Gerry Adams has announced he is stepping down as president of Sinn Fein after 34 years in charge of the party that was once closely linked to the IRA.
Adams also confirmed that he will not seek re-election to the Irish parliament, the Dail, in the next general election.
The 69-year-old Republican leader played a pivotal role in shifting the IRA to a permanent ceasefire in the 1990s and nudging Sinn Fein toward embracing power sharing with its former unionists enemies in Northern Ireland.
Photo: Reuters
He told 1,000 delegates at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (annual conference) in Dublin on Saturday night that he and the late Martin McGuinness had recognized the need for a new change in leadership in the party.
“One of our greatest achievements has been to build a peace process. I will not be standing for the Dail; neither will Martin Ferris [a former IRA gunrunner and Sinn Fein member of parliament]. This is also my last Ard Fheis,” Adams said.
He said he would ask the party’s national executive to agree a date next year to elect the next Sinn Fein president.
“I have always seen myself as a team player and a team builder. I have complete confidence in the leaders we elected this weekend and in the next generation of leaders,” Adams said in his speech.
“I want to thank everyone who has welcomed me into their homes and communities and who have made me part of countless campaigns, countless elections and countless negotiations,” he said.
“Leadership means knowing when it is time for change and that time is now,” he added.
Party delegates elected Adams to stay on as president until next year.
They also agreed to hold a special conference to discuss the new leadership emerging from within Sinn Fein, which is to take place within three months of Adams standing down as leader next year.
The former West Belfast lawmaker has been leader of Sinn Fein since 1983. He currently represents the Louth constituency in the Irish Republic and sits in the Dail.
The clear favorite to succeed Adams is the Dublin Teachtai Dala (member of the Dail) and Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald.
If chosen as the party president it would mean Sinn Fein would have female leaders on either side of the Irish border.
Michelle O’Neill leads Sinn Fein in the currently deadlocked Northern Ireland Assembly.
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