Gerry Adams has defended his use of a racially offensive word on Twitter.
The president of Sinn Fein was watching Django Unchained on Sunday evening when he tweeted a remark about the Quentin Tarantino film.
The context of the comment linked the treatment of slaves to the plight of Republicans in Northern Ireland, specifically in Ballymurphy, the area of west Belfast in which he was born.
“Watching Django Unchained — A Ballymurphy N*****!”, he said.
Another tweet described the actor Jamie Foxx’s character Django, a freed slave who sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner and exact revenge, as an “uppity fenian”.
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He was instantly rounded-on by users of the social media site who reacted angrily to his casual use of the word.
Mr Adams later deleted the tweet but claimed in a statement that the context of his remarks had been misunderstood and attempts to suggest he was a racist were “without credibility”.
“I am opposed to racism and have been all my life. The fact is that nationalists in the north, including those from Ballymurphy, were treated in much the same way as African Americans until we stood up for ourselves,” he said.
“If anyone is genuinely offended by my use of the n-word they misunderstand or misrepresent the context in which it was used. For this reason I deleted the tweets.”
Mr Adams said that anyone who had seen the film would understand that the tweet was “not meant to insult”.
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“My tweets about the film and the use of the n-word were ironic and not intended to cause any offence whatsoever,” he said.
He later attempted to clarify the remarks again when he spoke at Connolly House in Belfast yesterday.
“Django Unchained is a powerful film which highlights the injustices suffered by African Americans through its main character Django.
“I have acknowledged that the use of the n-word was inappropriate. That is why I deleted the tweet. I apologise for any offence caused.”
However, he stressed that he was standing by the main point of his tweet.
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“Like African Americans Irish nationalists were denied basic rights. The penal laws, Cromwell’s regime, and partition are evidence of that.
“In our own time, like African Americans, nationalists in the north, including those from Ballymurphy and west Belfast, were denied the right to vote, the right to work, the right to a home, and were subject to draconian laws.
“This changed because we stood up for ourselves. We need to continue to do that.”
Mr Adams claimed to be a founding member of Ireland’s civil rights movement and listed a number of historical figures who had inspired him including Malcolm X and Rosa Parks.