Editing Gerry Adams (section)

===IRA membership allegations===
Adams has stated repeatedly that he has never been a member of the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA).<ref>{{cite web |last1=McKeown |first1=Lesley-Anne |title=Gerry Adams denies kidnapping and killing Jean McConville |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50062709 |website=[[BBC News]] |access-date=22 November 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241122223603/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-50062709 |archive-date=22 November 2024 |language=en |date=17 October 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Rosie Cowan |date=1 October 2002 |title=Adams denies IRA links as book calls him a genius |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,3604,802084,00.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923170528/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/oct/01/northernireland.northernireland |archive-date=23 September 2021 |access-date=22 March 2007 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Flavin |first1=Michael |title=Was Gerry Adams a transformational leader? |journal=Small Wars & Insurgencies |date=2 April 2024 |volume=35 |issue=3 |page=434 |doi=10.1080/09592318.2024.2311913 |quote=The IRA that Adams joined in the mid-nineteen sixties was, in effect, moribund, though Adams has always denied IRA membership.|doi-access=free }}</ref> However, journalists such as [[Ed Moloney]],{{sfn|Moloney|2002|p=140}} [[Peter Taylor (journalist)|Peter Taylor]],{{sfn|Taylor|1997|p=140}} and [[Mark Urban]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Mark |title=Big Boys' Rules: SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-571-16809-5 |page=26}}</ref> and historians, such as [[Richard English]]<ref name="English110">{{Cite book |last=English |first=Richard |author-link=Richard English |title=Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA |publisher=[[Pan Books]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-330-49388-8 |page=110}}</ref> and [[John Bowyer Bell]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=J. Bowyer |author1-link=J. Bowyer Bell |title=The IRA, 1968-2000: analysis of a secret army |date=2000 |publisher=[[Frank Cass]] |isbn=0714681199 |page=154}}</ref> have all named Adams as part of the IRA leadership since the 1970s. Furthermore, several former IRA members, including [[Brendan Hughes]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kelleher |first1=Lynne |title=Tape accusing SF boss Gerry Adams of death squad role to air on TV |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/tape-accusing-sf-boss-gerry-adams-of-death-squad-role-to-air-on-tv/28566652.html |website=[[Belfast Telegraph]] |access-date=22 November 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241122222425/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/tape-accusing-sf-boss-gerry-adams-of-death-squad-role-to-air-on-tv/28566652.html |archive-date=22 November 2024 |language=en |date=25 October 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ivor Bell]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kearney |first1=Vincent |title=Bell not guilty of soliciting murder of Jean McConville |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1017/1083977-ira-court-verdict/ |website=[[RTÉ News]] |access-date=22 November 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241122234406/https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1017/1083977-ira-court-verdict/ |archive-date=22 November 2024 |language=en |date=17 October 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Seán Mac Stíofáin]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Interviews - Sean Macstiofain {{!}} The Ira & Sinn Fein {{!}} FRONTLINE {{!}} PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/inside/mac.html |website=[[Frontline (American TV program)|PBS Frontline]] |access-date=22 November 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120908022003/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ira/inside/mac.html |archive-date=8 September 2012 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref> have said Adams was also a member of the organisation. Practically all academics agree that Adams joined [[Irish_Republican_Army_(1922–1969)#1960s:_Marxist_tendency_and_the_1969_split|the IRA in the mid-1960s]], was the [[Officer commanding]] (OC) of the 2nd battalion of the [[Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade|Belfast Brigade]] from 1971 to 1972, became the [[adjutant]] for the brigade in 1972, and had become the OC of the brigade by 1973.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hopkins |first1=Stephen |title=The life history of an exemplary Provisional republican: Gerry Adams and the politics of biography |journal=[[Irish Political Studies]] |date=3 April 2018 |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=11–12 |doi=10.1080/07907184.2018.1454666|hdl=2381/43742 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Moloney and Taylor state that Adams became the IRA's Chief of Staff following the arrest of [[Seamus Twomey]] in early December 1977, remaining in the position until 18 February 1978 when he, along with twenty other republican suspects, was arrested following the [[La Mon restaurant bombing]].{{sfn|Moloney|2002|pp=171-172}}{{sfn|Taylor|1997|p=201}} He was charged with IRA membership and remanded to [[Crumlin Road Gaol]].{{sfn|Moloney|2002|p=173}} He was released seven months later when the [[Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland]] [[Robert Lowry, Baron Lowry|Robert Lowry]] ruled there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution.{{sfn|Moloney|2002|p=173}}{{sfn|Taylor|1997|pp=201-202}} Moloney and English state Adams had been a member of the [[IRA Army Council]] since 1977, remaining a member until 2005 according to former Irish [[Minister for Justice (Ireland)|Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform]] [[Michael McDowell (politician)|Michael McDowell]].{{sfn|Moloney|2002|p=380}}<ref name=English110/><ref>{{Cite news |date=29 July 2005 |title=SF members 'leave army council' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4718811.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814153113/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4718811.stm |archive-date=14 August 2019 |access-date=13 October 2019 |via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref>

{{Blockquote
|text=Rightly or wrongly, I am an [[IRA volunteer|IRA Volunteer]] and, rightly or wrongly, I take a course of action as a means to bringing about a situation in which I believe the people of my country will prosper.
|author="Brownie" (reportedly a pseudonym of Adams') in an article written in ''[[An Phoblacht]]'' while Adams was a prisoner in [[Long Kesh]] in 1976<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shanahan |first1=Timothy |title=The Provisional Irish Republican Army and the morality of terrorism |date=18 December 2009 |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0748635290 |pages=125–126 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Stanage |first1=Niall |title=Blood and guts |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/oct/02/northernireland.comment |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=22 November 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241122213912/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/oct/02/northernireland.comment |archive-date=22 November 2024 |language=en |date=2 October 2002 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cusack |first1=Jim |title=Adams denial of IRA membership mocks his history |url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/adams-denial-of-ira-membership-mocks-his-history/26218540.html |website=[[Irish Independent]] |access-date=22 November 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241122214154/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/adams-denial-of-ira-membership-mocks-his-history/26218540.html |archive-date=22 November 2024 |language=en |date=7 March 2004 |url-status=live}}</ref>
}}