Before the Dawn: An Autobiography - Softcover

Adams, Gerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688161014 ISBN 13: 9780688161019

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1998

Synopsis

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 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.

About the Author:

Gerry Adams was president of Sinn Fein for more than three decades. He stepped down from that position on February 10, 2018. He remains a Teachta Dala (TD) for Louth East Meath until the next general election. He is the author of 16 books, including An Irish Eye and The New Ireland: A Vision for the Future. His books have won critical acclaim in many quarters and have been widely translated.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0688161014
• ISBN 13: 9780688161019
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352