dead them. 'The Armagh women deserve every accolade laid on They suffer and endure resolutely continual for the prisoners, and evenutally most dramatically in the mass mobilisations around the hunger strike.
Increasingl spearheaded Adams and a group of vounger leaders in the six Counties, re-opened the strategic discussion what kind of Ireland the Republican movement was fighting for. was Ine federal Ireland outlined in the Sinn Fein programme of James Connolly? This struggle, concuce de 1982 '83 Ard Fheis was tought aralils. ample by delenne reter ences Christian prina much more substantial role in the movement, for example by creating department Sinn Fein run by women a development which found is repercussion the increasing involvement • wonnel me mass car paigns in the Six Counties.
Sinn Fein was given a much more Bellast, as a means of mass electoral support through directly addressing the daily prothe nationalist communit in Six Counties alone.
Traditionally Sinn Fein has had scalallal titude towards work in the Southern unions. une break mom les Is an essential prerequisite building Sinn Fein as a mass throughout Sinn Fein nas come through dramatic ounlica has led it from its former impasse. It has made a rea turn to the nichil. allu credit for this lies in the clear-sighted leadership given by Gerry Adams. SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN Seamus Costello and Miriam her husband, accidental.
most to gain from my execution -ment'.
from the City Hall by security forces.
unidentified.
Photo: DEREK SPIERS (IFL shooting. following Gerry Adams.
The Loyalist UDA.
the shooting, or by Republicans against the leaders in Ireland do not have a very high survival rate.
Daly, both leaders of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, were assassinated by persons unknown Bernadette MacAliskey survived the attempt to assassinate her by a virtual miracle.
The attempt to murder Bernadette and and last week's attack on Adams and his companions, have one striking thing in common — the rapid arrival of the security forces to the scene. In both cases suspicions arose that the proximity of the security forces and their prompt arrest of the would-be assassins was something more than Gerry Adams said last week: 'I don't think that it was an attack carried out by the British or planned by them, but I think they was aware that it was going to happen. The people who have got the - the execution of any Irish Republican — is the British governThe chain of events which led to the Adams shooting and the arrest of his assailants were extraordinary. As the car in which they were travelling approached Belfast City Hall a car drew up along side and fired dozens of shots. The getaway car was intercepted three hundred yards away At first the police stated that the gunmen's car had been intercepted by 'an off-duty member of the Ulster Defence Regiment'. Later the regiment of the 'off-duty soldiers' (note the plural) became Moreover given that the attack took place in a one-way system behind the City Hall, there is no way in which someone pursing the attackers could have any reason to chase them unless they were travelling behind the Adams car and witnessed the Or to out it another wav. it seems vert obvious that a car with plain clothes soldiers was attack on Adams was claimed by the 'Ulster Freedom Fighters' the cover name for the The UDA later claimed that Adams had been under surveillance by a group of SAS soldiers. Either this SAS squad witnessed the attack on Adams and did not intervene until after even worse they were there because they knew the attack was coming — and were present to arrest the attackers, so that the British government wouldn't take the rap.
After the attack Adams expressed his confidence that there would be no retaliatory attacks Loyalists for the murder attempt. Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley virtually gave his blessing to the attack by saying that Adams had reaped what he has sown and had personally 'glorified murder' in the past. Paisley's comments are in line with the campaign by the British media, and in particular the World in Action TV programme, to portray Adams as a gunman and not the popular mass leader that hi - in other words a suitable case for assassination.
had a lucky escape. But the British state and the Loyalist thugs are unlikely to give up their attempts to get rid of