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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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bunkerhill | Oct 06, 2012, 12:23 PM EDT

Thank you Irish Central for once again refusing to print my comment and sending me a message to forward it somewhere else. Are you people looking for positions as butlers or maids in the royal palace? Censorship is now fully in place on this site.

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buslane | Oct 06, 2012, 11:52 AM EDT

Unfortunately the article by Niall O'Dowd is an example of British hating republican propaganda which ignores the whole truth and is exactly the sort of one sided diatribe which provokes hatred and division. He never lived in Northern Ireland and this bigoted nonsense does not help anyone.

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seamus60 | Oct 06, 2012, 07:08 AM EDT

Dano. Just to add. No one has the monoply on pain. Every single life lost in the troubles has the same heartbreak behind it. I don`t know anyone who would ever glamourise any war, more so when they have seen the consequences in their own locality. Can`t speak for those who sit in the comfort of their hidden decision making rooms and merely push a button with severe consequences to all.None of this gets us away from the fact that because the decision of a few at the time of Sunningdale 2000 coffins came into play. We now have Sunningdale.

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seamus60 | Oct 06, 2012, 06:56 AM EDT

Dano. No one can blame anyone on the Nationalist side for resorting to the use of violence. Self defence was called for and a Godsend to people like those under siege in the Shortstrand and others areas. This was the opening for anyone with the agenda you mention below. But lets not forget either the Brits went down the road of cracking an egg with a sledge hammer. Try living in any community watching them dish out (what they have done best all round the world) on your neighbours. Do you believe most people who ever decided to join the PIRA done so because of history books they read. They didn`t have to, they just looked out their front window. They have always come at the problem with a loaded dice, the same dice that drew people into the war. The same loaded dice that prevails to this very day.

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DanOLoingsigh | Oct 05, 2012, 04:56 PM EDT

The groups who opted for the ‘armed struggle’ solution did so by choice…they chose to put their lives ‘on the line’…and they did so with some very definite aims and agenda…they’re not the only ones whose lives are blighted by their campaigns and the reaction it provoked…I feel a deal more sympathy for the ‘non-combatants’ who just happened to get in the way – nobody marches or campaigns for that unfortunate and unremembered body of souls…that doesn’t make me a Blueshirt…but I agree that mudslinging doesn't move the process forward

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seamus60 | Oct 05, 2012, 05:28 AM EDT

Bogside. Practically impossable to deal with the issues at hand within the article as is the case with most of Nialls. He has the comfort of publishing without explaining what or why. Like our politicians he does`nt do question and answer sessions and if he did I`m sure like the politicians questions would have to be pre agreed. I have been bringing up the issue of Marians Internment at every opportunity on this site for the sole purpose of keeping it alive. There are now so many who would rather not hear about the injustices that remain. Mudslinging is a by product of people not being able to debate what is going on around them in real time. But then again how could anyone justify what has and is happening to both the Price sisters.

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Bogside1234 | Oct 04, 2012, 10:12 PM EDT

Well this deteriorated in a hurry to mudslinging. Listen we could sit here all day and thump our chests and say who are true republicans and who are not. You’re loosing the main focus, which is the article itself. I don’t care what group you support, I care that a woman who was deeply scarred by what happened to her because of her involvement in the republican movement. Her name is now being dragged through the mud. I am sick and tired of anyone who takes a stance against SF being branded or tagged or labeled. When I was a wee boy they had a song called Bring Them Home and it was about the Price sisters, times have changed. Now all these years later one sister has mental issues that Niall has no problem using that to serve propaganda purposes, she may have issues but does that mean she has a bad memory or anyone else who made the same claims for that matter? Meanwhile the other sister is in a hospital bed and is deemed by human rights doctors as being not well enough to stand trial. One’s plight is being ignored and the other’s is used to justify a politicians lies. I am no more for a continued war than anyone else, god knows I have been to enough funerals, but if I fought for the removal of the brits and to bring down Stormont as they did and suffered for, then yes I would be still trying to bring down Stormont and she has every right maybe more so than the rest of us to say what she believes.

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seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 08:30 PM EDT

Can`t believe this, me branded a dissident, sandwiched in between a blue shirt and a shinner who have ooh so much in common.

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seanomelb | Oct 04, 2012, 07:41 PM EDT

What groups Dano?? put your money where your mouth is. They saved the nationalists in the N.E. from another 90yrs. of unionist bullying which you condone by your language.

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seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 07:31 PM EDT

Dano. You`re calling a lot of people names there. But then again most people in Ireland spoke like that of individuals who put their life on the line to get them the freedom you now endorse.

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seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 05:32 PM EDT

Who ? Redbranch

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DanOLoingsigh | Oct 04, 2012, 03:48 PM EDT

Seano - The term 'self-appointed republican zealots' describes various groupings who worked against the real interests of the Irish people, decided that they alone knew what was best for evryone else, and dragged the good name of IRELAND into the gutter...

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RedBranch | Oct 04, 2012, 03:09 PM EDT

Seamus do you recognize the BAC govt?

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RedBranch | Oct 04, 2012, 02:57 PM EDT

The most significant sentence of this well crafted article is the opening one. Bar the 'little doubt' proviso it concurs with Ms. Price's version of events and is at variance with Mr.Adams' consistently maintained denials of IRA membership. Now Mr.Adams apparently refuses to pursue Ms.Price through the liable court due to her well documented issues, but Niall O'Dowd sound of mind, body and with publishing empire behind him; well that might be a different proposition altogether...

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seamus60 | Oct 04, 2012, 12:01 PM EDT

Seano, why would i spend my time attacking blue shirts who are only doing what blue shirts have always done. Its more important to convince people who are trapped in the Adams mindset, they indeed have been sold a very dodgy product where it appears only the administrators reap the benefit. As for ex pow`s, yes the ones with the CRIMINAL records now being used to keep them in check and on the runs, please ask Gerry Mc Geogh how he feels on that subject. Any one calling themselves a republican is duty bound as just that, to fight these same injustices as SF done when they were with the people.Because they now share power in a BRITISH puppet gov, either means they are completely toothless or completely ruthless. Take your pick and I`ll take mine.

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