Action begins over Nob Nation sketch

AN 84-year-old guesthouse owner has begun a High Court libel action for damages against RTÉ over a Gerry Ryan “Nob Nation” sketch which said his former hotel the Maryland was a “byword in Waterford for prostitution”.

Vincent O’Toole, of Maryland House, the Mall, Waterford, successfully sued the Sunday World for the same libel in February 2007 and secured €50,000 in damages.

The current defamatory comments went out on the Gerry Ryan show on August 28, 2008, and concerned the following words: “She’s like one of the ones down in Maryland... The Maryland is a byword in Waterford for prostitution although the original establishment from whence the terms is derived has ceased business... If you’re going down there, beware of the shams... beware of undesirables.”