Gerry Adams, Sr.

Who was Gerry Adams, Sr.?

Gerry Adams, Sr. was a Belfast Irish Republican Army volunteer who took part in its Northern Campaign in the 1940s.

Adams was captured after being shot and wounded during an IRA operation in 1942 after he shot an RUC police officer in the foot. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and served five. He was interned in 1971 along with his son Gerry.

He married Anne Hannaway, also a republican from an established republican family, by whom he had thirteen children. His children include Gerry Adams, who became a leading figure in Sinn Féin and is now its president, as well as a former absentionist MP for West Belfast and current TD, as well as Liam Adams who is serving a prison sentence in Northern Ireland for raping his daughter.

He died on 17 November 2003, "a lonely old man," He was buried with the Irish tricolour, despite the private reservations of family members over alleged abuse that would only be made public some years later. His son Gerry Adams said that he felt his father had 'besmirched' the flag.

In December 2009, six years after his death, his family claimed that he had subjected some members of his family to emotional, physical and sexual abuse over many years.