Adams welcomed in Australia
Le Richard McAuley.
According to the Brisbane Courier Mail when Gerry Adams entered the
civic reception organised in his honour by Mayor Jim Soorley his,
``welcome was more befitting a rock star than a politician at City
Hall, with the crowd whistling, stamping, clapping and chanting
`Gerry' as he took the stage''.
The Sinn Fein President was greeted by over 1,200 people at Brisbane
City Hall on Tuesday evening and two hours later another 500 listened
attentively to him as he spoke in the Queensland Irish Association.
Brisbane was the second city on Gerry Adams four city tour of
Australia. On Monday he addressed almost 1,000 people at a literary
luncheon sponsored by the Sydney Morning Herald which was the biggest
ever seen in that city.
Introducing himself as a ``native aboriginal person from Belfast'',
Gerry Adams has told journalists and audiences that he has come to
Australia to seek support for Sinn Fein's peace strategy and for
``Ireland's quest for unity and independence and a democratic peace
settlement''.
Speaking to his Sydney audience the Sinn Fein President said, ``we
have a chance to take our history by the throat and shape it and turn
it around ..... The people of Ireland deserve peace, deserve justice,
deserve freedom, deserve the right to live together in peace and
harmony. We have a chance to build a new relationship between the
people of Ireland and the people of Britain. We have a chance to make
violence a thing of the past. What we are trying to do is
unprecedented in the history of our small nation''.
The Sinn Fein leader is accompanied on his trip by Ard Comhairle
member Dodie McGuinness and by Anne O'Sullivan who is taking up the
post, within the party, of co-ordinating and improving the party's
profile in Australia.
Before he left Sydney on Monday evening the Sinn Fein delegation met
representatives of the native Aboriginal peoples including Lowitja
O'Donoghue and Mick Dodson. A group of young people performed
Aboriginal dances for the Sinn Fein party.
Later in the week Adams will meet the Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennet
and the President of the Australian Congress of Trades Unions. It is
also expected he will meet the Federal Finance Minister Fahey on
Friday evening.
ne O'Sullivan told AP/RN, ``the response to the visit has been
astonishing. Irish Australians who make up 30% of the population are
clearly very interested and many want to help''.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)