Newspaper threatened with lawsuit by judge

A PROMINENT district court judge has issued a statement refuting allegations made about him in the Irish edition of The Sunday Times and has warned that he is considering suing the newspaper for defamation.

In a statement issued yesterday, Sean M MacBride, judge of the District Court area of Cavan-Monaghan, describes as “deeply offensive” a front page article entitled “Revealed: Judges in jobs plea” written by journalist Mark Tighe and published by The Sunday Times last Sunday.

The judge also takes exception to a further article entitled “The lawyers who lobbied to the top” on page 4 of the same edition of the newspaper as well as to an editorial under the heading “Choice of judges must be transparent”.