Ulster Unionist Leader Robin Swann MLA has described recent comments by Gerry Adams as utter hypocrisy.   

Robin Swann MLA said:

“In a recent newspaper interview, Gerry Adams blamed others for the failure of political talks and said;

‘I understand all of us can say things that people find objectionable but there is a difference between me misspeaking and you misspeaking and an entire system being offensive and refusing to tolerate.’  

“This is typical hypocrisy from Gerry Adams. If ever there was a textbook example of an entire system that was offensive and refusing to tolerate it was the republican movement which he has led for more than 45 years.

“The IRA was responsible for almost 1,700 deaths, ranging from babies to pensioners. They murdered police officers, prison officers, soldiers, shoppers, people in restaurants, people in pubs in Belfast and Birmingham, people standing at War Memorials, Australian tourists in Holland and children on a High Street in Warrington.

“Sinn Fein provided the political cover for this campaign of brutal terror and Gerry Adams himself spent decades refusing to condemn IRA actions and seeking to excuse the inexcusable.   

“He may be about to leave the stage, and be keen to re-write the history of the Troubles, but the Ulster Unionist Party will not allow the truth to be hidden, simply because Sinn Fein find it inconvenient. The so-called republican movement is the embodiment of ‘an entire system being offensive and refusing to tolerate’ and many thousands of people are still living with the consequences. It will surprise nobody that Gerry Adams is unable and unwilling to see the utter hypocrisy in his comments.”