Gerry Adams ‘as culpable as those who planted IRA bombs’, high court hears

Former Sinn Féin leader being sued for symbolic £1 each by three victims of Troubles-era bombings on UK mainland Gerry Adams is as culpable for IRA bombings on the UK mainland as the individuals who planted and detonated the devices, the high court has heard at the beginning of a civil trial. The former Sinn Féin leader is being sued for symbolic “vindicatory” damages of £1 each by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured respectively in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, and the London Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996. They allege that Adams, who is credited with helping to bring about the Northern Ireland peace process, “was an instrumental force in the organisation of the PIRA [provisional IRA] and building of the two-strand attack – ArmaLite and the ballot box. A foot in each camp.” Opening the claimants’ case in London on Monday, Anne Studd KC, said in written submissions: “Their focus is to shine a light upon the involvement of the defendant in the PIRA in the course of that conflict and to prove on balance of probabilities that he [Adams] was so intrinsically involved in the PIRA organisation that he is as culpable for the assaults