Newspaper to appeal €900,000 libel award

THE Sunday World newspaper has pledged to launch a Supreme Court challenge against the High Court’s decision to award €900,000 in damages to a man dubbed a “drug king” by the newspaper.

In yesterday’s finding, a jury of seven women and five men found that Martin McDonagh, a father of eight from Cranmore Drive, Sligo, was libelled by the Sunday World in an article published on September 5, 1999. The article described him as “The Shark”, alleging he was involved in money-lending as well as having masterminded the importation of the largest amount of cannabis and ecstasy ever into the west of Ireland in 1999.

The newspaper denied the claim and says the words complained of were true in substance and fact.