(2 Nov 2001)
1. Various of bagpiper playing and audience with heads bowed for moment of silence
2. Various of fundraising dinner
3. Gerry Adams walking to podium
4. Various of audience
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein
"My political response to it was articulated in the Assembly in the north, when I said on behalf of Sinn Fein, that our responsibility to the people who died in the USA was to make the Irish peace process work, was to show that there's another way. Was to prove that humanity can actually rise above all the difficulties."
6. Various shots audience
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein
"I see a direct connection between the plight, the suffering and the trauma of people here and the peace process back home. Families here are going to face a very grim Christmas - it's that time of year. I'm sure many of us here have lost parents and it's at that time of year that you start to think of things, and in other parts of the world people are suffering from famine. I'm very mindful of the humanitarian needs in this situation, with 7.5 million people in Afghanistan face Christmas with empty bellies while other people here, another 6000 people face Christmas with broken hearts."
8. Various of audience
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein
"Because against a very dismal, and dreary and confusing and puzzling international situation, there's a flicker being kept alive in my country. There's a flicker that's being kept alive which can be a beacon, it can be a flame which can show the entire world that what was said to be intractable can actually be resolved. And it's because there is a will to move forward. And that's why I described the IRA's actions as patriotic -- because sometimes patriotic acts require bravery and courage and vision but they also require at times an ability to endure, and ability to stretch beyond oneself."
10. Applause
STORYLINE:
Gerry Adams, head of the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein, said recent progress in the Northern Ireland peace process provided a flicker of hope in the current gloomy international climate.
Adams was in New York on Thursday for the Annual Friends of Sinn Fein Dinner.
Over a thousand people were at the benefit dinner which normally raises funds for Sinn Fein.
This year the proceeds - expected to exceed 300,000 dollars - will go to the families of the construction workers killed in the World Trade Center attack.
Adams has refused to agree that pressure after the September 11 attacks led to the IRA decommissioning some of its weapons last week and said the move had been done solely to keep the peace process moving.
He repeated his condemnation of the terror strikes on New York and Washington and said he believed people in Northern Ireland understood the suffering caused by them.
Adams also called for the release of the three men linked to the IRA who have been detained in Colombia.
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