By CHRISTINE NEWMAN and CHRIS DOOLEY
THE Sunday Independent had never written anything which would mitigate the allegations made in the article by Eamon Dunphy, Mr De Rossa told Mr Justice Moriarty and a jury.
Mr De Rossa said that if the newspaper was now claiming that he did "not knowingly" sign the "Moscow letter", then there was no basis for the allegations in the article and he did not understand why they were still in the court putting him through this hell.
The fact was, the Sunday Independent, Eamon Dunphy and their legal team continued to stand over the article. His name was still not cleared.
Mr De Rossa said the article said he was not a decent person and was associated in some way with the most appalling crimes. If they now said they did not believe that, that it was not really true if they had said it four years ago "I would not be in court today".
He said the article was constantly raised with him and he had to defend himself against them.
He had asked the newspaper to retract and make an apology and pay some money to a charity as compensation. It wrote back and said it was not prepared to do that and offered him the right of reply. Mr De Rossa said he was accused of being a criminal and he did not think a 400 to 500 word article was the response to that.
"I will keep coming back here as long as it takes to re establish my good character," he said.
When he was attacked for political reasons he could fight back but when his character was attacked and he was accused of "being a criminal, it was deeply hurtful. When a public person was accused of being a criminal, it was very serious.
Earlier, asked if he had been abroad since his election to the Dail in 1982, Mr De Rossa said that he had been to the US in 1984 to attend a conference on Northern Ireland attended by politicians from North and South.
In 1986, he went to Korea with Mr Sean Garland and stopped off in Moscow. In 1987, he visited Moscow again. In 1988, he went to East Berlin for a conference. In 1990, he went on holiday to the Soviet Union with his wife and others from the WP.
Given the trauma of the 1970s and the mayhem caused by the Provisional IRA, there was a concern to convey to eastern European countries that the IRA was not a liberation army.
Asked about the financial state" of the party, Mr De Rossa said since he became a TD and MEP, he had donated in excess of £200,000 or £250,000 to the party. This was his MEP's salary, a subscription from his salary as a TD and also his £80,000 to £90,000 payments as a leader of a party with more than seven TDs.
He said the party had debts of close to £500,000 in 1991. Other representatives would make donations, according to their own circumstances. A considerable number of debts were guaranteed by members of the ardchomhairle and he was one of those who made personal guarantees. The financial institutions pursued him and the others to pay after the split from the WP and the formation of Democratic Left. "I finally cleared my share of them last year," he said.