What a turn around for Gerry Adams – arrested with other leading republicans in Belfast in 1973 , he tried to escape from Prison. For this he was imprisoned and eventually released in 1976. Gerry Adams has repeatedly stated that he has never been a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA ) who have fought a long war with British Governments wanting them to leave Northern Ireland and the reunification of Ireland. Gerry Adams has been President of Sinn Féin since 1983 – Sinn Fein whom many people say are the Political wing of the IRA.
In June 1983 Gerry Adams was elected MP for West Belfast with a majority of more than 5,000. Sinn Fein policy is to refuse to take their elected seats in the UK Parliament as a protest at the continued British rule of Northern Ireland. He was re-elected in 1988 but lost the seat to the SDLP in 1991. Then in 2005 he was re-elected as MP for West Belfast and has held that seat up until 2011. Mr Adams also got elected to the NIassembly in 1998. Gerry Adams decided this year to resigned his seat in the UK Parliament so that he could to run for a seat in the Irish parliament ( Dáil Éireann )
On Saturday the 26th Febuary 2011 the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams secured his seat in Louth on the first count with more than 15,000 votes.
