to the people of London.

very well motivated toward the peace process.

It's good to be here with your heroes and heroines,

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

The people -- apart from Robert McCartney's immediate family -- who've been most angry, frustrated by this man's death, are people like myself,

The full implementation of the Good Friday agreement holds out vast hope of securing an end to injustice and the inequalities and conflict which have troubled Ireland and our people for generations.

eight good years for Ireland.

I support the McCartney family. I support their demand for justice. I think that there is an onus upon everyone who can help, to help. So good luck to them. And when I go back home I will continue to work on their behalf.

Today, I am delighted that the Nobel prize has gone to Ireland. I hope today's announcement will act as a catalyst to the next part of the peace process.

I am confident the commitment made by the IRA will be honored,

This is a marvelous group of women.

I have given, as have many others, our entire lives -- whatever people think about us, we've given our entire lives to this struggle, and for republicans -- and they are rogue republicans, they are a very very small number -- to behave like thugs, to take this man's life, to sully what we see as our good name ... I can tell you that hundreds of thousands of Irish republicans feel exactly the same as I do.

Sinn Fein has the potential and capacity to become the vehicle for the attainment of republican objectives.

We have a range of candidates who are bedded in their local constituencies over quite a long period of time, who are working on a whole range of social and economic issues as well as the big national question, as well as the peace process, as well as the whole issue of Irish unity -- so we're going to do well,

The two governments, the UUP and other parties should grasp the new opportunity that this unprecedented statement from the IICD creates.

I think people throughout this island have voted for change. The task now is to manage that change.

committed to making conflict a thing of the past.

I disagree with Teddy Kennedy, ... He was the only person to actually cancel an engagement. I think that was ill-advised. I think we will work again, because he has played a pivotal role in all of this process.

Under the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement, parties have to vote for the nominees for the joint office of the First and Deputy First Ministers.

These carefully staged tantrums and rehearsed walk-outs aren't the way to bring about a settlement.

Today's decision by the IRA to move into a new peaceful mode is historic and represents a courageous and confident initiative. It is truly momentous and is a defining point in the search for a lasting peace with justice.

It's not just a matter of meeting. It's a matter of engagement, of dialogue, of discussion, of discourse, of listening, and Sinn Fein is in a proactive listening mode.

We will be there for one reason and one reason only the election of a government in line with the Good Friday agreement.

Against mighty odds you held the line and faced down a huge military foe, the British Crown Forces and their surrogates in the unionist death squads.

Those who ran those agencies ... they hate republicans with a passion. For them the war isn't over, for them Good Friday (Agreement) was a huge mistake.

We have unfulfilled commitments on human rights, which the government said they were going to put in place, in terms of democratic rights and cultural matters.

What we saw here was the last hurrah of the Paisley-type monster that has dominated politics here for so long.

Yes. Well, I know who they are alleged to be ... And I have asked questions just this week as to why these people whose names are, rightly or wrongly, in common currency, why they aren't being questioned and why they aren't being charged.

The psychological mindset that is required for peacemaking is absent from Unionist thinking,

another opportunity for Unionists to consider where they want to go from here.

There is no evidence to back that up. And, on the contrary, the IRA, in a number of high-profile statements, have made it very, very clear that people should not be intimidated.

The decision comes today as a direct result of an initiative taken by the Sinn Fein,

negative, carping and begrudging campaign against Sinn Fein.

We are in this particular situation because once again unionists threaten the institutions and Dr. Reid moved to accommodate them.

Perhaps just once in a fairly bleak international situation ... maybe hope and history is reigning in Ireland

I think it is important that when a commission established under an agreement which has its remit in legislation (in both the Irish and UK governments) that when the head of that commission witnesses an event in which IRA weapons were put beyond use in accordance with this agreement... that it is up to the governments to validate it and uphold it.

We have to make sure the Good Friday Agreement works.

Sinn Fein welcomes the decision by the Ulster Unionist council.