{"id":394309,"date":"2026-03-20T03:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/394309\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T03:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T03:21:09","slug":"gerry-adams-recalls-very-bad-history-of-british-rule-as-london-civil-case-nears-end-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/394309\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerry Adams recalls \u2018very bad history\u2019 of British rule as London civil case nears end \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The case against former Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> leader Gerry Adams<\/a> that he was an IRA<\/a> member and directly responsible for three bombings in England in the 1970s and 1990s, has \u201ccome nowhere close\u201d to proving the charge, his lawyer said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Closing submissions in the two-week-long civil case in the high court in London<\/a> began on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

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 \u201crestricted\u201d about what he could say about the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have to remind us all that Irish people have had a very bad history and experience of British rule,\u201d he said outside the royal courts of justice, accompanied by Sinn F\u00e9in MP John Finucane and MLA Paul Maskey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he told journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019m glad that I, with many, many others, helped to secure this.\u201d <\/p>\n

Much of the morning session in the court was consumed by Adams\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The three men \u2013 John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock \u2212 injured in the Old Bailey, Canary Wharf and Manchester Arndale bombings respectively, had \u201cup to 50 years in one case\u201d to lodge civil actions, but they did not do so until 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrrespective 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\u2019s alleged membership of, associations and involvement in the activities of the PIRA [Provisional IRA] over a period of several decades,\u201d he told Judge Jonathan Swift.<\/p>\n

They want, he said, to procure \u2013 in their own words \u2013 \u201ca proper inquiry\u201d into Adams\u2019 alleged role in the Troubles\u201d and \u201can exploration of the truth\u201d which will \u201ccompel Adams to engage in an effective truth and reconciliation process\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 actions over decades.<\/p>\n

Very little evidence about Adams\u2019 alleged involvement in the Old Bailey, Docklands and Manchester bombings has been produced in any way to the court, Craven told the presiding judge. <\/p>\n

Instead, he said, the claimants \u201chave advanced a sprawling array of allegations\u201d that have nothing to do with the bombings, including the authorship of \u201cobscure articles\u201d in An Phoblacht, a Sinn F\u00e9in-affiliated Irish republican news publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The case against former Sinn F\u00e9in leader Gerry Adams that he was an IRA member and directly responsible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,9618,6,6439,11,12,130,15,16,5,47,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-394309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gerry-adams","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-irish-republican-army","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-sinn-fein","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116259355655667053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}