Show Notes
Gerry Adams stands down as the President of Sinn Fein and is replaced by Mary Lou McDonald, a middle-class Dubliner with no personal connection to the Troubles.
Sinn Fein achieves an historic result in the 2020 election and announces itself as Ireland’s main opposition party.
That’s until Dublin explodes into far-right riots and Sinn Fein’s uneasy coalition of voters unravels. And the party struggles to shake off other scandals – some historic, others more recent – that cast doubt on their fitness for government. Follow us on Instagram @dmgnewmedia. Follow us on TikTok @dmgnewmedia Follow us on X @dmgnewmedia Email us [email protected] Text us 020 7938 6000.
Host: John Lee Producers: Artemis Irvine Assistant Producer: Sally McLennan Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Sound Design: John Scott Script Consultant: Liam Thompson Executive Producer: Bella Soames
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More from From Bomb to Ballot: The History of Sinn Féin
In Omagh, a car bomb kills 29 people, including two unborn children. It is the biggest single atrocity of the Troubles and comes just four months after the Good Friday Agreement is signed.
The Provisional IRA end their ceasefire in spectacular fashion, and the scale of the bomb detonated in the middle of Canary Wharf sparks renewed attempts to end the Troubles.
Two IRA men – John Crawley and Martin Ferris – are caught with seven tons of ammunition on their boat, just off the coast of Kerry. They are sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Ten young men starve themselves to death in a prison outside Belfast. One of them – Bobby Sands – is an elected MP. Their deaths bring widespread sympathy to the Republican cause and the Provisional IRA’s little-known political wing, Sinn Féin, is bolstered by increasing electoral success. Two years later – at the height of the hottest summer on record – Gerry Adams, widely believed to be a former leader in the IRA (something he denies), is elected to Westminster. Militant Irish nationalism has gone political.
The Provisional IRA run a disciplined and efficient operation and prove capable of bringing bloody war to the British Army. A cat and mouse game on the streets of Belfast and Derry intensifies with each passing week, each side becoming further entrenched in a brutal cycle of violence that will define the 1970s.