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.

The damages awarded is the highest libel award in the state’s history. The previous biggest libel award was won by businessman Denis O’Brien who secured €750,000 against the Mirror Newspaper group in November 2006, while prior to that it had been Proinsias de Rossa’s libel action against the Independent Newspaper group of newspapers in which he won £300,000 in 1997.

Following a five-day trial the jury was asked to decide whether the newspaper had proved he was a drug dealer and a loan shark, to which they replied, “no”. On the basis of these answers, the jury, following two-and-a-quarter hours of deliberation, awarded him damages of €900,000 plus costs.

The jury was also asked whether the paper had proved Mr McDonagh was a tax evader and a criminal, to which they replied “yes”.

Hugh Mohan SC for the Sunday World said he would be making an application for a stay pending appeal and Mr Justice Eamon de Valera said he would hear it in a week.

Last night the Sunday World editor, Colm McGinty, said the paper was disappointed at the verdict and would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

“We are confident that our appeal will be successful and that the Supreme Court will overturn the jury’s decision. This case highlights the enormous difficulties the newspaper industry in Ireland faces with current defamation legislation which for many years we have furiously and repeatedly campaigned to be reformed.”

During the five-day trial, the court heard the Sunday World wrote the article while Mr McDonagh was being held for seven days at Manorhamilton Garda Station for questioning. He was handed the newspaper with the article by a garda and was shocked by it.

He claimed the only reason he had been arrested was because he happened to be “on the beer” with two of the people who were ultimately convicted in connection with the Tubercurry drug seizure, which at £500,000 worth of ecstasy and cannabis was and remains the biggest haul in the north-west. He was released after seven days of questioning, never re-arrested and never charged. But, he said, the article turned his life upside down, caused him to be barred from most pubs in Sligo and made people walk on the other side of the street when they saw him coming.

The Sligo man said his family had “built themselves up from nothing”, but “certain people” had tried to take that away. He hoped more people would come forward and bring actions like he had. “Who is running the country? The tabloid media?” he said.