It's right we are reminded of the evidence of his IRA membership, lest this post-truth age claims another historical scalp

I’m an IRA volunteer. The course I take involves the use of physical force...” — again, something Adams strongly denied in the witness box.

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So following Adams's victory in court last month, it’s right that we are reminded of the strength of evidence of his IRA membership, lest this post-truth age claims another historical scalp, especially since his persistent denials have been characterised by a haughty “how-very-dare-you” umbrage. As the writer Howard Jacobson says, alarm bells ring when a politician stands haughty upon his honour.

“Is it not true you have a decisive voice in the activities of the IRA?” BBC Panorama’s Fred Emery asked Adams in 1982 after the first of his many election victories, this time to the Northern Ireland assembly. Adams dismissed this as “an impertinent question”.

Asked by the American NBC network in 1983 if his move into constitutional politics meant a reduction in violence, with no hint of irony Adams replied: “Well, that’s a question you'll have to put to the IRA.”

To the faithful, it was a different story. At that year’s commemoration of Wolfe Tone, Irish republicanism’s founding father, knowing cheers and laughter greeted Gerry Adams when he welcomed “Friends... my fellow gunmen and gunwomen.”