Malachi O’Doherty

Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Féin parliamentarian for the Northern Ireland Assembly and former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) brought a legal action against the journalist Malachi O’Doherty over comments made about his involvement in The Maze prison escape in the 1980s during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. 

Kelly was mentioned in the 1984 Hennessy Report, which was the result of an inquiry into the security arrangements at The Maze prison, following the escape of 38 prisoners the previous year, in which Kelly was involved. According to the report, prison officer John Adams was shot during the prison escape and claimed that Kelly had fired the two shots at him. According to Kelly’s account of the incident, he was one of two prisoners armed with pistols who tried to force the door into the control room where the prison officer was attempting to raise the alarm about the escape. When interviewed by The Independent, Kelly said: “There were two shots fired … There was myself and others there, so clearly it was a prisoner who shot him. But that is as far as I will go.” Kelly has never admitted to shooting the officer and a 1987 trial acquitted him of the offence. He has since mentioned the shooting in his book, ‘The Escape’, but did not reveal who the perpetrator was.

On 21 August 2019, Malachi O’Doherty made comments about Kelly, during radio interviews with U105 and BBC Radio Ulster, asserting that he had shot the prison officer. During his interview with U105, O’Doherty said: “Gerry Kelly has spoken very frankly about shooting a prison warden in the head, right? He did that. He shot a prison warder in the head.” Speaking on air with BBC Radio Ulster that same day, he said: “How could we even function in Northern Ireland if every time we were going to interview Gerry Kelly, we had to notify the family of the prison officer he shot?”

In October 2019, Kelly’s solicitors sent a letter to O’Doherty asserting that Kelly’s reputation as a member of Northern Ireland’s legislative assembly and as a member of the Policing Board had been damaged by false claims in the interviews. A writ of summons was issued to O’Doherty on 20 August 2020, and served one year later. Kelly claimed that his character and reputation were gravely damaged by O’Doherty and was therefore claiming aggravated damages for defamation. During the trial O’Doherty’s legal team argued that public knowledge of Kelly’s previous membership of IRA and his stint in prison for the 1973 Old Bailey bombings had not damaged his reputation.

On 8 January 2024, the High Court in Northern Ireland ruled to strike out Kelly’s claim against O’Doherty, terming it “scandalous, frivolous and vexatious”. Master Evan Bell wrote the claim was an abuse of process that “has no realistic prospect of success” and failed to “pass a minimum threshold of seriousness”, adding that in his view, “where a court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a defamation action amounts to a SLAPP [a strategic lawsuit against public participation] then an award of costs to the defendant on an indemnity basis is an inevitable consequence”. Kelly was ordered to bear his and O’Doherty’s judicial costs. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) welcomed the decision in a statement, saying it was “extremely significant” in the context of ongoing concern at the use of SLAPPs targeting journalists in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In an op-ed published after the case was struck out, O’Doherty stated: “Occasionally taxi drivers ask me what I am going to do with all the money I got from Gerry Kelly. I didn’t get a penny from him, just a lot of sleepless nights and tinnitus.”

Separately, Kelly also attempted to sue writer Ruth Dudley Edwards. In September 2019, Dudley Edwards wrote an article, which was published in the Belfast Telegraph. In it, she questioned Sinn Féin’s commitment to reconciliation in Northern Ireland, and mentioned Kelly’s role in The Maze prison escape. Over two years later, on 3 June 2022, Dudley Edwards was served a writ dated 21 September 2021, informing her that Kelly was claiming aggravated damages for her comments. The case was dismissed by agreement in April 2024.