IRA bomb victims' civil court case begins against Gerry Adams

Published: 09 March 2026
The English Chronicle Desk
The English Chronicle Online

A landmark civil case brought by three IRA bomb victims against former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has opened at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with the claimants seeking to hold him personally liable for attacks in the 1970s and 1990s .

The action has been brought by John Clark, a victim of the Old Bailey bombing in 1973, as well as Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured in the 1996 attacks at London’s Docklands and Manchester’s Arndale Shopping Centre . The three bombings were the first and last the IRA carried out in Britain during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.

The men are suing Adams for a nominal £1 in damages for “vindicatory purposes”, seeking a ruling that he is personally liable for decisions to plant the car bombs . Their legal team alleges that Adams was a senior IRA member for over 25 years who “acted with others in furtherance of a common design to bomb the British mainland” and “directed” the attacks .

In a significant development, former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Max Hill KC has joined the claimants’ legal team and will cross-examine Adams when he gives evidence next week . Sir Max, who served as the country’s top public prosecutor between 2018 and 2023, previously prosecuted a number of high-profile trials including the 2005 London bombings .

The trial before Mr Justice Swift is listed to last for seven days and marks the first time the 77-year-old former republican leader will appear in an English court to answer questions about his alleged role in the IRA .

The claimants’ legal team will present evidence from witnesses including former IRA members, retired police officers and soldiers . Two witnesses have been granted anonymity and will speak from behind a screen after their lawyers argued they would be in danger if their identities were revealed . Anne Studd KC, for the three men, told a pre-trial hearing that one witness believes “the Provisional IRA or people associated with it still exist” .

Adams has consistently denied ever being a member of the IRA and will “robustly challenge” the allegations . Writing in the Andersonstown News newspaper last month, he stated: “I anticipate a number of witnesses will give hearsay evidence that because I was a senior republican during the conflict I must be responsible for these specific events. I had no direct or indirect involvement in these explosions. I will robustly challenge the unsubstantiated hearsay statements that are the mainstay of the claimants’ case” .

He has also suggested an “official campaign of demonisation” is being waged against him by the “British establishment” .

The action commenced in 2022, just before the Legacy Act banned new civil claims related to the Troubles, although this legislation is in the process of being reversed . The claimants raised more than £100,000 through crowdfunding to bring the case and have stated they are acting not just for themselves but for all IRA victims .

More than 200 people were injured in the bomb left outside the Old Bailey in 1973, which had been transported by car ferry from Belfast to Liverpool and caused extensive damage to the courthouse . Two people were killed and many others injured by an IRA bomb left in a lorry in London’s Docklands on 9 February 1996 . Just months later, a bomb exploded near Manchester Arndale shopping centre in June 1996, injuring more than 200 people in what was described as the most powerful bomb to go off in Britain since World War Two .

Adams was once charged with IRA membership in 1978, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence . His only Troubles-era convictions, for twice attempting to escape prison while interned without trial in the mid-1970s, were quashed in 2020 . He has been questioned in court before about his alleged IRA past—at the Ballymurphy inquest in Belfast in 2019 and during a libel case against the BBC in Dublin last year, which he won .

As a result of a pre-trial ruling, Adams is unable to recover his legal costs from the claimants, believed to be six figures, should he successfully defend the action .

Matthew Jury, a solicitor representing the claimants, said previously: “Finally after five decades, for the first time Mr Adams will appear in person in an English Court to be cross-examined by the victims of his alleged leadership of the IRA’s terror campaign” .

The judge will rule on the issue of liability “on the balance of probabilities” rather than the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt . Adams is expected to testify in his defence next week.

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