Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Versus the BBC concerning the 2006 killing of IRA informer Denis Donaldson – Dublin Jury Awards €100,000
This is a result which does not surprise close observers of the proceedings.
A very strong argument was advanced by Tom Hogan, counsel for Gerry Adams.
Source :
Tom Hogan, Counsel for Gerry Adams in BBC/Denis Donaldson libel case, puts forward extremely strong argument
The BBC Spotlight reporter Jennifer O’Leary failed to convince the jury about the quality of her 6 anonymous sources.
Any reasonable juror was bound to say to themselves : “It is irrelevant that Adams was, or was not, in the IRA. This claim is not proven – we are asked to take one person’s word for it, and that is not good enough”.
In short, the BBC case was extremely flimsy as it relied on anonymous British intelligence sources.
In this respect, see Anton McCabe’s incisive article below –
Adamned if he does, adamned if he doesn’t
Gerry Adams didn’t order spy’s murder, and ‘Spotlight’’s agent didn’t even say he did
British intelligence sources are serial liars – and the background news is :
The British Northern Ireland Secretary of State Hilary Benn is scrambling to prevent a public enquiry into
the Sean Brown 1997 murder involving 25 – yes 25! – people connected to British intelligence.
Tánaiste Simon Harris has come out firmly with the Brown family, the GAA, thousands of Derry demonstrators, the Irish News etc – against the British state’s cover-up protecting MI5 murderers.
We are well used to British government cover-ups in Ireland. We are even more used to Dublin governments bowing, scraping, and capitulating to Westminster diktats.
So, it is notable that the Dublin government has grasped the Sean Brown cover-up must end.
John Meehan May 30 2025
After the libel trial result was made public, Gerry Adams called on the Dublin government to meet the family of Denis Donaldson. Jane Donaldson, the daughter of the killed IRA informer, issued a public statement which has the ring of truth.
Denis Donaldson’s Daughter says father ‘thrown to wolves’ while Stakeknife ‘carefully sheltered’ by British and republicans
Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, May 21st, 2025
A DAUGHTER of murdered informer Denis Donaldson has highlighted the difference in approach shown to her father and British agent Stakeknife by state forces and republicans.
The former Sinn Féin official was shot dead in April 2016 at a remote cottage in Co Donegal after being exposed as an MI5 agent.
The deadly attack was later claimed by the now defunct Real IRA, although Mr Donaldson’s family has branded the admission “bogus”.
Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is currently suing the BBC in a Dublin court over claims broadcast in 2016 that he ordered the killing of Mr Donaldson.
Mr Donaldson was thrust into the public spotlight in 2002 when an alleged IRA spy-ring was exposed at Stormont.
The controversy, dubbed ‘Stormontgate’, resulted in the collapse of the fledgling administration.
As the peace process evolved he played a central role as part of Sinn Féin’s backroom team.
West Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, a former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), was named as Stakeknife in 2003.
Double Standards
Denis Donaldson was shot dead in Co Donegal
Also known as the ‘nutting squad’, the ISU was responsible for hunting down and killing informers.
After initially denying he was an agent, Scappaticci later moved to England and is said to have died in April 2023.
In a statement on Tuesday, his daughter Jane Donaldson repeated her family’s dismissal of the Real IRA claim.
“It has been speculated that some republicans and some in state agencies shared a common contempt for the fate of my father,” she said.
“However, my family has made it publicly known that we never accepted the bogus claim of responsibility, which lacks all credibility, by a single Real IRA source in 2009.”
A 2022 Police Ombudsman’s report found no evidence of PSNI involvement or collusion in the murder, although Marie Anderson said the force had been guilty of a “corporate failure”.
Corporate Failure
“So far, all that we have proven through the Police Ombudsman, is the ‘corporate failure’ by British state agencies to protect my father’s life,” Ms Donaldson said.
“On the other hand, it is now a matter of public record that before my father was exposed, the identity of the British Agent Stakeknife had been protected by a number of common interests.”
Ms Donaldson contrasted the treatment of her father to that of Stakeknife.
“As I wrote last year, while my father was subsequently thrown to the wolves, agent Stakeknife had – for some time – been carefully sheltered in west Belfast by British security agencies and by republicans, before being publicly defended and then quietly shepherded away to safety in England,” she said.
Useless whataboutery dominates most commentary on the Adams libel victory. The Donaldson family focuses everyone on the real issues.
Donaldson’s family said Adams trial ‘trivialised our tragedy’
Speaking on behalf of the immediate family, Denis Donaldson’s daughter Jane said the trial “trivialised our family tragedy”.
The case centred on claims contained in a BBC Spotlight programme that Mr Adams had sanctioned the killing of Mr Donaldson, a Sinn Féin official who spied for British authorities.
The statement issued following the outcome of the trial said that “by reducing events which damaged our lives to a debate about damage to [Mr Adams ] reputation” the trial had “trivialised our family tragedy.”
“Daddy’s murder and surrounding circumstances devastated our family,” the statement added.
The statement continued: “No-one spoke for my family in court. We supported neither side in this case. Although the plaintiff claimed sympathy for my family, his legal team objected to me giving evidence to challenge9 the account of his witnesses.”
In the statement the family said they “are still no closer to the truth.”
They added that the case had demonstrated the need for a public inquiry into the death of Mr Donaldson.
Adamned if he does, adamned if he doesn’t
Gerry Adams didn’t order spy’s murder, and ‘Spotlight’’s agent didn’t even say he did
by Anton McCabe 5 October, 2016, 2:35 pm
Link : Adamned if he does, Adamned if he doesn’t
The news that serial non-litigator Gerry Adams is to sue over allegations he sanctioned the murder of IRA informer Denis Donaldson, cannot surprise. Contrary to what has become the received wisdom, the former security force agent in the IRA did not tell BBC Northern Ireland’s ‘Spotlight’ programme on September 20th that Gerry Adams sanctioned the killing of Denis Donaldson in 2006. His allegation was much more tentative.
Despite this, media outlets have run with the allegation that the decision to carry out the killing was agreed by Adams, and that the IRA carried it out. An example is the Irish Independent headline: ‘Gerry Adams sanctioned the killing of British spy, claims former IRA man’.
This is based on a section of the programme, where reporter Jennifer O’Leary is interviewing ‘Martin’, a former IRA man and police agent. A transcript reads:
Jennifer O’Leary: “Martin also said he told his Special Branch handlers what he had learned about the murder”.
Martin: “Not too long after Denis was murdered I was told by a member of the IRA, an active member of the IRA, that the IRA had killed Denis, and not anybody else. I gave that information to the Special Branch.”.
Jennifer O’Leary: “What was your handlers’ reaction to that information?”.
Martin: “They were just totally mute. There wasn’t any acknowledgement of what I’d said. The subject was changed to something else”.
Jennifer O’Leary: “Are you surprised?”.
Martin: “No. I think they knew themselves. You see I just think you know they and the whole status quo had seen Denis’ death as internal housekeeping and they were happy enough to put up with it. I believe they acted on some information and didn’t act on other information because it was too politically sensitive to do so”.
Jennifer O’Leary: “Martin believes that the shooting of Denis Donaldson was sanctioned by the man at the top of the Republican movement, Gerry Adams. Spotlight understands that by 2006 Gerry Adams had stepped aside from the IRA Army Council but Martin claims that Adams was consulted on all matters”.
Martin: “I know from my experience in the IRA that murders have to be approved by the leadership and they have to be given approval by the leadership of the IRA, the political leadership of the IRA and the military leadership of the IRA”.
Jennifer O’Leary: “Who are you specifically referring to?”.
Martin: “Gerry Adams. He gives the final say”.
Note: there is nothing indicating this IRA man had first-hand knowledge of Adams’ approving the killing.
Note also: the final line is “He gives the final say”. Not “He gave the final say”.
What we may call the alleged allegation runs contrary to the Real IRA’s claim of responsibility for the murder in 2009. After the programme, a former Real IRA army council member spoke to journalist Suzanne Breen of the Belfast Telegraph, and reiterated the claim. Breen is a trenchant critic of Adams and the mainstream IRA, so the claim must be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, Donaldson was cavalier about his own safety. Some time after he was unmasked in 2005, he went to a cottage in Donegal that had been a safe house for the INLA and IRA for years. It was secluded, so killers could stake it out if necessary. It was near a main road, in an area with a lot of holiday homes, so escape was easy and strangers didn’t stand out.
Donaldson had been an informer since at least the mid-1980s. Two groups had particular grudges: families and friends of those killed as alleged informers, people not as well-connected as Donaldson; and families and friends of those IRA members killed or imprisoned because he may have betrayed them.
Crucially, the IRA did not need to kill him. He no longer had their protection, and there were plenty of others willing to do it. The killing was similar to that of Dungannon taxi driver Barney McDonald in 2002. In both cases a shotgun was used, making forensics difficult.
The current story took off because there is a media obsession with Adams, who is a safety-valve for Sinn Féin’s opponents in politics and the media. It must be said that he has left himself open by seeming ridiculous with his denials of IRA membership.
Martin McGuinness receives nothing like the same treatment, despite his admitting having held high rank in the IRA. As Deputy First Minister, McGuinness is central to the political process in the North. The DUP perceive him as a ‘moderniser’ in Sinn Féin. So a media campaign against him might damage the political process.
The episode of ‘Spotlight’ is available on the BBC I-player until October 19th. The relevant section can be watched beginning at 51 minutes.
Anton McCabe
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
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