Gerry Adams, Irish Republican Leader, to Step Down From Sinn Feinbr 18, 2017br DUBLIN — Gerry Adams, a pivotal figure in the political life of Ireland for almost 50 years, said Saturdaybr that he would step down as leader of Sinn Fein, the main Irish Republican party, after more than three decades.br Since then Sinn Fein has evolved from a fringe party into the dominant Irish nationalist party in Northern Irelandbr and the third-largest party to the south in the Irish Republic.br Mr. Adams will almost certainly be succeeded by someone with no direct involvement in the decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, a prospectbr that would make Sinn Fein a more palatable coalition partner in the Irish Republic, where it has never been in power.br Reviled by many as the face of the Irish Republican Army during its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, Mr. Adams reinvented himself as a peacemaker in the troubled regionbr and then as a populist opposition member of the Irish Parliament.br Mr. Adams was a central figure in the republican nationalist movement throughout the three decades of violence between Catholic militants seekingbr a united Ireland, mainly Protestant militants who wanted to maintain Northern Ireland’s position as a part of Britain, and the British Army.br At a packed party conference in Dublin, Mr. Adams saidbr that he would be replaced as its president at its next annual gathering and that he would not run for re-election to Parliament.