Libel verdict overturned - Our collective perverse psyche

ANY child of seven instinctively knows right from wrong. It doesn’t mean they will always do the right thing, but they will invariably know when it should be done.

Not so adults, as evidenced by the jury in the Martin McDonagh defamation case, who awarded €900,000 in damages to a drug dealer against the newspaper that described him as such.

As last week’s Court of Appeal decision, which overturned the verdict, reveals, the jury found it less distasteful to enrich a drug dealer than to recognise the correctness of the newspaper’s position.