Adams libel trial ‘retraumatising' for Denis Donaldson's family, lawyer says
The family of Denis Donaldson suffered retraumatisation during Gerry Adams' defamation case against the BBC, their lawyer has said.
Solicitor Enda McGarrity said the family had to sit through the high-profile five-week case at Dublin High Court when their own efforts to pursue legal remedies have been 'stonewalled at every turn'.
Mr Adams was awarded 100,000 euros (£84,000) by a jury over a 2016 BBC programme which alleged he had sanctioned the murder of Mr Donaldson, a former Sinn Fein member who had been exposed as a British agent. Mr Adams had described the allegation as a 'grievous smear'.
Mr Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal in 2006.
In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a Garda investigation into the matter remains ongoing.
Mr McGarrity told the RTE This Week programme the Donaldson family had been initially 'ambivalent' as to the outcome of the case.
He said: 'The case was seen as a sideshow in that the family was aware it wasn't the type of case which would assist them in their long and tortuous search for answers and accountability.
'But of course as the trial played out it became difficult to ignore and retraumatising in many ways.
'The family had to listen along as private and sensitive information was tossed around with little regard to the Donaldson family.
'Probably the most galling part for the family is that they've had to sit through five weeks of hearings in a case which concerned the murder of their loved one Denis Donaldson, and yet when they've tried to pursue their own legal remedies, they've been stonewalled at every turn.
'The process has been an extremely difficult one for the family.'
Now that the libel case has concluded, Mr McGarrity said focus should turn to seeking answers for the Donaldson family.
He said: 'It has been a tortuous 19-year search for justice and the family acknowledge this case was ostensibly about Gerry Adams' reputation, not about uncovering the circumstances surrounding the murder of Denis Donaldson.
'However, what this case does do is shine a light on the wider, and clearly more important issue of the circumstances around Denis Donaldson's murder.'
'The fact that the family have never had anything resembling an effective investigation into this murder highlights an uncomfortable truth for authorities on both sides of the border, particularly where legacy cases are concerned.'
The lawyer said the current Garda investigation was limited to who carried out the murder, not the wider circumstances.
He said: 'When we look to mechanisms which could explore those you have things like coroners' inquests, one of the practical difficulties is that the inquest has been adjourned 27 times, quite an unprecedented delay.
'It begs the question, how is justice to be delivered to the Donaldson family if the Garda investigation is only looking at a limited aspect of the murder and the coroner's inquest won't begin until that process finishes.
'That has led the family to call for a commission of investigation to properly investigate these issues.'
Mr McGarrity said there was a 'unique cross-border element' to the death of Mr Donaldson.
He added: 'Who was behind it and who pulled the trigger isn't the only question. The circumstances leading up to that, how Denis Donaldson came to be exposed, how his location came to be known in Donegal, there are lots of ancillary questions.
'All of which I think the family are aware we may not get full unvarnished answers to every aspect, but at this point they haven't even got close to the truth and they deserve answers and accountability.'
He said the Donaldson family would now be seeking a meeting with Irish Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan.
'This family are 19 years down the line and they are no further forward.
'There needs to be a discussion and we would certainly welcome prompt engagement with the minister.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Phone smuggled out of North Korea reveals shocking details of Kim Jong-un's regime including 'scary' screenshot feature
A phone secretly smuggled out of North Korea has revealed the shocking details of Kim Jong-Un 's oppressive regime. Although it appears like a standard phone from the outside, the North Korean handset is part of the dictatorship's efforts to keep its citizens in the dark. The device includes a 'scary' screenshot feature which monitors users' every move, a BBC investigation revealed. Software automatically takes a screenshot every five minutes and locks the snips in a folder that users themselves can't access and can only be seen by the authorities. This allows North Korea's 'youth crackdown squads' to ensure citizens haven't been searching for illegal information or sharing anything critical of the government. In another Orwellian feature, the phone even prevents the user from typing certain popular South Korean terms. For example, the South Korean word 'oppa', which literally means 'big brother' but is used as a slang term for 'boyfriend', is automatically replaced by the word for 'comrade'. After replacing the word, the phone issues a chilling warning to the user saying: 'This word can only be used to describe your siblings'. Similarly, the BBC found that even the word for South Korea, 'Nampan', was automatically edited to say 'puppet state' - the government's term for South Korea. The phone, which was smuggled out of the country in 2024 by the news organisation Daily NK, shows just how much control Kim Jong Un has over his citizens' access to information. North Korea has extremely limited access to the global internet and all media including newspapers, radio, and television stations are owned and controlled by the state. However, some South Korean organisations are currently locked in a secretive information war with the oppressive regime. Each night, small broadcasters and non-profits transmit information over the border on short and medium-wave radio frequencies. Additionally, thousands of USB sticks and micro-SD cards are smuggled into North Korea each month. These contain South Korean music, television shows and movies alongside more dangerous information such as educational materials about democracy. The goal is to undermine the government's narrative about the outside world by showing how wealthy, happy, and free people are in South Korea. Things banned in North Korea Owning or distributing South Korean films and television shows. Using South Korean words or speaking with a South Korean accent. Wearing a white wedding dress. Having a South Korean haircut. Wearing 'un-revolutionary' clothing such as sunglasses or jeans. Making international calls. Accessing foreign media and news. Possessing a shortwave radio. Criticising the government or making jokes about Kim Jong Un. Those risking their lives to get this information into the country say that it has a real impact on the North Koreans who get a glimpse of the outside world. Sokeel Park, whose organisation Liberty in North Korea works to distribute this content, told the BBC: 'Most recent North Korean defectors and refugees say it was foreign content that motivated them to risk their lives to escape.' In response, Kim Jong Un has stepped up his crackdown on culture with a particular focus on South Korean influences. Starting in the pandemic he ordered the installation of electric fences on the border with China, which makes it harder to smuggle goods into the country. In 2020, the punishments for those caught consuming or distributing foreign information were increased. One law stated that anyone found distributing foreign media could be imprisoned or even executed. Then, in 2023, Kim Jong Un made it a crime for people to use South Korean phrases or speak in a South Korean accent. These restrictions were swiftly implemented into the software of devices produced in the country, such as the smuggled smartphone, to prevent anyone from using popular South Korean terms. Martyn Williams, a senior fellow at the Washington, DC-based Stimson Center and an expert in North Korean technology and information, says: 'Smartphones are now part and parcel of the way North Korea tries to indoctrinate people.' Following these recent crackdowns, Mr Williams warns that North Korea is 'starting to gain the upper hand' in the information war. Kang Gyuri, 24, who escaped from North Korea in late 2023 told the BBC that so-called 'youth crackdown squads' patrol the streets to monitor young people's behaviour. These squads would confiscate her phone and check her messages to see if she had been using any South Korean terms. Ms Kang also says she was aware of young people who had been executed for being found with South Korean content on their devices. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA In June 1950 fighting broke out between the communist North and capitalist South, sparking a brutal war that killed between two and four million people. Beijing backed Pyongyang in the three-year conflict, while Washington threw its support behind the South -- alliances that have largely endured. The Koreas have been locked in a dangerous dance ever since that conflict ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty, leaving them technically at war. Pyongyang has tested the fragile ceasefire with numerous attacks. The secretive nation sent a team of 31 commandos to Seoul in a botched attempt to assassinate then-President Park Chung-Hee in 1968. All but two were killed. In the 'axe murder incident' of 1976, North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone, leaving two US army officers dead. Pyongyang launched perhaps its most audacious assassination attempt in Myanmar in 1983, when a bomb exploded in a Yangon mausoleum during a visit by South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He survived but 21 people, including some government ministers, were killed. In 1987 a bomb on a Korean Air flight exploded over the Andaman Sea, killing all 115 people on board. Seoul accused Pyongyang, which denied involvement. The North's founding leader Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, but under his son Kim Jong-Il it continued to prod its southern neighbor. In 1996 a North Korean submarine on a spying mission ran aground off the eastern South Korean port of Gangneung, sparking 45-day manhunt that ended with 24 crew members and infiltrators killed. A clash between South Korean and North Korean naval ships in 1999 left some 50 of the North's soldiers dead. In March 2010 Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its corvette warships, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denied the charge. November that year saw North Korea launch its first attack on a civilian-populated area since the war, firing 170 artillery shells at Yeonpyeong. Four people were killed, including two civilians. North Korea has steadfastly pursued its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs since its first successful test of an atomic bomb in 2006, as it looks to build a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the US mainland. Its progress has accelerated under leader Kim Jong-Un, culminating in its sixth and biggest nuclear test in September 2017. Kim has since declared the country a nuclear power. Despite the caustic effect of clashes and the battery of conventional weapons that the North has amassed at the border to threaten Seoul, the two nations have held talks in the past. Then North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il held two historic summits with counterparts from the South in 2000 and 2007, which eased tensions between the neighbors. Lower-level talks since then have been much hyped but failed to produce significant results.
Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Telegraph
BBC director pushes for higher licence fee after ‘grinding cuts'
The BBC director general has called for a higher licence fee after taking aim at a decade of 'grinding' cuts. Tim Davie said he was open to reform of the fee and its enforcement, but made it clear that he wanted more money from the public to enable investment. He said: 'I do want universal funding and I want proper investment and not begrudging, grinding cuts to the BBC, which you've had in the last 10 years, which have just not helped.' The call for investment amounts to a demand for a higher licence fee, which makes up two thirds of the BBC's income. The BBC received around £3.7bn from the fee last year, which currently stands at £174.50. It will rise in line with inflation until the end of the charter period in 2027. However, bosses have warned that previous cuts have left a black hole in the corporation's finances that have forced the BBC to wield the axe on programming and jobs in a scramble to cut £700m in costs. The public service broadcaster said that its income from the licence fee dropped by 30pc in real terms between 2010 and 2020 after a series of freezes and cuts to the levy. Mr Davie's comments come as the BBC is locked in discussions with ministers over the future of the licence fee. The upcoming settlement is viewed as pivotal in deciding the broadcaster's future as it struggles to compete with new US streaming services and faces calls for the licence fee to be scrapped. The BBC's declining income has been compounded by a fall in viewer numbers as audiences increasingly ditch the broadcaster in favour of rivals such as Netflix and Disney. The number of UK households paying the licence fee dropped by roughly half a million last year, with younger viewers in particular turning their backs on the broadcaster. The crisis has fuelled calls for the licence fee to be replaced with a different system such as a subscription service. Speaking at the Deloitte and Enders Media and Telecoms conference in London, Mr Davie said his major concern was a 'mainstream weaponisation where people don't care' about the BBC. He said the broadcaster would be wrong to 'assume' that the public cared about its future and had to prove its worth to the country. He defended the BBC by saying it was not just a vehicle for programming but also 'venture capital for the UK', pointing to its ability to drive investment in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester. Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has previously branded the licence fee as 'unenforceable' and ruled out funding the BBC through general taxation. Speaking in London on Tuesday, Ms Nandy said the Government wanted to 'support a BBC that is empowered to continue to deliver a vital public service, funded in a sustainable way'.
The Sun
23 minutes ago
- The Sun
Inside eerie abandoned UK waterpark left a shell of its former self with mould-covered slides & mice running everywhere
A ONCE loved family destination has fallen into ruin with mice running around and mould growing on slides. A TikToker revealed the eerie insides of the now abandoned waterpark in a haunting video. 3 3 Footage shows the park in Northern Ireland fallen into ruin with mice seen running around where children and families once played. The water slides that the attraction was once known for are now falling apart and covered in mould. Left to rot when it was closed down in February 2020 the park has remained untouched since. Haunting footage shows the once bright and vibrant attraction completely abandoned, dark and damp. The facilities have all been left frozen in time with abandoned building explorers the only recent visitors. It seems almost as if people left in a hurry with the park being nearly exactly as it was when it was open. Social media users were left feeling nostalgic by the footage with many recalling fond memories of Waterworld. The park has never been put on the market after it was suddenly closed more than five years ago. TikToker Jaimie, who explores abandoned buildings for fun and shares footage with his followers, recently visited the park. He has also explored several other abandoned sites across Ireland and has built a following from the videos of his explorations. Unsettling footage of Waterworld shows a mouse darting across the bottom of an empty pool. Video also shows clips of the sauna which looks eerily identical to how it did when the site was open. Inside abandoned center parcs Waterworld was also home to a bowling alley which was also left abandoned and frozen in time. The lanes are left dim and unlit, abandoned exactly as they were five years ago. Bowling balls still sit ready to be rolled having been left in the facility when it was emptied. The entire facility was left dark with only the torches of the TikToker and his pal to light it. The local council has been urged to focus on the sale of the abandoned site. Social media users noted that the centre still looks to be in a semi decent condition. Local councillors keep an eye on the abandoned leisure centre, asking for updates on the facility. Jamie's video received over 180,000 views on TikTok. Most were left asking if the waterpark would ever open again with the eerie footage sparking a wave of nostalgia.
