{"id":339495,"date":"2026-03-10T22:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/339495\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T22:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:38:08","slug":"berets-and-woolly-geansai-in-focus-as-reeling-in-the-years-graces-london-court-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/339495\/","title":{"rendered":"Berets and woolly geansa\u00ed in focus as Reeling in the Years graces London court \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the defining image of the first day of Gerry Adams<\/a>\u2019s court case was him in a bulletproof vest, the second day\u2019s image was him in an Aran woolly geansa\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Rarely, if ever, has RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s Reeling in the Years been played in the king\u2019s bench division of the high court in London<\/a>. But there it was on-screen in the court in the civil suit brought against the former Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> president by Troubles-era victims of IRA<\/a> bombings.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the claimants \u2013 three men injured in various IRA attacks in Britain \u2013 broadcast a clip from Reeling in the Years 1986. It showed a then 37-year-old jumper-wearing Adams and Martin McGuinness<\/a> shepherding an alleged IRA member, Evelyn Glenholme, through a crowd on Henry Street in Dublin<\/a> as she was chased by garda\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A detective is seen firing in the air, before the programme\u2019s 1986 soundtrack kicks in with Wham\u2019s upbeat track The Edge of Heaven. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard enough,\u201d said the claimants\u2019 barrister Anne Studd KC, who played the footage while making her case that alleges the former republican leader was a leading IRA member.<\/p>\n

Adams (77), his hair and beard now as white as it was black in the vintage footage, appeared to shrug with bemusement in the courtroom as the RT\u00c9 clip ended.<\/p>\n

The excerpt was played during the evidence of Shane Paul O\u2019Doherty, a former IRA man called by lawyers for the plaintiffs \u2013 John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock. The three men were injured in the Old Bailey bombing of 1973 and the London docklands and Manchester attacks of 1996, respectively.<\/p>\n

\"BarryBarry Laycock. Photograph: Gareth Fuller\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

They hold Adams personally responsible and are suing him for personal injury, seeking \u00a31 damages. He denies their claims, including the allegation that he was in the IRA or sat on the army council. His lawyers say the case is a \u201cfallacy\u201d based on \u201chearsay\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Doherty begged to differ during his evidence. He was asked by Studd to comment on a 1970s photograph of the former Sinn F\u00e9in leader wearing a beret at an IRA funeral. O\u2019Doherty said it showed Adams as an IRA member.<\/p>\n

Studd asked if a non-IRA member would have worn such a beret. \u201cNot a chance in those years,\u201d he replied. He said the wearing the beret favoured by IRA members would have attracted the attention of the authorities.<\/p>\n

Adams, chin on his hand, watched intently as O\u2019Doherty spoke. His cross-examination by Adams\u2019s legal team is due to end on Wednesday morning. Before proceedings had ended on Tuesday, one of Adams\u2019s barristers, James Robottom, had focused on whether O\u2019Doherty had really been an important member of the IRA in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, the court heard from two of the IRA victims and plaintiffs suing Adams, Ganesh and Laycock. Clark, a police officer during the 1973 Old Bailey bombing, is too frail to appear. DUP MPs Gavin Robinson and Gregory Campbell were among those watching in the court.<\/p>\n

Ganesh was badly injured in the 1996 docklands bombing, which killed his close friends. He testified that he was in \u201ca dark place\u201d after the attack. He developed mental health difficulties. He said he got \u201cparanoid delusions\u201d that the IRA was after him. Ganesh became an alcoholic to cope.<\/p>\n

\"JonathanJonathan Ganesh. Photograph: Andy Rain\/EPA <\/p>\n

Robottom asked why he had not sued Adams before now \u2013 a central plank of the republican\u2019s defence is that the claim is time-barred. Ganesh said he wasn\u2019t in a fit state to do it in the years after the attack: \u201cIt was the last thing on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laycock, a railway worker who narrowly escaped death in the Arndale attack, said he had pursued the case against Adams to \u201cget justice\u201d for IRA victims.<\/p>\n

He, too, described the devastating impact the IRA bombing had on his life. He said his family, including his daughters who are nurses, helped him get through it.<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Laycock emerged to greet the media outside the London court complex. Adams hovered in the background, waiting for his turn to speak into the microphones. The Sinn F\u00e9in leader will get his chance to speak in court next Monday.<\/p>\n

The case continues on Wednesday with evidence from two witnesses granted anonymity by the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the defining image of the first day of Gerry Adams\u2019s court case was him in a bulletproof…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,26189,615,26188,3660,42,27238,99,12109,43,6085,3415,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-339495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-democratic-unionist-party","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-gavin-robinson","12":"tag-gerry-adams","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-irish-republican-army","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-martin-mcguinness","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-rte","19":"tag-sinn-fein","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}