Gerry Adams Quotes

If you militarise a situation, you beg for an armed response.

Sinn Fein has the potential and capacity to become the vehicle for the attainment of republican objectives.

Peace cannot be built on exclusion. That has been the price of the past 30 years.

It will always be a battle a day between those who want maximum change and those who want to maintain the status quo.

For good or ill, I'm a person of leadership. I do my best. I don't dodge responsibility.

In this context the British and Irish governments will have to promote a new, imaginative and dynamic alternative in which both governments will share power in the north.

War ... some people glamorise war and glorify war. It's not nice, from whatever point of view you come from.

I nominate the Reverend Ian Paisley for the position of First Minister of northern Ireland

Such decisions will be far reaching and difficult. But you never lacked courage in the past. Your courage is now needed for the future.

It might or might not be right to kill, but sometimes it is necessary.

Sinn Fein has productively taken the example of South Africa and, as we develop the peace process, we continue to use examples from South Africa.

No Irish nationalist could support any treaty which institutionalizes British government claims to a part of Irish national territory. Indeed, the term - 'constitutional nationalism'- used by Mr.Mallon (SDLP) and his colleagues to describe their political philosophy is a contradiction in terms. The only constitutional nationalist in Ireland today is Sean McBride. He puts his nationalism within a framework of Irish constitutionality. Mr. Mallon, however, puts his within the framework of British constitutionality. Irish nationalism within British constitutionality is a contradiction in terms.

I think the worst kind of grief is unacknowledged grief.

One man's transparency is another's humiliation.

If I didn't forgive the people who took me into the barracks and beat me unconscious over a period of days during the period when the British state was indicted for inhuman and degrading treatment in 1971-72, or even the guys who shot me, if you don't forgive them, you end up with unnecessary baggage.

You can only judge anything that happened in the times, in the times that that happened.

When I wrote 'Before The Dawn,' I made it quite clear that there are lots of people involved in my life who I can't talk about simply because I'd put them at risk.

But if republicans are to prevail, if the peace process is to be successfully concluded and Irish sovereignty and re-unification secured, then we have to set the agenda - no-one else is going to do that.

The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally.

Once water charges are in place they will only go up. This has been the history of all these charges

The Good Friday Agreement and the basic rights and entitlements of citizens that are enshrined within it must be defended and actively promoted by London and Dublin.

Republican patience with how unionism deals with the political institutions, and with key issues like equality and human rights, will be tested because, obviously, there will be a battle a day on these matters. So lets face up to all of this with our eyes wide open.

We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence.

There needs to be nationalist and republican confidence in unionism.

The days of humiliation, of second-class citizens and of inequality are over and gone forever.

Armed struggle is a necessary and morally correct form of resistance in the Six Counties against a government whose presence is rejected by the vast majority of the Irish people There are those who tell us that the British government will not be moved by armed struggle. As has been said before, the history of Ireland and of British colonial involvement throughout the world tells us that they will not be moved by anything else.

Sinn Fein has demonstrated the ability to play a leadership role as part of a popular movement towards peace, equality and justice.

In the past I have defended the right of the IRA to engage in armed struggle. I did so because there was no alternative for those who would not bend the knee, or turn a blind eye to oppression, or for those who wanted a national republic.

I think there is a huge responsibility upon governments to understand the consequence of their decisions.

Hugging trees has a calming effect on me. I'm talking about enormous trees that will be there when we are all dead and gone. I've hugged trees in every part of this little island.

We have to make sure the Good Friday Agreement works.

At that time, the army leadership said the implementation of this agreement would allow everyone, including the IRA, to take its political objectives forward by peaceful and democratic means.

I like to think I'm very grounded. I'm very grounded in my family. I'm very grounded in my community.

The catalyst for much of this change is the growing support for republicanism.

It's been a long time coming but the reality is that this process is at a crossroads.