Gerry Adams 'Deluded Himself' Over IRA Role, Court Hears in Damages Trial
Veteran BBC journalist John Ware has told the High Court that former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has 'spectacularly deluded himself' by continuing to deny he ever held a leading role in the Provisional IRA. The 78-year-old investigative journalist, who worked for Panorama and made documentaries for other channels, said it would be a 'travesty if history recorded' that Adams was never a member of the paramilitary group.
Civil Trial Over Bombing Survivors' Claims
The 77-year-old Adams is being sued for 'vindicatory damages' of just £1 by three survivors of IRA bombings on the British mainland between 1973 and 1996. The claimants allege that, due to his leading role in the terror group, Adams was 'directly responsible' for the attacks. Adams has consistently denied being an IRA member throughout his political career.
The trial has heard compelling evidence from multiple sources:
- Former soldiers and police officers involved in intelligence-gathering during The Troubles
- A former IRA member who provided insider testimony
- The family of an IRA murder victim who met with Adams
All these witnesses claim Adams was not just a senior IRA figure but potentially the group's 'de facto leader' during critical periods of the conflict.
Ware's Decades of Troubles Reporting
In a detailed written witness statement, Mr Ware, who has reported on The Troubles for 50 years and interviewed Adams on at least two occasions, expressed uncertainty about Adams' self-perception. 'I wasn't sure whether Adams has persuaded himself that he wasn't in the PIRA by virtue of his strategic and leadership role, as opposed to being the person who pulled the trigger or planted the bombs,' he stated.
Regarding Adams' persistent denials, Ware added: 'The rest of us are metaphorically open-mouthed at his chutzpah, given the sheer weight of evidence from his colleagues, comrades and other sources.'
Documentary Evidence and IRA Testimony
The court heard that Mr Ware made a significant 1983 ITV documentary about Adams entitled 'The Honourable Member for West Belfast', shortly after Adams was elected as the abstentionist Sinn Fein MP for the constituency. Ware revealed that he interviewed numerous IRA figures who had known Adams from when he allegedly joined the organization at age 16.
'The principal motivation for many PIRA interviewees was their complete and utter astonishment at Adams' brazen, unequivocal, and unambiguous denial of his role in the PIRA,' Ware testified. 'It clearly grated with many of them that when Adams said that he strongly supported the armed struggle, his denial of actual PIRA membership allowed him to avoid taking personal responsibility for their actions.'
Ware elaborated on this perceived hypocrisy: 'Adams seemingly elevated himself to a higher moral plane than the PIRA, when it was they who were sacrificing life and limb – as they would see it – for a cause Adams was leading. In short, they saw Adams' denial of PIRA membership as insufferably hypocritical.'
Historical Significance and Mountbatten Murder
When Adams' barrister, Edward Craven KC, suggested his client was never in the IRA, Ware responded emphatically: 'It would be a travesty if that is how history recorded Mr Adams' role in the conflict.' The journalist acknowledged Adams' role in peace negotiations while emphasizing his alleged involvement in violence: 'As I have said and said to Gerry himself, there is no question he played a seminal role in bringing [the conflict] to an end, but he also played a seminal role in starting it.'
In particularly serious allegations, Ware claimed that sources had informed him that the 1979 IRA murder of Lord Mountbatten – a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II – could not have been carried out without Adams' approval. 'Gerry Adams has been a significant figure in the conflict and helped end it but he also misses out the case he also started it. That is the missing bit and I think it's important history should record that as the objective truth,' Ware concluded.
Military Intelligence Corroboration
The court also heard testimony from retired British Army Brigadier Ian Liles, who served numerous tours of Northern Ireland from the 1970s. Based on 'high-grade intelligence' he had accessed, Liles suggested that while former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was involved in the 'day-to-day operations' of the IRA while sitting on the Army Council, Adams 'was the director who ordered others to do the dirty work.'
Liles offered a blunt assessment: 'I don't know if Adams has started to believe his own story that he wasn't in the PIRA, but to me it looks like the only person who thinks that Adams wasn't in the PIRA is Adams.'
The Claimants and Continuing Proceedings
Adams is being sued by three specific individuals:
- John Clark, a victim of the IRA's Old Bailey attack in 1973
- Jonathan Ganesh, injured in the 1996 attack at London's Docklands
- Barry Laycock, injured in the attack at Manchester's Arndale Shopping Centre in 1996
Adams continues to deny any involvement in these bombings and maintains his position of never having been an IRA member. The civil trial examining these allegations continues at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with further testimony expected in the coming days.
