Former 2FM DJ Eoghan McDermott launches legal action against Twitter

Eoghan McDermott filed papers against Twitter International Unlimited Company on Tuesday.

Eoghan McDermott quit his role co-hosting the RTÉ station’s breakfast show in March of 2021. Picture: Kinlan Photography.

Former 2fm DJ Eoghan McDermott has broken his silence after suddenly quitting his job with the station a year ago.

Mr McDermott has published a legal letter via social media which he hopes “can close this chapter” regarding false allegations that had been made against him about a relationship he had with a young woman.

The former RTÉ broadcaster, who yesterday launched a legal action in the High Court against Twitter, took to his account on the same site for the first time since leaving the broadcaster and said that several months ago “false allegations were made against me”.

“Despite not being investigated or verified, these allegations were spread widely, the effects of which I am still processing. I hope the below can close this chapter,” he wrote.

The legal letter states that a woman “is willing to make a number of clarifications” in the hope of bringing matters to a conclusion.

Those clarifications concern a number of false allegations made via a Twitter account in March 2021 - the same month Mr McDermott left 2FM - and the posts of which have since been deleted. The letter states that those allegations concerned a relationship the woman and Mr McDermott had been in sometime around October of 2010.

“Our client accepts that there were a number of serious falsehoods contained in her publications which have caused distress to your client and those closest to him,” the legal letter on behalf of the woman states, adding that the woman “sincerely regrets publishing the inaccuracies contained in those publications”.

It adds “for the record” that the woman accepts “without reservation” that she was above the age of consent at the time of her relationship with Mr McDermott, contrary to her original claim.

“She acknowledges the severity of this false claim and retracts it unequivocally,” it says, adding an admission that the woman had “falsely claimed” that Mr McDermott “had fled the country on account of these claims”.

It further states that an accusation by the woman that Mr McDermott’s family had exerted influence over An Garda Siochana with the intention of perverting the course of justice “was inaccurate and unfounded” and that a further allegation that he had engaged in illegal drug use on a work-related video “was entirely false”.

“Our client regrets her actions and acknowledges that her actions have caused, and continue to cause, detriment and distress to your client and to those close to him,” it states.

It adds an acknowledgement that Mr McDermott “fundamentally disputes” the woman’s version of the events which occurred during their relationship.

Mr McDermott said he would not be commenting further “with consideration for the other party to this dispute”.

The DJ had yesterday filed papers against Twitter International Unlimited Company.

It is unclear what precisely that action relates to.

His solicitors, Dublin-based firm Harringtons, confirmed that Mr McDermott had taken the case, but added that he “has no further comment to make at this time”.

Twitter had not responded to a request for comment on the matter at the time of publication.

The 38-year-old quit his role co-hosting the RTÉ station’s breakfast show in March of 2021 following a brief period of unscheduled annual leave after more than six years with the broadcaster.

He had previously presented with Spin FM, along with a period working in London, before joining RTÉ in 2014.

Mr McDermott’s breakfast show with comedian Doireann Garrihy had been one of the station’s stronger performers before his sudden departure.