Tomás Ó Flatharta

In the 1990’s Proinsias De Rossa TD (ex Workers’ Party President) took a libel action against a right wing Irish newspaper, the Sunday Independent and a star columnist, Éamon Dunphy. Dunphy needed evidence to back up an opinion piece. A colleague, Liam Collins, went to the Moscow Archives in November 1996, searching for an original document. The newspaper’s barrister, Patrick McEntee, told his clients that reports, gossip, and beliefs were not enough : hard evidence was needed.

Claims were made that De Rossa and his then colleague Seán Garland had written a secret 1986 letter to the Russian Communist Party, rulers of the Soviet Union, seeking much-need funds.

The final score? De Rossa won the court case.

The right wing newspaper produced the alleged secret letter – one expert said it was signed by De Rossa and Garland, another expert disagreed. One expert’s word against another.

De Rossa said the letter discovered in the Moscow archives was bogus.

The only person who might have convincingly tested De Rossa’s credibility was his former close comrade – transformed into bitter enemy – Seán Garland. Garland and De Rossa were on opposite sides when the Workers’ Party split in two after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The USSR system collapsed in the early 1990’s. Garland did not take the witness stand in this case.

Former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams took a libel action against the BBC. Adams, like De Rossa, secured a victory against the media organisation because it could not prove its damaging claims.

Ed Moloney set the scene :

Adams’ legal team, headed by feared litigator Paul Tweed, will launch a libel action in the Dublin courts against BBC’s Spotlight current affairs programme and reporter Jennifer O’Leary, over a claim that Adams’ was defamed during a programme examining the assassination of IRA activist turned RUC Special Branch spy, Denis Donaldson.

Adams’ long time personal lawyer, the late Paddy McGrory always advised Adams never to sue over claims involving his alleged membership of the IRA on the grounds that there was too much evidence to the contrary and on the record, not least publicly available British documents dealing with the 1972 IRA ceasefire.

Paddy’s fear was that Adams would, as the alleged injured party, have to give evidence from the witness stand, his denials of IRA membership wouldn’t stand scrutiny and he would be judged a liar about everything else by most juries.

https://thebrokenelbow.com/2019/09/17/bad-news-for-the-big-lad-but-a-good-day-for-the-bbc/

“Feared Litigators” like Mr Tweed are 21st century versions of warlord Unionist hero Edward Carson who hunted down Oscar Wilde in an 1895 court action. Carsons and Tweeds of this world take on libel cases to win. They weigh the odds.

Gerry Adams said he was defamed. A Dublin libel jury was asked to assess a specific allegation made by an informer to the BBC. The BBC did not present any other convincing evidence. As Paddy McEntee advised the Sunday Independent in 1996 : reports, gossip and belief are not enough; hard evidence is needed. An Irish Times report stated :

Mr Adams claims the BBC defamed him when it broadcast allegations in a 2016 Spotlight programme that he had sanctioned the killing in 2006 of former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson, who worked for decades as a British spy.

He claims a follow-up article on the BBC website contained the same defamatory allegations. The allegations complained of were made by anonymous source, referred to as “Martin” in the programme, who said he was also a paid agent for British state security services while a member of the IRA. Mr Adams has at all times denied having any involvement in Mr Donaldson’s death, which dissident republicans claimed responsibility for in 2009. He says all allegations made against him in connection with the death, or that the IRA had any involvement in it, were attempts to discredit republicans.

https://www.e-pages.dk/irishtimes/2602/article/1501150/4/4/render/?token=f0e7bb4a4b654ed9d25207905e479df4&vl_platform=ios&vl_app_id=ie.irishtimes.ereader&vl_app_version=5.4.4&fbclid=IwAR1q1yVuNIwDVfUTZhZmtUmmUfUoUdeeVUjKMSaWmH3r_TTybMsfLV7yKfg

In 1996 Sunday Independent journalist Liam Collins went to Moscow and returned to Dublin with a letter. This evidence failed to convince a Dublin libel jury. The letter is reproduced here : https://irishelectionliterature.com/2010/07/08/1986-letter-from-the-workers-party-to-the-communist-party-of-the-soviet-union-cpsu-looking-for-funds/?fbclid=IwAR3z9WtcRCZW3yUTiAVTdxZo5wMM6KtPl4KnTfZUZdSWNt9aN9DgiSkEIQc

“We are from the Sunday Independent in Dublin and we are looking for a letter, dated 1986, from the Workers Party in Ireland to its fraternal brothers in the Communist Party of the USSR, seeking their assistance to spread the doctrine of communism around the world. We believe that the original copy of this important letter is in the Communist Party archive,”

Here are extracts from a Liam Collins report describing his visit to a Moscow Archive.

My companion was Jim Nash, a retired garda handwriting expert, who would verify the signatures on the letter — seeking funds from the USSR for the Workers Party —belonged to Proinsias De Rossa, and his travelling companion and comrade in 1986, Sean Garland.

Paddy McEntee SC for Independent Newspapers had told the editor they could not rely on newspaper reports. We needed to find the letter for ourselves and have the signatures verified by Mr Nash.

The story was that the two senior figures from the Workers Party were returning from North Korea and stopped in the capital of the USSR where the letter was written.

Dated simply 1986, it began:

Dear Comrade, The Executive of the Workers Party of Ireland, on the occasion of a visit to Moscow of the General Secretary, Sean Garland, and Vice-President and Chairperson Executive Political Committee, Councillor Proinsias De Rossa TD, wishes to convey its warm regards and fraternal greetings to the Central Committee and members of the C.P.S.U. and to address this important and urgent message to you.

There followed a long analysis of the political situation in Ireland, north and south, and the financial difficulties of the Workers Party in trying to establish a socialist republic.

Then it got to the nub of the issue.

Expenditure over a 12-month period is £325,000 which covers wages, offices, and publications. The bulk of the shortfall has been met by ‘special activities’ of which it is not possible to detail here because of reasons we are sure you will understand. The ‘special activities’ are unable always to be effective and so on occasion the party has had to seek loans from individuals and financial institutions for specific activities. This has meant an accumulation of debt with financial institutions or approximately £100,000, the interest on this alone is crippling us.

Further the continued growth of the party in the public domain makes ‘special activities’ more hazardous for the party which has more than enough enemies in the establishment ready to pounce on mistakes or difficulties.

Therefore, we would respectfully request a grant of one million pounds (Irish) over the proposed five-year development period in order to assist us in this vital and urgent task, which we believe will be of benefit to the world struggle for Peace, Freedom, and Socialism.

The letter then bore the signatures of Sean Garland and Proinsias De Rossa and was accompanied by a shorter letter, dated September 18, 1986, three days after the original document had been received and stamped by a Communist Party official.

Jim Nash examined the letter in detail with his magnifying glass, comparing the signatures he had brought from Dublin, one the stub of a cheque signed by Mr De Rossa. Giving evidence before Judge Michael Moriarty on Friday, March 14, 1997, Jim Nash declared, “on the balance of probability” the letter bore the signature of Mr De Rossa. He disagreed with a handwriting expert for the plaintiff, Mr Michael Ansell, who conceded the signature bore an “overall resemblance” to that of Mr De Rossa, but believed it was a high-quality forgery. Giving evidence, Mr De Rossa said the letter was bogus and he had never signed it.

The trial ended on March, 21, 1997, when the jury failed to reach a verdict. The case was tried again in July, 1997, before Judge Paul Carney and in this case the jury found in favour of Proinsias De Rossa, awarding him record damages of £300,000. “

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/mission-to-moscow-to-locate-de-rossa-smoking-gun-was-my-red-letter-day-41183176.html

We can conclude from both these cases that 2 Dublin libel juries were not convinced that evidence about Adams and de Rossa being past members of underground and secretive republican organisations meant they had no reputation to defend. Libellous allegations were thrown at Adams and de Rossa, judged on their own merits, and the politicians earned substantial damages.

The Eoghan Harris case is different because, since 1990 when he left the Workers’ Party (previously Sinn Féin – the Workers’ Party, Official Sinn Féin etc), this individual rapidly transformed himself into an extreme right-wing commentator who identified strongly with Irish Unionism. Harris rants appeared weekly in the pages of the Sunday Independent, when it was owned by a West-British businessman, Sir Anthony O’Reilly. Harris also became a cheerleader for the corrupt former taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader, Bertie Ahern.

These services earned Harris a Bertie Ahern gift – nomination to the Irish Senate.

Things went wrong for Harris when a new billionaire owner took over the Sunday Independent.

The Sunday Independent editor Alan English took strong action, as it emerged that Harris had made a number of anonymous attacks on prominent female journalists :

The linked PDF contains material printed in the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Times (Ireland), and the Irish Times.

The extraordinary details are also at these two links :

Eoghan Harris Twitter Scandal – Wikipedia

Journalist Allison Morris Issues Proceedings Against Eoghan Harris and Twitter

Irish courts grind forward at a very slow pace.

Despite the shocking facts above, Mr Harris now works for the Newsletter, a Belfast Unionist newspaper.

This libel case, when it eventually occurs, will be very interesting.

John Meehan June 25 2025