Gerry Adams says ‘irate anti-Shinners’ tried to run him off the road while riding bike in Belfast

In an article for the Andersonstown News, the former Sinn Fein president reminisced about a “good bike” he bought in Dundalk 15 years ago, which he is gifting to someone else now that he is no longer using it.

As a TD, it was “great for scooting about Dublin”, he said, as he was able to whizz past commuters stuck in traffic.

Mr Adams said it was dangerous cycling in Dublin, but he survived and “enjoyed the freedom that a bike represents”.

Riding around the streets of Belfast was, however, a different experience altogether, he wrote: “Here some motorists are equally oblivious to cyclists. But some were not so oblivious to me.

“Irate anti-Shinner wannabe death-drivers tried to run me off the road a few times. Others used to shout abuse as they drove slowly alongside me.

“‘Dirty Fenian’ invective is the ruination of a good spin on the bike. The Sinn Fein traffic police had a word with me so I limited my outings.

“Then I hurt my back and the bike was grounded. Like most activities, it’s hard to get started again once you’ve stopped.”

He recalled buying his first bike on the Shankill Road and crashing it into a bus on the Springfield Road.

Mr Adams would dodge “Brit Army road blocks” as he travelled around Belfast on two wheels.

As a figurehead of the republican movement for more than three decades, Mr Adams has been targeted by his enemies on a number of occasions.

Soon after becoming party president in 1984 the then 35-year-old was shot and wounded in an Ulster Freedom Fighters’ attack in Belfast city centre.

The Sinn Fein leader was on a lunch break from an appearance at Belfast Magistrates Court, where he was facing obstruction charges, when the car in which he was travelling was ambushed.

He was hit in the neck, shoulder and arm as loyalist gunmen riddled his car with about 20 bullets.

Six weeks before the gun attack, Mr Adams said he believed he had a 90% chance of being assassinated.

Two loyalist gunmen, including John ‘Grugg’ Gregg, who was later shot dead during a loyalist feud, were jailed the following year for attempted murder.

Milltown Cemetery killer Michael Stone claimed Mr Adams and fellow Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness were his intended targets when he attacked mourners during the March 1988 funeral of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.

Mr Adams escaped unscathed from the graveside gun and grenade attack at the west Belfast cemetery that left three dead and many more wounded.

Stone again claimed the Sinn Féin leader was his intended target in 2006 when he attempted to force his way into Stormont’s Parliament Buildings.

The assassination attempt was thwarted after security guards disarmed Stone, who had been released from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2003, police warned the then West Belfast MP that he was being targeted for assassination by republicans opposed to the peace process.

However, it is understood a 2018 attack on Mr Adams’ Belfast home was the first time he or his property had been directly targeted by dissident republicans.