’Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man’ review: Absorbing portrait of the controversial Irish politician

Dir: Trisha Ziff. Ireland/Mexico. 2024. 117mins

Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man allows the veteran politician to reflect on 60 years of activism in Northern Ireland, and the long road from incarcerated freedom fighter to elder statesman. Trisha Ziff’s absorbing documentary reveals a history of Northern Ireland through one man’s life and proves surprisingly emotional in the message of hope that emerges from Adams’ struggles. Many Irish audiences will welcome the relatively rare opportunity to see Adams talk at length about his values and motivations. The lessons from the Northern Ireland conflict and the quest for peace lend the film a wider potential appeal. 

Furthers our understanding of a once-controversial figure

Dedicated to the film’s co-producer Ross McDonnell, who died in 2023, this latest documentary from UK-born, Mexico-based Ziff (Oaxacalifornia: The Return) was filmed over five years and is firmly based around lengthy interviews with Adams. There are no dissenting voices to challenge him or tricky questions to navigate. He is relaxed and affable, giving a thoughtful assessment of the past and his part in bringing Northern Ireland from war to peace.

Early in the film, Adams asserts that “politics is not worth anything unless it empowers people”. Over the next two hours, that is confirmed as a guiding philosophy for someone who has always displayed the courage of his convictions and taken action when he sees injustice and oppression. A Ballymurphy Man traces the evolution of Adams’ political beliefs, but also provides some insight into his personal life. He recalls family life in the late 1940s and ’50s with portraits of relatives and places that feel positively Dickensian. He pays tribute to the influence of his grandmother, a millworker who introduced Adams to the joys of reading and the importance of education. He was just 15 when he read the Special Powers Act of 1922, which granted the authorities extensive controls to maintain peace and order.

Adams’ childhood and adolescence were lived in a Northern Ireland that he came to view as a land colonised by an England that pursued a policy of divide and rule. Dehumanising the population, labelling them barbarians in need of civilisation and denying human rights are moves repeated throughout history and acutely familiar from conflicts that still rage around the world. His analysis allows us to comprehend why his life has been devoted to the “reconquest of Ireland by the people who live here”.

Adams’ story is illustrated by a feast of archive footage that includes photos from his family albums, home movies and extensive use of reporting on what became known as the Troubles. Evocative black-and-white images of communities under siege, barricaded areas of Belfast, British troops on the streets, curfews and resistance convey the reality of a world that Adams compares to Apocalypse Now.

He also speaks of his time in prison, the hunger strikes of the early 1980s, the death of IRA figure Bobby Sands and his own election as MP for West Belfast in 1983. There is no bitterness in his reflections. Recalling one of the attempts on his life, he observes drily: “I’ve been blessed with very bad assassins.”

There is also personal insight into Adams’ meetings with SDLP leader John Hume, the efforts that eventually brought the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and the chance for peace to take root in Northern Ireland. There is so much to cover here that the documentary could easily have been longer. Its achievement is to further the understanding of a once-controversial figure, whose life provides a window into a much wider movement and how the fiercest of conflicts can ultimately find a way to resolution.