Politics & Power Quote by Gerry Adams

A lot is packed into the bland civics of “lead by example,” especially coming from Gerry Adams, a figure whose public life has been defined by the argument that legitimacy is earned, not granted. The line is doing two jobs at once: it’s a piece of moral choreography aimed inward at Irish republicanism, and a credibility play aimed outward at the institutions and publics that have long viewed republican politics through the shadow of paramilitarism.

The intent is disciplinary. Adams isn’t merely urging good behavior; he’s asserting an authority to set standards for a movement that historically prized loyalty and strategic ambiguity over bourgeois respectability. “The very strong view” signals that this isn’t a casual preference but a line in the sand: if republicanism wants to be treated as a governing tradition rather than a permanent insurgency, it has to perform the habits of governance. Not just obey rules, but embody them.

The subtext is reputational triage. “Republicans” here is a broad, strategically inclusive label: party members, activists, ex-prisoners, sympathizers, the entire ecosystem that Sinn Fein claims to represent. By framing the obligation as collective, Adams spreads responsibility while also implying that past conduct (or present temptations) has made this reminder necessary. It’s a coded admission that the movement’s moral authority is contestable.

Context matters: in post-Agreement Northern Ireland, power is as much about optics and trust as votes. “Lead by example” is a bid to convert revolutionary identity into civic capital, and to insist that the new battlefield is behavior in public, not bravado in private.