Gerry Adams v BBC: Could libel court bill reach €5m?
Gerry Adams versus the BBC was one of the most high-profile and expensive courtroom showdowns in recent Irish legal history.Two parties who needed no introduction – the figurehead of Irish republicanism against a UK media institution.Sources with knowledge of the case believe the bill is between €3-5m (£2.5- £4m).Both sides had two senior counsel each and the first three rows of the court were filled by barristers and solicitors.
Why bring proceedings in Dublin?
Mr Adams was able to do so because the 2016 BBC NI Spotlight programme which contained the allegation was seen by an estimated 16,000 viewers in Ireland.At the time he was a TD (member of the Irish parliament) for Louth.The accompanying online story was also able to be read south of the border – it had about 700 "clicks". It is also fair to speculate that Mr Adams calculated he had a better chance of winning with an Irish jury with little or no memory of The Troubles.This, by the way, could be the last High Court defamation trial by jury in Ireland, as it is in the process of changing the law.The former Sinn Féin leader spent longer in the witness chair than any of the other nine people who testified.His evidence spread across the first seven days – in contrast Spotlight NI reporter Jennifer O'Leary spent three days in the hot seat.At one point Mr Adams reminded a barrister for the BBC: "I'm not on trial here."But his reputation came to form a central part of proceedings, especially for the BBC.
IRA denials
As one of his own barristers put it, Mr Adams is "a polarising" figure.To that end, each side had prepared its own video presentation, a life story in two chapters if you like.The BBC showed the jury a montage of news reports of IRA attacks, interspersed with clips of Mr Adams justifying its actions."What's this got to do with Spotlight?" he asked more than once during cross-examination.As he has all his life, Mr Adams again denied ever having been in the IRA, or being a leading figure on its army council until 2005.His lawyers' video covered the 1990s onwards, depicting Mr Adams as peacemaker, with Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and the future King Charles III.This, they claimed, was the reputation defamed by the BBC in 2016.Whatever the verdict was going to be, the five week trial has renewed the debate around Mr Adams.His continues to be a past that hasn't gone away.
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