Book review by Sean O’Driscoll

A Farther Shore: Ireland’s Long Road to Peace
By Gerry Adams
Random House

I was bracing myself for this memoir by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams thinking it might be very political and dry, but it’s a really good read. The Irish peace process can sometimes be an excruciating subject to write about, but Adams does a good job making it human. This is the new U.S. paperback release of a book already released in Ireland.

It is Adams’ best work and a comprehensive look at the Republican mindset and the road to peace. It is the smaller details that make the book, as the wider picture has already been widely documented. This is, for example, the time that Adams wanted to send an important letter to then British Prime Minister John Major, but a party volunteer accidentally sent the letter to 10 Downing Street in Belfast.

In another scene, Sinn Fein discovers that a law designed to protect the rights of atheists and English Republicans allows MPs to use House of Commons offices without taking their seats. It allows Adams and Martin McGuinness to enter the House of Commons for the first time. In the restrooms, Gerry tries to smoothen Martin’s suit with a brush, only to discover that it’s a polish brush and that he has just smeared polish all over McGuinness’ suit. “My coat is all shiny,” says McGuinness, before the pair discover what has happened. There are also great moments of poignancy, as when Adams describes the death of IRA woman Mairead Farrell, who was killed by the SAS in Gibraltar.

He had seen her only a few days before in Ballymurphy, West Belfast, when she gave a memorial gift to the mother of Jim Lynagh, whose IRA unit had been completely wiped out by the SAS during an attack in Loughgall, Co. Tyrone. Farrell returned to Belfast in a coffin, her body covered in a lead casing. Her family requested an open coffin and in one of the most moving passages of the book, Adams describes cutting through the lead with another Sinn Fein official to reveal the face of his friend.

The Gibraltar funerals were attacked by a Loyalist gunman named Michael Stone, leading to another funeral at which two British soldiers were attacked by an angry mob and later killed by the IRA. Adams’ description of that week of madness, so heavily burned into the memories of the Irish public, is very powerful.

The book sags somewhat during the descriptions of the tortuous negotiations that eventually led to a political agreement in Northern Ireland. I don’t know if there is any other way around it, as many journalists I know in Belfast admit to being bored by their own articles during this time.

Overall, a very convincing book with a strong narrative style and a refreshing use of plain English, a rarity in Northern Ireland.