When he does finally go, the Sinn Féin politician most likely to take over from Adams will be the party’s deputy leader and Dublin TD, Mary Lou McDonald. “Gerry made Sinn Féin in his own image,” the former IRA prisoner said. He built Sinn Féin up into an efficient electoral machine. Adams’s unofficial biographer, however, believes the Sinn Féin president will impose one cast-iron rule on his replacement – a vigorous defence at all times of the legitimacy of the Provisional IRA’s campaign. 1983Adams is elected MP for West Belfast and later internally voted in as Sinn Féin president, a post he has held ever since.

Source: The Guardian November 17, 2017 17:48 UTC