LAST UPDATE | 14 Jul 2018
GERRY ADAMS HAS said he does not know who attacked his home with an explosive device last night but he has urged them to consider sitting down and talking with him.
The home of the former Sinn Féin leader was attacked overnight as was the home of party member Bobby Storey.
Adams said that his grandchildren had been playing in the driveway of his home shortly before the attack and that he is thankful no one was injured.
The attacks both occurred in west Belfast and follow a number of nights of unrest in Derry believed to involve dissident republicans.
Adams said he does not know if that the attack on his home was connected to that violence but that it may be.
“I don’t know, there may be a connection between what’s happening in Derry. I support the stance of the people on the Bogside and the strong statement from Mary Lou McDonald for it to stop. But is there a connection? I don’t know,” Adams said.
Speaking to reporters this morning, the Louth TD added that he would like to sit down and speak to those involved in the attack on him to determine their motive.
Those who were involved in the attack, if they have the gumption to sneak on our home, I’d ask them, and if they have representatives, to come and meet me. I’d like them and their representatives to explain what it was all about.
Adams said there are those who have been “resistant to change” who have threatened his party colleagues in the past.
“Those who are away from the peace process see us as the enemy and have made threats against us in the past. Martin McGuinness was under a live threat,” Adams said.
This was a serious attack, had a child or anyone else been caught up in that blast, whatever about the substance of the explosive, the fact is it would have injured or perhaps killed a child.
Sinn Féin has said that the attacks on the homes of Adams and Storey involved the use of “explosive devices” with party MLA Gerry Kelly saying that children had been nearby not long beforehand.
“These were reprehensible and cowardly attacks on the family homes of Gerry Adams and Bobby Storey. Grandchildren were in the driveway of Adams’ home minutes before the attack,” Kelly said.
I would appeal for calm. These attacks are the desperate acts of increasingly desperate and irrelevant groups.
PSNI officers in west Belfast said last night they were dealing with two separate incidents in the area.
Pictures from the scene of the attack on Adams’ home shows damage to a car in the driveway.
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