'A grievous smear' Gerry Adams takes BBC to court over claim he backed 2006 murder

It is a small, compact courtroom with a digital clock that glows beneath the judge's bench but the evidence unfurled in the case of Gerry Adams versus the BBC is expansive and spans decades of Irish and British history.

- Rory Carroll

The former Sinn Féin leader's childhood and political awakening, the evolution of the Troubles, the IRA's deadly campaign, the peace process, the murder of a British spy, all have been outlined - and contested - in the libel hearing at Dublin's high court.

Adams is suing the BBC for defamation over a documentary and accompanying online article that carried a claim that he sanctioned a killing in 2006, an allegation he says is false and smeared his reputation as a peacemaker.

The BBC said the programme and article had complied with editorial guidelines and offered Adams an opportunity to give a statement or interview.

During two weeks of evidence - it is expected to be a four-week trial - both sides laid out competing versions of Adams' reputation before a jury and a packed public gallery, with Adams taking centre stage in the witness box.

The 76-year-old repeatedly denied ever being a member of the IRA. "It wasn't a path that I took," he said.

The former West Belfast MP claims the BBC's 2016 Spotlight documentary and online story was "an attempted hatchet job" that defamed him by claiming he sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson.

The former senior Sinn Féin official was shot dead in County Donegal in 2006 after admitting he had for decades been a police and MI5 informant.

The Real IRA, a dissident group, admitted the killing in 2009.