Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said he never sued over allegations made in the past that he was a member of the IRA because of legal advice given at the time.
Mr Adams said he would have sued over the many publications but was advised that he would not have got a fair hearing.
Mr Adams was giving evidence during a third day of cross-examination in a defamation case he had taken against the BBC.
Mr Adams alleges he was defamed in a 2016 Spotlight programme and a subsequent online article, which he says falsely claimed that he sanctioned the killing of former senior Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson.
Donaldson was shot dead in 2006, months after admitting being an informer for the police and MI5 over two decades.
Mr Adams has denied any involvement in the killing.
Senior Counsel Paul Gallagher took Mr Adams through a number of newspaper articles which contained various allegations that he was an IRA member, including an article in the Guardian about a book by Ed Moloney, which stated he was in charge of unit of the IRA which murdered and disappeared at least nine people.
Statements made by former taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Garret Fitzgerald about his involvement with the IRA were also put to him.
Mr Adams said he could not speak for the late Mr Fitzgerald who was "anti Sinn Féin and anti IRA" and that Mr Ahern could be called to give evidence in the case.
Mr Adams said he would always have gone to a solicitor when material was published but was advised he would not have got a fair hearing if he had sued.
He said it was a mark of how serious he took the allegations made in the Spotlight programme that he was now in court suing the BBC.
He also told Mr Gallagher that he was aware of what had been stated publicly about him, but said "you are trying to say to the jury that I don't have a reputation and my reputation is useless and what this is is a smothering of the jury and saturation of the jury with all of these obscure (allegations) that you are asking me to refer to 30 and 40 years later".
The jury was again reminded by Mr Justice Alex Owens that they did not have to decide on whether or not Mr Adams was a member of the IRA, but could consider the published material in assessing how it would have impacted on public opinion of him.
Asked by Mr Gallagher what would be wrong with someone saying he was on the army council, Mr Adams replied "it's not true".
He said the allegation that the IRA killed Denis Donaldson and that he was contacted by the army council to authorise it was a lie.
Asked if the allegation he was on the army council was damaging, Mr Adams said a lot of people had supported the IRA, but others would have been appalled.
Asked if he was appalled by the allegation, he said he would have been irritated as he was trying to reach out to "people of influence internationally and in Ireland and had lines of communication to Unionists and loyalists and church representatives, so all of this made it more difficult for them to engage with people like me who might be depicted" in that way.
Mr Adams was also asked about his dealings with the family of Brian Stack, a prison officer who was murdered by the IRA.
He said he had met with sons of Brian Stack and arranged a meeting with a trusted person who could find out what happened to their father and the Stack family had thanked him for helping them to get clarity.
He said the issue was later politicised during a general election and regurgitated by Micheál Martin who made a malicious and unfair attack that he was withholding information.
He said he did his best to help the Stack family and regretted that it ended up the way it did.
Mr Adams said four names he later gave to gardaí were given to him by Austin Stack who had got the name from garda and journalistic sources.
It was put to him that Mr Stack later said he did not pass on the names to Mr Adams.
Asked if he had taken Brian Stack's sons to meet a former IRA member, John Duckster, also known as Martin Lynch, Mr Adams said he did not know either of those names.
He said he took them to see a person on the basis that he would be anonymous "and they would not be named and that was the arrangement".
He said one of the consequences of "this sad affair" was that he stopped meeting with the families of victims as he was advised he was putting himself in jeopardy.
He said his informal efforts to help families get closure turned into a party political issue.
After a short break Mr Adams was again asked about Martin Duckster Lynch and he said he was a friend of his but would not comment on who the person was in the meeting with the Stacks as the "arrangement" was that it would be anonymous.
This afternoon, Mr Adams rejected a suggestion that he had not cooperated with Jean McConville's family when they contacted him in 1994 and only provided limited assistance when they threatened to go to the press in 1995.
He also denied that a number of names of those involved in Jean McConville's abduction were given to him and he was able to tell the family that one of the people was not involved. Mr Adams rejected this and said "how would I know?".
Paul Gallagher replied "Exactly, Mr Adams, how would you know?".
Asked if he agreed that all of the allegations around his involvement in the IRA had been "put out there for the public for well over 20 years", Mr Adams replied "my alleged involvement if you don’t mind".
He added that he had acknowledged a number of times while in the witness box that "all of this was out there".
He also agreed that some of the allegations were made at a sensitive time in the peace process.
Mr Gallagher suggested to Mr Adams that the role of informers and how they were dealt with by the IRA was an important issue and a matter of public debate.
Mr Adams said he did not remember it being a matter of widespread discussion and the Spotlight programme had been aired ten years after the killing of Denis Donaldson.
He said the important part of the programme for him was a serious allegation that he had sanctioned the killing of Mr Donaldson; an allegation he took grave exception to.
"My good name in my community and my peer group among people I had persuaded there was a way forward other than violence and now they were being told 'oops a daisy the IRA hasn't gone away' the IRA has killed Denis Donaldson and more than that Gerry Adams was up to his neck in it and authorised it.
"I would not subject myself to all of this unless I was so taken by the grievous output in my own community and to Denis Donaldson's family and in wider republican circles.
"There are still folks out there that think we sold out that we are traitors and that we should be executed and so forth."
Mr Adams said he would dispute that questions about the status of the IRA continued until 2016 but said there was a thread going through the peace process of resistance from dissidents and British intelligence services who believed they could defeat the IRA if given another go and there were attempts to upend the peace process.
Mr Adams agreed he was notified by letter of a planned broadcast and that he had declined to give a pre-recorded interview because that was within his rights and justified.
He described the programme as a "straight ambush" which came "out of the blue" and was part of the agenda of the programme maker.
Mr Adams agreed he did not respond to the letter until the day of the broadcast and that his statement of denial was run on the programme.
He asked Mr Gallagher if he was "making a virtue out of a necessity".
When his solicitor wrote to the BBC to complain about the programme, he got an "arrogant and offensive reply", Mr Adams said.
His cross examination will continue tomorrow.
