Gerry Adams in Australia

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Festival draws fire over Gerry Adams

By Rod Moran - Literary Editor



THE University of WA Perth International Arts Festival was forced yesterday to justify inviting Sinn Fein leader and Irish Republican Army supporter Gerry Adams to Perth.

Adams will promote his autobiography, Hope and History, as a speaker at the Words and Ideas Program sponsored by Curtin University in February during the 2004 UWA Perth International Arts Festival.

But the Festival office was inundated with phone calls and emails yesterday after a report in The West Australian that Adams would be visiting.

Some calls were abusive, others asked why Adams was being invited, while many were ticket inquiries or statements of support.

Producer of the Words and Ideas program, Wendy Were, said: "Responding to the 2004 Perth Festival theme of journey, I have sought to include a number of participants in the Words and Ideas Program whose own extraordinary personal journeys have significantly influenced global events.

"While the Festival holds no political allegiance, in the words of Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, 'all art is political', and it is inevitable that some writers and speakers will espouse views that are contentious."

Sinn Fein leader Adams has been a key player in the recent Irish peace process...

http://www.thewest.com.au/20031218/n...sto117269.html