Editing Gerry Adams (section)

==Rise in Sinn Féin==
[[File:Gerry Adams reading into mic.jpg|thumb|Adams at a commemoration in [[County Fermanagh]] (2001)]]
In 1978, Adams became joint vice-president of Sinn Féin and a key figure in directing a challenge to the Sinn Féin leadership of President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and joint vice-president Dáithí Ó Conaill. The 1975 IRA-British truce is often viewed as the event that began the challenge to the original Provisional Sinn Féin leadership, which was dominated by southerners like Ó Brádaigh and Ó Conaill.

One of the reasons that the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin were founded, in December 1969 and January 1970, respectively, was that people like Ó Brádaigh, Ó Conaill and McKee opposed participation in constitutional politics. The other reason was the failure of the [[Cathal Goulding]] leadership to provide for the defence of Irish nationalist areas during the 1969 Northern Ireland riots. When, at the December 1969 IRA convention and the January 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, the delegates voted to participate in the Dublin ([[Leinster House]]), Belfast (Stormont) and London (Westminster) parliaments, the organisations split. Adams, who had joined the republican movement in the early 1960s, sided with the Provisionals.

In the Maze prison in the mid-1970s, writing under the pseudonym "Brownie" in ''[[Republican News]]'', Adams called for increased political activity among republicans, especially at local level.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 June 2004 |title=Sinn Féin: where does the money come from? |url=http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1201596&issue_id=11029 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904035249/http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1201596&issue_id=11029 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |work=Irish Independent}}</ref> The call resonated with younger Northern people, some of whom had been active in the Provisional IRA but few of whom had been active in Sinn Féin. In 1977, Adams and [[Danny Morrison (Irish republican)|Danny Morrison]] drafted the address of Jimmy Drumm at the annual [[Wolfe Tone]] commemoration at [[Bodenstown]]. The address was viewed as watershed in that Drumm acknowledged that the war would be a long one and that success depended on political activity that would complement the IRA's armed campaign. For some,{{Who|date=August 2010}} this wedding of politics and armed struggle culminated in Danny Morrison's statement at the 1981 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in which he asked "[[Armalite and ballot box strategy|Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in one hand and the Armalite in the other, we take power in Ireland]]?" For others, however, the call to link political activity with armed struggle had already been defined in Sinn Féin policy and in the presidential addresses of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, but this had not resonated with young Northerners.<ref>Robert White, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary, pp. 258–59.</ref>

[[File:Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Martin McGuinness & Gerry Adams at Bodenstown, 1997.jpg|thumb|Adams with [[Martin McGuinness]] and [[Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin]] in 1997]]
Even after the election of [[Bobby Sands]] as MP for [[Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)|Fermanagh and South Tyrone]], a part of the mass mobilisation associated with the [[1981 Irish Hunger Strike]] by republican prisoners in the [[HM Prison Maze#H-Blocks|H blocks]] of the Maze Prison, Adams was cautious that the level of political involvement by Sinn Féin could lead to electoral embarrassment. [[Charles Haughey]], the [[Taoiseach]] of [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], called [[1981 Irish general election|an election]] for June 1981. At an Ard Chomhairle meeting, Adams recommended that they contest only four constituencies which were in [[Irish border|border]] counties. Instead, H-Block/Armagh candidates contested nine constituencies and elected two TDs. This, along with the election of Sands, was a precursor to an electoral breakthrough in [[1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election|elections in 1982]] to the [[Northern Ireland Assembly (1982)|1982 Northern Ireland Assembly]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nicholas Whyte |title=Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 1982 |url=http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/fa82.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213021450/http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/fa82.htm |archive-date=13 February 2007 |access-date=1 January 2011 |publisher=Ark.ac.uk}}</ref> Adams, Danny Morrison, Martin McGuinness, [[Jim McAllister (Irish republican)|Jim McAllister]] and [[Owen Carron]] were elected as abstentionists. The [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (SDLP) had announced before the election that it would not take any seats and so its 14 elected representatives also abstained from participating in the Assembly and it was a failure. The 1982 election was followed by the [[1983 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland|1983 Westminster election]], in which Sinn Féin's vote increased and Adams was elected, as an abstentionist, as MP for Belfast West. It was in 1983 that Ruairí Ó Brádaigh resigned as President of Sinn Féin and was succeeded by Adams.

In 1983, Adams was elected president of Sinn Féin and became the first Sinn Féin MP elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]] since [[Philip Clarke (politician)|Phil Clarke]] and [[Tom Mitchell (Irish politician)|Tom Mitchell]] in the mid-1950s.<ref name="EI" /> Following his election as MP for Belfast West, the British government lifted a ban on his travelling to Great Britain. In line with Sinn Féin policy, he refused to take his seat in the House of Commons.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Gerry Adams Fast Facts |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/27/europe/gerry-adams-fast-facts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107004855/http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/27/world/europe/gerry-adams-fast-facts/index.html |archive-date=7 November 2017 |access-date=6 November 2017 |work=CNN}}</ref>

===Assassination attempt by the UDA===
On 14 March 1984 in central Belfast, Adams was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt when [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA) gunmen fired about 20 shots into the car in which he was travelling. He was hit in the neck, shoulder and arm. He was rushed to the [[Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast|Royal Victoria Hospital]], where he underwent surgery to remove three bullets. [[John Gregg (UDA)|John Gregg]] and his team were apprehended almost immediately by a [[British Army]] patrol that opened fire on them before ramming their car.{{sfn|McDonald|Cusack|2004|p=129}} The attack had been known in advance by security forces due to a tip-off from informants within the UDA; Adams and his co-passengers had survived in part because RUC officers, acting on the informants' information, had replaced much of the ammunition in the UDA's Rathcoole weapons dump with low-velocity bullets.{{sfn|McDonald|Cusack|2004|pp=129-130}} Some, including Adams himself, still have unanswered questions about the RUC's actions prior to the shooting.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kevin Maguire |date=14 December 2006 |title=Adams wants 1984 shooting probe |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6179789.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127140434/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6179789.stm |archive-date=27 January 2007 |access-date=22 March 2007 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> An [[Ulster Defence Regiment]] NCO subsequently received the [[Queen's Gallantry Medal]] for chasing and arresting an assailant.<ref>Potter, p. 268.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=April 2024}}