Ruth Dudley Edwards: My friend wept after hearing testimonies from bomb victims at civil case against Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams said hello to me on Tuesday morning. Having been brought up to be polite, I said hello back, as we squeezed past each other in a narrow space in Courtroom 16 of the Royal Courts of Justice.
It was the second day of the civil case being taken against Adams by John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock.
The three of them were badly injured in IRA bombings respectively in the Old Bailey (1973), the London Docklands (February 1996) and the Manchester Arndale shopping centre (June 1996)
I hadn’t intended to go to this, having promised myself I would never put myself through such an ordeal again after weeks and weeks of sitting in courtrooms north and south of the border in 2008-9 during the Omagh civil case as victims described unimaginable suffering and lawyers argued over technicalities.
But my friend Rory Hanrahan, son of the late Sean O’Callaghan, and these days a brilliant commentator (see e.g. his Monday article, https://spectator.com/article/will-gerry-adams-let-truth-prevail?), persuaded me otherwise and we queued up an hour early.
We needn't have bothered.
There were just a handful of protesters.
On the right of the entrance was a man with a splendid array of British Army medals, and other supporters of the three claimants, John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock.
On the left were a dozen or so Adams fans waving tricolours accompanied by the inevitable Palestinian flag.
When Adams arrived in the courtroom, he reminded me of Sir Keir Starmer’s appearance after his friend Lord Ali provided an expensive make-over.
The hair and beard were perfect and three-piece suit impeccably cut, showing off his Palestinian pin and matching wristband.
You wouldn’t have known he was sporting a stab-proof vest until he took off his jacket to reveal it.
The proceedings are being well-covered by the media.
For me, it was the reaction of Lizzie, my companion on the second day who was there from curiosity and the normal English distaste for Adams, that was most memorable.
She wept after hearing Barry Laycock, who described the mental and physical horrors he and his family have been through: “The bomb ruined my life, and no one was ever arrested for it.”
Many many lives were ruined, as News Letter readers know all too well.
The plaintiffs are seeking £1 in symbolic recognition and justice for all the victims in Great Britain and abroad.
“Those killed, those who died in pain with their injuries, those who committed suicide.”
And, of course, for the sufferings of their loved ones.
As Ganesh put it: “I and other victims,” he said, “have seen people like Adams going into government themselves and travelling the world meeting people like Bill Clinton while my life was ruined.”
What had provoked all three to sue Adams was anger that he, whom they believed was involved in ordering all three bombs, had the brazen cheek to sue the British government and shock that he won.
As with the Omagh civil case, it was ordinary outraged people with their fivers and tenners who provided most of the finance.
I’ll be there for most of the hearings including the cross-examination of Adams.
All we can do is pray and hope.
l Ruth Dudley Edwards is the author of The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions and also of Aftermath: the Omagh bombing and the families’ pursuit of justice