Brainbox

Gerry Adams interviewed in The New York Times last Sunday.

[Q] In addition to your political activities, you are also a writer of fiction, and I am wondering if you have any special insight into the work of your fellow Irishman James Joyce.

[A] I have never completed his ''Ulysses.'' And I've never met anyone who has, although I've met people who say that they have.

Surely he doesn't want us to think he's that stupid. Or perhaps he does.

The problem is that Tony Blair entered the war in Iraq without the support of people in Britain. The war has been a huge disaster. We need to return sovereignty to the people of Iraq. There is no point in me arguing for Irish freedom and self-governance if I don't have an internationalist position which argues for exactly the same things everywhere

...