John Downing: As Gerry Adams tries to rebut old allegations, the ground rules are different this time

Gerry Adams’s last law court outing, last May, proved a big success when a Dublin jury awarded him €100,000 in a successful libel claim against the BBC. Now, he is back rebutting old allegations that he was a long-time IRA leader directly responsible for death, injury and destruction, with arguments he surely knows backwards and sideways.