Seeking at least €200k in damages against BBC

Gerry Adams is seeking “very substantial” damages of at least €200,000 (£168,000) in his defamation action against the BBC, his barrister has told the High Court in Dublin.

The libel trial is nearing a conclusion, with both sides having made closing submissions to the jury.

Mr Adams is suing the BBC over a story in which a contributor alleged he sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, a British agent within Sinn Fein, in 2006.

Mr Adams denies the allegation.

Declan Doyle SC, acting for Mr Adams, claimed the award of damages was about “restoring and vindicating” his reputation.

He accused the BBC of having been selective in its depiction of Mr Adams and ignoring his “reputation for peace and reconciliation” in 2016, when the story was run.

He said: “Reputations change over a period of time.”

Mr Doyle stated the BBC had failed to verify the allegation against Mr Adams and in doing so was not entitled to a legal defence of fair and reasonable publication.

He pointed out that the BBC had not put the allegation to An Garda Síochána (Irish police).

“They would have been told he (Mr Adams) is not in the frame at all,” he claimed.

In a closing address to the jury, Paul Gallagher SC representing the BBC, said Gerry Adams is “attempting to launder his reputation” by suing the BBC.

Mr Gallagher said Mr Adams’ reputation as having been an IRA leader is a central issue in the case, which is in its fourth week.

The jury should remember IRA atrocities and Mr Adams cannot argue his reputation has been injured by the story, the barrister argued.

He said: “The IRA was a terrorist organisation which held this country hostage for three decades.

“To have a reputation of being on the army council is something which is very significant and goes to the heart of the case.”

Referring to Mr Adams’ legal action, he said: “This is, in truth, a cynical attempt by Mr Adams to launder his reputation.”

He stated the Spotlight story and an accompanying online article were produced in the public interest and it is wrong to suggest they were based on the single contributor, Martin.

There had been five other sources supporting his allegation.

In this regard, the case “was brought on a fundamental mistake,” Mr Gallagher claimed.

He said the BBC did not have to establish the truth of the allegation – “if truth was the only defence it would be difficult to see how a free media could tell us what was happening”.

He cited the defence in law of fair and reasonable publication.

Mr Gallagher said “a striking feature” of the evidence of reporter Jennifer O’Leary was the “care” she took researching the story.

The case continues.

Mr Donaldson was once a key figure in Sinn Féin’s rise as a political force in Northern Ireland but he was found murdered in 2006 after it emerged he had been a spy.

He was interned without trial for periods in the 1970s.

After the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin appointed Mr Donaldson as its key administrator in the party’s Stormont offices.

In 2005, Mr Donaldson confessed he was a spy for British intelligence for two decades, before disappearing from Belfast.

He was found dead in a small, run down cottage in Glenties, County Donegal.

Mr Adams was the president of republican party Sinn Féin from 1983 until 2018.

He served as MP in his native Belfast West from 1983 to 1992 and again from 1997 until 2011 before sitting as a TD (Teachta Dála) in the Dáil (Irish parliament) between 2011 and 2020.

Mr Adams led the Sinn Féin delegation during peace talks that eventually brought an end to the Troubles after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

He was detained in the early 1970s when the government in Northern Ireland introduced internment without trial for those suspected of paramilitary involvement.

Mr Adams has consistently denied being a member of the IRA.