Over the weekend, the scandal broke out relating to Gerry Adams and his family. Adam’s niece was sexually abused by Adam’s brother Liam Adams. Gerry Adams was told of the abuse by his niece in 1987. He says that he believed her and confronted his brother. Subsequently, Liam Adams has been allowed to continue as an activist within Sinn Fein. In particular, he was a youth project worker. At one time, he sought the nomination for a seat in the Dáil.
Presumably, Liam Adams would have had access to young people in the course of his appointment as youth project worker. It is very unlikely that Liam Adams could have pursued his party activities without the knowledge of his brother.
Regardless of the actual truth of Gerry Adams’ complicity in his brother’s political activities, Northern Ireland politicians will now be trying to work out what the political fallout will be.
Gerry Adams is unlikely to survive the scandal. For all the admiration held within the Republican movement by his followers, once it becomes accepted that Sinn Fein is in danger of the political equivalent of Armageddon, he will be persuaded to step down as President at the earliest opportunity.
There is no obvious successor to Gerry Adams at the moment. Mary Lou McDonald, it appears, was being groomed for that role. She lost her MEP seat at the last Euro election. It may be that the succession is not Sinn Fein’s immediate problem.
The scandal is bound to affect the dynamic between Sinn Fein and the DUP over policing and Justice. Sinn Fein will now certainly not want to face an assembly election. The DUP will know that. Peter Robinson may now feel that he can afford to call Martin McGuiness’s bluff. A fudged compromise that will allow the Executive to continue without Peter Robinson giving ground is now likely.
Update
The BBC has published a chronology on what is known so far. As the facts of the story crystalise, the questions appear. The most difficult questions for Adams relate to the period between 1997 and 2003. When his brother became a youth worker in West Belfast in 1998, Adams says that he informed the authorities at Clonard (presumably social services) who say they have no record. Adams may also be asked what the authorities said in response to the disclosure. One would imagine that such a disclosure would be unlikely to be forgotten, given the prominence of this family. Adams may also be asked why he did not query the actions of the authorities after knowing that his brother continued in employment as a youth worker.
Filed under: DUP, Gerry Adams, Peter Robinson, Police and Justice, Power Sharing, Sinn Fein Tagged: | DUP, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuiness, Northern ireland, Peter Robinson, Police and Justice, Power Sharing, Sinn Fein
Gerry Adams position is untenable and he has to go.
His position will be only untenable if his party and the electorate of W Belfast tell him to go, he’s not going to be too bothered about what Conservatives and Unionists think of him.
I agree with the last poster the voters will punish sinn fein if they dont act and act quickly.Adams has to go no matter what happens sinn fein will be serverly damaged because of this scandal.there are a lot of un anwered questions that Gerry adams has got to aswer.
O’Neill,
I totally agree with you but I think he will be told to go.
Its going to be interesting how sinn fein deal with this I think this story will dominate the news agenda for quite a few weeks.
seymour yet again you ban my posts from being made public why.???
torystoryni, on December 21st, 2009 at 3:25 pm Said:
O’Neill,
I totally agree with you but I think he will be told to go.
Seymour I am saddened you have deleted and are now stoping my posts from being made public.Why.??What are you scared off.??? the public should be able to make there own minds up on the UCUNF arrangement in a balanced and informative way so they get to know whats going on whos for and against it the pros and cons.I am very saddened seymour you are denying me my democratic rights.Its no skin off my nose if you want to stop me from posting and delete my posts and stifle debate which you have there are other options which i can bring to the public attention.i thought you were a fair man I was wrong on that.
The numerial incidence of child sexual abuse is vastly larger than in popular estimation. I welcome Adam’s revelations for they may help bring this sordid issue more into the public domain. Unfortunately media focus seems to be exclusively on abuse committed by clerics or politcians which are incidental to what is really an enormous epidemic. About 21% of girls and 11% of boys in England & Wales are subjected to some form of contact sexual abuse when under the age of consent according to the Home Office in 2007. Near 1/3rd of abused children reach adulthood without ever informing anyone of their abuse.
Acording to the Sexual Abuse and Violence Report in Ireland (SAVI) 2002, undertaken by the Health Services Research Centre at the Department of Psychology in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (the same body that conducted the report on clerical abuse for the Catholic hierarchy):
* One in five women (20.4 per cent) reported experiencing contact sexual abuse in childhood and a further one in ten reporting non-contact sexual abuse. (in total 30 per cent of ALL women were sexually abused as children.)
* More than one in 20 women (5.6 per cent), over 110,000 in all,were raped as children.
* One in five women reported experiencing contact sexual assault as adults with 6.1 per cent of women experiencing unwanted penetrative sex (ie rape). That is over 76,000 women raped during their adulthood.
* One in six men (16.2 per cent) reported experiencing sexual abuse in childhood, with a further one in 14 reporting non-contact abuse.
* 2.7 per cent of all men were subjected to penetrative sex (anal or oral sex) in childhood. That is around 12,000 men raped as children.
* One in ten men (9.7 per cent) experienced contact sexual assault as adults and 0.9 per cent of men were subjected to unwanted penetrative sex as adults.
* Most of the perpetrators of child sexual abuse were men (89 per cent) acting alone.
* In the case of those who abused girls, a quarter were family members, half were nonfa m ily but known to the abused girl and a quarter were strangers.
* In the case of the abuse of boys, only one in seven (14 per cent) was a family member, two-thirds were non-family but known to the abused boy and only one in five were strangers.
* Only a small fraction of child sex abusers (3.7 per cent) were members of the clergy and a smaller fraction (2.5 per cent) were fathers.
* In the case of sexual violence against adult women, one-quarter of the perpetrators were partners or ex-partners.
latest on this story seymour if you want to post it publicly or delete it its up to you.
Adams’ brother employers hit out
Liam Adams
An arrest warrant has been issued for Liam Adams
A community project which employed Gerry Adams’ brother has criticised the authorities for not telling them about sexual abuse allegations against him.
Liam Adams worked for the Beechmount Community Project as a youth development officer from 2004 to 2006.
He faces allegations that he abused his daughter when she was a child.
Beechmount Community Project said he had been cleared to work with children and that the police and social services had “serious questions” to answer.
A warrant is outstanding for Liam Adams’ arrest, to face allegations that he sexually abused Aine Tyrell when she was a young child.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has called for him to hand over himself to the authorities.
It has emerged that Liam Adams worked with children in a number of roles for almost 20 years after his daughter and her mother reported him to the police in 1987.
A spokesperson for the Beechmount Community Project, for which Liam Adams worked between November 2004 and May 2006, said: “We have never received any complaint from any child, young person or their parent, or staff member, with respect to Liam Adams and his period of employment here within our project.
“Nevertheless, we feel that serious lapses by both the Social Services and the police have inexcusably put children and young people within our project at risk.”
Liam Adams was also employed as a part-time youth worker at Clonard Youth Centre in west Belfast between 1998 and 2003.
Clearance
The Sinn Fein president has said he told staff there about the allegations against his brother.
“When I discovered in the Belfast situation that he was working in a youth facility I went to those who had responsibility for that facility and told them of the allegation,” Mr Adams said.
“He also had RUC or PSNI clearance to work in those facilities.”
However, Clonard Youth Centre has issued a statement, making clear it was unaware of any allegations against Liam Adams when he worked there.
Spokesperson Brendan Dineen said the centre had reviewed all its documentation “and there is no record whatsoever regarding concerns about Mr Liam Adams during his time of employment at Clonard Youth Centre”.
“If we had been aware of allegations that have recently come to light, he would not have been employed at the centre,” he continued.
“There have been very stringent policies and procedures in place since the establishment of the club with no incidents of wrongdoing reported.”
Shane,
When the taboo on child sexual abuse broke in the late 1980s, the stories which hit the newspapers were mostly about abuse within families. From that point onwards, it was known that child sexual abuse occurred on the sort of scales that you suggest. The scandals relating to paedophile priests, particularly in Ireland, followed a few years later.
I dont believe the story of the Adams family tells anybody anything new about child sexual abuse to what is already common knowledge, save that it happened in this particular family.
I dont want to belittle the concern for the evil of child sexual abuse. As a lawyer, I have been handling child abuse cases for 20 years both in the field of child protection and of criminal defence. I this stage in my career, I am rather unshockable and I hope I can be forgiven for finding the political aspects of this scandal much more interesting than the humane ones.
We can probably expect God to punish the sinners. Will he do the same to the Shinners?
excellent post above seymour
Seymour, given your expertise in this area, what is your opinion on the tory party’s opposition to labour’s child protection laws?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212637/Now-Big-Brother-targets-helpful-parents-1-4-Britons-vetted-giant-new-child-protection-database.html
Shane,
I am usually in favour of any measure which increases the protection of children. £64 million, which is the cost of this scheme, would be a small price to pay if it saved a lot of children from abuse.
There are now already rigorous checks on professional people who regularly come into contact with children. That is absolutely right. In fact, more could be done in this area, including the expansion of psychometric testing.
As far as the Government’s proposed scheme is concerned, I get the impression this is a populist, rather than a genuine child protection measure. I agree with the opposition that it is likely to be disproportionate.
The scheme will affect many ordinary people who are doing little more than helping out their neighbours and friends. There is a real danger that such a scheme could be so intrusive as to erode neighbourliness and community spirit thereby causing children to miss out on role models who contribute to the development a child’s conscientiousness.
Most abuse of children happens within families. Such a scheme will not prevent that. Furthermore, you are never going to prevent determined paedophiles from finding victims. As more child protection measures come into play, paedophiles find new and more devious ways to prey on children. That is the reality.
If there is a further £64 million to spend on protecting children, I would rather see it spend on expanding police units that have the task of catching these criminals.
“His position will be only untenable if his party and the electorate of W Belfast tell him to go, he’s not going to be too bothered about what Conservatives and Unionists think of him.”
He acts as if he is Big Brother Number 1 – When he was in Cage 11 he didn’t care too much what the IRA thought of him either. He would sit in his dressing gown in a rocking chair acting as if he was DeValera.
Gregory,
I agree that Adams would not give a monkeys about what the head of the IRA or any politician thinks of him.
However, when the dust has settled on the initial phase of this scandal, the Shinners will be calculating whether Adams remaining as leader will be an electoral asset or a liability. Adams too will be making that calculation.
I believe he will go without persuasion if he thinks Sinn Fein are worse of with him as leader. No doubt, Adams will want to find some other pretext on which to resign but I think he will do that.
Everything now depends on what the wider Nationalist and Republican community thinks about it all.
posted by Kathleen Collins
A belated Merry Christmas to you all.
Gerry Adams is causing problems for sinn fein on many levels. There is the area of US fund raising…he’s damaged goods and that will effect what people give. Since the US is in a recession and money is tight…this will make fund raising even more difficult. Sinn Fein loves and depends on their US money…. Also, sinn fein has to be concerned if adams sits in on negotiations…people sitting across the table…will not believe him because his is now known as a liar and even newspapers are saying this. Gerry Adams will resist leaving the political stage because it is where his money and prestige lies…but there will come a time when the money and prestige for sinn fein will matter more than retaining gerry adams.
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