Senate Shoots Down Bernie Sanders' Efforts to Block Sale of Artillery to Israel

Josh Finan as young Gerry Adams in FX’s Say Nothing. Every episode of Say Nothing, the FX/Hulu show based on the non-fiction book of the same name, ends with a disclaimer: “Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA or participating in any IRA-related violence.”  Disclaimers aren’t unusual in film and television (arguably even more shows should employ them) but the Adams disclaimer still stands out. Say Nothing takes place across and beyond the 30-year period in late 20th-century Ireland known as “The Troubles.” Viewers experience this time and its fallout largely through the eyes of Catholic combatants in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Dolours Price (played on the show by Lola Petticrew, and later Maxine Peake), and to a lesser extent Brendan “The Dark” Hughes (played by Anthony Boyle as a youth, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as the elder Hughes), along with those affected by their actions. It was an era marked by bloodshed and fear, with political and psychological ramifications that can still be felt by many in the country today.  The problem? If this disclaimer is accurate, it would negate or at least undermine nearly everything the Say Nothing viewer has just witnessed. So what’s going on here? And what’s the real effect of this repeated legal language? Let’s break it down, piece by piece.  Who is Gerry Adams? Officially, today, Gerry Adams is a retired Irish politician. He’s played in Say Nothing by Josh Finan as a young radical, and Michael Colgan as an older statesman.  In 1998, Adams was integral to and present for the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a peace deal brokered by US President Bill Clinton that brought an end to the everyday violence in Northern Ireland. Adams did this in his capacity as the president of the Sinn Féin party, a position he held from 1983 to 2018.  Throughout The Troubles, Sinn Féin was widely understood to be the political wing of the IRA.  And what is the IRA? The IRA stands for the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary association that was first founded under that name in 1919, although it grew out of a long history of Irish resistance to British rule. The purpose of the IRA was to reunite Ireland by reclaiming the whole of the island, specifically the area that became known after the partition of Ireland in 1921 as Northern Ireland.  The Irish Republican Army was known in particular for its use of guerrilla warfare tactics, from bank robberies to car bombs, as well as the practice of disappearing accused informers, known as “touts,” and turncoats. The US labeled the IRA a terrorist group in the 1980s. What were the British doing in Ireland? The British had been politically and militarily involved with their Irish neighbors to the west since the Anglo-Norman Invasion in 1169. That conquest kicked off 800 years of dispossession, bloodshed, and strife across the region and usually along religious lines — with the majority Catholics on one side, and the Protestant minority aligned with British forces.  This timeline is briefly mentioned at the very top of the TV series Say Nothing. What’s less explored on screen, but takes up a good chunk of the meticulously reported non-fiction book of the same name — written by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, who also executive produced the show — is the history of the conflict. Let’s go back, if not quite to the beginning.  In 1914, after centuries of rebellion and retaliation, “Home Rule” — under which the Irish would be in charge of themselves — was set to become law. Shortly before it was to be enacted, however, the British made the change contingent on military conscription, right at the start of the first World War.  In 1916, Irish Republicans fought back, in a rebellion known as the Easter Rising. This operation was a resounding failure that would nonetheless endear the nascent IRA to the Irish public, after the resulting British occupation of Dublin saw the jailing of 1,400 Republicans and the execution of 16 of their leaders. Following the brutal War of Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Partition of Ireland was established in 1921, dividing the country into two self-governing entities, and a year later the Irish Free State was established in the south. By the late 1960s, things weren’t great for the Catholics of Northern Ireland. There was clear evidence of discrimination against Catholics in the north in hiring, housing, voting, and policing.  At this time, the IRA was by most accounts not engaged in armed struggle, but a bombing on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising helped inspire the formation of the “Ulster Volunteer Force” — another paramilitary group, but this time with British loyalties and, as per Say Nothing, occasionally government support, whose operations were largely marked by gun violence against Catholic civilians. This was the approximate start of what is known as The Troubles. Say Nothing, both book and show, depicts the resumed violence among the IRA, British forces, and loyalist paramilitary groups, which lasted from around 1968 to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, as well as the fallout for Irish families that, in many ways, persist today.  Okay, Gerry Adams is a politician with a group affiliated with the IRA. But does that mean he’s responsible for the violence? That might be a complicated question, were it not for the fact that pretty much everyone agrees that Adams not only participated in the Irish Republican Army and violent attacks the group carried out, but personally orchestrated much of it. This is exactly what we see on screen throughout Say Nothing.  Radden Keefe’s book carefully details Adams’s history in the movement, including the conception and execution of robberies and bombings, such as the Old Bailey bombing in London that saw Dolours Price and her sister Marian arrested and jailed for eight years. Among other sources and interviews, that book used the first-person accounts collected for the Belfast Project, an oral history of The Troubles compiled by researchers at Boston College from 2000 to 2006.  In other words, many, many IRA members are on the record saying that Gerry Adams was among them. Dolours Price has said he was her “commander.” Brendan Hughes has said he never did anything without Adams’s say-so. (Additionally, historians and contemporaneous media accounts link Adams to IRA violence.) If all that’s true, how did Gerry Adams get elected to political office?  Adams’s status as an IRA leader didn’t hurt his political life; if anything, it helped! Adams’s political persona has always been, knowingly, built on his Republican bona fides. In the book, Keefe details the way Adams would deny membership in the IRA out of one side of his mouth, and raise the specter of violence out of the other, but you don’t need to decode his speeches to see the connections.  In 1972, Adams was released from prison — where he was being held without charge, although he claims only as a political activist — to participate in ceasefire talks at the request of the IRA. He was 24. Nine years later, he played a “key role,” as per the BBC, in encouraging IRA hunger strikes, which saw 27-year-old IRA leader Bobby Sands starve himself to death in prison, just one month after Sands was elected MP.  Adams was himself elected as a Belfast West MP two years later, but refused to sit in the House of Commons, a Sinn Féin policy. That same year, 1983, he became the head of the party. A decade later, secret peace talks well underway, he carried the coffin of Thomas Begley, an IRA bomber who died in the Shankill bombing, after a premature explosion.  During the approximately five-year talks, Adams was meeting with more moderate Irish political parties, representing the promise of bringing the IRA to the table. His status as IRA leadership was key to his stewardship of Sinn Féin — not just at the outset, but throughout his entire career.  So if this is all such an open secret, why is the disclaimer included? In an interview with Town & Country, author and executive producer Keefe explained, “It was ultimately FX legal that determined that we needed that disclaimer.” The reason why is simple: Adams himself. As Keefe told T&C, “It’s not that he will take issue with little bits and pieces of what we show. He takes issue with the whole premise of the series, which is that he was in the IRA.”   While the show’s disclaimer seems to be more corporate necessity than rhetorical flourish, it ends up being a bit of a gift to the Say Nothing producers. It would be hard to find a more succinct way to communicate the doublethink necessary for life during The Troubles. It puts a darkly comic, increasingly absurd stinger on each episode of a show that sees only occasional lightness and crackles of Irish wit, while also giving a sense of the unspeakability of what you’re watching unfold.  It’s what Irish poet Seamus Heaney calls “the tight gag of place and times” in “Whatever you say, say nothing,” the poem from which the book and show take their name. This is the omertà that comes with the existence of the IRA. It’s a policy that, in this setting, makes intuitive if not entirely practical sense. Of course an insurgent political group can’t go shouting in the streets, and your friends and neighbors had better stay quiet, too.  In the book and show, we see Gerry Adams employing his own baroque version of it early on: denying to arresting officers not just his role in the IRA but himself. He’s not Gerry Adams, he claims, but a man named John. Price, on the other hand, doesn’t deny her name nor that she supports the goals of the IRA. She declares herself not guilty for the London bombing simply because she doesn’t recognize English authority.  Later in the show, as in real life, Price and Hughes definitively break this code of silence, speaking to the Belfast Project — and in Price’s case, some notable others — about the things they did and the little good they felt it accomplished. The Boston College tapes weren’t intended to be distributed until after the participants’ deaths, but some were later subpoenaed in the renewed investigation into the death of Jean McConville, the IRA disappearance that frames Say Nothing. Adams never cracks, though, in the show or reality. But Adams isn’t saying nothing. His persistent denial works as an admission that the methods of the Irish Republican Army violate some part of the collective moral consciousness (not to mention the law), while hinting that obscuring the facts doesn’t violate Adams’s own. It’s worth noting that Adams had real-life political colleagues, including eventual deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, who did not disavow their time in the IRA.  For some of Adams’s former compatriots, Price and Hughes among them, his public ascent was not about peacemaking, but little more than the fulfillment of his political aspirations. For those IRA members, even the signing of the Good Friday agreement was not something to be heralded; it leaves Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom — for as long as its majority Protestant citizenry chooses. The episode disclaimers, along with this tension, effectively make Gerry Adams the show’s villain — willing to ask others for the ultimate sacrifice; not even loyal to the cause. You watch Adams, along with Price and Hughes, plan and execute acts that wound their enemies, their neighbors, their cities, and eventually themselves; you’re shown his rise, their fall; and over and over, you see his denial. But the only people who truly say nothing are the dead. 

Matt Gaetz withdrew his bid to serve as attorney general in the next Trump administration, but can he go back to his old job as a member of Congress?

Cormac McCarthy was deeply private. Now a woman who inspired many of his characters speaks out about their relationship, which began when she was 16 and he was 42.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, saying he did not want to be a "distraction" for the Trump transition.

As the saying goes, when you’re the president, they let you do it.

Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa had reportedly been murdered by his father-in-law, the reputed Mexican drug lord known as El Mencho. But authorities arrested him this week in Riverside.

Comcast is currently pursuing a spin-off of its cable properties, including MSNBC and CNBC.

Pamela Anderson knows how to guard the beach and the road! Kaia Gerber recently revealed that her elementary school crossing guard was none other than the “Baywatch” babe herself. Watch the full video to learn more about Pamela’s previous side gig.  Subscribe to our YouTube for the latest on all your favorite stars.

While some are bullish, other experts warn of investment risks as what comes next is impossible to know.

Country music’s biggest stars made a splash at the CMA Awards 2024! Watch the video to see all the stars on the red carpet including Megan Moroney, Kacey Musgraves, Luke Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini, Shaboozey, Lainey Wilson, Miranda Lambert and many more!

Republicans are suddenly more optimistic about the housing market after Donald Trump‘s presidential election win, while Democrats grow less so, according to a new survey commissioned by Realtor.com®.

He's really blubbering.

Father-of-three Ryan Borgwardt vanished during a kayaking trip in August, leaving his forlorn family fearing the worst after he never came home from Green Lake, about an hour-and-a-half north of Madison.

Kyiv’s former military commander in chief delivered a chilling warning

The early human discovery dating back to 2400 BC was made by analyzing clay fragments at a 16-year-long archaeological dig in Syria.

The Rock Hall of Famer will be at the Borgata on April 19 in the "Nick of Time."

A guy who wasn’t qualified for his old gig is even less qualified for his next one.

The Dallas Cowboys could end up with their worst record in a generation, and Peyton Manning made sure to remind everyone watching the Country Music Awards.

A Bay Area barber has been charged with sexually assaulting at least two men, one of which involved a kidnapping, according to authorities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to temporarily lift the federal sales tax on a slew of items and send checks to millions of Canadians as election looms.

Former Temple basketball player Hysier Miller is under investigation by federal authorities for betting on Owls games, according to a report from ESPN. 

The auto parts seller is closing hundreds of stores amid waning sales. It plans to shut down four distribution centers on the West Coast.

Home affordability is top of mind for most Americans — but, even with mortgage rates trending higher, there are still cities where it’s possible to own a home without stretching your income too far.

Karim Khan, 54, faced accusations that he tried for more than a year to push a female aide into a sexual relationship and then groped her against her will.

“I call him Papa Bush," Brooke Shields revealed of her surprisingly close relationship with former President George H.W. Bush, who "loved some good gossip."

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a nearly $200,000 contract with Irish consulting firm Accenture ahead of President-elect Trump returning to the White House.

Sarah McBride, set to be the first transgender member of Congress, talked with CBS News' Scott MacFarlane and commented on the GOP's effort to restrict bathroom use.

Bolsonaro and 36 other people are charged with attempting a coup to keep him in office after his defeat in the 2022 election.

The Justice Department moved to limit the DEA from doing random searches at airports and other transportations facilities following an Inspector General review that raised questions about the agency’s procedures.

"Full House" alum Candace Cameron Bure sat down with Fox News Digital, Thursday, giving a tear-filled response when asked about fellow cast member Dave Coulier's cancer diagnosis.

This expose on corporate waste and manipulative marketing tries to do a bit too much.

The Rangers look to keep an undefeated road trip going Thursday as they face off against the overachieving Calgary Flames. 

Sign up for the Fanatics Sportsbook promo to claim up to $1,000 in No Sweat Bets. Register now and place your first bet on "Thursday Night Football" or any other game.

Sign up with a BetMGM bonus code to unlock an exciting welcome offer, perfect for betting on "Thursday Night Football" between the Steelers and Browns.

Page Six has exclusively been told that Alexis Bellino is “relieved” that John Janssen has settled his case with Shannon Beador. An insider told us that the “Real Housewife of Orange County” wants to “put this entire ordeal behind them.” Watch the full video to learn more about how Alexis feels about this “face off”...

Kennedy's team is weighing a significant rewrite of the FDA's rules.

"My wife is Spanish. Is this a problem for anybody out there?” the actor joked while revealing the move.

"Saturday Night Live" all-star Ana Gasteyer recalled Sean "Diddy" Combs taking over Studio 8H during a musical guest appearance on the sketch comedy show in 1998.

The "Baywatch" alum served as a crossing guard once a week at her sons' school in Los Angeles.

"This young lady is dead and I want every mayor, every governor of a sanctuary jurisdiction to listen to that tape," the normally hard-boiled career cop and federal agent said on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."

Rep. Sean Casten, a Democrat from Illinois, tells CBS News he still wants the House Ethics Committee findings on former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to be made public. This comes as Capitol Hill reacts to news of Gaetz withdrawing from consideration for attorney general.

NY Post readers discuss President Biden permitting Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles against Russia.

The actress tells Page Six Style all about her new Paramount+ show, "Landman," and the beauty tip she picked up from co-star Demi Moore.

A new study has found that the four best states to find a job are New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wisconsin, and Massachusetts.

Danny Amendola, Witney Carson, Chandler Kinney, Brandon Armstrong, Joey Graziadei, Jenna Johnson, Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten exclusively spoke to Page Six ahead of next week’s finale.

Erwin Rommel Recinos Zuniga was deported before the illegal migrant could stand trial for a drunken triple fatal car crash in Miami in 2022.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister of the Jewish State. CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer has more.

Israeli Consul General Ofir Akunis condemned what he called "the most disgraceful decision" by the ICC.