Gerry Adams Charged, Gerry Adams TD Sinn Fein, The IRA, Sinn Fein, Politics, PSNI

Gerry Adams TD Charged

Gerry Adams TD and President of Sinn Fein may be charged this evening 4^th May 2014 with Directing Terrorism in between January 1^st 1972 and December 31^st 1972 and being a member of an illegal organisation namely the Provisional IRA or a file may be sent to the Public Prosecution Service.

The charges will be made following 4 days questioning of the Sinn Fein leader in relation to The IRA kidnapping, torture, murder and secret burial of innocent Catholic Mother of 10 children Jean McConville in Belfast when Gerry Adams was IRA Commander in Belfast.

Gerry Adams Sinn Fein Questioning

Gerry Adams will undergo a fourth day of questioning by detectives over the 1972 murder of Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville.

Extra time granted to police to question the Sinn Féin president will expire later today.

Amid a growing row over the arrest, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister said he believes it is part of an attempt by some police officers to settle old scores.

Martin McGuinness blamed an “embittered rump” left over from before the reform of policing whom he claimed wanted to destroy the peace process.

Addressing a rally in the staunchly republican Falls Road, he said: “These people want to settle old scores whatever the political cost.”

On Friday a judge allowed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) a further 48 hours to hold Mr Adams at Antrim police station. The republican party has warned it will review its support for the police if the veteran leader is charged.

The 65-year-old detainee vehemently denies allegations levelled by former republican colleagues that he ordered Mrs McConville’s murder and secret burial more than 40 years ago after she was wrongly accused of passing information to the security forces.

Sinn Féin’s decision to sign up to support the police in 2007 was viewed as a major milestone in the peace process and prompted the return to devolved rule at Stormont, with the republican party and the Democratic Unionists entering government together.

Mr McGuinness said: “We worked very hard to reform policing.

“Sinn Féin’s negotiations strategy succeeded in achieving new policing arrangements but we always knew that there remained with the PSNI an embittered rump of the old RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary).

He added: “The arrest of Gerry Adams is evidence that there is an element within the PSNI who are against the peace process and who hate Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin.

“They are what the reformers within the PSNI have described to us as the dark side.

“They are small in number but very influential. This group is working to a negative and anti-peace process agenda and are actively involved in political policing.”

Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson, Justice Minister David Ford and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers have defended the police’s handling of the arrest and denied the action was politically motivated and designed to undermine Sinn Féin ahead of the forthcoming European elections.

Mrs McConville was dragged, screaming, away from her children in the Divis flats in west Belfast by a gang of up to 12 men and women after being wrongly accused of informing to the security forces.

She was interrogated, shot in the back of the head and then secretly buried — becoming one of the “Disappeared” victims of the Troubles. Her body was not found until 2003 on a beach in Co Louth, 50 miles from her home.

Mr Adams, a former MP for West Belfast and now an elected representative for Co Louth in the Irish Dail, voluntarily presented himself for interview by prior arrangement with detectives.

Gerry Adams Prosecution

MI6 have moved to protect Gerry Adams TD from prosecution for with-holding information into the activities of two serial child rapists, His Father Gerry Adams Snr and his Brother Liam Adams.

Prosecutors have directed no prosecution of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams over claims he withheld information about his brother's sex abuse from the police.

Gerry Adams has been accused of waiting almost a decade to tell detectives what he knew about his brother Liam.

Liam Adams was convicted this week of abusing his daughter Áine from when was she aged four until she was nine.

The PSNI confirmed a decision was taken in 2010 by the Public Prosecution Service not to launch a case.

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said: "This matter has been examined to see if we should open an investigation into the case and the advice that we received was not to open an investigation.

"We will re-examine the transcripts (of the recent court case) but all the facts in our knowledge in 2010 have not been moved on materially since the recent trial."

Adams, 58, from Bernagh Drive, Belfast, was found guilty of ten offences, including rape and gross indecency, against his daughter Áine.

The abuse was committed over a six-year period between 1977 and 1983.

Liam Adams Guilty child rape

When Gerry Adams TD was first confronted about the fact that he had concealed the rape of his 4 year old niece Aine Adams, Adams said that he had believed Aine when she said she had been raped by her Father, Liam Adams, and Gerry Adams TD went on to say that after he discovered his brother Liam was a serial child rapist he had no further contact with him. However, Gerry Adams TD was and is a liar of unprecedented magnitude, not only had Gerry Adams TD concealed the rape of 4 yearr old Aine, but Gerry Adams TD had also concealed the knowledge that his own Father, Gerry Adams Snr was a serial child rapist who had used the ‘republican’ movement to access and rape children, Gerry Adams Snr was also an active RUC informer and this was known to the PIRA leadership before Gerry Adams Snr died.

Gerry Adams TD attending his brother Liam's wedding 10 years after he accepts that Liam has raped a 4 year old child.

The truth has now been fully exposed in a Belfast Courtroom, where Liam Adams has been found guilty of being a serial child rapist, Liam Adams was a senior member of both the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein, he was promoted in both organisations even after he was outed as a serial child rapist. Gerry Adams TD helped his serial rapist brother set up home in Dundalk where he had access to countless children and in particular to young children in the families off Sinn Fein members, Sinn Fein members who trusted Liam Adams as Gerry Adams had given him the stamp of approval, knowing well that his brother was a child rapist. Gerry Adams TD was parachuted into Dundalk and claimed time and again to locals that the child rape charges against Liam were part of a Brit conspiracy to undermine Gerry Adams TD. With all his bluster and lies, Gerry Adams has finally been exposed as a man prepared to do anything, including conceal the rape of children, to protect his lucrative political career.

Liams Adams convicted, child abuse

Liam Adams has been convicted of all charges relating to the sexual abuse of his daughter Áine.

Adams was found guilty by an 11 - 1 majority verdict by the jury at Belfast Crown Court this afternoon.

Adams (58), from Bernagh Drive in west Belfast, denied 10 charges of sexual assault against his daughter Áine, now aged 40 – three of rape, three of gross indecency and four of indecent assault.

The assaults took place over a six-year period beginning in 1977 when Áine Adams was aged four.

Gerry Adams TD canvasing with his Brother Liam Adams for Sinn Fein (This is after Gerry Adams TD is aware and accepts that Liam Adams has raped his 4 year old daughter)

Liam Adams has been convicted of raping his then 4 year old daughter Aine, his crimes were concealed by his brother Gerry Adams TD. Gerry Adams TD knowing that his brother Liam had raped a 4 year old child, helped his brother Liam set up home in the Irish Republic, in Dundalk, where Liam Adams had open access to hundreds of children. Sinn Fein leaders including Gerry Adams TD protected the serial child rapist Liam Adams from apprehension or prosecution, and Gerry Adams TD only admitted his role in this crime when it was clear that Sinn Fein and the PIRA could no longer keep her silent.

In the picture below serial child rapist Gerry Adams Snr, Gerry Adams TD who concealed his Father's crimes, Liam Adams convicted for raping his 4 year old daughter, Gerry Adams TD who concealed his crimes, Martin McGuinness who helped Liam Adams establish himself in Dundalk, County Louth, after it was known that Liam Adams had been identified as someone who had raped a 4 year old child. Martin McGuinness wanted to be President of Ireland.

Gerry Adams TD

Gerry Adams Snr was also a serial child rapist, who along with other members of Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA in Belfast picked working class children up from the streets to rape them in derelict houses and sheds in west Belfast. Gerry Adams TD has admitted that he knew his Father was a serial child rapist, however, in order to protect his lucrative political career Gerry Adams TD afforded his Father a full-style PIRA funeral in west Belfast, the final insult to the many dozens of children raped by the evil Adams Family.

However, Gerry Adams TD was not the only senior member of Sinn Fein to offer succour to serial child rapist Liam Adams, want to be President of Ireland and MI6 Agent Martin McGuinness also helped Liam Adams to settle into his new Sinn Fein role in Dundalk, County Louth, as this picture clearly shows, McGuinness and Adams were as thick as thieves and therefore there is no doubt that McGuinness knew that Liam Adams was a serial child rapist.

Liam Adams Prosecuted by David McDowell

The claim came from prosecuting lawyer David McDowell as he closed the case against 58-year-old Liam Adams.

Mr McDowell told the Belfast Crown Court jury of nine men and three women that "the truth is king in this case".

"We suggest members of the jury that when you look at the truth, quite literally, you could not make it up," said the lawyer, adding that such was the evidence of Áine Adams, "no ordinary member of the public who has not been abused could not have come up with it."

Defence QC Eilis McDermott

Adams' defence QC Eilis McDermott counter claimed, however, that both Áine and her mother Sarah were proven liars whose evidence "doesn't hold water".

"The fact that the witnesses are prepared to swear by Almighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then lie to you [over dealings with the police], must mean in a case like this, that you cannot accept the truthfulness of any part of their evidence because it's all you have got," declared the lawyer.

Liam Adams, from Bearnagh Drive in west Belfast, is charged with ten offences including rape, indecent assault and gross indecency against his daughter more than 30 years ago on dates between March 1977 and March 1983.

He denies all charges.

Aine Adams

His daughter 40-year-old Áine Adams has testified that between the ages of four and nine, her father raped and abused her at various addresses the family lived in - including when her mother was in hospital giving birth to her brother and when she was in bed beside her brother.

The jury have heard that although the allegations were brought to police attention in 1987, six months after a family confrontation in Buncrana, the complaint was withdrawn.

Sarah Campbell

Adams' ex-wife Sarah Campbell said that was because she felt the police were more interested in her husband's activities and associates, recounting how one social worker told her the police had asked for Mrs Campbell to meet them in the city centre.

Those claims have been refuted by social workers.

The allegations were raised again in 2007 and it was then that Liam Adams was arrested and interviewed.

The jury have also heard that when initially asked about being confronted by his wife, daughter and his brother Gerry Adams, Liam Adams denied it happened.

Giving evidence on his own behalf when he repeatedly and consistently denied the allegations, Adams claimed he lied about the alleged meeting because it had been "drummed into us that we don't talk about Gerry Adams".

"It had been drummed into us since I was a young person, since the Troubles started that you don't talk about Gerry Adams - you don't talk about him in the barracks, to the British Army, in the media or even as you get older and socialise, you don't talk about Gerry Adams," claimed Liam Adams.

He labelled the allegations against him as "rubbish, absolute rubbish".

On Monday, Mr McDowell said while doubts would likely be cast on the claims for why the allegations were not pursued in the mid-1980s, he suggested to the jury that they use their "common sense".

He suggested that it would be "perfectly credible" that the police would have been interested in not just the allegations of abuse - but also had an "unhealthy interest...in big Gerry" and added that while there were no records of any social worker passing on a police message, "that's the things about off the record conversations, they're not recorded."

Aine Adams credibility

The truthfulness of Áine's account, said Mr McDowell, lay in the details of her evidence because if it had not happened, "how could she come up with this?"

If Áine had not been subjected to it, suggested the lawyer, "she could not have told you of the turmoil in the mind of the child."

He further declared to the jury that looking at the evidence and in applying common sense and their life experience, they would be "firmly convinced" of Adams' guilt.

During her closing remarks, Ms McDermott conceded that Adams, contrary to his solicitor's advice, had lied to police about the meeting in Buncrana, Co Donegal but that he had given his reasons for that.

"It may seem to you a good reason or a bad reason but it's his reason," said the lawyer, adding that the jury should apply their common sense when looking at that aspect of Adams' evidence.

Liam Adams the evidence

She urged the jury to look at the evidence of the social workers who testified that no such message was ever passed onto Áine and her mother from the police, claiming their account "is just patently not right".

Describing the jury as the "supreme judges of fact," Ms McDermott told them that only two people "in the whole world" really knew what had happened - Adams and his daughter Áine.

"Look at the evidence and ask: 'Is that enough, is that enough to satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt so that I'm firmly convinced of the guilt of a person?'," said the lawyer, adding that Áine and her mother could not be relied on.

Áine's sister Sinead had given evidence, telling the jury that her father allegedly confessed to her that he had abused Áine during a reconciliation meeting in December 2002, a meeting which was followed up by regular visits before things broke down again around ten months later.

On Monday, however, Ms McDermott said that not only had Adams denied any such confession, she put to the jury that if a father had just confessed to you that he abused your sister "you would not be able to wait to get out the door....you would not go anywhere near him".

She also highlighted the fact that although the Crown say he is a "monster" - who first raped his daughter when she was around five - none of his other three daughters or any child he worked with in various youth clubs and projects had ever made a similar complaint.

"We say to you that the only proper verdicts that you can return on these counts are verdicts of not guilty," declared Ms McDermott.

Once trial judge Deputy Recorder Judge Corinne Philpott QC has directed the jury in how to apply the law to each of the charges, the jury will retire to consider their verdicts.

The jury have been told their deliberations will begin on Tuesday.

Gerry Adams Charged, Gerry Adams TD Sinn Fein, The IRA, Sinn Fein, Politics, PSNI

Sinn Fein Budget proposals, sinn fein flawed methodology, finance spokesman, pearse doherty td, Gerry adams td, politics, budget 2013

Sinn Fein Budget Proposals based on Flawed Methodology

Sinn Fein’s Flawed Methodology has seen the party make a u-turn on its wealth tax proposals. Sinn Fein were accused of ‘plucking figures from the sky’ when the party suggested that up to €800 million could be collected from their wealth tax proposals, many of Ireland’s senior economists have suggested that Sinn Fein remains stuck in the mud of protectionism economics as espoused by former Sinn Fein President, Ruari O’Bradaigh (RIP).

In recent times Sinn Fein have been embarrassed when it was shown that Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams TD had flown to America to enjoy Private Healthcare treatment, while his own constituents in Louth languished on hospital trolleys.

Sinn Fein’s wealth Tax u-turn

Sinn Féin will drop its calls for a wealth tax in next month’s budget as part of a dramatic departure from its approach to balance the State’s finances.

The principle of a wealth tax of 1 per cent on assets above €1 million has been an integral part of Sinn Féin’s pre-budget submission since 2010 along with a third 48 per cent tax rate and a cap of €100,000 on public sector salaries.

It has claimed that a wealth tax could yield €800 million to the State each year.

However, the reliability of the party’s figures was questioned by tax expert and barrister Suzanne Kelly who cast doubts on the sources of its calculations and the amount of tax that would be raised.

It led to scrutiny and criticism of the policy from its opponents.

The party has responded by leaving out any proposals for a wealth tax in its pre-budget submission, due out this month.

Sinn Fein Finance Spokesman Pearse Doherty

Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the party is still committed to a wealth tax but will not include it in its submission this year. He said Sinn Féin will deal with wealth assets as a special category, with all revenue generated being ring-fenced for job creation.

He said the decision was made because it was not possible to say with any certainty at present how much would be raised by a wealth tax. He said definite figures would only become available when the Central Statistics Office began collating data for personal wealth next year.

“It’s not disputed that a wealth tax will bring in hundreds of millions of euro,” said Mr Doherty, but he pointed out that estimates varied from €400 million to €800 million.

“Instead of putting the measure in and leaving ourselves open to the accusation that this is not costed, we will [leave it out] and rely on other measures to reduce the deficit to the target amount.”

Mr Doherty said the party’s submission would propose reducing the deficit by “slightly over €2 billion”, somewhat short of the €3.1 billion being pressed for by elements in Fine Gael and by the troika.

He asserted this figure would be sufficient to meet international obligations, but would also encourage jobs and growth.

Sinn Fein Property TAX

Sinn Féin’s opposition to the property tax will mean it will have to find €500 million in alternative measures.

Mr Doherty accepted that this will be a tough challenge. He said the focus was on fairness, protecting the public services, jobs, emigration and ensuring youth employment.

The third rate of tax of 48 per cent for those earning over €100,000 would be a key component, but he said the party was varying its policy of a cap of €100,000 on public salaries.

“It was a blunt instrument that was introduced as an emergency measure during the crisis. We have a more considered approach that is conscious of what happened in the Haddington Road Agreement [on public sector pay]. We are introducing the first step of that. There will be grades of reduction for those earning above €100,000,” he said.

It is expected the party will also propose cuts in politicians salaries, another red herring.

Abortion, Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, Politics, fine gael, labour, sinn fein

Abortion, Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, Politics, fine gael, labour, sinn fein

Peadar Toibin TD has stood firm in his position to protect unborn children, however, his proposed Amendment, to remove the 'suicide clause', was voted down. This clause effectively leaves the determination of the unborn child's life or death in the hands of psychologists and psychiatrists, two 'professions' that has shown themselves time and again to be able to reach polar conclusions in relation to the same case.  

Minister of State Lucinda Creighton has renewed her call for abortion time limits to be introduced where a foetus is viable.

In an amendment that she is expected to vote against the Government on and lose the Fine Gael party whip and her job, Ms Creighton said she wanted to protect viable life and bring in limitations on when terminations could be carried out.

“It would actually allay the genuine concerns of many of our citizens,” she said during the report stage debate on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, which resumed this evening.

“We know that in the vast majority of jurisdictions around the world where there are abortion regimes in place, far more liberal regimes of the type I hope we never see in this country, they do still enforce gestationsal limits, term limits for carrying out abortions,” the Dublin South East TD said. “I think that this is the minimum our citizens deserve.”

Two two amendments are currently under discussion in the debate.

The session began hours after the High Court refused to grant an injunction aimed at stopping provisions of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill being voted into law.

Labour TD Roisin Shortall also introduced amendments on gestational time limits and said it was unacceptable that there were none in the Bill. She said concern about the issue had been raised by Master of the Rotunda Sam Coulter Smith but there was no serious attempt made to address those concerns.

Fianna Fail health spokesman Billy Kelleher said he would oppose legislation if he thought for a moment if he somehow though that a baby at 34 weeks would be taken from the womb and destroyed.

Mr Kelleher said that if they talked about gestational limits, “we are pitting the life of the woman against the life of the baby” and “that would be repugnant to me and to the Constitution”.

He said the overriding issue at stake was the real and substantial threat to the life of the woman. “We cannot intervene to terminate the pregnancy because it would be in conflict with the legislation if we put in gestational limits.”

Minister of State for Health Alex White said there was no answering Mr Kelleher’s point.

Fine Gael TD Peter Mathews, who has already lost the party whip on the legislation, supported term limits. He said termination at 12 weeks was just as repugnant as a termination later in pregnancy.

In response, Ms Creighton said it was putting a time limit on the destruction on the life of the unborn and a clear obligation and onus on the medical profession to save the life of the unborn.

Minister for Health James Reilly and Mr Mathews clashed at the start of the debate this evening.

Mr Mathews asked the Minister to define what the term “as far as practicable” meant in terms of the medical situations that could arise under it.

Dr Reilly replied that it was an acceptable legal term which was well understood. “It is not clear to me,” said Mr Mathews.

Dr Reilly replied: “That is fine; you are neither legal nor a doctor.”

Mr Mathews replied that he was “a citizen”.

Earlier, the Minister moved a series of amendments which, he said, gave clarity to the medical definition of terms “in good faith” and reasonable opinion” in the Bill.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said there should be trust in doctors, adding that the amendments were just a concession to certain people who wanted to hold back and frustrate the legislation’s purpose which was to allow for a termination where there was a threat to the woman’s life.

Over 100 of the 165 amendments to the Bill have yet to be debated during the Report stage.

The Dáil is due to adjourn the abortion debate by midnight regardless of whether or not it has been passed. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said this morning if the Bill can conclude today, “so much the better”.

So far, two votes have been taken but neither relate to the amendments proposing a “pathway to care” plan for pregnant women with suicidal intent tabled by Ms Creighton. She voted with the Government on those two amendments at 2am and at 5am.

The High Court ex parte application was made by Jane Murphy, with an addresss at Milltown, Dublin 14 this afternoon and is expected to appeal Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns’ refusal to the Supreme Court.

She was accompanied in court by former MEP Kathy Sinnott and Mark McCrystal. In intended proceedings against the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Government, Ms Murphy sought injunctions “to prevent the respondents usurping the will of the Irish people on the day of Thursday 11th of July 2013”.

The application stated the intention was to prevent the Government including two provisions in the Bill currently before the Oireachtas and also to prevent the vote on that Bill.

Mr Justice Kearns said he was satisfied he had no jurisdiction to grant any such relief. This matter was before the legislature and the court, under the doctrine of the separation of powers, had no entitlement to deal with it. He did not believe the court, at this stage of the matter, had any entitlement to interfere.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said this morning that if the President referred the Bill to the Supreme Court it would be “the right decision”. Many parts of the Bill would be challenged by people coming from different perspectives, he said. “If he refers it, it can just be either cleared or struck down once and for all with no further challenges. If he did I think that would be the right decision. But that’s entirely his prerogative not mine,” he told RTÉ Radio.

Earlier today Mr Kenny defended the late overnight sitting in the Dáil. He said there were “some very good contributions” and it was “no harm that it went to 5am”.

However, Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin described the organisation of the overnight debate as “shambolic” and “lamentable”.

The Labour Party was thrown into disarray early this morning by the shock defection of its Clare TD Michael McNamara in a vote .

In dramatic scenes just before the debate on the Bill was adjourned, Mr McNamara voted against the Government on an amendment tabled by the technical group which called for abortions to be allowed in cases where there were fatal foetal abnormalities or inevitable miscarriages.

However, the party maintained later that Mr McNamara would not lose the whip as he had made a “genuine mistake” and had pressed the wrong button. Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore was not in the Dáil for the vote as he is abroad on Government business.

Following the announcement yesterday by two Mayo TDs John O’Mahony and Michelle Mulherin that they would support the Bill, the other TD whose voting intentions were in doubt - John Paul Phelan of Carlow-Kilkenny - also confirmed to the Dáil at 1.30am that he too would be supporting the legislation despite having misgivings about the Bill.

His confirmation that he would support the Government - which was widely expected - has left a total of five Fine Gael TDs at odds with the party on this Bill. Besides Ms Creighton, the other TDs are Mr Mathews, Brian Walsh, Billy Timmins and Terence Flanagan.

The Labour Party had, until Mr McNamara’s vote, shown a strong party discipline and had consciously maintained a slightly background stance, because of the sensitivities of Fine Gael’s position.

The defection of Mr McNamara, even if Labour manages to repair its hand and reverse it, has damaged that show of unity and also dampened what was considered a successful effort by the Fine Gael leadership to contain its defections to a maximum of five TDs.

The debate on the report stage of the Bill commenced at 11.30am yesterday and continued for a cumulative total of 14 hours after the Taoiseach said he wished the Dáil to complete its deliberation of it by this morning. However, with no guillotine in place, Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe initially announced an extension until midnight, and then until 5am.

The Bill was scheduled to transfer to the Seanad today but that will not now happen until tomorrow at the earliest.

The first substantive vote - to reject an amendment tabled by Peadar Tóibín of Sinn Féin to remove the suicide clause in its entirety - was carried by 135 to 24 votes.

Many Independents voted with the Government but Maureen O’Sullivan, Michael Lowry, Michael Healy-Rae and Mattie McGrath voted against.

The vote was taken after more than eight hours of debate on a group of 38 amendments from a number of TDs, dealing with the suicide clause, where termination is permissible to avoid suicide.

President Barack Obama, G8 Summit Ireland, Sammy Wilson DUP, Gerry Adams TD, Politics

President Barack Obama, G8 Summit Ireland, Sammy Wilson DUP, Gerry Adams TD, Politics

Sammy Wilson DUP was exposed to some unwanted hand-touching by Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams TD, Sammy Wilson once pictured running naked through the fields of France appears not to welcome the advances of Adams today as Obama arrived in Belfast. Adams was recently exposed in a court in Belfast as a man who had concealed the rape of his 4 year old niece Aine in order to protect his lucrative political career.

President Barack Obama has said the decision by people in Northern Ireland to choose peace was “extraordinary” but has called on politicians to deal with segregation.

In a 30-minute speech to a predominantly young audience of 2,000 people at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall, Mr Obama contrasted the Belfast of the Troubles, with the presence of soldiers on the street and the fear that went with violence, with the city today.

“Belfast is a different city,” he d referring to pubs and cafes full of people asking each other: “what’s the craic?”

He said this generation could now travel without the burden of checkpoints or soldiers on patrol. People could be friends with and fall in love with whoever they wished.

But he said it was up to the next generation to build a genuinely reconciled society. “The previous generation brought the ceasefires and the Agreement. The next stage in the process was up to the next generation present in the hall.”

He said the decision by those living in Northern Ireland “to choose to wage peace was extraordinary,” he said. “It gave the world hope. But there is still much work to do; there are those who are not convinced that the effort was worth it. Wounds have not healed and there are walls that still stand.”

Quoting WB Yeats, he told his audience: “Peace comes dropping slow,” but said that did not mean there should be slow progress.

“We need you to get this right and to set an example to those who seek peace of their own,” adding that the fate of peace is decided by each individual.

Others in conflict zones around the world were taking note of Northern Ireland and “watching to see what you do next”, he said.

“I admire the Stormont executive for making power sharing work, that is not easy to do. I applaud them.”

The president focused on the need to counter segregation and impressed on politicians the requirement to take down walls which divide communities, especially in Belfast.

Addressing young people - who accounted for some 1,500 of the audience - specifically, he said their world had fewer walls and instant communication.

“Young people fill me with awe. Here, in Northern Ireland young people have seen even more rapid change. You have more reason to be hopeful. Day to day life is changing throughout the North.”

“When those who got started on peace began they didn’t have a model, the rest now is up to you,” he said.

“Peace is harder than war, he said. “Its constant fragility is part of its beauty.”

For peace to work we need to be reminded of its existence again and again. “That’s what we need from you and from every young person around the world.”

“You have to remind us of hope again and again, despite tragedy and hardship. You have to remind us of the future.”

Mr Obama urged young people to overcome barriers and defend the peace process.

“When you peace is attacked you have to decide to respond with the same bravery you have shown so far or succumb to impulses which keep this great land divided for far too long.”

“You should know than as you move forward America will stand by you. We will keep working to strengthen our economies. Job and opportunities are essential to peace.”

He said he was confident young people “will stick to that course” and added that the US would always be “a wind on your back”.

Earlier, Mr Obama referred to his visit to Dublin and to Moneygall, Co Offaly, and said he wished he had known of Irish ancestry when he first ran for office in Chicago.

“It pays to be Irish in Chicago,” he quipped.

He said he met his eight cousin recently - “Or Henry the Eighth as he is known”.

“It was a magical visit but all too short. We have been eager to return to the Emerald Isle and to bring our daughters too.”

He expressed regret that he would not have time for a round of golf and mentioned that when he met Rory McIlroy last year, the golfer observed that the president’s swing needed work.

Tens of millions of Americans share a link with this country, he said, referencing the significant Ulster connection with the US since 1776.

He said US core beliefs were based on Irish qualities: “Perseverance, faith and unshakeable dream that something better lies around the bend.”

People could not have imagined that you would host a major world conference, he said and he personally thanked PSNI chief constable Matt Baggott for security.

Mr Obama paid tribute to Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness, Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers and ministers from the Stormont Executive during a speech at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.

After his speech the president and the first lady spent a few minutes shaking hands with young people in the audience as Irish traditional music played on uilleann pipes filled the hall.

The presidential party is now travelling to Co Fermanagh for the opening of the G8 summit.

British prime minister Cameron is already there and the two are rumoured to have included a joint appearance in Enniskillen later today.

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper was the first world leader to arrive, he is understood to be at the Lough Erne resort already.