Sinn Féin's baffling failure to run Adams for the Áras
Sam McBride, Sunday Independent and Sunday Life, August 31st, 2025
He is the most famous living Irish politician, and the most infamous. Gerry Adams is recognisable thousands of miles from Ireland to an extent that easily surpasses the recognition of Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar, Mary Lou McDonald or any other living political figure. So why isn't he running to be president?
There has never been a better time for the former Sinn Féin president to end his career on an unparalleled high, and as age encroaches there is almost certainly not going to be another one. An Adams victory would be a historic watershed.
No one comes close to him in notoriety; his elevation to Áras an Uachtaráin would be as thrilling for some as it would be discombobulating for others. Even a near-victory would be an immense upset and involve crushing pain for IRA victims.
Such a defeat of the political and cultural establishment would surely appeal not just to Adams's ego, but also to his political instincts. Few politicians have behaved throughout their lives in ways that make clear they view themselves as living historical figures.
His cultivation of his image, his strategic decision to ambiguously straddle the line of association with the IRA while denying membership, the contents of his books and the frequent grandiloquence of his pronouncements reveal a figure whose ambitions were gargantuan long before they seemed remotely achievable.
Yet not only is Adams supposedly showing a complete lack of interest in a presidential election that is wide open, but his party is fence-sitting on whether to run a candidate at all. This makes little sense for a party that demands radical societal change.
Political parties exist to contest elections. Parties that claim vast support have even less excuse for not doing so. A party that states its core mission is to advance the cause of Irish unity can hardly lambast other parties for not sufficiently focusing on unity in this election if it doesn't bother putting up someone to make those arguments.
As far back as December 2023, Mary Lou McDonald said she didn't think Adams "has any intention whatsoever” of running for the Áras. Last November, she told the Irish Independent: "I don't think he has the remotest interest in being the president of Ireland.”
Unless designed to lull opponents into a false sense of security, those are strange phrases to describe a man who sees himself as a great patriot. Why would he have no interest in the top symbolic position in the Irish state?
Once, Adams's objection would have been that this was a partitionist role in which true republicans weren't interested. But that stance was long ago abandoned when Sinn Féin took its seats in Stormont, in the Dáil and even formally accepted the legitimacy of partition continuing until it can secure a Northern majority to vote for change.
One person’s hero…
On paper, Adams is head and shoulders above any other potential Sinn Féin candidate. At 76, he would be younger at the end of a seven-year term than Michael D Higgins. He is mentally sharp. The field is wide open and time for ferocious scrutiny of candidates is running out.
Even when that comes, Adams is Ireland's most experienced politician at handling hostile questions. Nobody has had such scrutiny of their lives; there's little left which if dug up would shock voters.
As well as the core Sinn Féin vote, he is likely to be seen by the "ooh, ah, up the 'Ra” generation as either a heroic figure who defended oppressed Catholics during the Troubles (as he told it in his Dublin libel action against the BBC) or as a loveable rogue who can make fun of himself and is now a cuddly grandfather figure.
After that jury found in Adams's favour, the media would be hyper-cautious about how closely it could delve into his IRA links. Crucially, that trial demonstrated his ability — under uncompromising cross-examination — to convince a jury of southern voters.
One Sinn Féin source said Adams is "the only candidate” the party should be considering.
Many of his opponents have consistently underestimated this ability to win over the public: from denouncing him to banning his voice from the airwaves, nothing really worked. Adams's cognitive ability is beyond question, as a slew of opponents and confident journalists have discovered to their cost.
He wouldn't be transfer-friendly and wouldn't be the favourite to win, but that's true of any Sinn Féin candidate. If he did win, it would be transformative for a movement that needs a big win to maintain its narrative of constant progress.
As Sinn Féin's southern growth hits a plateau and the party finds itself at the head of a failing Stormont system, winning the presidency would silence the awkward questions. It would also be used by republicans as a retrospective vindication of their role in the Troubles.
Yet paradoxically, were that to happen it would alienate the centrist Northern voters who would swing a border poll. Is that what's preventing Sinn Féin from putting forward its most famous face? If so, it would be an admission that Adams is now a liability to those who want a united Ireland.
West Belfast UDA orders Catholics out of mixed housing development after tearing up peace deal
Paula Mackin, Sunday Life, August 31st, 2025
FAMILIES HAD BEEN ASSURED THEY'D GET TIME TO FIND HOMES, BUT HATE CAMPAIGN SET TO RESUME
The West Belfast UDA has pulled out of a deal to stop attacks on a mixed housing development.
A deal had been brokered between the terror group and an intermediary acting for residents at Annalee and Alloa Streets in the Oldpark area of north Belfast.
In May, a number of homes occupied by Catholic families were targeted by masked men, with windows smashed in and cars damaged.
Following discussions with a local UDA chief and a community representative, it was agreed residents would be allowed time to be rehoused without the risk of further attacks.
That arrangement has now been torn up on the orders of a senior figure in the gang.
Bullets
It is understood four Catholic families living in the estate have been told to leave immediately.
The intermediary who brokered the agreement has also received bullets in the post and a warning to stay out of the lower Oldpark area.
The sectarian attacks started in May, with a number of people arrested after families were forced to flee their homes.
The West Belfast UDA vowed to maintain the attacks, until a community representative intervened.
Residents at the Clanmill Housing Association properties were warned they would be burned out if they refused to leave.
First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly condemned the attacks.
It is understood Justice Minister Naomi Long met a delegation including independent city councillor Paul McCusker, who has been a vocal advocate for the targeted families.
The hate campaign is the work of long-time UDA boss Mo Courtney, with support from convicted extortionist Geordie Taggart, who lives close to the development.
According to loyalist sources, drug kingpin Courtney, who denies involvement in criminality, has boasted that he has no intention of ending the attacks — and even intends to step them up.
“He has said he will keep going until all the Taigs have left,” said an insider.
INFLUX
Sunday Life understands Courtney is concerned that an influx of people may bring a UDA drug house in the area to the attention of the PSNI.
Local residents have lived under the terror gang's threats and intimidation for decades.
A source told Sunday Life: “It's about control, total control. Courtney will do anything to protect the UDA drugs trade, and the arrival of outsiders brings with it the possibility of questions being asked.”
Convicted killer Courtney has had an iron grip on the area's drug trade for years.
Close associate Taggart has been identified as a main player in the attacks on houses.
He is believed to have sanctioned the intimidation after discovering Catholic families had moved into Alloa Street and Annalee Street, off Manor Street.
UDA sources told Sunday Life Taggart approved the attacks with the backing of the leadership.
The 63-year-old started by spreading false stories of people playing loud “rebel music'' and kids wearing GAA tops.
Taggart and Courtney were ordered by West Belfast UDA bosses to lay off the attacks until people could find alternative homes, but the terror gang has now reneged on the deal and sanctioned further threats.
Three families who left in May were put up in hotels.
Police confirmed the motive behind the Alloa Street and Annalee Street attacks was sectarian and said the incidents were being treated as hate crimes.
Taggart has managed to keep a particularly low profile but is understood to lead the UDA in the lower Oldpark area.
He was jailed in 2000 for running protection rackets for the terror group.
Taggart was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of eight counts of blackmail at Belfast Crown Court.
He refused to respond to Sunday Life questions about the intimidation when we visited his home earlier this year.
Northern Ireland ‘overrun’, claims Royal Black leader
John Toner, Sunday Life, August 31st, 2025
REVEREND RAILS AGAINST WINDSOR FRAMEWORK AND POLITICAL CRISES AT LAST SATURDAY PARADE
The leader of the Royal Black Institution has claimed the “country is being overrun” while railing against political instability and the Windsor Framework.
In a speech marking the end of the official marching season at the Last Saturday parade in Cookstown, the Reverend William Anderson decried the political and social landscape. Rev William Anderson Addressing a crowd of several thousand people, he said: “Unless you live in a parallel universe, you can't help but wonder what is going on in our world today.
“We struggle from one crisis to the next, we no longer trust our political leaders, our country is being overrun, and our national government lacks the will to deal with our problems.
“The biggest casualty is trust... (which creates) an air of hopelessness”.
Up to 17,000 members of the Royal Black were on parade at six major locations across Northern Ireland, including Antrim, Castlederg, Cookstown, Ballyclare, Dundrum and Limavady. Pictures from the Last Saturday parade in Antrim show thousands of supporters turned out across the venues to watch the parades, which involved around 350 preceptories and 300 marching bands, according to the institution.
As part of his speech in Cookstown, Rev Anderson criticised the post-Brexit constitutional situation and warned King Charles III he must uphold the Protestant faith to retain the support of the Black.
Manoeuvring
He continued: “Why does our national government persist in allowing a foreign power to make laws over this part of the United Kingdom? It is a question that goes unanswered, unless you examine closely the political manoeuvring that is going on in the background to remove us as citizens of the United Kingdom.
“There is simply no economic gain, no political gain for such a plan, yet we rock from one crisis to another, which only creates more instability, at a time when the nation is crying out for stability.
“Our hope for a stable future lies within the United Kingdom and not in some hybrid state, wobbling from one crisis to another.
“Leadership requires resolve, firmness in decision-making and a true upholding of that which we promised to uphold.
“Our king has resolved to uphold the Protestant faith, and that should be the guiding principle of his reign.
“If he keeps that as his focus, then he can be assured of our support. “Pictures from the Last Saturday parade in Antrim Rev Anderson also encouraged people to find hope in Christianity.
He said: “Our biggest problem is that we talk the talk, but we don't walk the walk.
“Today, more than ever, we need to turn to God, set aside our foolish ways and plead with Him to save us from our sins and, in so doing, save our nation.
“Today, may I urge you to turn to God, to seek his forgiveness.”In pictures: Thousands attend Last Saturday parades across NI as marching season draws to a close Police probe as concerns raised about 'reckless' car incident at Newry band parade.
Martin Smyth served community despite grave threat to his life
Ben Lowry, Belfast News Letter, August 30th, 2025
The Rev Martin Smyth became MP after the IRA murdered his predecessor, the Rev Robert Bradford. The IRA also murdered another South Belfast representative, Edgar Graham MLA.
I was among the mourners at Alexandra Presbyterian Church on the York Road, within walking distance of the city centre (1.4 miles away).
I was there to represent this newspaper, having met or interviewed Rev Smyth only rarely and was unable to pass my condolences to his daughters, Rosemary and Heather, yesterday before the family left the church for the private committal. But while Rev Smyth was in some respects a quiet politician who shunned the limelight, I am well aware of his career, having become interested in politics not long after he was elected to Westminster in 1982.
A lot changed politically between then and now, not least in his former constituency, South Belfast. I know the seat well because my grandparents lived there and later did so myself. It was such a safe unionist seat in the 1980s that when Rev Smyth resigned his seat in protest alongside other unionist MPs over the disastrous 1985 Anglo Agreement, he won the resulting by-election over the former Alliance lord mayor, the late David Cook, with a whopping 71% vote share. South Belfast does not exist as a constituency in its old form but when it last did, in 2019, the combined unionist vote had collapsed to a trifling 27.4% – unionists had gone from almost two-thirds of voters to barely a quarter.
Full range of Unionism
It was striking to see the full range of unionism at the funeral service yesterday, from the liberal Ulster Unionist MLA Robbie Butler to the firmly unionist TUV North Antrim MP Jim Allister.
Rev Smyth opposed the Belfast Agreement, which caused bitter divisions in the UUP from which it has never entirely recovered. Ruth Dudley-Edwards wrote in her most recent Thursday News Letter column that, as an ally of David Trimble, she had once considered Rev Smyth unimaginative and hidebound. Later she interviewed him and came to realise that she had under-estimated “this brave Orangeman”.
As it happens I supported the 1998 deal, as did this newspaper (several years before I joined it). I was in my 20s then and would not have related to Rev Smyth’s very religious type of unionism. Now, while I still think that David Trimble achieved huge things such as the principle of consent and Sinn Fein accepting Stormont, I am also conscious of how some of the criticisms of that deal have been vindicated. Being in government rehabilitated Sinn Fein, which had hitherto been rejected at the ballot box by a majority of nationalists in Northern Ireland and an overwhelming majority of voters in the Republic. This has then led to the retrospective vindication of IRA terror among emerging generations that have no memory of the Troubles.
My own generation, born in the early 1970s, does not have a proper memory of the violent years either, which peaked when we were toddlers. I remember well the hunger strikes when I was coming up to age 10 and the Harrods bomb two years later (I recall a flustered, visibly upset security woman at Springhill Shopping centre in Bangor telling everyone about the latter as they arrived).
But I remember neither the murder of the Rev Robert Bradford in 1981, nor the murder of Edgar Graham in 1983. Only later did those heinous killings, and their significance, register with me. A lawyer friend of mine, now retired, has warm memories of Rev Bradford through Christian circles and Mr Graham as a lecturer.
I have often said that the murder of Mr Graham in particular, being more than a decade younger than Rev Bradford, was a bid to scare unionists out of politics. And it did. But I would never want to seem to be denying the bravery of all those who stayed in, or later joined, unionist politics amidst such pure terror.
‘A great Christian ambassador’
Rev Smyth was a prime example of such fortitude amid selfless public service. The IRA had already tried to kill him for being an Orangeman. The funeral heard that he wanted to remain as incumbent Presbyterian minister in his church, but instead he took Bradford’s seat. He was so admirable as MP that the Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd praised his exemplary parliamentary “integrity”.
Yesterday the ex UUP MP Roy Beggs told me that his one-time Westminster colleague Rev Smyth was “a great Christian ambassador” and the ex UUP, then DUP, MLA William Humphrey described him as a “fearless, principled unionist”.
That is how he seemed to me.
Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor
‘I under-estimated that brave Orangeman, the Rev Martin Smyth MP’
The obituaries of Martin Smyth over the last few days took me back to the 1990s when I was getting to know the loyal institutions up close.
By Ruth Dudley-Edwards, Belfast Telegraph, August 28th, 2025
At a time when Sinn Fein were doing a fine job of bamboozling both the British and Irish governments, I had come to see David Trimble as the only hope for unionism.
But though centrist, Smyth — an Ulster Unionist MP from 1982 — was unimaginative and in many respects seemed a hidebound hindrance.
Yet I was looking up the book I wrote about the Orange Order just now and was reminded of my achievement in tempting this Presbyterian minister into using a bad word.
During a period when the Orange Order was being torn asunder by a group of intransigent extremists called the Spirit of Drumcree, I was the first person publicly to abbreviate them to SODs.
A Sunday Times sub-editor headed my article ‘Tell the Orange Bigots to SOD off,’ and — at the subsequent Grand Lodge meeting — the Reverend Martin Smyth did just that.
Which might have inclined him to give me a helpful interview for the book I was writing about the loyal institutions.
I needed to interview the long-serving Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.
Orangeism - an international movement
I wasn't looking forward to it, but I remember our meeting in the House of Commons positively, for as Imperial Grand Master and Imperial Grand President (the Orange Order, like most fraternal organisations, are very hot on titles), he brought home to me its internationalism.
“One could go to any part of the world and find a relationship immediately,” he said.
“Oh, yes, like any other family, they will be cantankerous. There’ll be folk you might love, but you couldn't like. But it's a family of nations and it's fascinating.”
Having an institution which was proud of being multiracial and included Mohawk Indians, Maoris and West Africans tarred with the racist brush understandably distressed him greatly.
The order had never developed in the southern states of America, he told me, “because they did not want to appear to be anti-black and didn't want to work the fertile ground of what would have been the Bible belt where there was slavery.
“They did have occasional blacks, but they were in the northern states.”
In South Africa, the Orange was finished off because it wouldn’t operate a colour bar.
I learned from his obituaries that he spoke French and German, that in the House of Commons he was distinguished as an advocate for disability rights, was Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Committee on Soviet Jewry and active in the International Parliamentary Union.
And we forget that his predecessor as South Belfast MP, the Reverend Robert Bradford, had been murdered in 1981 by three IRA members, one with a submachine gun, along with the caretaker, while he was hosting a constituency surgery in a community centre.
I underestimated Martin Smyth, one of those demonised by the Sinn Fein and forgotten like so many.
Apart from everything else, like so many of his colleagues, he was brave.
• Ruth Dudley Edwards is a historian, commentator and author whose books include 'The Faithful Tribe: an intimate portrait of the loyal institutions'
Kneecap review: Rap trio delivers a performance for the ages at Electric Picnic
‘Nothing is going to top this,’ says a fan wearing an Irish flag as a dress. She’s right
Nadine O’Regan, Irish Times, August 31st, 2025
Unsettled conditions. Turbulent skies. A notice to expect anything. That was the weather forecast for Saturday at Electric Picnic this weekend. It was also an accurate characterisation of the eager, skittish, expectant mood at the festival ahead of Kneecap’s arrival on the main stage at 3.30pm, for a performance booked in the wake of their highly publicised Glastonbury set.
It came just days after Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara, appeared in court in London charged with displaying the flag of Hizbullah, a proscribed terrorist organisation in Britain, an offence he denies.
Kneecap bring the crowds out at Electric Picnic despite the rain. Video: Alan Betson & Nadine O'Regan
On Monday, the band cancelled their sold-out US tour dates, citing the proximity of their next court hearing in London to the first date of the tour.
It’s heavy stuff. But if the burden of being a spokesperson for a generation left reeling at the news cycle is weighing on Mo Chara’s shoulders, the Kneecap rapper isn’t showing it.
As fat droplets of rain threaten to become a downpour, and screens flash up: “No more Israeli war bonds” and “Get the US military out of Ireland”, Kneecap emerge to an enormous Electric Picnic crowd looking relaxed, confident and in control.
“Has anyone been watching the news?” says Mo Chara. “Looks like jail, Ted. Our brothers and sisters in Palestine are under tremendous pressure. I don’t mean to lecture you but until something changes I’ll take time out of every gig to talk about this on stage or whatever platform we have. Netanyahu is a war criminal. It’s about time politicians started doing something about it. It’s not fair to put the burden on the people when elected representatives are doing f**k all.”
Formed in Belfast in 2017, the band have long ago honed their material in festivals here and abroad, and their confidence in their stage craft and in each other shows. The interplay between bandmates Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin) and DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) is instinctive, exhilarating and often very funny. “It’s not Nile Rodgers like,” says Mo Chara, referring to the Chic frontman’s main stage performance later this evening.
‘We’re like the Wolfe Tones on cocaine’
“We’re like the Wolfe Tones on cocaine.” As they dip into tracks from their 2024 Fine Art album, an early highlight comes with Better to Live, a single recorded with Fontaines frontman Grian Chatten, before the set settles into more dubby, bass-heavy material.
“Open up,” Mo Chara commands, and great spaces appear in the crowd before fans joyfully rush each other. The vibe could be threatening. It’s actually incredibly joyful. A snatch of The Auld Triangle is performed, before the gig elevates again – Your Sniffer Dogs are Shite, C.E.A.R.T.A, Get Your Brits Out and H.O.O.D. are chanted back at the band, lines as Gaeilge chanted perfectly in time.
“Nothing is going to top this,” says a fan wearing an Irish flag as a dress. She’s right. Against stiff competition and in a difficult time slot, Kneecap have taken the Electric Picnic crowd and delivered a performance for the ages.
Nadine O’Regan is a features writer with The Irish Times and commissions articles for the travel section
Kneecap remake Electric Picnic as an up-all-night political party
Aoife Rooney, Sunday Independent, August 31st, 2025
The tens of thousands of people at Electric Picnic already knew what to expect from Belfast trio Kneecap — namely, a raucous atmosphere, catchy tunes and outright political statements.
The politics started before the show began, as the screen lit up with a condemnation of Shannon Airport's use as a stop-over for American military planes.
Fresh from their Belfast gig on Friday night, Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí took to the main stage yesterday.
It's the group's first time on the biggest stage at the festival, having played the nearby Electric Arena last year and got their Picnic start on a small Irish language stage years before.
"This is the best cure for a hangover I've ever had,” said Mo Chara. "I think it's good to be f**king home.”
They were added to the line-up in June, months after the initial announcement of headliners Hozier, Chappell Roan, Sam Fender, Fatboy Slim and Kings of Leon.
Despite an afternoon slot, which usually draws a relaxed and sometimes sparse crowd, the field was full.
It didn't take long for the group to address their latest head-to-head with the authorities.
Mo Chara, whose real name is Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, is facing an ongoing terrorism trial in England for his alleged support of Hezbollah and holding aloft a flag at a gig in London last November.
"I'm a free man,” he yelled to an exuberant crowd. "Has anybody been watching the news? I'm in a spot of bother. Looks like jail time, Ted,” he joked.
Móglaí led the crowd in chants of "Free, free Mo Chara”, a slogan that seemed to cover London during the trial, as supporters held signs aloft outside the courthouse.
"I understand that we're all here, we're all enjoying ourselves, and we're privileged to be able to do that in a field with some of our best friends,” he said.
"But our brothers and sisters in Palestine are under tremendous f**king pressure right now. I know the Irish people have always been on the right side of history, and I don't need to lecture you people — but at the end of the day, until something changes, I'll take time out of every gig to talk about this on stage.
‘Never thought so many would be interested in what we’re doing’
"When we started this — Kneecap and rapping in Irish — never did we think it'd be possible, nobody else thought it would be possible to have this many people interested in what we're doing.”
Mo Chara said: "Controversy won't faze us. I just want to thank all of you for supporting us the whole time.”
The night before, speaking from the same stage, Hozier used his platform too. He asked for an end to the "cycles of genocidal violence we're seeing on our TV screens and the occupation Palestinians are facing and have been facing for decades”.
"I'm so proud that I come here, and I know this is an audience that truly believes in that,” he said.
"There is very little that I can do and say. I see it in your hearts... I see it in the chanting that you're doing today. I want to thank you so, so much for your show of solidarity that I see — and which I see coming out of Ireland when I'm abroad.”
