The Sinn Féin office is located in a what could hardly be called a luxury building in what seems to be a mostly deserted area of West Belfast. In the room where I sit, there is a one-bar electric fire, a couple of mismatched chairs and little else. Somewhere on the outside a band is practicing, the drums that one usually associates with Loyalists are getting a fair belting from … [Read more...] about Ourselves Alone: An Interview with Gerry Adams
April 1991
Gerry Adams
The Road to Peace
In 1991, Irish America magazine published one of the first interviews with Gerry Adams. (As far as we can tell, Playboy magazine was the only other American magazine to interview Adams before that. (In the Republic of Ireland, N. Ireland and the UK, broadcasting bans were in place that prevented media outlets from airing interviews with Sinn Féin members). In March, of that … [Read more...] about Gerry Adams The Road to Peace
75th Anniversary of The Irish Uprising 1916
By Frank Shouldice April 1991
Easter 1916 and the Annals of Irish History Few events in Irish history have been as momentous as the 1916 Easter Rising. What started out as a minor and unpopular rebellion by about 1,200 men and women became the spark which led to three years of full-scale war with Britain. And the Treaty which ended the War of Independence in 1922 created its own monster: civil war and … [Read more...] about 75th Anniversary of The Irish Uprising 1916
The Readers’ Writer
By Frank Shouldice April 1991
For someone on a rigorous public relations schedule, Maeve Binchy is a remarkably personable interviewee. The Dublin author arrived in New York on a brief but hectic promotional visit for her new book Circle Of Friends and although she is pressed for time and does speak quickly, there is an unhurried air about her. I had never met Maeve before and felt that she conveys a … [Read more...] about The Readers’ Writer
Book Review | Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916
By Maire Crowe April 1991
On February 24 the Sunday Independent newspaper in Ireland published an article which asked the question, "1916: How should we mark the 75th anniversary?..." That was leaving it late, wasn't it? The latest word from Ireland is that the Rising will be marked by a reading of the 1916 Proclamation from the steps of the General Post Office (main site of the fighting) by Prime … [Read more...] about Book Review | Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916