Former IRA man gives evidence in Gerry Adams High Court case

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

A former IRA member has told the High Court in London that an image he says shows Gerry Adams wearing a beret at a funeral is proof he was in the organisation.

Shane Paul O’Doherty added that there was “not a chance” anyone else would wear that style of hat at the time.

Giving evidence in a civil case brought against the former Sinn Féin president, he said the image, purportedly taken at the funeral of IRA man Michael Kane in September 1971, shows Adams wearing a beret as part of an “honour guard”.

He said anyone who was not a member of the IRA “wouldn’t want to be caught with one” and that the berets were kept in IRA “dumps” along with “other regalia”.

The case against Adams has been brought by victims of three bombings in the UK: Jonathan Ganesh, who was injured in the 1996 London Docklands bombing; John Clark, a victim of the 1973 Old Bailey bombing in London; and Barry Laycock, a victim of the 1996 Arndale shopping centre bombing in Manchester.

The three men allege that Adams was a leading member of the Provisional IRA on those dates, including of its Army Council, and are seeking £1 in damages.

O’Doherty described how he conducted letter bomb campaigns for the IRA in London and served more than 14 years in prison.

He said that, while in prison, he was suspended from the organisation for “asking questions about the murder of innocent Protestants”.

He added that he left the IRA in late 1977 and published a letter calling for the end of the armed struggle.

Asked by Adams’ lawyer Edward Craven if had ever attended Army Council meetings, O’Doherty said he was at Martin McGuinness’s “elbow” and “these meetings occurred around” him.

When Craven suggested his evidence was based on “gossip, stories and rumour”, O’Doherty responded by giving a detailed account of a visit he said was made to the home of Adams’ aunt in Sutton, Dublin.

Questioned about what he knew about activities of the Belfast Brigade of the IRA when he was based in Derry, O’Doherty said there was “no great distinction between” the organisation’s two brigades, adding “one army, they were calling it”.

Craven asked how much relevant information O’Doherty could have had about Adams around the time of the bombings in the 1990s, as he had long left the organisation.

The civil case against Adams has been brought by victims of three bombings in the UK.O’Doherty replied saying he was meeting “IRA people all the time”, adding that it was “very hard in Ireland, with my background, to keep IRA people at bay”.