Davison ‘was jealous of cabin crew media coverage’

RYANAIR’s head of communications told the High Court that he used the word “jealousy” in his controversial online press release as this reflected his view that Rosanna Davison was jealous that pictures of Ryanair cabin crew were taking up newspaper space, leaving less space for glamour shots.

In evidence, Ms Davison said she was contacted by a journalist from the Irish Independent on November 10, 2008, the day the Ryanair charity calendar was launched, and asked what she thought of the absence of any Irish female cabin crew from it.

She said she was correctly quoted the next day as saying: “If I was [organising] it, I would have made sure that Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising. Any person from any part of Europe would say that Irish women are gorgeous.”

Ms Davison is suing Ryanair after they issued a press release, the following day, stating that the company wanted to “hit back at comments made by Irish glamour model Rosanna Davison in relation to the absence of Irish cabin crew from Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar which bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew”.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara disagreed that her comments to the paper the previous day were moderate and uncontroversial.

He said her suggestion that more Irish girls would have been included if she was involved in the calendar was putting one country before another.

She was also insinuating Irish women were potentially more gorgeous than those in the calendar, he said, but disagreed that his suggestion such remarks were “bordering on racism” did not stand up.

Ms Davison’s comments, as reported, still suggested she was jealous, narrow-minded and bordering on racism, he said.

Earlier, cross-examined by senior counsel Martin Hayden, Ms Davison said she had not said to the Irish Independent, as reported, that every effort should have been made to include Irish girls in the calendar.

She was not criticising Ryanair when speaking to the journalist but expressing her opinion about what she herself would have done.

She agreed a letter from her solicitors to Ryanair of November 23, 2010, stated she was seeking an apology and a “substantial” charitable donation about the release. She wanted an acceptance she was very hurt “at being called a racist” and a donation to charity.

Her father was involved and possibly instructed her solicitors to include the word substantial. She did not know her father told Ryanair he had successfully taken 16 defamation actions. She had issued some actions but “not that many”.

When Mr Hayden suggested Ryanair had not called her racist, Ms Davison said the words “bordering on racism” would be interpreted by most people as meaning she was racist. She denied she gave comments in a manner she knew would be represented as her criticising the selection for the Ryanair calendar.

When Mr Hayden suggested all Ryanair did in the news release was defend staff involved in a charity calendar, she said Ryanair did so by being heavily critical of her “and calling me words that deeply upset me”.

Yesterday, Mr McNamara told his counsel, Mr Hayden he issued the release because he was concerned the comments from Ms Davison, as reported in the Irish Independent, could negatively impact on the calendar and he wanted to defend the crew involved.

The calendar was a voluntary initiative of cabin crew, Ryanair paid for it and applications for inclusion from cabin crew had increased throughout its four year history, he said. It could take up to a year “to get in shape for it” and only the “strongest” and most photogenic applicants were selected. There was no exclusion of Irish staff but it would be wrong to include an Irish person just because Ryanair was registered here, he said.

He said Ms Davison was a very well-known person who would have influence and denied he called Ms Davison a racist in the release.

The first time he heard Ms Davison say she had not told the Irish Independent more effort should have been made to include Irish women in the calendar was in court last week, he said. He regarded a letter from Ms Davison’s solicitors about the matter later in November 2008 as a “complete overreaction”.

He agreed he threatened to publish the correspondence but said he was not engaging in a publicity stunt.

Under cross-examination, Mr McNamara said an earlier reference to being “shot” if the calendar did not achieve sales was not a reference to Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary’s management style but a reference to losing the opportunity to achieve sales.