Gerry Adams tweeted a racial slur while discussing the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained on Sunday night.
The Sinn Fein president quickly deleted the message, which mentioned Ballymurphy, a significant location in the history of the Troubles, with 11 civilians having been massacred there in August of 1971.
Django Unchained is the mega-violent 2012 Oscar winning film starring Jamie Foxx as an escaped slave in the American South, who embarks on a mission to liberate his wife (Kerry Washington) from a sadistic plantation owner (Leonardo di Caprio). The N-word is used liberally throughout, which in itself caused a lot of debate upon the movie’s release.
Gerry Adams followed up the deleted tweet with this message, in which he compared slavery in the US to the plight of nationalists in Northern Ireland.
Any1 who saw Django would know my tweets&N-word were ironic.Nationalists in Nth were treated like African Americans.
— Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) May 2, 2016
He later put out a statement, reading:
“My tweets about the film Django have triggered a lot of interest.
“Anyone who has seen the film, as I did last evening, and who is familiar with the plight of nationalists in the north until recently, would know that my tweets about the film and the use of the N-word were ironic and not intended to cause any offence whatsoever.
“Attempts to suggest that I am a racist are without credibility. I am opposed to racism and have been all my life.
“The fact is that nationalists in the north, including those from Ballymurphy, were treated in much the same way as African Americans until we stood up for ourselves.
“If anyone is genuinely offended by my use of the N-word they misunderstand or misrepresent the context in which it was used. For this reason I deleted the tweets.”
.@GerryAdamsSF comments on Django tweets https://t.co/7em2GL83nU "I am opposed to racism and have been all my life."
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) May 2, 2016
Those explanations haven’t been enough to quell the angry, brutal response on social media, however:
Gerry Adams signs off Twitter for night without mentioning his quick deletion of N-word tweet https://t.co/EZXHvilirc
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) May 1, 2016
Gerry Adams survived the RUC, the UVF, and British intelligence. This tweet he may not. https://t.co/z27Ncntkkr
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) May 1, 2016
Gerry may be losing it. Seriously. He couldn’t even describe or understand progressive taxation earlier this year.
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) May 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/GarethSoye/status/726907901584019456
https://twitter.com/DRDaleRoberts/status/727041730860732416
https://twitter.com/_mattuna/status/726903381739102212
@GerryAdamsSF Cmon Gerry, as a public figure, can't be using that language. Cop on
— Tomas Ó Maonaigh (@tMean) May 1, 2016
Gerry Adams has never been a member of Twitter, and he doesn't know anybody who uses Twitter. In fact, he doesn't even know what Twitter is.
— Dave Jones (@WelshGasDoc) May 2, 2016
