The Sinn Féin president, and still Crown Steward and Bailiff of Northstead, Gerard Adams has taken exception to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin raising the credibility question in relation to the SF leader’s murky past. [added final link]
From the Belfast Telegraph report
“There is a fundamental problem for Gerry when he continues to deny his membership of the IRA,” said Mr Martin.
“Because every time he talks in this debate during the election about honesty, about being up front and transparent, it jars very much with his own position about the past.
“Martin McGuinness doesn’t have a problem admitting his membership in the past but I think there is a huge problem for Gerry Adams in a credibility sense.”
An iol report includes Adams’ response
But Mr Adams dismissed the allegations as a down and dirty ploy to undermine his party’s neck-and-neck position with Fianna Fáil.
“This is a smear,” the former West Belfast MP said.
“The fact is that this is not the type of smear negative campaigning which will inform people’s judgment.
“It’s quite obvious that Fianna Fáil, the leadership anyway, want to get down into the gutter and get dirty.”
Although, I think Adams’ “This is a smear” refers, specifically, to the comments about the Northern Bank robbery. And there’s possibly an indication there of an answer to Brian’s previous questions.
The iol report adds
Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, was adamant people had made their minds up about Gerry Adams and the IRA a long time ago.
Indeed they have. As a separate iol report I noted in a previous post makes clear.
The survey of a 1,000 people was carried out by RED C and is published in today’s News of the World.
Some 71% said they did not trust Gerry Adams to handle the economic crisis, while 67% said they did not trust Sinn Féin.
The survey also revealed that four out of every five people believed Gerry Adams had lied about his past.