Gerry Adams says violence and armed actions "can be justified to reach political aims"

Irish Central ^ | April 08, 2018 09:56 PM | Freya Drohan

[Olog-hai]

Gerry Adams has stated that he still believes violence and the use of “armed actions” can still be justified to reach political aims — in certain circumstances.

The former Sinn Féin president gave an interview to Hamburg-based newspaper Der Spiegel (The Mirror) reflecting on The Troubles, strife in Northern Ireland, and his stance on an array of issues including the use of violence.

In the interview, which was conducted in the run up to the 20^th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement — April 10^th — Adams vehemently denied every shooting anyone during The Troubles or being a member of the IRA at any stage.

The politician stated that he joined Sinn Féin in response to reading what the British government had planned for Ireland in the Special Powers Act. Or as he explains it, “The people that I know didn’t go to war. The war came to us.” When pressed about his stance on violence, Adams told interviewer Jörg Schindler that he had maintains that violence may be necessary on occasion. […]

In the wake of Adams’ controversial interview, Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong publicly stated that violence is never the answer. […] “These comments are particularly galling, given they come in the week of the 20^th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. That document saw all parties commit to exclusively democratic and peaceful means. It must be devastating for the loved ones of victims of violence to hear Gerry Adams now claim murder, destruction and devastation was justified in his eyes.” …

[Olog-hai]

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.“

— John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 10/11/1798

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

— George Washington’s farewell address, 09/19/1796

“Wrong”? No wonder you cannot see the difference between the USA and the USSR.