Gerry Adams defends his use of 'N' word on Twitter

Gerry Adams has defended his use of a racist word for a black person in a tweet.

The Sinn Fein president used the six-letter N-word when he told his 111,000 followers he was watching Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and compared the long struggle against slavery in the US to the campaign for equal rights by Irish nationalists.

Adams was later forced to release a statement claiming his tweets and his use of the N-word were ironic and not intended to cause offence.

“My tweets about the film Django have triggered a lot of interest," he said.

“Anyone who has seen the film, as I did last evening, and who is familiar with the plight of nationalists in the north until recently, would know that my tweets about the film and the use of the N-word were ironic and not intended to cause any offence whatsoever.

“Attempts to suggest that I am a racist are 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.

“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.”