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A former British army commander has told the high court it is “inconceivable” that Gerry Adams was not involved in the authorisation of IRA bombings.
Richard Kemp said there was evidence from “a multitude of intelligence” spanning 20 years about the former Sinn Féin leader’s membership of the paramilitary organisation.
He was giving evidence on Wednesday in the civil claim brought by three victims of IRA bombings, who are suing Adams for symbolic damages of £1 each, alleging that he was a member of the IRA and, for a period, sat on its army council.
In his written witness statement, Kemp said: “In respect of the PIRA [provisional IRA] bomb attacks carried out in England that I understand these proceedings relate to (being the Old Bailey bomb in 1973 and the Docklands and Manchester bombings in 1996), they would have all required signoff from the army council.
“This very high-profile activity simply could not have been carried out without the council’s knowledge and approval. It is inconceivable, in my view and based on my knowledge of the PIRA and the intelligence I had access to, that Adams would not have been involved in this process and its ultimate authorisation.”
Kemp, who later served as commander of British forces in Afghanistan, did seven tours of Northern Ireland between 1979 and 2001, although was only directly involved in military intelligence in the country from 1992 to 1994.
Under cross-examination by James Robottom, representing Adams, Kemp acknowledged that he had no direct evidence about the former Sinn Féin leader’s role in the bombings and that he could not be sure that the intelligence he claimed to have seen did not come from Adams’s political enemies. He also accepted Robottom’s contention that intelligence could be “wrong and unreliable”.
But Kemp added: “I saw intelligence and was briefed on intelligence for a period of around 20 years, which made it clear that Mr Adams was in the IRA. I think it is inconceivable that intelligence that was not correct would have been reported over that period of time.”
Kemp has written extensively for his own website, as well as the Telegraph, and Robottom said to him: “You’ve never written previously about Gerry Adams [being a member of the IRA] … but have very strongly expressed opinions about Sinn Féin and the peace process.”
Kemp said he could not remember whether he had written about Adams. He described Sinn Féin and the IRA as “two sides of the same organisation” and accepted that he had been “very critical” of both criminal investigations into – and civil claims brought against – British soldiers in relation to the Troubles.
Robottom also asked Kemp about his use of the word “taigs”, a derogatory term for Catholics, in a 2017 tweet. Kemp, who is Catholic, said that he had been called a taig by fellow soldiers in Northern Ireland, had not realised it was an insult and had never used it again since being criticised for the tweet.
The trial continues.
