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Leadership Quote by Gerry Adams

"We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence"

About this Quote

Total commitment is the safest kind of promise in a conflict zone: absolute in tone, elastic in practice. Gerry Adams’ line is built to do two jobs at once. It pledges an uncompromising end state - “ending partition” - while quietly relocating the hard part into the foggy middle: “creating the conditions.” That second clause is the political pressure valve. It allows a movement to sound inevitable and principled while keeping timelines, methods, and trade-offs strategically undefined.

The phrasing also performs a careful balancing act between legitimacy and militancy. “Unity and independence” is the old Republican horizon, but framed here as something achieved by conditions, not by shock tactics. It reads like a bid to translate ideological purity into a language that can survive negotiations, elections, and international scrutiny. For supporters, it signals continuity: the destination hasn’t changed. For skeptics, it offers a softer path: the emphasis is on enabling circumstances rather than forcing outcomes.

Context matters: Adams spoke as a central figure in Sinn Fein’s shift from insurgent-adjacent politics toward institutional power, particularly through the peace process era where constitutional mechanisms and consent became non-negotiable. The subtext is consent without saying consent, inevitability without admitting contingency. It’s a sentence designed to hold a coalition together - hardliners hear “ending partition,” moderates hear “conditions,” and diplomats hear a commitment to a process rather than a spark.

Quote Details

TopicFreedom
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Adams, Gerry. (2026, January 17). We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-totally-committed-to-ending-partition-and-62222/

Chicago Style
Adams, Gerry. "We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-totally-committed-to-ending-partition-and-62222/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We are totally committed to ending partition and to creating the conditions for unity and independence." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-totally-committed-to-ending-partition-and-62222/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Commitment to Ending Partition and Unity by Gerry Adams
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About the Author

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Gerry Adams (born October 6, 1948) is a Politician from Ireland.

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