Civil trial against Gerry Adams over IRA bombings withdrawn

The civil trial against Gerry Adams over three IRA bombings in Britain has been withdrawn.

A lawyer for the claimants said on Friday that proceedings would be "discontinued".

The victims bringing the case alleged that Adams, 77, was personally liable for injuries they received in IRA attacks in London and Manchester in 1973 and 1996.

The former Sinn Féin leader had insisted he had no role in the explosions and has strongly denied a claim that he was a "major player" in the IRA.

Adams was being sued for "vindicatory" damages of £1 each by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured respectively in the Old Bailey attack in 1973, and the London Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996.

The claimants raised more than £100,000 through crowdfunding to bring the case.

They said they were acting not just for themselves, but for all IRA victims.

The IRA was responsible for around 1,700 killings during the Troubles.

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.

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