Reserved judgment in €900k damages case

A seven-judge Supreme Court has reserved judgment on a man’s appeal over orders overturning his €900,000 damages award for defamation and directing a rehearing.

Martin McDonagh appealed the Court of Appeal decision to quash as “perverse” a High Court jury’s finding the Sunday World had failed to prove he was a drug dealer and therefore libelled him in a 1999 article entitled ‘Traveller Drug King’.

That story arose after gardaí seized IR£500,000 of cannabis and amphetamines in August 1999, in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo. It was published on September 5, 1999, during Mr McDonagh’s seven-day detention for questioning in connection with that seizure.

Mr McDonagh, aged 46, of Cranmore Drive, Sligo, denied any involvement in drugs and was ultimately released without charge.

In defending his defamation proceedings, the Sunday World denied libel and pleaded the article was true. In 2008, the jury found the newspaper had failed to prove Mr McDonagh was a drug dealer and a loan shark.

In October 2015, the Court of Appeal found the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to the conclusion Mr McDonagh, “was, indeed, a drug dealer associated with the drugs seizure in Tubercurry”. It ordered a retrial on the loan-sharking claim.

The Supreme Court granted leave to Mr McDonagh to appeal the judgment after determining his case raised matters of general public importance.

During the appeal hearing yesterday, both sides accepted there would have to be a rehearing.