The withdrawal of civil proceedings against Gerry Adams in a London court on Friday came after the judge in the case raised the possibility that the three men pursuing the action, Jonathan Ganesh, Barry Laycock and John Clark, could face a bill running into the hundreds of thousands of pounds should they lose.

The judge had raised questions over a number of days as to whether the men’s claim for personal injuries against Adams was an abuse of process because its real ambition went beyond their claim for damages.

They had sought a judgment in the amount of £1 against the former Sinn Féin president.

The social media machine was of course in full swing after the announcement, with supporters on both sides claiming a ‘victory’ despite the reality being that a withdrawn case means nobody wins.

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What was troubling in online commentary and in some news articles was the way the proceedings were described as ‘lawfare’, designed to discredit Adams’s claims that he had never been a member of the IRA.

I am not suggesting that the victims in this case, nor their lawyers, were politically motivated in pursuing the civil action.

I........

© The Irish News