Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said a comment about the IRA not being defeated was made to mark the 10-year anniversary of the formal end to the IRA's armed campaign.

Mr Adams made this assertion on Wednesday when asked about the comment by reporters in Dublin.

Mr Adams said he made this statement because the 10-year anniversary of the IRA formally declaring an end to its armed campaign needed to be marked.

He also repeated his denial that he had been a member of the IRA.

Mr Adams said: “The question [of my involvement] is going to be raised continuously anyway. I don’t lose any sleep over it. You shouldn’t be worried about it.”

Mr Adams also called on the British and Irish government to re-engage with the peace process.

He said: “Both governments need to get their act in order. Sinn Fein’s focus is very clear, we want the peace process to work.”

On Tuesday, in a statement, Mr Adams referred to recent comments by British prime minister David Cameron where he said that "British resolve saw off the IRA's assaults on our way of life".

“This is a distortion of recent history. It also betrays a worrying ignorance on the part of a British premier of the dynamics which have propelled the Irish peace process for many years,” he said.

“The reality is that the IRA was never defeated and that again and again it was Irish republicans, including the IRA leadership, which took bold steps to bolster the peace process and to maintain positive political momentum.”

Mr Adams referred to how, on July 28th, 2005, the IRA formally said its armed campaign was over and “gave its support to purely peaceful and democratic means of achieving republican objectives”. IRA decommissioning happened in September 2005.

“David Cameron would do well to understand that it was such initiatives which broke the long cycle of conflict and opened up new political possibilities,” said Mr Adams.

He described the first IRA ceasefire of August 1994 as “one of the defining developments of modern Irish history”.