The author of a new book about the IRA is standing by controversial claims concerning the Sinn Féin president.
Mr Gerry Adams has angrily denied assertions in journalist Ed Moloney's A Secret History of the IRA. These are that Mr Adams was a leading Belfast IRA member who was instrumental in setting up a unit to "disappear" and kill suspected informers, and that he took part in secret contacts with the Thatcher government in 1986 unknown to leading IRA figures.
Moloney's book claims Mr Adams was instrumental in establishing a group within the IRA called The Unknowns, which abducted, killed and secretly buried nine people.
One was Ms Jean McConville, a mother of 10, who disappeared in 1972. Her body has never been found. A substantial search operation on Templetown beach in Co Louth failed to unearth her remains. Her family has insisted she was not an informer.
On Monday, Mr Adams said the claims were "offensive and outrageous" and he repeated his denial of ever being an IRA member. He is awaiting legal advice on the matter with a view to libel proceedings.
A Sinn Féin representative told The Irish Times yesterday Mr Adams's solicitors were still considering the case.
Yesterday, the author retaliated, saying he stood over his book and rejecting claims by Mr Adams that he had produced a sensational book for financial gain.
He said: "I think it's a bit sad in a way. It's a residue from a period way back in the early 1980s when Sinn Féin first started to stand in elections. The first question always asked was, 'Are you a member of the IRA?' To answer Yes was to self-incriminate and to end up in jail."
Moloney did not deny that one purpose of four years' work on his book was to make money. He referred to Mr Adams's autobiography and went on to suggest that the West Belfast MP was being two-faced on the issue.
"While I certainly got advances, without disclosing any figures they are minuscule in comparison to the advances of Before The Dawn (Gerry Adams's book). I will not be able to retire on that and I won't be selling a second instalment for twice the amount I have sold this one."
Sinn Féin again dismissed the claims in Moloney's book yesterday. A spokesman told The Irish Times the party was neither hiding nor ducking the allegations.
Moloney said Mr Adams was deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts and that his skills as a tactician had been instrumental in building the peace process to date.
Aware of the shock his book might cause in republican circles, he also said he put off publication until the IRA had started decommissioning some of its arsenal.
He also made clear his view that no one person could have managed a policy of secret assassination and disposal of alleged informers, adding that that would have needed the "acquiescence of a whole range of people".