Northern Ireland’s Gerry Adams tells bombings trial he was never in IRA

2026.03.17 18:20 Former Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London on Tuesday. Photo: PA Wire / dpa Gerry Adams, one of Northern Ireland’s most prominent political figures, told London’s High Court on Tuesday he had never been a member of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army but said he would not distance himself from the group. The ex-leader of Sinn Fein, formerly the IRA’s political wing ‌and now the largest party in the Northern Irish Assembly, became the best-known face of the movement seeking to end British rule in Northern Ireland. He later reinvented himself as a peacemaker after helping secure the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict known as the Troubles, in which some 3,600 people were killed. But Adams has long faced accusations that he was a member of the Provisional IRA, including from former members of the paramilitary group, which ⁠he has always denied. He is being sued in a civil case by three people injured in three bombings: one at London’s ‌Old Bailey court in 1973, the Provisional IRA’s first on the British mainland, and two 1996 blasts, targeting London’s Docklands and Manchester. They are seeking a finding on the balance of probabilities that Adams is ‌personally liable for the bombings as a senior member of the Provisional IRA and later its powerful ⁠Army Council. The 77-year-old told the court ⁠that he was never involved in the paramilitary group. He added: “I’m glad that there is a peace process but I don’t distance myself from the IRA.” People wave Irish flags outside the High Court in London as Adams attends a civil case. Photo: Reuters The lawsuit is the culmination of decades of allegations that Adams, who became Sinn Fein leader in 1983, was also a senior Provisional ‌IRA leader. Adams ‌took the stand in his defence on Tuesday, wishing “a very happy St Patrick’s Day” to the judge before he was ‌questioned by the claimants’ lawyer Max Hill. Hil

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