Editing Gerry Adams (section)

==President of Sinn Féin==
Many republicans had long claimed that the only legitimate Irish state was the [[Irish Republic]] declared in the [[Proclamation of the Irish Republic|1916 Proclamation of the Republic]]. In their view, the legitimate government was the IRA Army Council, which had been vested with the authority of that Republic in 1938 (prior to the [[Second World War]]) by the last remaining anti-[[Anglo-Irish Treaty|Treaty]] deputies of the [[Second Dáil]]. In his 2005 speech to the Sinn Féin [[Ard Fheis]] in Dublin, Adams explicitly rejected this view. "But we refuse to criminalise those who break the law in pursuit of legitimate political objectives. ... Sinn Féin is accused of recognising the Army Council of the IRA as the legitimate government of this island. That is not the case. [We] do not believe that the Army Council is the government of Ireland. Such a government will only exist when all the people of this island elect it. Does Sinn Féin accept the institutions of this state as the legitimate institutions of this state? Of course we do."<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/sf/ga050305.htm Adams, Gerry, Speech to 2005 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608075548/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/sf/ga050305.htm |date=8 June 2011 }} CAIN Web Service.</ref>

As a result of this non-recognition, Sinn Féin had abstained from taking any of the seats they won in the British or Irish parliaments. At its 1986 Ard Fheis, Sinn Féin delegates passed a resolution to amend the rules and constitution that would allow its members to sit in the Dublin parliament. At this, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh led a small walkout, just as he and Sean Mac Stiofain had done sixteen years earlier with the creation of Provisional Sinn Féin.{{sfn|Taylor|1997|p=291}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Brendan |title=Joe Cahill: A Life in the IRA |publisher=O'Brien Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-86278-836-0 |page=340}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Brendan |author-link=Brendan O'Brien (Irish journalist) |title=The Long War: The IRA and Sinn Féin |publisher=O'Brien Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-86278-606-9 |page=130}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bishop, Patrick |title=The Provisional IRA |last2=Mallie, Eamonn |publisher=Corgi Books |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-552-13337-1 |page=448}}</ref> This minority, which rejected dropping the policy of [[abstentionism]], now distinguishes itself from Sinn Féin by using the name [[Republican Sinn Féin]], and maintains that they are the true Sinn Féin.

Adams' leadership of Sinn Féin was supported by a Northern-based cadre that included people like Danny Morrison and Martin McGuinness. Over time, Adams and others pointed to republican electoral successes in the early and mid-1980s, when hunger strikers Bobby Sands and [[Kieran Doherty (hunger striker)|Kieran Doherty]] were elected to the British House of Commons and [[Dáil Éireann]] respectively, and they advocated that Sinn Féin become increasingly political and base its influence on electoral politics rather than paramilitarism. The electoral effects of this strategy were shown later by the election of Adams and McGuinness to the House of Commons.

===Voice ban===
Adams's prominence as an Irish republican leader was increased by the [[1988–1994 British broadcasting voice restrictions]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4409447.stm The 'broadcast ban' on Sinn Fein] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216115142/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4409447.stm |date=16 February 2007 }}, BBC News, 5 April 2005.</ref> which were imposed by British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] to "starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend".<ref>Edgerton, Gary [https://archive.today/20130105074546/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119204907/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 Quelling the "Oxygen of Publicity": British Broadcasting and "The Troubles" During the Thatcher Years], ''The Journal of Popular Culture'', Volume 30, Issue 1, pp. 115–32.</ref> Thatcher was moved to act after BBC interviews of Martin McGuinness and Adams had been the focus of [[After Dark (TV series)#Gerry Adams|a row over an edition]] of ''[[After Dark (TV series)|After Dark]]'', a proposed [[Channel 4]] discussion programme which in the event was never made.<ref>[http://staff.stir.ac.uk/david.miller/news/IrishTimes-94.html Dubbing SF voices becomes the stuff of history]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050317093432/http://staff.stir.ac.uk/david.miller/news/IrishTimes-94.html |date=17 March 2005 }}, By Michael Foley ''[[The Irish Times]]'', 17 September 1994.</ref> While the ban covered 11 Irish political parties and paramilitary organisations, in practice it mostly affected Sinn Féin, the most prominent of these bodies.<ref>{{Cite news |last=FRANKEL |first=GLENN |date=18 November 1990 |title=Britain's Media Ban on Terrorist Groups Remains Controversial : Censorship: Voices of revered statesmen are silenced in history program broadcast to schoolchildren in Northern Ireland. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-18-mn-6586-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118045830/http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-18/news/mn-6586_1_northern-ireland |archive-date=18 November 2018 |access-date=6 November 2017 |work=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |issn=0458-3035}}</ref>

A similar ban, known as [[Censorship in the Republic of Ireland#The Troubles|Section 31]], had been law in the Republic of Ireland since the 1970s. However, media outlets soon found ways around the bans. In the UK, this was initially by the use of subtitles, but later and more often by an actor reading words accompanied by video footage of the banned person speaking. Actors who voiced Adams included [[Stephen Rea]] and [[Paul Loughran]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 December 2011 |title=Paul Loughran |url=http://www.ulsteractors.com/l/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016061146/http://www.ulsteractors.com/l/ |archive-date=16 October 2015 |access-date=30 September 2015 |website=Ulsteractors.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Foy |first1=Ken |last2=Murphy |first2=Cormac |date=24 January 2014 |title=Dolours Price, former IRA terrorist and ex-wife of actor Stephen Rea, dies of suspected overdose |url=http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dolours-price-former-ira-terrorist-and-exwife-of-actor-stephen-rea-dies-of-suspected-overdose-29022340.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925022040/http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dolours-price-former-ira-terrorist-and-exwife-of-actor-stephen-rea-dies-of-suspected-overdose-29022340.html |archive-date=25 September 2015 |access-date=30 September 2015 |work=Irish Independent}}</ref> This loophole could not be used in the Republic, as word-for-word broadcasts were not allowed.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 January 2014 |title=BBC News – Twenty years on: The lifting of the ban on broadcasting Sinn Féin |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25843314 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415093527/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25843314 |archive-date=15 April 2018 |access-date=22 June 2018 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Instead, the banned speaker's words were summarised by the newsreader, over video of them speaking.

These bans were lampooned in cartoons, by comedians and satirical TV shows, such as ''[[Jasper Carrott]]'', ''[[Spitting Image]]'', and in ''[[The Day Today]]'', and were criticised by [[freedom of speech]] organisations and media personalities, including BBC Director General [[John Birt]] and BBC foreign editor [[John Simpson (journalist)|John Simpson]]. The Republic's ban was allowed to lapse in January 1994, and the British ban was lifted by Prime Minister [[John Major]] in September 1994.<ref>{{Cite news |title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1994 |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch94.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102135434/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch94.htm |archive-date=2 January 2019 |access-date=5 May 2014 |work=Conflict Archive on the Internet |publisher=University of Ulster}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=17 September 1994 |title=Britain Ends Broadcast Ban on Irish Extremists : Negotiations: Prime Minister Major also backs referendum on Northern Ireland's fate. Both moves indicate desire to move ahead on peace plan |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-09-17-mn-39492-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131218125551/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-09-17/news/mn-39492_1_northern-ireland |archive-date=18 December 2013 |access-date=5 May 2014 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>