A former British army commander has told the high court it is “inconceivable” that Gerry Adams was not involved in authorizing the IRA attacks.
Richard Kemp said there was evidence from “a multitude of intelligence” spanning 20 years about the former Sinn Féin leader’s membership in the paramilitary organisation.
He was giving evidence on Wednesday in the civil claim brought by three victims of the IRA bombings, who are suing Adams for nominal damages of £1 each, alleging that he was a member of the IRA and, for a period, sat on its military council.
In his written witness statement, Kemp said: “With regard to the PIRA (Provisional IRA) bomb attacks carried out in England that I understand these proceedings to relate to (being the Old Bailey bombing in 1973 and the Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996), all would have required army council approval.
“This high-profile activity simply could not have been carried out without the knowledge and approval of the council. It is inconceivable, in my opinion and based on my knowledge of the PIRA and the intelligence to which I had access, that Adams would not have been involved in this process and its final authorization.”
Kemp, who later served as commander of British forces in Afghanistan, undertook seven tours of Northern Ireland between 1979 and 2001, although he was only directly involved in military intelligence in the country from 1992 to 1994.
During cross-examination by James Robottom, representing Adams, Kemp acknowledged that he had no direct evidence of the former Sinn Féin leader’s role in the bombings and that he could not be sure that the intelligence he claimed to have seen did not come from Adams’s political enemies. He also accepted Robottom’s claim that the intelligence could be “incorrect and unreliable.”
But Kemp added: “I saw intelligence and was told about it over a period of about 20 years, which made it clear that Mr Adams was in the IRA. I think it is inconceivable that intelligence was reported that was incorrect over that period of time.”
Kemp has written extensively for his own website, as well as for the Telegraph, and Robottom told him: “You have never written about Gerry Adams (as a member of the IRA) before… but you have expressed very strong opinions about Sinn Féin and the peace process.”
Kemp said he didn’t remember if he had written about Adams. He described Sinn Féin and the IRA as “two sides of the same organisation” and accepted that he had been “very critical” of both criminal investigations into (and civil claims brought against) British soldiers in relation to the Troubles.
Robottom also asked Kemp about his use of the word “taigs,” a derogatory term for Catholics, in a 2017 tweet. Kemp, who is Catholic, said his fellow soldiers in Northern Ireland had called him taig, had not realized it was an insult, and had never used it again since he was criticized for the tweet.
The trial continues.
