 During pickets members of Sinn Féin would challenge picketers about the Official IRA and killings and acts associated with the group.Both New Consensus and the parties denied this.In 1996, Nugent, Anne Holliday and Michael Fitzpatrick won a libel action against the Irish author and historian Tim Pat Coogan and Harper Collins Publishers over a claim that "New Consensus" was an offshoot of Official Sinn Féin.