Programme Details

Gerry Adams quotes from Seamus Heaney's "The Cure at Troy" at the beginning of his memoir, Hope and History: Making Peace in Ireland. Heaney's poem is about suffering, torture, history and healing. Night Waves talks frankly to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams about the pain and guilt of reconciliation and about his personal journey through the murky political and cultural landmarks of Republicanism.

Gerry Adams talks to Philip Dodd about class, culture, sectarianism and the heavy weight of history on the Irish psyche. To what extent has that weight been lifted by the recent peace process? Adams describes his hope for the relationship between North and South and between Catholics and Protestants and he talks about the realistic future of Republican political and cultural ideals.

Night Waves talks to Adams about the entire Republican agenda. How does Adams reconcile the deaths of thousands with the political reality of today? As globalisation and European money pours into a country looking more to American culture than to its own history, what sort of Ireland do Republicans envisage now that the dream for a united country is all but ended?

Philip Dodd presents Night Waves, 9.30 Thursday September 30th, here on BBC Radio 3.


Presenter: Philip Dodd
Producer: Anthony Denselow




Additional Information:
Gerry Adams' Hope and History: Making Peace In Ireland is published by Brandon.