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Gerry Adams Barry Cronin/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Sinn Féin
Gerry Adams: I'm not quitting as Sinn Féin leader
Adams has rejected suggestions that he should give way to a rising star such as Pearse Doherty or Mary-Lou McDonald.
GERRY ADAMS HAS rejected suggestions that he should consider stepping down as Sinn Féin leader in order to allow some new blood at the top of the party.
He said: “I’m the party leader. I intend to be the party leader.”
Adams acknowledged that rising stars such as Pearse Doherty and Mary-Lou McDonald had given the party new prominence in Dáil debates, but said he had been democratically elected to head the party at a recent ardfheis.
Asked whether he had considered retirement, he said: “I haven’t even thought about it.” Adams told an interviewer on RTÉ’s This Week that the party needed “that mix of leadership” including both experience and youth.
He also confirmed that the party was considering mounting a Supreme Court legal challenge if the Government decided not to hold a referendum on the new EU fiscal compact.
Adams said Sinn Féin had received legal advice and would seek more when the final draft of the compact had been published.
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