Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has rejected suggestions by Tánaiste Micheál Martin that his party “over-glorified” paramilitary violence during The Troubles and failed to respond sufficiently to the victims of that violence.
Micheál Martin made the comments during a Q&A session with Boston Globe journalist Kevin Cullen at the JFK Library in Boston last month.
He told the audience of up to 200 people that Sinn Féin has to “deal with the past". He claimed the party had attempted to rewrite history to “justify terrible atrocities and acts of violence".
“And Sinn Féin, in my view, have over-glorified what happened in the last thirty years and haven’t responded sufficiently to the victims of violence that they were responsible for."
However, in an interview with RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Mr Adams said that we "all need to be careful with how we deal with the past".
Broadcaster Aine Lawlor also put comments made by Nichola McKee Corner, sister of murdered Lyra McKee, to Mr Adams. She said that Ms McKee Corner had told the Week in Politics that a lot of young people in Northern Ireland are being pulled down a road of glorifying what happened during the Troubles.
Mr Adams said that he would take "take that from Lyra McKee's sister, but I won't take it from Micheál Martin".
"Micheál Martin glorifies, rightly if you like, the men and women of the IRA of Cork in his time. I don't glorify. I deal with the reality. The people made a stand here.
"Let's look to the future in all of this. It is nothing short of ridiculous that 25 years on without institutions in place, when Republicans are playing a very, very positive role, when the IRA has gone away. Here we are talking about the IRA. In God's name. With no institutions in place. "
Mr Adams accused the Irish Government of being "asleep at the wheel" in terms of its responsibilities to the North.
"In terms of its responsibilities to lead. To come in to the gap. To be there. To be putting it up to a British government which has no instinct whatsoever for this place -- right, wrong or indifferent. Unionist or Nationalist."
However, he said that he believes "the future is bright" for Northern Ireland in spite of certain difficulties being experienced currently.
"Whatever about families of victims, including families of the IRA, want to say and needing to be heard and to be respected. An Tánaiste, a former Taoiseach has a responsibility to lead us all out of this current difficulty and there is a structure which the Irish Government is not working which is there to be worked.
"You talked about victims a moment ago. What about the legacy the British government tore up? The Stormont House Agreement. It is not enough for An Tánaiste or An Taoiseach to give off about it. They should take an interstate case.
"Face up to the British within the rules and regulations by which these matters are supposed to be governed. If Micheál Martin is as much concerned about the victims as he says he is then let him do what the victims are asking which in this case they are asking for the Irish Government to take an interstate case against the British government."
Meanwhile, Mr Adams said that the DUP should be given a limited amount of time on the Windsor Framework.
"Jeffrey (Donaldson) should be given a limited amount of time. Basically he is refusing to go in to an Assembly over an issue for which the Assembly has no responsibility for or authority over.
"I think give them a limited amount of time. Don't put them under any unforeseen pressure. But make it clear. And don't wait. We are not waiting. Time is of the essence in all these matters."
He added that he understood the decision by US president Joe Biden not to visit Stormont during his upcoming visit to Northern Ireland.
"I sympathise with him not going. Why would he go to an empty building? He might as well go to a wake. It is a silliness to make a story out of that. I hope he has a good trip."
