His parents, Gerry Adams Sr. and Annie Hannaway, came from strong republican backgrounds. Adams's grandfather, also named Gerry Adams, had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) during the Irish War of Independence. Two of Adams's uncles, Dominic and Patrick Adams, had been interned (jailed without a trial) by the governments in Belfast and Dublin. His uncle Dominic was a senior figure in the IRA of the mid-1940s, but not the chief of staff as some people say. Gerry Sr. joined the IRA when he was sixteen.