Defamed jeweller gets €50k award

A schoolteacher in Loreto College, Foxrock, Co Dublin, has been directed by a judge to pay €50,000 damages to a Dunlaoghaire jeweller he made defamatory remarks about.

It was the maximum that Judge Jacqueline Linnane could have awarded Breasal Ó Caollaí, who told her that what former friend and neighbour Michael O’Flaherty had said about him could have ruined his business.

Ó Caollaí, of Royal Terrace West, Dunlaoghaire, told the Circuit Civil Court Mr O’Flaherty had told staff in the National Maritime Museum in Dunlaoghaire, of which he was a director, that he had effectively taken money from the tills.