Gerry Adams is as guilty of IRA bombings on the UK mainland as the people who planted and detonated the devices, the high court heard at the start of a civil trial.
The former Sinn Féin leader is being sued for symbolic “vindicatory” damages of £1 each by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured respectively in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing and the 1996 London and Manchester Docklands bombings.
They allege that Adams, who is credited with helping bring about the peace process in Northern Ireland, “was an instrumental force in organizing the PIRA (Provisional IRA) and building the two-pronged attack: ArmaLite and the ballot box. One foot in each camp.”
Opening the claimants’ case in London on Monday, Anne Studd KC, said in written submissions: “It aims to shed light on the defendant’s involvement in the PIRA in the course of that conflict and to demonstrate, on a balance of probabilities, that he (Adams) was so intrinsically involved in the PIRA organization that he is as culpable for the attacks which gave rise to these claims as the individuals who planted and detonated the bombs.”
He added: “There is no doubt that the defendant contributed to peace in Northern Ireland, but the plaintiffs say that, on the evidence, he also contributed to the war.”
Studd told the court that Adams admitted involvement with the IRA to a special branch officer after being arrested in 1972 and, that same year, attended two meetings with government officials “as a member of the PIRA and had authority to act on behalf of the organisation”.
The plaintiffs’ case also relies on evidence from IRA volunteers, including Dolours Price, one of nine individuals jailed in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, as well as Troubles-era intelligence officials.
Additionally, Studd claimed that, while detained under internment in the 1970s, Adams began writing a weekly column for the Republican News under the pseudonym Brownie, including a 1976 article that stated: “Rightly or wrongly, I am an IRA volunteer.”
Adams, 77, who was in court and is due to give evidence next week, has always denied being a member of the IRA.
In written submissions, his lawyer, Edward Craven KC, said the plaintiffs had waited decades too long to bring the case, adding: “Even if the claim was not destined to fail on limitation grounds, it must inevitably fail on the merits. “The defendant strenuously denies any involvement in the bombings.
“Plaintiffs bear the burden of proving their factual and legal responsibility. In view of the seriousness of the allegations (‘the most serious allegations imaginable’), this is a heavy burden, which could only be discharged by presenting compelling and convincing evidence. The evidence on which the plaintiffs seek to rely in this lawsuit is nowhere near this.”
Craven said that if police authorities had believed there was reasonable suspicion that Adams was involved, it was “extraordinary and inexplicable” that he was never arrested, while many republicans, including Price, harbored deep hostility towards the former Sinn Féin president leader because they were bitterly opposed to the peace process.
The court was asked, Craven said, “to find a high-ranking political figure responsible for exceptionally serious crimes committed between more than a quarter and more than half a century ago, on the basis of multiple hearsay and predominantly anonymous evidence, in the context of a deeply partisan conflict that has generated countless personal and political grievances, schisms and animis, as well as a multitude of competing narratives about key events.”
He said that even if – as is claimed but denied – Adams was a member of the IRA military council, “the mere fact of that membership would not in itself be sufficient to hold him responsible for the attacks carried out”.
The trial continues.
