{"id":193674,"date":"2025-11-22T03:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T03:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/193674\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T03:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T03:00:18","slug":"denis-obrien-was-a-dominant-player-in-irish-media-world-when-defamatory-statement-released-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/193674\/","title":{"rendered":"Denis O\u2019Brien was a dominant player in Irish media world when defamatory statement released \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denis O\u2019Brien<\/a> was still a dominant player in the Irish media landscape when he issued the press release that saw him spend much of the last two weeks sitting at the back of a Dublin courtroom. <\/p>\n

On October 26th, 2016, James Morrissey<\/a>, a journalist-turned-public relations consultant and long-time spokesman for O\u2019Brien, sent the statement to various media outlets, responding to a recently published study on media ownership in Ireland. <\/p>\n

At the time, O\u2019Brien was the largest shareholder in Independent News & Media<\/a> (INM<\/a>), the publisher of the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent<\/a>, and he controlled Communicorp<\/a>, the operator of various radio stations throughout the State. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s significant stake in the Irish media landscape was the subject of criticism in the study, which had been commissioned by then-Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> MEP Lynn Boylan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report concluded by noting \u201cgrave concerns\u201d arising from the high concentration of media ownership in Ireland, \u201cin particular regarding the position of INM and Mr Denis O\u2019Brien\u201d. <\/p>\n

The report also highlighted what it described as O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201csustained and regular threats of legal action\u201d against outlets and journalists reporting on his business activities.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien responded sharply to the criticism in his statement, and suggested that the study was an example of Sinn F\u00e9in pushing a political agenda: \u201cAn \u2018independent study\u2019 commissioned by a leading member of Sinn F\u00e9in? Hardly.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Denis O\u2019Brien and spokesman must pay \u20ac411,750 to each of two solicitors they defamed, jury findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was a sentence in the third-to-last paragraph of the statement, however, that saw two co-authors of the report level a claim of defamation against O\u2019Brien and Morrissey. <\/p>\n

On Friday, a High Court<\/a> jury found that words contained in the statement, \u201cSinn F\u00e9in\/IRA<\/a> certainly got the report they paid for\u201d, defamed two Belfast-based solicitors, Darragh Mackin and Gavin Booth.<\/p>\n

The solicitors had argued \u2013 and the jury ultimately agreed \u2013 that those words meant they acted for an unlawful organisation, the IRA.<\/p>\n

\n

He played the man, not the ball, and the consequences of that were grave<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0 Darragh Mackin on O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O\u2019Brien and Morrissey had denied the material defamed the solicitors. It was their case that the words meant the report was not fair or balanced, and served to further Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien has long since dispensed with his interests in the Irish media landscape: he sold his INM shares in 2019 to Belgian conglomerate Mediahuis<\/a>, and in 2021, German firm Bauer Media Group<\/a> bought out Communicorp.<\/p>\n

But the lengthy statement \u2013 and the defamation suit that arose from it \u2013 led the jury of nine men and three women to consider evidence against a backdrop of the largely-forgotten political debate that swirled around his once significant shareholding in the industry.<\/p>\n

Booth was a paralegal at the Belfast firm KRW Law when Lynn Boylan initially got in touch about working on a report on the concentration of media ownership in Ireland. <\/p>\n

The report was to be paid for by Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s European Parliament grouping, GUE\/NGL. Booth said he was delighted with the proposition \u2013 he was starting to attract work for his firm, developing his own career in law.<\/p>\n

Media ownership in Ireland was a cross-party issue at the time, Booth told the jury.<\/p>\n

As work progressed, Booth\u2019s colleague at KRW, Mackin, got involved. Two London-based barristers, Caoilfhionn Gallagher<\/a> and Jonathan Price, were also drafted in to work on the report.<\/p>\n

\"\"How AI is beginning to wreak havoc in the jobs market <\/p>\n

Mackin told the jury he was aware of debate surrounding the potential introduction of legislation aimed at curbing media ownership in Ireland at the time they were commissioned to carry out the report. The defence asserted that Sinn F\u00e9in was agitating for such legislation to apply retroactively to O\u2019Brien\u2019s media assets.<\/p>\n

In early October 2016, the media ownership report was launched in Leipzig, Germany, and then some weeks later at the Cliff Townhouse, on St Stephen\u2019s Green, Dublin. <\/p>\n

Mackin said the report was generally well received. Booth spoke of the report being a proud moment for him \u2013 it was in the papers, he had been photographed at the launch. <\/p>\n

Morrissey had a different view of the report. Morrissey, who worked as a reporter and editor before moving into public relations, labelled it \u201chopelessly biased\u201d and \u201cclearly targeted\u201d at Mr O\u2019Brien and INM. <\/p>\n

Morrissey made various complaints. O\u2019Brien was mentioned in the report 44 times, but RT\u00c9 only six, he told the jury. It ignored the prominence of British news media in Ireland. Roy Greenslade, a British journalist and self-professed IRA supporter, was a significant contributor to the report, and was later sent an advance copy of the report, he said. <\/p>\n

In Morrissey\u2019s view, the report arose from a \u201cvery, very fractious history\u201d between INM and \u201cthe republican movement\u201d \u2013 or \u201cSinn F\u00e9in, IRA\u201d.<\/p>\n

For many decades, Morrissey said, editors at the Sunday Independent \u2013 the group\u2019s flagship title \u2013 took a \u201ctrenchant stand\u201d against violence on the island of Ireland, with the paper regularly condemning \u201crepublican activities\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien had been \u201ccaught in the crossfire\u201d of this fractious history, Morrissey said.<\/p>\n

Prior to the report, Lynn Boylan had made a complaint to the Press Council about INM, Morrissey pointed out. Boylan had \u201cstoked up\u201d the co-authors to publish the report, he claimed.<\/p>\n

\n

Mackin and Booth voiced specific concerns about the impact of the statement in context of their careers working with people impacted by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Booth appeared emotional in the witness box when he spoke of the \u201cdisgusting\u201d statement, and specifically, the complained-of sentence.<\/p>\n

He said that he\u2019d never been in trouble \u2013 at the time, he\u2019d made it to his late 20s without getting so much as a speeding ticket, he said \u2013 but suddenly he was being labelled as an IRA sympathiser.<\/p>\n

Mackin and Booth voiced specific concerns about the impact of the statement in context of their careers working with people impacted by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

They said that they had worked for people across the community in the North \u2013 including ex-paramilitaries and those bereaved by the conflict \u2013 but worried that being accused of aligning with the IRA could adversely impact those client relationships \u2013 or worse, put them in danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played the man, not the ball, and the consequences of that were grave,\u201d Mackin said of O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement. <\/p>\n

According to Morrissey, O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement aimed to rebut the \u201cimbalance\u201d and \u201cfalsifications\u201d in the \u201cstitch-up\u201d report. He said he stood over \u201cevery word\u201d of the statement.<\/p>\n

He strongly denied the statement was an attempt to discredit the report and its authors at a time when O\u2019Brien was seeking to add Celtic Media Group \u2013 the publisher of several local newspapers \u2013 to his stable of media assets.<\/p>\n

It was put to Morrissey that if he hadn\u2019t included \u201cIRA\u201d in the complained-of sentence, the proceedings could have been avoided.<\/p>\n

In the \u201cmurky world of the past\u201d, Morrissey replied, Sinn F\u00e9in and the IRA \u201cwere one and the same\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the end, neither Boylan nor O\u2019Brien were called to the witness box \u2013 a fact jumped on by the defence and the plaintiffs respectively.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien instead watched on from the back of Court 25, at times seeming agitated.<\/p>\n

Sitting in a bench beyond him, survivors of the Stardust tragedy \u2013 including well-known campaigner Antoinette Keegan \u2013 attended in support of the plaintiffs. Mackin last year represented bereaved families at an inquest into the 48 deaths at the nightclub in Artane, Dublin, in 1981. <\/p>\n

The jury was ultimately tasked with answering one key question to determine the case \u2013 what did the words complained of mean?<\/p>\n

Other defences fell away during the course of the trial. <\/p>\n

The defence had asserted Mackin and Booth falsely claimed authorship of the report, and weren\u2019t identified by O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement, but this argument was eventually dropped. <\/p>\n

In the absence of sufficient evidence, Mr Justice Tony O\u2019Connor did not allow defences of qualified privilege and fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest to go to the jury.<\/p>\n

After two hours and 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury decided that Mackin and O\u2019Brien had been seriously defamed by the statement. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien and Morrissey showed little reaction as the verdict was announced. They left promptly when the judge vacated the bench.<\/p>\n

They must now pay the solicitors a total of \u20ac823,500 in damages, plus their legal costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denis O\u2019Brien was still a dominant player in the Irish media landscape when he issued the press release…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[69910,9,10,107686,107685,36941,13,14,6,10476,107684,107683,6439,107682,11,12,90929,15,16,67948,5,47,17255,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-193674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bauer-media","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-caoilfhionn-gallagher","12":"tag-communicorp","13":"tag-denis-obrien","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-high-court","18":"tag-independent-news-media","19":"tag-inm","20":"tag-irish-republican-army","21":"tag-james-morrissey","22":"tag-latest-news","23":"tag-latestnews","24":"tag-lynn-boylan","25":"tag-main-news","26":"tag-mainnews","27":"tag-mediahuis","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-sinn-fein","30":"tag-sunday-independent","31":"tag-top-stories","32":"tag-topstories","33":"tag-world","34":"tag-world-news","35":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115591120650673047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193674","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=193674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}