Gerry Adams ‘unaware of Docklands bomb but would not have stopped it’

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Gerry Adams would not have stopped the IRA bombing of the London Docklands in 1996 if he had known about it in advance, according to declassified documents.

The then Sinn F?in leader told Irish officials that even with advanced knowledge of the blast, he would not have intervened.

The lorry bomb on 9 February 1996 killed two people, left dozens injured and caused an estimated ?800m of damage to the surrounding area.

The attack broke a 17-month IRA ceasefire and reflected the republican movement’s frustration at the political stalemate in Northern Ireland.

In confidential talks with Irish officials a week after the bombing, Adams said he wanted peace but needed to retain credibility and authority with republicans.

“Mr Adams said that he was glad he did not know in advance about the bomb, because it would have raised serious dilemmas in terms of the moral imperative to prevent or report it,” according to an Irish government report of the meeting, part of a collection of state papers released this week by the National Archives of Ireland.

“He added that he would have been forced to override this – he would not have been able to tell people in advance because of his republicanism.”

Adams told the officials that if the peace process collapsed, he would face a “hard decision” between trying to end the Troubles and staying loyal to his movement.

“This was a very emotional thing. He would not want to abandon people and if he became ‘like you’, as officials, his community would distrust all he stood for,” according to the record of the meeting.

At a later meeting, the Sinn F?in leaders said the bombing had divided republicans, some considering it payback for the party’s exclusion from negotiations and others judging it to be a mistake.

“Some people thought it was the best thing ever,” the report noted. “Some felt it was justified by the experience of the previous 18 months. However, there were others who saw beyond this, and the debate was continuing.”

Adams said the bombing would undermine his efforts to obtain a visa for fundraising in the US, which was one of many “tactical reasons” for not wanting further violence.

A separate declassified document detailed a phone call between the then US president Bill Clinton and the then taoiseach John Bruton. Clinton, whose involvement in Northern Ireland on occasion irked London, said the bombing sickened him.

He dismissed Sinn F?in’s attempt to blame it on the UK government’s intransigence. “Blaming the British for it, I think under these circumstances, is pretty gutless,” Clinton said.

RT? reported that in a record of a lighter moment between Adams and Bruton, the then Sinn F?in leader joked that in British eyes, the only difference between them was Adams’s beard. “The British approach everything from an empire mentality,” he said.