Gerry Adams was “reputed to have become a member of the Army Council of the IRA”, a former attorney general has told his libel trial against the BBC.
Mr Adams is suing the BBC over what he has deemed to be a “grievous smear” made by a confidential source in a Spotlight documentary that alleged he had sanctioned the killing of a former Sinn Fein official who turned out to be an informant.
He claims a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement.
Mr Donaldson was shot dead in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent for 20 years.
In 2009, the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing, and the Spotlight programme was broadcast in September 2016 while a garda investigation into the matter was ongoing.
At the High Court in Dublin on Wednesday, former Irish attorney general Michael McDowell was called as a witness to speak about Mr Adams’ reputation among the public and politicians.
Mr McDowell, a current senator who also served as Irish deputy premier and justice minister, said: “Amongst the public, he is known as a politician now who was a leading member of the IRA and who was active in the IRA during the period of its armed struggle against the forces of law and order on this island.”
He added: “He is reputed to have been a chief negotiator in – I think – 1974 between the provisional movement and the British government and thereafter he was reputed to have a role in the Belfast IRA as its commanding officer.
“Later he was reputed to have become a member of the Army Council of the IRA.”
Under questioning from Paul Gallagher SC, for the BBC, Mr McDowell said he had “never met anybody involved in the political process or in the media” who did not believe Mr Adams was a member of the IRA in the past – apart from Mr Adams himself as well as Sinn Fein politicians Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris who issued a public statement denying it.
The witness explained to the jury that he became attorney general in 1999 and was involved in the the Northern Ireland peace process following the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Gallagher, also a former attorney general, asked Mr McDowell about the view of the Irish government of Mr Adams during the peace process.
He answered: “During that period, the view of the Government based on intelligence briefings was that Mr Adams was a member of the Army Council and was a leading member of the Army Council.”
Asked about his reputation among politicians more generally, he added: “I’ve never met any politician who did not believe he was a leading member of the IRA during its ‘armed struggle’, as it calls it, and thereafter he was a dominant figure within Army Council.”
Mr McDowell told the jury that the IRA had conducted “extensive operations” in the Republic of Ireland, including weapons training, bomb making, fundraising, kidnapping and intimidation.
He said this was done in support of the organisation “north of the border”.
Mr McDowell also explained his knowledge of how the IRA treated informants.
“In general terms, the IRA executed anybody from its own ranks who it found to be what they called a ‘tout’ for the British – or an informer.
“They frequently arrested people – or kidnapped them north of the border, interrogated them in a safe house, applied torture to them, and brought them south of the border and shot them in the back of the head and laid them in a ditch south of the border.”
Mr Adams was present in court for the proceedings, accompanied for the morning session by Irish singer-songwriter Christy Moore.
Earlier, the jury was told that Mr Adams had a reputation as a “warmonger” and “peace taker”.
Ann Travers, an advocate with the victims’ group the South East Fermanagh Foundation, said the plaintiff had a reputation as someone “very heavily involved with the murder of innocent people” and being a “senior member of the IRA”.
Ms Travers explained to the jury that her sister Mary was killed by the Provisional IRA in an attack in which her father Tom Travers, who was a laywer who became a magistrate in 1979, was also shot six times.
Mr Travers survived and returned to work years later.
Asked by Eoin McCullough SC, for the BBC, about the perception of the public of Mr Adams, Ms Travers said: “His reputation would be one of having been a warmonger.”
Asked to explain the reason for this, she replied: “For the Troubles, supporting the IRA and the murder of innocent people.”
Under cross-examination from Declan Doyle SC, for the plaintiff, Ms Travers said Mr Adams had “cast a long and dark shadow” over her life since 1984.
She said: “I would even have a fear of him.”
She added that many people in Northern Ireland are still scared and afraid of what they can say in case they are threatened.
The witness said that whenever she criticises senior Sinn Fein figures, especially Mr Adams, she is attacked, trolled and threatened.
“I have had death threats about it,” she said.
Mr Doyle put to Ms Travers that Mr Adams’ reputation was overwhelmingly of a peacemaker, to which she said she would disagree and said the first person she thinks of in that respect in Northern Ireland was John Hume.
Asked if Northern Ireland is now comparatively more peaceful, she said: “Of course we should all be grateful we’re not getting murdered any more.”
She added: “Thank you to Mr Adams for people being able to go to work and the IRA not murdering people.”
Ms Travers acknowledged that Mr Adams “was part of” peace efforts but said he was “yet to do anything” for victims groups such as SEFF.
Mr Doyle said Mr Adams worked with the Relatives for Justice group.
Ms Travers accused Mr Adams of working with groups that were biased towards republicans.
“He doesn’t do anything for people like me. In fact, he condones what happens to us – that is why his reputation is as such that he is a warmonger.”
She added that it was “a joke” when Mr Adams talks about being a peacemaker or denies being in the IRA.
She added that he had “lied consistently” about being in the IRA.
“I’m delighted that Mr Adams decided to turn away from the Armalite.”
The BBC also called Northern Ireland solicitor Trevor Ringland as a witness.
Mr Ringland is a former Ireland rugby international who was born to a police family in West Belfast in 1959.
He said his father had been shot by the IRA in North Belfast.
Mr Ringland said he worked with victims’ groups in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Asked by Mr Gallagher for the public’s perception of Mr Adams, he replied: “He is seen as a peace taker, not a peacemaker.”
Under cross-examination, Mr Doyle said the response was a soundbite and asked Mr Ringland if he made it up.
The witness replied that it was not a soundbite and added: “I think the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland would regard him as a peace taker.”
Mr Ringland said people welcome that violence has stopped but it should not be the case that you thank somebody for stopping something they should not have been doing in the first place.
“It is sucking the grace out of our society,” he said.
Asked by Judge Alexander Owens if he believed someone’s reputation can change, Mr Ringland said he did but added: “I think Mr Adams’ reputation has not improved”.
He said the former Sinn Fein president “messes with people’s minds”, adding: “His reputation is as someone who stepped away from the violent past and is now promoting his constitutional preference through other means.
“There is still hatred at the core of that reputation – he is not aiding reconciliation in Northern Ireland.”
Mr Doyle asked Mr Ringland if he had been the vice chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party East Belfast branch and had run as a candidate for the party in 2010.
He said this was right but that he had subsequently left the party in protest against the leader saying he would not attend a GAA match.
Asked if he then joined the “all-inclusive Northern Ireland Conservative Party”, Mr Ringland said he had and had later campaigned for a Labour politician.
“I would like to see politics based around social issues rather than politics based around waving a flag.”
The case continues.