The case against former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams that he was an IRA member and directly responsible for three bombings in England in the 1970s and 1990s, has “come nowhere close” to proving the charge, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Closing submissions in the two-week-long civil case in the high court in London began on Thursday morning.
Speaking during a break, Adams, who said he attended every day of the case out of respect for the court and for the three claimants who were injured at the hands of the IRA, said he was “restricted” about what he could say about the case.
“But I have to remind us all that Irish people have had a very bad history and experience of British rule,” he said outside the royal courts of justice, accompanied by Sinn Féin MP John Finucane and MLA Paul Maskey.
“I came here to reject the accusations levelled against me, to assert the legitimacy of the republican cause and the right of the people of Ireland to be free,” he told journalists.
“I’m also here out of respect for the claimants, and very mindful of all of the victims of the conflict. They all deserve our respect. Thankfully, the war is over. I’m glad that I, with many, many others, helped to secure this.”
Much of the morning session in the court was consumed by Adams’ lawyer, Edward Craven, making the argument that the case should fall on two key procedural grounds, even in advance of the issues raised in the case being decided.
The three men – John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock − injured in the Old Bailey, Canary Wharf and Manchester Arndale bombings respectively, had “up to 50 years in one case” to lodge civil actions, but they did not do so until 2022.
“Irrespective of their motive, the claimants have clearly brought this claim for the purpose of seeking to compel the high court to undertake a protracted, wide ranging public inquiry style examination of the defendant’s alleged membership of, associations and involvement in the activities of the PIRA [Provisional IRA] over a period of several decades,” he told Judge Jonathan Swift.
They want, he said, to procure – in their own words – “a proper inquiry” into Adams’ alleged role in the Troubles” and “an exploration of the truth” which will “compel Adams to engage in an effective truth and reconciliation process”.
However, he said, the court is not able in a personal injuries claim for damages, such as this, to go further and turn into an inquisitorial investigation of Adams’ actions over decades.
Very little evidence about Adams’ alleged involvement in the Old Bailey, Docklands and Manchester bombings has been produced in any way to the court, Craven told the presiding judge.
Instead, he said, the claimants “have advanced a sprawling array of allegations” that have nothing to do with the bombings, including the authorship of “obscure articles” in An Phoblacht, a Sinn Féin-affiliated Irish republican news publication.