Despair for terror victims and survivors at ruling in Gerry Adams' BBC libel case: Kenny Donaldson

Kenny Donaldson was reacting to the news on Friday that the former Sinn Fein leader had won his libel battle against the BBC, and been awarded €100,000 (over £84,000).

The case was over the BBC’s presentation of an allegation that Mr Adams was involved in sanctioning the murder of Denis Donaldson, a security forces informer within the upper echelons of Sinn Fein.

Mr Adams denies this, and denies ever being an IRA member (though he has said he will never “disassociate” himself from the terror organisation).

Kenny Donaldson said: “Certainly not for the first time, many people (particularly innocent victims/survivors of terrorism) will have their heads in their hands this evening following the judgment in the Adams vs BBC libel case.

“Many view the real objective of this case as being rooted in the desire to silence critics or analysts who are not part of the Provisional Republican revisionist juggernaut.”

He added: “The Provisional IRA never concerned itself when defaming the innocent people they murdered – before, during and after the events – and they, along with the political wing of the Provisional republican movement, Sinn Fein, continue to engage in retrospective justification of their crimes, often sullying the names of good people, seeking to character-assassinate them as a means of justifying their heinous deeds.”

Church of Ireland cleric Rev Alan Irwin, whose father and uncle were murdered in separate gun attacks by the IRA, said the ruling “didn't come as a surprise” to him, but he finds it “despicable”.

This is because Adams was “promoted as a peace-maker, when he was a peace-taker” in the sense that the peace he advanced was not built on “truth, justice and mercy”, but on “justification of terrorism of the past”.

Rev Irwin feels if damages had to be paid, they should have been “nominal”.

“I just think it's unfair that somebody who's been seen to be involved in defending terrorism ... giving graveside eulogies to former terrorists, should be awarded damages,” said Rev Irwin.

“There was never anything for loss in the same amount to our family, or indeed many other families.”