FORMER Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has released his first cookbook just in time for the festive season.

Speaking at the launch of 'The Negotiator's Cookbook' in Belfast today, Adams recalled getting Chinese takeaways at Downing Street during negotiations for the Good Friday Agreement two decades ago.

The 70-year-old claimed the British Government under Tony Blair had been reluctant to feed both republican and unionist negotiators in 1997 and 1998, so they took matters into their own hands.

"Padraic (Wilson), who was part of that team, starting bringing desserts. So what I have done is to put those recipes together here," Adams said.

"The attraction of them is you can make them the night before, which is what happened obviously, and then transport them to wherever you want."


Launching the Negotiators Cookbook ar maidin. pic.twitter.com/cyVzQT0iJQ — Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) 29 October 2018

Contributors to the new recipe collection include Sinn Féin's leader in the North, Michelle O'Neill, as well as former Stormont minister Carál Ní Chuilín and Assembly member Gerry Kelly's sister.

Adams, who has been known to tweet pictures of his own cookery attempts, passed portions of his alcohol-laced pudding around to journalists during the book launch at the An Cultúrlann centre on west Belfast's Falls Road.

He claimed the cookbook holds "some of the best-kept secrets of the Irish peace process".

The ex-politician's most recent book 'My Little Book of Tweets' was published in 2016, and features a collection of his most bizarre tweets as well as selfies and jokes.

The Negotiator's Cookbook will be followed by another new book of short stories by Adams, some five years in the making, which is due to be published in 2019.

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