A vindicated and victorious Gerry Adams has said his nine-year defamation battle was about "putting manners" on the BBC. The jury found the broadcaster had not acted in good faith and awarded the former Sinn Féin leader €100,000.
In their final speech, lawyers for the former Sinn Féin leader claimed the BBC shows "reckless indifference" to the truth of claims made about him sanctioning the murder of IRA spy Denis Donaldson.
Michael McDowell has told Gerry Adams's defamation trial that Adams cannot take sole credit for the Good Friday Agreement but should be recognised for realising the “futility” of trying to drive the British out of Northern Ireland by force.
After seven days, the former Sinn Féin president has finished testifying at his defamation trial against the BBC over claims in a 2016 Spotlight programme about the murder of IRA double agent Denis Donaldson.
The former Sinn Féin president's third day of cross-examination delved into his alleged reputation as an IRA leader, his approach to the media, and the victims of IRA violence including abducted mother-of-10 Jean McConville.
During his second day of cross examination, the former Sinn Féin president was grilled by BBC lawyers on IRA informers and the disappeared. He called Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing a book “written by a total opportunist”.
During cross examination at his defamation trial, Gerry Adams could not recall certain IRA atrocities including the death toll of Bloody Friday.
IRA volunteers who obeyed the instructions of their leadership in 2005 that the armed conflict was "done and dusted" were now being told by the BBC “that was all a con”, the former Sinn Fein President told the High Court jury.
BBC Spotlight allegedly relied on a single anonymous source to claim the former Sinn Féin president sanctioned the death of IRA spy Denis Donaldson and should have come with a health warning, Adams's defamation trial hears.
Given the political discourse in recent weeks, a conversation between the US Ambassador to Ireland and four major participants in the peace process was an important reminder that what happened in Northern Ireland in April 1998 is the political success story of our times.
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