Gerry Adams, probably Northern Ireland's most prominent Republican politician during the internal conflict with the UK known as "the Troubles," testified in London's High Court on Tuesday, accused by victims of being ultimately responsible for bombings in England by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). 

Asked by the claimants' lawyer Max Hill, whether he would speak about his invovement in the IRA if there was a truth and reconciliation process focused on "the Troubles," Adams responded: "I can't talk about my involvement in the IRA because I was never involved."

Why do the claimants argue Adams was involved? 

Adams was the leader of Sinn Fein, formerly the IRA's political wing and now the largest party in the Northern Irish parliament, and became the best known face of the movement seeking to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

He would later play a pivotal role in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Accord, which essentially put an end to decades of sectarian conflict. 

The 77-year-old has long faced allegations of also being a member of the Provisional IRA, the military wing of the movement, including from former members of the group. He has always denied the claims though. 

He is being sued in a civil case by three people injured in three bombings: one at London's Old Bailey court in 1973 — the IRA's first attack on the British mainland — and two 1996 blasts, one in Manchester and the other in London. 

They are seeking a finding on the balance of probabilities that Adams is personally liable for the bombings as a senior member of the IRA and later its powerful Army Council. 

What did Adams say about his relationship to the IRA and their acts? 

Adams wished the judge "a very happy St Patrick's Day" on entering the London court on Tuesday, before saying he was never directly invovled in the paramilitary group he represented politically. 

"I'm glad that there is a peace process but I don't distance myself from the IRA," Adams said. He said he did previously defend some of the group's actions "based on the broad principle [that] people have the right to resist occupation," drawing parallels to both Palestinians and Ukraine. 

The claimaints' lawyer Hill alleged that Adams had chosen to "stand by the IRA" because he was a member.

"I don't stand by everything they did, but yes — these were my neighbors," Adams said in court, albeit adding that the IRA had also done "dastardly things" which should not have been done. 

He said he was glad the IRA had "left the stage" in the meantime and that "nobody else has been killed."

What were 'the Troubles,' and how and when were they calmed? 

The term "The Troubles" was used in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK to euphemistically describe the largely sectarian conflict between the predominantly Catholic "Republicans," who sought to secede from the UK and unite with the Republic of Ireland, and the predominantly Protestant "Unionists," who favored Northern Ireland's continued status as part of the UK.

Some of the most pronounced fighting was between Republican militias, most notably the IRA, and British security forces, mainly the military. As the conflict ramped up in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the IRA also started trying to target the British mainland — particularly England and the capital London.

More than 3,600 people were killed during "the Troubles." 

Adams became the president of Sinn Fein in 1983 and was a British MP — albeit one who boycotted his seat in the House of Commons in London as the party continues to to this day, protesting what it deems an illegitimate ruling chamber — from 1983 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2011. He later moved on to the Northern Irish parliament at Stormont Castle in Belfast, where Sinn Fein is currently the largest party, before retiring from active politics in 2020. He had stepped down as president of Sinn Fein in 2018.

Adams was a key Northern Irish Republican negotiator in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that more or less calmed the conflict. This was an agreement between the UK and Republic of Ireland governments, as well as most of Northern Ireland's political parties, that agreed on a variety of key tenets.

Arguably three of the most important were as follows: 

• An agreement to have a perpetual system of power-sharing in place in Northern Ireland's Assembly at Stormont — in other words a guarantee that Republicans and Unionists should always govern together, regardless of their relative shares of the vote at a given time
• The ability for any Northern Irish resident to hold either a British or an Irish passport and citizenship, or both, as they wish
• A promise from the UK and the Republic of Ireland to implement the chance for a referendum and the creation of a united Ireland, should a time come when that is the clear majority wish of Northern Ireland's residents (which was not the case in 1998 but may be closer to being the case today)

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko