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Gerry Adams is one of the most well known and powerful people in the world.
He became involved in the civil rights campaign in the 1960s and was active in campaigns around discrimination in housing and equal rights.
For his activities in the ongoing effort to secure equality of treatment for all Irish men and women Gerry was interned in 1971 on the British Maidstone, a prison ship known for its inhumane conditions of overcrowding and brutality. He was released to participate in secret talks in London. After his re-arrest he tried to escape and was imprisoned. He was released in 1977.
Over the years Gerry's family has also been targeted by unionist forces. His brother-in-law was killed by the British Army; his brother was shot by the British; several family members have been imprisoned, and his wife and son narrowly escaped injury when a loyalist bomb attack was carried out at their home. To the present day Gerry's health continues to be adversely affected by the years of punishment inflicted during his internment and from his closest call with death, when his body was riddled by gun-fire in a loyalist death squad attack in downtown Belfast.
Gerry Adams and John Hume initiated the peace process which succeeded in bringing an end to the conflict. He was one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement which of all-Ireland political institutions and a power sharing Executive in the north of Ireland.
In 2011 he was elected to the Dáil (Irish Parliament).
On May 19, 2015, while on an official royal trip to Ireland, Prince Charles shook Gerry’s hand in what was described as a highly symbolic gesture of reconciliation. The meeting, described as historic, took place in Galway.
Gerry is also the author of 13 books, including: A Pathway to Peace, The Politics of Irish Freedom and Selected Writings, A New Ireland – A Vision for the Future; his autobiographies Before the Dawn and Hope and History - Making Peace in Ireland, An Irish Voice and An Irish Journal.
