The BBC interview with Adams was nauseating

I watched Adams interview with Andrew Marr recently and nauseating viewing it was too.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Feb 2018, 00:38 BST
Updated 9th Feb 2018, 01:03 BST
Gerry Adams (left) with Andrew Marr during the outgoing Sinn Fein president's interview on BBC1 on SundayGerry Adams (left) with Andrew Marr during the outgoing Sinn Fein president's interview on BBC1 on Sunday
Gerry Adams (left) with Andrew Marr during the outgoing Sinn Fein president's interview on BBC1 on Sunday

He was keen to stress Jesus and forgiveness but no mention of the requirement for repentance, which seemed to feature strongly in what I was taught about the subject.

We were told that Jesus did forgive all, but taking responsibility for your actions was a key part of the deal.

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Apparently that only applies to the state and not to terrorists. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of forgiveness from republican terrorists for legitimate soldiers.

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Of course in the drive to rewrite history they would accept an amnesty for them so as to equate soldiers and terrorists.

I will never accept a moral equivalence between legitimate security forces and terrorists like PIRA and UVF.

If individual members of the security forces have broken the law, as was the case with The Miami Showband attack, then they should be held accountable to it.

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Soldiers carrying out their lawful duties shouldn’t need an amnesty, anyone guilty of serious crimes shouldn’t get one.

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My father once said to me when I announced I hated someone for some childhood misdemeanour, “Aileen you should never hate people just the things they do”.

I have clung to that since the Provisional IRA murdered my mother. It is a given but forgiveness needs to be earned, otherwise it and the potential for change in people is devalued.

I have little respect for the Adamses of this world but I do respect the potential even in the most evil to come good.

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The mental gymnastics needed to absolve terrorists from blame — well Lewis Carroll wouldn’t be in it. What would he have done with the material modern day Northern Ireland would have given him, including the requirement to believe six impossible things before breakfast?

Imagine if we reincarnated or channelled the author and he presented his eponymous heroine in Alice in Wonderland with a different concoction.

Suppose it was a liquid version of all the guff Adams came out with in that interview about him and the IRA, including the self serving claptrap that both republican and loyalist terrorists and apologists trot out when challenged about the suffering they inflicted “Oh it would have been wonderful if there had been a better way”.

Even with the “Drink Me” label on it, Alice would never have swallowed it.

Aileen Quinton, Enniskillen