Sligo man to repay €90k award in newspaper libel action

A man who was paid a tenth of a €900,000 High Court award against a newspaper must return the money, the Court of the Appeal has ruled.

However, the court put a stay on its order, and on separate orders in relation to legal costs, in the event that Martin McDonagh is successful in asking the Supreme Court to consider an entirely new appeal against the decision overturning the €900,000 award.

Last month, on behalf of the three-judge appeal court, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan described as perverse a High Court jury’s 2008 decision to award €900,000 to Mr McDonagh after it found he had been libelled in a Sunday World article entitled “Traveller Drug King”.