During the last couple of weeks, and especially Tuesday, I could not help but notice the Notre Dame community's (and South Bend's) laudatory portrayal of leading Sinn Feiner Gerry Adams. I find this representation of such a character reprehensible.
Sinn Fein is the diplomatic arm of the IRA, a terrorist organization that has plagued the northern six counties of Ireland for decades. We students are too young to remember the deluge of blood that flowed through the streets of Belfast in the '60s, due largely to the activities of the IRA.
Despite what Adams has often claimed, the people of Northern Ireland do not overwhelmingly support him, Sinn Fein, or even the nationalist cause; on the contrary, Ulster is evenly divided on the issue of nationalism and only gave Sinn Fein some 21 percent of the vote last election - the Ulster Unionist Party got 23 percent.
However, most of the Northern Irish, as well the citizens of Britain and the Republic of Ireland, do agree that they want the terrorism in Ulster to permanently stop. Bringing Gerry Adams to Notre Dame to talk about the Irish peace process is akin to bringing Yasser Arafat or politicians associated with Hamas to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Gerry Adams may not have planted the bombs himself, but he supports and represents those who do. He is a terrorist, and we at Notre Dame owe it to all the innocents who have died in Ulster because of him and those of his ilk not to support him or his party.
Derek Webbgrad studentClass of 2005Mar. 17
