A solicitor suing Denis O\u2019Brien over an allegedly defamatory press release has told a High Court jury that the businessman \u201cplayed the man, not the ball\u201d in making the complained-of statement, and that it led to \u201cgrave consequences\u201d. <\/p>\n
Darragh Mackin was giving evidence on the second day of the defamation action, in which he and fellow solicitor Gavin Booth claim Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement implied they acted for and received payment from the IRA (Irish Republican Army).<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien and his co-defendant, public relations consultant James Morrissey, deny the material defamed the solicitors or means what the solicitors allege.<\/p>\n
Mr Mackin told the jury of nine men and three women on Thursday that Mr O\u2019Brien wasn\u2019t a \u201cfaceless troll on Twitter\u201d, but rather one of Ireland\u2019s most successful businessmen. This, he said, means that people listen to Mr O\u2019Brien, and made the statement more damaging for him. <\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement was released on October 26th, 2016, by Mr Morrissey.<\/p>\n
He made the statement in response to a report on media ownership in Ireland. Mr Mackin and Mr Booth were credited as co-authors of the report. <\/p>\n
The solicitors claim they were defamed by a sentence in Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement that said: \u201cSinn F\u00e9in\/IRA certainly got the report they paid for\u201d.<\/p>\n
Continuing his evidence on Thursday, Mr Mackin told the jury of the professional and personal impact of Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement on him. \u201c[Mr O\u2019Brien] played the man, not the ball, and the consequences of that were grave,\u201d Mr Mackin said. <\/p>\n
Mr Mackin\u2019s senior counsel Tom Hogan, appearing with barrister Conan Fegan and instructed by Johnsons Solicitors, read into the record a pre-litigation sent to Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s side seeking a retraction and apology arising from the statement.<\/p>\n
Asked if he has ever received an apology or retraction, Mr Mackin said: \u201cNo, to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting that he has acted for people bereaved by IRA murders, Mr Mackin said was left wondering how the allegation would impact his relationship with clients. <\/p>\n
Within legal circles, he said that people were generally supportive of him following the publication of the statement, but said that others kept their distance. <\/p>\n
Mr Mackin said that his wife, who is also a lawyer, worried about her professional reputation following the statement. <\/p>\n
Mr Mackin also said that the allegation impacted his relationship with his grandmother, who he said he was close to, and was a \u201cgreat influence\u201d on him. Mr Mackin said that in the period prior to her death, she was left worrying about his wellbeing arising from the allegation. <\/p>\n
Mr Mackin said that didn\u2019t want to be in court as a plaintiff, that it was \u201cembarrassing\u201d to see the case in court lists \u2013 but added that he refused to let Mr O\u2019Brien say what he did without repercussions. <\/p>\n
Darren Lehane SC, appearing for Mr O\u2019Brien and Mr Morrisey with barrister Joe Holt, and instructed by Meagher Solicitors, put to Mr Mackin his clients do not agree with what the plaintiffs said the complained-of words mean. <\/p>\n
Counsel said his clients assert that the words mean the report was unfair. <\/p>\n
Mr Mackin disagreed when it was put to him that he didn\u2019t make any complaint in the proceedings <\/b>with the defence\u2019s <\/b>suggestion that the report was unfair or biased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A solicitor suing Denis O\u2019Brien over an allegedly defamatory press release has told a High Court jury that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[101182,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,24696,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-178772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-alan-betson","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-mam","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115543415450059201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}