The following is an edited transcript of the RTE radio interview with Gerry Adams yesterday.
Pat Kenny: Which of the candidates would you vote for?
Gerry Adams: Personally, I would vote for Mary McAleese, if I had a vote. I don't have a vote. I think it's good that people from the North are contesting the election. I think it's bad that the rest of us in the North don't have a vote.
PK: Do you think she will be grateful for your endorsement given the difficulties she's been in the current campaign because of the alleged leak from the Department of Foreign Affairs that she was a Sinn Fein supporter?
GA: I think she was a victim of smear and of dirty tricks and I have no great gra for any of the candidates beyond what I have listened to and heard them say over the last few weeks of the election contest. I can see a lot of merit in what Adi Roche is saying, if it was proportional representation she would probably get a number two preference. I can see Mary Banotti would bring a certain experience she would get a number three. Dana would get a number four and the token male candidate wouldn't get a vote at all.
PK: Why would Derek Nally not get a vote?
GA: I listened to the way he tried to use the whole issue of the conflict in the North, the difficulties here in the North. I listened to Mary Banotti even raising the question of Northerners contesting the election in a very partitionist way. I don't think that's fair; I don't think that's proper . . .
PK: Don't forget Nally's history with AGSI [Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors] he grieved for his members of the force killed by the IRA.
GA: What has that got to do with Mary McAleese or any other candidate?
PK: The point is that his implacable opposition to Sinn Fein at a time of no ceasefire. . . he has made that point again and again.
GA: He was also involved in working with the RUC, and the RUC have yet to call a ceasefire. We are back to the old militaristic questions . . .
PK: And I asked you do you think Mary McAleese will be pleased with your endorsement given the current difficulties she had?
GA: Even if it means that the people who vote for Sinn Fein in the South will vote for her I'm sure any candidate getting that type of support, if it helps them to get elected, will be pleased.
PK: Would you be interested in the Presidency yourself?
GA: No, not at all.
PK: Was there any reason he didn't put up a candidate this time?
GA: We are a small party, we are a party which is still developing. We actually will be giving our own membership a free vote in all of this . . . and I know it's a cliche now but Mary Robinson was the best President we have seen in this era - not just because of her engagement in the North - and I think that her handshake in west Belfast, long before anybody else was shaking hands with anybody from the community which I represent, started the whole process, broke down marginalisation; but also her work of inclusiveness within the 26 counties . . . and I think whoever is elected will have a hard act to follow.