A former British army commander has told the High Court that it is 'inconceivable' that Gerry Adams was not involved in the authorisation of IRA bombings. Richard Kemp, who served in Northern Ireland, said intelligence spanning 20 years indicated the former Sinn Féin leader's membership of the paramilitary organisation.
Kemp was giving evidence in a civil claim brought by three victims of IRA bombings, who are suing Adams for symbolic damages of £1 each, alleging that he was an IRA member and sat on its army council. The bombings in question include the Old Bailey bomb in 1973 and the Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996.
In his written witness statement, Kemp stated that these attacks 'would have all required signoff from the army council' and that it was 'inconceivable' Adams would not have been involved in the authorisation process. However, under cross-examination, Kemp acknowledged he had no direct evidence of Adams's role and that intelligence could be 'wrong and unreliable'.
Kemp, who later commanded British forces in Afghanistan, accepted that he had never previously written about Adams being an IRA member, despite having expressed strong opinions about Sinn Féin and the peace process. He also faced questions about his use of a derogatory term for Catholics in a 2017 tweet, which he said he had not realised was an insult.
