Gerry Adams case against BBC branded 'a cynical attempt to launder his reputation'

Extra.ie​

23-05-2025

Gerry Adams sued the BBC in a 'cynical attempt… to launder his reputation', the High Court has been told.
The jury heard closing speeches in Mr Adams's defamation case against the BBC, which he says wrongly alleged that he sanctioned the killing by the IRA of Sinn Féin official and informant Denis Donaldson.
Mr Adams claims the 2016 Spotlight documentary Spy In The IRA damaged his reputation as a peacemaker. Gerry Adams. Pic: Collins Courts
Paul Gallagher, the BBC's barrister, said the case was important as it involved 'the right to free speech, the right to ask questions, the right to give information to the public'.
He said: 'This case is very much about Gerry Adams's reputation. Not just is he entitled to damages… but also whether this was a reasonable and fair publication.
'We say this is, in truth, a cynical attempt by Mr Adams to launder his reputation, to say that his reputation is something different than what he in effect acknowledged under questioning – that people out there repeatedly said, that he was a member of the IRA, of the army council. That is his reputation.' Paul Gallagher. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
He continued: 'The IRA was a terrorist organisation which held this country, and the North, hostage for three decades.
'To have a reputation of being a member of that organisation and being on the army council is something that is very significant and goes to the heart of the case.'
Mr Gallagher said it was important that the atrocities that the IRA had committed were borne in mind by the jury.
'Are we to say nothing about that? Mr Adams would like us to say nothing,' he said.
'To put himself forward as the peacemaker, with no hint in his evidence in chief of this dimension of his reputation.'
He said the producers of the programme had the courage to believe they had learned something which should be shared with the public, regardless of the consequences to them. Gerry Adams. Pic: Collins Courts
The programme had covered the alleged sanctioning of the killing of an informer, he said.
He noted a 'universality' of newspaper reports from the 1970s on, stating Mr Adams was reputed to be a member of the IRA, and Mr Adams's consistent refusal to condemn the actions of the IRA. He cited Mr Adams's comment at a press conference in 1978 that 'everybody in West Belfast knows the consequence of informing is death'.
Mr Gallagher also noted evidence of Mr Adams carrying the coffins of bombers.
Mr Gallagher said the media had an essential role to play in allowing the country to face up to the past, adjust to it, and ensure such things did not happen again.
This was why the media had a defence to defamation claims, to allow for a fair and reasonable report to be made on a matter of public interest, he contended.
Mr Gallagher said Mr Adams's case wrongly claimed the allegation was based on just one anonymous source – when it fact it was corroborated by six other people.
Responding, Declan Doyle, barrister for Mr Adams, said the damages which the jury should award should be 'very substantial indeed'. Declan Doyle. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
He said: 'This is widespread circulation by a national broadcaster of an allegation of coldblooded, cynical murder.'
He said the right to free speech must be balanced against a person's right to their good name.
The BBC, he said, had 'nailed their colours to the mast' in saying that Mr Adams had no reputation to damage.
However, he accused them of 'cheek beyond belief' in accusing Mr Adams of ignoring a significant part of his own reputation.
'It is they who have deliberately and cynically chosen to ignore Mr Adams's reputation for peace and reconciliation,' he said.
Mr Doyle accused the BBC of taking a 'reductive, narrow and prejudiced' view of Mr Adams, a repeatedly elected politician. He also said the BBC had failed to verify the allegation through An Garda Síochána – instead relying on 'shadowy sources'.
Judge Alexander Owens has now begun his charge to the jury, which continues today.