Mr. Gerry Adams:

I think it is important that Mr. Hazzard mentioned those who have passed who were involved in building the process and particularly in reaching the agreement. He asked if there was a moment when I saw that peace was possible. As far back as 1976 or 1977, when I was in Long Kesh, I wrote a small pamphlet called Peace in Ireland and started to explore the meaning of the word "peace". Over the years, we explored that and eventually it came down to a political proposition that we had to try to develop an alternative to the violence. We also had to develop protocols which made people feel valued and cherished and feel that they had an ownership of what was going on. As the years went on, and we got out teeth into that, the republican position which had been basically one of resistance became one of change. We started to engage publicly with the local hierarchy of the Catholic Church and to debate issues. When that started to get traction with ordinary people, I formed the firm opinion that peace was possible and the conflict could be brought to an end. It took an awful long time. When I was writing about this at one time, I was shocked to realise that it took ten, 12 or 15 years even to get a meeting. In the meantime there were all the atrocities, ongoing difficulties in the prisons, terrible disasters on the streets and so on.

The significant breakthrough was first of all with Fr. Des Wilson and Fr. Alec Reid, as I have acknowledged, and then the meeting with John Hume. He was up for the proposition of self-determination. That was what the whole thing boiled down to. Regardless of what we wanted about a real republic or ending the union or partition, the proposition was that the people should have their say and determine their future. We realised that whatever came after that was up to the people to figure out and agree to.

I suppose that was the big breakthrough moment.

We also had a good relationship with the African National Congress, ANC, and when we eventually got to meet them it was a great confidence boost. When we met Madiba and the other leaders, we realised we had been following more or less the same strategy as them in what we had been trying to do here, in our own way. It was good for us to hear that. Irish America was crucial. Niall O'Dowd was crucial. He was a journalist and publisher and was watching from afar. He came to meet me and a few others, and then he went back and started to talk to influential people. He said that there was potential, and that something was happening which we could get behind. He used the phrase, "we can think outside the box". All these people gave confidence at different times that peace was possible.

Sometimes the toughest negotiation is with your own side. There were difficulties in trying to persuade people we should be engaging with the unionists, the British or even the Irish Government when they were using such offensive and insulting language and were involved in policies that were leading to the deaths of our neighbours, party members and friends. Notwithstanding those difficulties, it was rewarding as time went on that the republican base, or what became the Sinn Féin electorate, was figuring these things out. There was a view that peace was possible due to all these factors. I probably left a number of factors out. I do not want to talk for too long.

Struggle is ongoing. It is perpetual. Building a society is perpetual. We will never reach a point where we say it is done and we can go home. It must be continuously worked at, as does peace. It must be worked at all the time. I come from a working-class community. I am proud of my working-class republican roots and of that community, but the members of that community must have a sense of ownership, of belonging and of being treated properly. Fr. Reid always used to say that people must be treated properly. If they are treated properly, they will respond positively.

Was there a moment when we knew the Good Friday Agreement would click? Not really. Perhaps there was such a moment two days before, when Senator Mitchell said to Martin McGuinness and me that David Trimble had to make up his mind. He said this to us privately. I commend Mr. Trimble on his role and his efforts. Senator Mitchell said that Mr. Trimble had thought Sinn Féin would walk out but he was now realising that it would not, so he had to decide what he would do.

The Government of Ireland Act used to be the Act under which the British claimed sovereignty over all of this island - over all matters, places and things. That was changed as a result of the treaty and subsequent developments but they still retained ownership and sovereignty of the North. I was influenced by the writing of Desmond Greaves, who focused on this. He was the biographer of James Connolly and Liam Mellows and heavily involved in the Connolly Association. He majored on the fact that we had to end the claim the Brits had and return the decision to the people of the island. It was central for me to get that right written off. There was no point changing whatever was changed on the constitutional issue if the Brits still had it written large. Obviously the Brits still claim sovereignty, and obviously that has to be stopped, but it is now conditional. It is quite unique. They do not claim absolute sovereignty, but simply say they are there for as long as the people decide they want them to stay.

We found it hard to get the Irish Government to take that on board. I think Bertie Ahern tried and did not get very far. I remember taking it up personally with Mo Mowlam first and then with Tony Blair. Martin McGuinness and I used to meet him quite often and press him to take it out in order to make it clear to the people on the island of Ireland that we had self-determination and that the British were setting aside their past claims for this conditional affirmation that they would only stay as long as the people decided would be the case.