Back in 1994, Adams had to struggle to get a U.S. visa as a leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. There were no grand Harvard receptions for him back then. Even if he was viewed as a freedom fighter in some Boston neighborhoods, he was still seen as a terrorist in most corners of the world. There weren’t many fans in London. Back then, his voice was not allowed to be broadcast on British airwaves as he was considered to be part of an outlawed paramilitary group.

But last night, he was toasted and fetted at the Kennedy School of Government as a peacemaker and a leader who has been pivotal in bringing Irish Catholics to see the benefits to all of the historic 1998 Good Friday agreement, a treaty that has transformed the once-war-torn Northern Ireland.

“It’s been difficult and slow, but we’re all in a better place than when I last visited here,” Adams told the gathering at the Kennedy school.

He sharply condemned the killings earlier this month of two British soldiers and a policeman by a dissident Irish republican group.

Sinn Fein, he said, has been “robust in asserting that they are wrong, that they have to stop, that they are going against the grain of popular opinion.”

“If anyone is concerned that this is the start of the Troubles again, of going back to war, that will not happen. Be sure of that,” he said.

He was asked by a member of the audience about a claim by his fellow Sinn Fein leader, Martin McGuinness, that those responsible for the killings were “traitors,” a powerful condemnation in Irish republican history.

He paused and then answered: “I agree with Martin.”

I covered Belfast briefly in the late 1980s and mid 1990s at some of the many horrific turning points of “The Troubles,” as the conflict was known.

I returned there as a London bureau chief for The Boston Globe in 2001 through 2005, as the peace process, fragile at first, eventually took hold. I had the chance to work alongside my Globe colleague Kevin Cullen, who is America’s most knowledgeable and trusted voice on Northern Ireland.

And last night, I sat next to Kevin as we watched Gerry once again working a crowd and this time making a pitch for Irish Americans to support his larger dream that lies beyond the peace process, the dream of a united Ireland.

“Anyone who thinks it is not possible to unite Ireland, think back when I was last here and what seemed possible then,” Adams said.

“In our own time, we can shape a united Ireland,” he said.

Adams expressed what he called “a certainty of hope” that the partition and British rule in Northern Ireland will end and that Ireland will be united because it makes sense on every level — culturally, politically, economically.

At a reception at the Harvard Faculty Club, I had a chance to talk with Adams and to focus on his view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have covered both Belfast and Jerusalem and it is one of the more searing questions of the day. Why is it that the peace process has worked in Northern Ireland and consistently collapsed into more violence in Israel-Palestine?

Adams has had this question presented to him many times before.

“I can give you an answer, but as you know they are very different places and about very different issues. They will need to have their own solution,” he said.

He said it was an “international shame” that the conflict in Israel-Palestine continues, and that America and the international community would need to play a pronounced and even-handed role.

He said both sides needed to come to the realization that “you can’t bomb people out of the state of Israel and you can’t bomb people out of Palestine.”

He said that there were “patterns” and “pathways” that those who forged peace in Northern Ireland could share with Israelis and Palestinians, but that he was “loathe to offer special advice.”

But he said that the appointment of special envoy George Mitchell, the former U.S. Senator who was crucial in brokering the Good Friday Agreement, was a a great sign of hope for the people of Israel and Palestine that they might be able to find a way toward peace.

“Mitchell has great skills, great patience, and great humor and you need all of those to succeed in finding peace,” he said.

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Our goal at GlobalPost is to tell great stories from all over the world.













And in the lead up to the Jan. 20th inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, we are organizing our storytelling around a single question: What does the idea of America mean to the world? The special project is called “For Which It Stands.”

We wanted to find stories in every corner of the globe at a time when new leadership is setting out — at least in the resonant speeches of the campaign — to redefine or “reboot,” as Obama put it, America’s relationship with the world. We do not believe in partisan journalism and we vow to be as tough and fair in our reporting on this president as any other. But we do believe this is a moment in our country that transcends party politics and offers an opportunity for America to engage with the world in a new way. We very much want to be a news organization that taps into that new energy in this new administration.

So please go to the guide to our series For Which It Stands to navigate all of the great stories and multimedia that make up the series. There are more than 50 stories reported by more than 40 reporters as well as a handful of photographers, videographers and multi-media producers.

Today, you will see a lyrical and poignant photo essay accompanied by a strong piece of writing by a friend and colleague, Seamus Murphy. It is titled Seeing America: From Kennedy to Obama and I invite you to see and read his work. He is an extraordinary storyteller. I also hope you have time to read Matt McAllester’s piece on Guantanamo about the former guard and former prisoner who are coming together to try to find some common ground in their anger over what happened there. Matt is also a friend and colleague and an incredibly talented and principled reporter. And there is HDS Greenway comparing Obama to Wilson; Joshua Hammer in Berlin on Kennedy, Reagan and Obama and the historic speeches they made there; Royal Ford introducing his new column Wheels or Jack Farrell on foreign policy in Washington. There are also guest writers including NPR’s acclaimed reporter Deb Amos and the brilliant Israeli author Gershom Gorenberg. The list is just too long. But the guide will serve you well in finding out what’s there, so please use it.

One of the more engaging multimedia stories that I hope you will see has a back story that involves Johnny Cash and I think captures the spirit of GlobalPost. You see, we at GlobalPost want to be the Johnny Cash of international news.

I was joking with a few friends back in the summer about that. Off the cuff, I said how we wanted to be like The Man in Black telling stories in the world that are honest and true and that come from the street and have an ear for the music of America.

But what I didn’t realize then was that there was a great story teller out there named Greg Warner who was playing Johnny Cash on his accordion in Afghanistan. Someone sent me a YouTube video of his performance of “Ring of Fire” in Mazar-e-Sharif and it was a good laugh. But then I heard one of his reports from the Congo on NPR and I immediately called him and now he is doing a few multimedia columns for us. He is on his way to Kenya now.

One of his columns is about his “Accordion Journey” as he calls it through Afghanistan. It’s the kind of story telling we want to do at GlobalPost. And since today is the 50th Anniversary of the release of the Folsom Prison Blues single and the 40th anniversary of his concert inside the prison. I thought it was fitting to do a shout out and invite you to watch the video which has a great tribute to Johnny at the end. It even had a public viewing tonight at the “Cash Bash” at the Milky Way Lounge in Jamaica Plain, Boston in a night celebrating “the Man in Black.”