Senator tells defamation case Gerry Adams 'was a dominant character within the IRA'

Trevor Ringland, a solicitor and former Irish rugby international, was also called by the BBC on Wednesday, and said Mr Adams had a reputation as a 'peacetaker', rather than a “peacemaker'

Michael McDowell (pictured) said that members of the Irish Government, in the time following the Belfast Agreement in 1998, considered the former Sinn Féin president an army council member, based on intelligence briefings. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Gerry Adams has a reputation among the public for being a member of the Provisional IRA’s decision-making body, known as the army council, a senator and former attorney general has told the High Court.

Michael McDowell also said that members of the Irish Government, in the time following the Belfast Agreement in 1998, considered the former Sinn Féin president an army council member, based on intelligence briefings. Mr McDowell was giving evidence in the fourth week of a civil trial of Mr Adams’s defamation action against the BBC.