Adams faces UK court for civil trial over IRA bombings
Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has appeared in London’s High Court for a civil case aimed at holding him accountable for the Irish Republican Army bombings in the UK, a case that could affect the prominent republican leader’s legacy.
Adams became leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, in 1983, establishing himself as the best-known face of the movement aimed at ending UK rule in Northern Ireland.
He later reinvented himself as a peacemaker after helping secure the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict known as the Troubles in which 3,600 people were killed.
Adams has always denied being a member of the Provisional IRA (PIRA), but he has long faced accusations, including from members of the paramilitary group, that he was involved in the organisation’s murder campaign.
The 77-year-old is currently being sued by those injured in three bombings: one at the Old Bailey court in London in 1973, the PIRA’s first bombing on mainland Britain, and two explosions in 1996 targeting London’s Docklands and Manchester.
The three plaintiffs are seeking nominal damages of £1 and a finding that, on the balance of probabilities, Adams was a senior member of the IRA.
Adams’ lawyers argued in court documents that “there is no credible evidence to support plaintiffs’ claim that (Adams) was a senior member of PIRA.”
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Anne Studd, said in a statement Monday that Adams was “so involved in the PIRA organization that he is as culpable in the attacks as those who planted and detonated the bombs.”
He cited Adams’s attendance at high-level meetings with the UK government in the early 1970s as supporting evidence, but Adams said he was there as a representative of Sinn Fein.
Studd also said Dolours Price, one of nine people convicted for the Old Bailey bombing, had previously accused Adams of taking part in the bombing campaign in Britain.
But Adams’ lawyers said Price, who died in 2013, was motivated by a desire to take revenge on Adams, who he believed had betrayed the republican cause through his involvement in the peace process.
They added that Adams had expressed support for supporters or members of the PIRA and its campaign, but that this did not mean he was a member or “close to establishing evidence that (Adams) was responsible for the three bombings”.
Adams, who wore a Palestinian flag badge in court, is expected to testify later this week.
After helping the IRA and the province’s Roman Catholic minority get behind the Good Friday Agreement, Adams became a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and then the Irish parliament, and stood down as president of Sinn Fein in 2018.
The case could be an unwelcome distraction for Sinn Fein, currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the main opposition party south of the border, which pursues the goal of a united Ireland.
