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"The Irish were sold as slaves" - Gerry Adams has spoken once again about THAT tweet

Adams caused uproar for posting a racially-charged tweet on Sunday night while watching Django Unchained.

23/04/2016 Sinn Fein Ard Fheis 2016 DAY 2. Picture sam boal sam boal

SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Gerry Adams has spoken once more regarding the controversy surrounding a tweet he sent last Sunday evening while watching Quentin Tarantino movie Django Unchained.

Adams had, in his own words, been moved by the struggle of the eponymous civil war-era slave and had posted a tweet intended he says to draw parallels between the character’s struggle and that of the Catholic Irish in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and beyond.

However, he did so by using the ‘n’ word, and has been fighting a media battle on all fronts ever since.

Speaking today to The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio, Adams admitted that he had made his point “clumsily and inappropriately”, but that he stood by the “political point” he had been trying to make.

Tweet by @Gerry Adams Gerry Adams / Twitter Gerry Adams / Twitter / Twitter

“I had been canvassing (for the MLA elections) in Ballymurphy for an hour and a half. I’m not in Ballymurphy much at present, I was meeting a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a long time, and this brought back a background of memories of what happened there,” he said.

That evening I was babysitting. I don’t have Netflix myself, so I switched it on and came up with this movie, Django, which is very powerful and very violent. And that is the background to the tweet and the use of the ‘n’ word.
I was trying to make a political point, I was talking about my own community of Ballymurphy, as could be seen when I used the phrase ‘uppity Fenian’.

Adams repeated an apology for his use of the word, saying to do so was “silly and stupid”.

The whole thing was to make a political point, if I had left that word out would the tweet have gotten any attention?
I was paralleling the experiences of the Irish, not just in recent times but through the penal days when the Irish were sold as slaves, through the Cromwellian period.

Mandela

Adams’ comments regarding the Irish being sold as slaves are a reiteration of a claim he made on Sunday saying “50,000 Irish men and women were shipped as slaves to Barbados between 1652 and 1659″.

That claim was subsequently rejected by historian and slavery expert Liam Hogan who told TheJournal.ie that the figure of 50,000 is wrong and that the most credible estimates were 10,000 as indentured servants at most.

“The exploitation and dehumanisation of African people by Europeans in the Americas has no analogy in Irish history and this fact should be respected,” said Hogan.

Today, Adams was questioned about his relationship with Nelson Mandela, for whom he served as pallbearer, and asked whether or not the South African leader would have understood his tweet in the context in which it was used.

“Of course he would understand,” he replied.

He was hugely loyal. He was loyal to us in Sinn Féin because we were part of the anti-apartheid struggle. That’s why he refused to condemn armed struggle.

The Sinn Féin leader acknowledged that he has no issue with “anyone who was genuinely offended” by his tweet.

There are also those who are hostile to me and Sinn Féin who seize upon anything, and that’s my fault because I have given them an excuse.

Adams did admit that given the situation to live through again he would not have sent his infamous tweet.

“I certainly wouldn’t do it again,” he said.

I may have tweeted having seen such a powerful film, but I probably would have tweeted something else.


RTÉ Radio 1 / SoundCloud

Read: Body of newborn baby found at Bray recycling facility

Read: ‘I never want to go back there again’: Journalist Olivia O’Leary on her struggle with depression

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258 Comments
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    Mute liam
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    Mar 7th 2016, 3:23 PM

    Historically, it was always considered notable how common it was for Irish women to fight alongside men. This can likely be traced back to Brehon Law attitudes that tended to hold women in equal regard to men in Ireland since time immemorial. Then the Catholic Church entered the frame and 3,500 years of equality unravelled in a matter of months, but Irish attitudes often remained.

    190
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    Mute Iúrach
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    Mar 7th 2016, 3:33 PM

    It took Ireland centuries to convert, and even so they were not Catholic.

    Catholicism came with the Normans in 1169. In fact, it was a large part of their casus belli that the Irish were part of the “Celtic Church”, and needed to be brought under the fold.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudabiliter

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    Mute T Beckett is back
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    Mar 7th 2016, 3:46 PM

    What also remains is the blaming of the Catholic Church for everything….. probably from British rule and people’s slavish deference to their media.

    Firstly, no Catholic Church, early Christian Church conversion.

    Secondly, same in rest of the world.

    Thirdly, people choose to treat women in a certain way. Men chose wrong here for decades.

    Fourthly, Ireland is one of the best countries to be a woman in, according to the Oecd.

    A lot of the women and men of the 1916-1921 period were ignored by our governments for years.

    The only people who turned up at 1916 commomerations were overweight special branchers with handicams filming “republicans” while junkies were injecting themselves and harrassing people.

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Mar 7th 2016, 3:57 PM

    Way to go.
    First comment turns the forum into a Catholic bashing exercise.

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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:07 PM

    I’m actually with Oran on this one. It was the industrial revolution that fixed the ideas on women that we have. The Church only provided a mechanism, as it did everywhere, Catholic or not.

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    Mute Mark Ryan
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:40 PM

    Liam knew once he bashed the Catholic Church, even though he was wrong, he was bound to get green thumbs…

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Mar 8th 2016, 12:58 AM

    @liam. What you say is true. De Valera even had our fighting women air-brushed from photographs. Hardly surprising – Sure didn’t he allow McQuaid to dictate our constitution & enslaved us into the Catholic Church to replace Britain.

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    Mute Declan Madsen
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    Mar 8th 2016, 12:30 PM

    Oran, I think it’s fair to say that the Catholic church did nothing to rectify the inequality for many centuries, and continues in that fine tradition today. So you can call it bashing if you like, but at best they’re collaborators with a bad culture, but we all know they helped to keep women in their supposed place.

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Mar 8th 2016, 3:05 PM

    @declan madsen – The Catholic Church kept everyone in their place. All children were intimidated by Catholicism from an early age & most up to 20yrs ago, in their adulthood as well.

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:49 PM

    We could do with a few of these determined women about the place today.

    28
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    Mute Dublin Gay Theatre
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:59 PM

    Great idea, but sorry to see their partners unrecognised when they served side by side. Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen and Elizabeth O’Farrell and Shelia (Julia) Grennan – “Eirebrushed” our play on 1916 lesbian and gay heroes is on in Players Theatre TCD May 2-7th 730pm http://www.gaytheatre.ie

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    Mute liam
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    Mar 7th 2016, 5:11 PM

    Specifying some theatre as “gay” seems superfluous; wouldn’t “straight theatre” be more unusual and unique realistically?

    13
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    Mute Dublin Gay Theatre
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    Mar 7th 2016, 6:03 PM

    Happily not just as Irish or American is equally valid. It’s our 13th season heading past 3500 performances and companies from 5 continents who see its relevance, importance and artistic identity. Pop along in May!

    12
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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:06 PM

    Here’s why you’ll see these women on buses all over Ireland

    (but you won’t see them underneath them)

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    Mute Dreyfus
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    Mar 7th 2016, 8:54 PM

    Trying too hard Oran. Show some respect

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    Mute Stephen Luco
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    Mar 7th 2016, 3:55 PM

    It’s not doing Anything for Anybody. What’s the Point. Surely we can invest money in things for people.

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    Mute Elaine O'Neill
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    Mar 7th 2016, 8:30 PM

    I’d recognise David Rooneys artwork anywhere. Stunning as always.

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:25 PM

    Pearce was a woman

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    Mute Murphy's Mind
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    Mar 7th 2016, 4:40 PM

    Mná na hÉireann…like omg lol

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    Mute David Carino
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    Mar 7th 2016, 5:36 PM

    See the pols where around in 1916 too

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