Before the Dawn: An Autobiography - Softcover

Adams, Gerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0863222897 ISBN 13: 9780863222894

Publisher: Brandon Books, 2001

Synopsis

Born in West Belfast in 1948 into a family with close ties to both the trade union and republican movements, Gerry Adams is the eldest of ten children. He writes with affection of his mother, "an articulate and gentle woman, " of his father, a republican activist who had been jailed at the age of sixteen, and of his grandmother, who nurtured in him a love of reading. He describes his childhood, despite its material poverty, in glowing and humorous terms, recollecting golden hours spent playing on the slopes of the mountain behind his home and celebrating the intimate sense of community in the tightly packed streets of working-class West Belfast. But even before leaving school to work as a barman, he had become aware of the inequities and inequalities of life in the north of Ireland. Soon he was engaged in direct action on the issues of housing, unemployment, and civil rights. Gerry Adams brings a unique perspective to the years of conflict, insurrection, and bitter struggle that ensued when, in his view, peaceful political agitation was met with hysterical reaction, and the sectarian tinder-box of Britain's last colony erupted. From the pogroms of 1969 to the hunger strikes of 1981, from the streets of West Belfast to the cages of Long Kesh, this powerful memoir is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand modern Ireland.

About this title

Review:

Closing in 1981 with the deaths of ten Irish Republican Army hunger strikers in Long Kesh prison, the author chronicles the years before he became president of Sinn Fein, the I.R.A.'s political wing. Wrenching accounts of the hunger strike and of the 1969 riots in Northern Ireland that turned a 20-year-old bartender into an activist are counterbalanced by the warmth with which Adams portrays his family and comrades, the atmospheric precision with which he evokes the sights and sounds of his West Belfast community. Not the whole truth by any means, but a compelling partisan document.

From the Publisher:

Gerry Adams has been at the forefront of Northern Ireland's struggle for nearly three decades, taking leadership positions and guiding his country in negotiating peace talks with England for the first time in their tumultuous history. Now, in Before the Dawn, Adams recounts his years growing up in the Irish countryside and, with startling detail, his early involvement in the IRA.

Adams includes engaging stories of his boyhood and never-before-told family tales. His description of his critical role in Northern Ireland's violent and dramatic revolutionary period will haunt and intrigue readers. Ireland instills the strongest of emotions in her offspring, and Adams is no exception. Lyrical and riveting, Before the Dawn explores the origins of one of this century's most compelling men.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brandon Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0863222897
• ISBN 13: 9780863222894
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360