The Sunday Mirror newspaper has lost a High Court attempt to prevent Patrick Magee pursuing a defamation action against it. Magee was jailed for life for offences arising from the 1984 Brighton bombing but freed under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Magee has alleged he was defamed in an article published in the newspaper on July 11th, 1999, a month after his release.
Mirror Group Newspapers had sought an order dismissing Mr Magee's proceedings on grounds that they were an abuse of process.
Refusing the group's application in a reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice McKechnie remarked if its application had not been made in the context of the Belfast Agreement, the conclusion which he arrived at might be different.
However, in his view, what occurred in Belfast in 1998 was indeed historical and had attempted to deal with a conflict which had lasted for several decades, if not much longer.
During that time a great number of atrocities were unfortunately perpetrated by people like Mr Magee, the judge said. Those involved in bringing about the agreement realised that some accommodation would have to be made by all sides in respect of those who had committed such revolting acts.
Mr Justice McKechnie said both parts of Ireland had in referendums accepted the agreement, including the accommodation which he had mentioned.
Accordingly, the judge said, he believed that society had been acutely conscious of this historical process and displayed an openness to reconciliation and a level of tolerance, if not acceptance, which heretofore would have been unimaginable.
If his views in this regard were correct in any substantial way, he could not say at this stage of the proceedings that Mr Magee's claim must fail or could not possibly succeed, the judge said.