Gerry Adams ruling is another legacy court decision about which the UK should end its silence

The UK’s top judges ruled his internment unlawful because it had not been approved by the then Northern Ireland secretary of state, William Whitelaw.

The ex Sinn Fein president, who has always denied being an IRA member let alone a leader, said yesterday there was an onus on the UK government “to identify and inform other internees whose internment may also have been unlawful”.

Mr Adams said the question of compensation was “maybe work for another day,” but some legal experts predict he might be entitled to a six figure sum. Lawyers have said they are assessing how the ruling will impact on other internees.

It will be little surprise if London moves to identify other unlawful jailings, instead of reminding people of the terrorism that led to internment being introduced in 1971. It has been invariably weak on the murderous legacy of terror. Brandon Lewis has seemed apologetic in his comments about the apparent retreat from the Stormont House legacy plan.

The UK government never even comments on the implications of rulings, such as a recent Belfast appeal court decision that put pressure on the attorney general to hold yet another inquest into Troubles deaths (where the RUC is accused of not warning residents of possible danger from an IRA booby trap) or a ruling on a Loughgall inquest into SAS killings of an IRA gang shot in 1987 as they launched yet another murder bid, which means their deaths get costly scrutiny that hundreds of IRA victims will never get, or a Supreme Court ruling on Pat Finucane, which might mean more millions spent on that one murder, when the murders of judges and lawyers such as Edgar Graham will not get the same. UK silence each time.

There are no signs that London will outline how, if hundreds of millions are going to be spent investigating state Troubles failures, even amid a health crisis, it intends to scrutinise republican terrorists and their leaders, who murdered 2,100 of the 3,700 people who died decades of bloodshed.