Don’t be fooled by Gerry Adams’ Christmas rebrand

Did Gerry Adams ever work for MI5? The allegations that he did are not new – even if they have been rigorously denied. But if that lurid speculation is true then his handler surely deserves a medal. 

In recent years, Adams – who was never, of course, in the IRA – has undergone something of a rebrand. The incendiary former Sinn Fein leader now preens as an elder statesman in Irish politics. He also styles himself as a figure of fun, happily revealing how he enjoys trampolining naked with his dog. But even as you cannot unsee that image, don’t be fooled by the cuddly reinvention.

In his most recent outing, Adams makes a brief and spectacularly offensive reappearance from retirement as a carol singer in a charity video. Here is a man who could make buttering toast look creepy, appearing uninvited late at night on the doorstep warbling a pastiche of ‘Deck the Halls’.