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17th Sep 2019

Veteran republican makes fresh allegations about Gerry Adams’ role in the IRA in BBC documentary

Paul Moore

The Troubles

It airs tonight. Set record.

After making an immediate impression with its opening episode, Spotlight on The Troubles: A Secret History returns to the BBC on Tuesday evening, with the second episode is set to focus on the bloodiest period in the conflict.

Tonight’s episode will air rare footage of the IRA carrying out a bombing attack at Queen’s University Belfast and it will also feature an interview with a veteran republican who alleges that Gerry Adams was a member of the Provisional IRA.

Gerry Adams has always maintained that he was never in the IRA.

Des Long featured in the opening episode of the documentary and during an interview which will be aired in tonight’s episode, he said that Adams has been lying about his IRA membership.

As reported by the BBC, Long said that he attended meetings of the IRA’s ruling executive. Long said that Gerry Adams was also present at these meetings because he was “chairman of the army council”.

Long adds: “The chairman of the army council would turn up to the executive meetings. We were meeting at least every four months.”

When asked who the chairman was, he replied: “Gerry Adams.”

“I sat opposite him at meetings. This lie he comes out with, he was never in the IRA, that’s a lie. I’ll probably get shot for saying it, but I’m saying it,” added Long.

Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster, Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy dismissed the allegations made by Long, who he called a “bitter opponent of Gerry Adams for 35 years (who) would have regarded him (Adams) as a traitor”.

“These allegations are nothing new and have been made over the years. They have been consistently denied and I think you have to look at the people who are making these allegations and see what their motivation is.”

The second episode of Spotlight on The Troubles: A Secret History airs at 9pm on BBC1 and BBC4.

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