But to this day - and it is one of the more unfathomable aspects of the man – he still denies ever being in the IRA, even though it would have been impossible for him to have risen to the position he now holds if that were not the case.
Security intelligence say he has held a number of positions within the IRA, including membership of its ruling army council, and although Mr Adams does not deny being a sympathiser he has never wavered in his denials of being a member of the organisation.
He has been the key strategist in moving republicans from military action to the ballot box, telling them in 1979 that victory could not be achieved solely by military means.
A year later he went further. He argued that Britain had succumbed to the fact that they would never have a military victory and that republicans should do the same.
At that point military operations had the priority, not the ballot box, but in 1980 the electoral gains of the hunger strikers of the H Block, (Bobby Sands and Kieran Doherty) began to twist the focus.
In 1983 Adams was elected as MP in West Belfast, which led to his promotion to Sinn Fein president. He was now in a position to lead "the republican project" in the direction he thought most appropriate.
The electoral gains made by Sinn Fein frightened London and Dublin who saw dark days ahead for the main nationalist party, John Hume's SDLP. The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 was seen as an attempt to secure the SDLP's position, but in 1988 Gerry Adams and John Hume were meeting in secret.
Mr Hume became convinced republicans were serious about finding a political way forward and although the 1988 discussions ended amid recrimination, they began again soon afterwards and became public in 1993.
In 1994 the "Hume-Adams process" eventually delivered the IRA ceasefire, which has since provided the relatively peaceful backdrop against which the Good Friday Agreement was brokered. Even more important was the vote on whether the party should take its seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Although there has been internal dissent among republicans throughout the peace process there has not been a critical split. This is also testament to Mr Adams' party management. Adams the man remains an enigma.
His political opponents say dealing with him is like peeling an onion - there is always another layer just when you think he has got to the heart of the issue. They say he likes to keep his bottom line a moving target as long as he can.
If we consider the decommissioning saga, which has been running now for seven years without a single weapon being placed "beyond use."
“Within his own community he is generally revered as a clever politician who has largely replaced the physical force of republicanism with a mental toughness which has delivered more than bombs and bullets ever did.” Stephan Grimason.
Few politicians in recent Irish history have divided opinion as much as Gerry Adams. To his followers, he is regarded as one of the best leaders the republican movement has ever had. To his fiercest unionist opponents, he is at best little more than an apologist for IRA gunmen, and at worst, a member of its highest command. In February 1996, a bomb attack in London, which in turn ended the cease-fire, raised two key questions. Firstly, if he didn't know of the bomb attack, what was his real influence upon the IRA - could he deliver anything at all? Secondly, many unionist critics pointed out that if he did know that the ceasefire was to be broken, was Adams only committed to the peace process when it suited Republican aims.
After reading his autobiography I began to see Gerry Adams as a man and not the untouchable political figure he is perceived as. I read passages in which he spoke of his genuine love for his country and his genuine hunger for his country’s freedom. He spoke of his anger towards the British government as he watched friends and comrades die in the 1981 hunger strikes and the events, which led to him becoming involved with the republican cause.
After much research into the man that is Gerry Adams I have found my opinion divided. Obviously I would like to believe him when he says he is not and never has been a member of the IRA, but common sense prevents me from doing so.
The question I now ask myself is should it matter whether or not he was once involved with the IRA as now it is quite clear that he would prefer to take the political, peaceful route to a united Ireland.
