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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Latest 'Get Gerry Adams' effort is led by deeply troubled woman -- Dolours Price has long history of mental illness after force-feeding

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Latest 'Get Gerry Adams' effort is led by deeply troubled woman -- Dolours Price has long history of mental illness after force-feeding

Posted on Tuesday, October 02, 2012 at 08:20 AM

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Political activist and former volunteer for the Provisional IRA Dolours Price
(Photo: Pacemaker)

Long ago and far away there seems little doubt that Gerry Adams was a senior figure in the IRA in West Belfast.

How could he not be? His neighborhood was under siege from the British Army and every able-bodied man back in the days when the Troubles were at their height was involved.

What is interesting about recent attempts to get Adams to admit the past is how the context is never given.

Decades of complete Unionist misrule led to a tinder-box situation after civil rights marchers were batoned and beaten off the streets in 1968 and 1969.

It all inevitably exploded and then all hell broke loose when the British Army was called in to defend the indefensible status quo we had Bloody Sunday and a fully fledged IRA campaign. That was the Northern Ireland that Gerry Adams grew up in

Dolours Price, now Gerry Adams chief accuser was caught up in it too, coming from a strong Republican family.

In March 1973 she was arrested on board a plane going to Ireland just as a 300 pound bomb detonated at the Old Bailey courts and one person was killed and many injured Her sister Marian was arrested alongside her.

Her time in prison did not go well. She and her sister went on a hunger strike and were force- fed for 200 days an horrific experience which has caused much of the mental trauma she experiences today.

Almost 40 years on, Dolours Price the former wife of actor Stephen Rea, is sadly still suffering the effects.

“She had a history of psychiatric problems and substance abuse,” said journalist Ed Moloney.

“She has been diagnosed with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], had been hospitalized repeatedly, and....(is) taking strong psychotropic drugs.

Indeed, on the day she spoke to [The Irish News] she was on day leave from St Patrick’s psychiatric hospital in Dublin.” Moloney said referring to the controversial interview she gave to that newspaper where she first alleged Adams sent informers to their death.

She is unrepentant about her past and makes no bones that she wants to destroy Adams and the process if she can.

The Irish Sunday Times quoted her this weekend saying she defended her acts while in the IRA and actually enjoyed them. “It was an exciting time, there was no real order or structure to everyday life, the war had taken away all normal routine ... I should be ashamed to admit there was fun in it in those days,” she said.

The same Sunday Times article notes that in 2001, Price was found guilty in a Dublin court of stealing prescriptions. “She seems to have an alcohol problem but is taking steps to address it,” said Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick .

Five years later Price was disallowed access to Maghaberry prison, where she was visiting a dissident republican prisoner “She was verbally abusive and threatening and was in no condition to be allowed into the visiting area,” said a senior Prison Service source.

She has also received three convictions for theft in recent years and has attempted suicide.

Little wonder Adams does not feel it is politic to pursue her accusations against him in court.

Last weekend he stated: “I am not of a mind to trail Dolours Price through the courts . . . she is unwell.”

Those who are putting her up to the statements she is making, given that she is a seriously ill woman have a lot to answer for it seems to me.

She should be allowed time and space to try and recuperate from her many problems It is sad to see her used as a “Get Gerry Adams” vehicle by sections of the media.

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seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 12:48 PM EDT

ancavker. Nail on the head.

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ancavker | Oct 11, 2012, 10:20 AM EDT

Dan: PIRA did not take to the streets in massive numbers and bring the province to a standstill. Had Sunningdale been implemented a reasoanable argument could be made that the PIRA would have melted away, or at least not enjoyed the support of so many Catholics/Nationalists that it did back then. The ultimate responsibility lay with Britain; they failed miserably.

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seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 08:48 AM EDT

Dano. Of course it was a good idea. In any war hitting the enemy at home is always a good idea.

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seamus60 | Oct 11, 2012, 08:45 AM EDT

Dano. You`re right SF and the PRM branded the SDLP as all sorts Brits, Traitors, sell outs etc etc. Yet they now themselves partake in Sunningdale and call those who are of their previous opinion Traitors to the island of Ireland. They now wear the SDLP`s cloths and practice their policies, with the addition of aiding Gerrymandering and remain quiet on other serious issues such as Internment.

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DanOLoingsigh | Oct 10, 2012, 08:08 PM EDT

ancavker - PIRA was just as anti-Sunningdale, let's not forget that.

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DanOLoingsigh | Oct 10, 2012, 08:05 PM EDT

Seamus – No I never said that…The point is that it’s the same twisted logic used to widen the conflict…‘ordinary men and women who couldn`t have cared less’ had to be made to ‘pay attention’…in fact the same logic behind 9/11…so I ask again…still think it was a good idea?

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seanomelb | Oct 10, 2012, 06:06 PM EDT

I cannot redbranch I do not have a pilots license and I was navy. BTW I agree with your last post.

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RedBranch | Oct 10, 2012, 03:35 PM EDT

Thanks for that Seamus. Ancavker, Mallon correctly called the 1998 Belfast Agreement as 'Sunningdale for slow learners'and I don't believe he was speaking specifically about unionists.

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ancavker | Oct 10, 2012, 10:20 AM EDT

Red Branch: We had Sunningdale, the British refused to back it in the face of Unionist opposition. Had they stood up to th Frankenstein monster they created, it can be reasonably argued that much of the bloodshed and destruction that followed for the next 25 years may have been avoided.

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seamus60 | Oct 10, 2012, 09:42 AM EDT

Redbranch. Had you asked me that 5 or 6 years ago i would have said yes. But in view of many things coming to light since, I wouldn`t be prepared to place a bet. Even with her being an informer and executed as one, the womans body should have been returned for christian burial as with all the others. That has always been my position.

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RedBranch | Oct 10, 2012, 09:02 AM EDT

Seamus was Jean McConville a British spy?

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RedBranch | Oct 10, 2012, 09:00 AM EDT

Gosh sean, I had no idea you served in the Irish Army's racial equivalant of the Tuskegee Airmen. The rest of my statement stands. Come on home where you belong....

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seamus60 | Oct 10, 2012, 07:47 AM EDT

Dano, are you implying Dublin/Monaghan was the first time Loyalist/british paramillitaries carried out actions against people in the 26 ? Your argument has as little meat on it as the one claiming the Birmingham six were victims of Republicanism.

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seanomelb | Oct 09, 2012, 07:07 PM EDT

You have no idea of my colour! how arrogantly presumptuous of you Redbranch

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DanOLoingsigh | Oct 09, 2012, 06:52 PM EDT

Republicans took the war to UK Mainland...loyalists then took it to Dublin & Monaghan...still think it was a good idea?

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