{"id":205450,"date":"2025-11-28T21:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/205450\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T21:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:53:13","slug":"denis-obrien-to-appeal-jurys-award-in-defamation-action-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/205450\/","title":{"rendered":"Denis O\u2019Brien to appeal jury\u2019s award in defamation action \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denis O\u2019Brien<\/a> intends to appeal a High Court<\/a> jury\u2019s combined award of \u20ac823,500 to two lawyers the businessman defamed in a 2016 press release, the court has heard. <\/p>\n

Last week, the jury found that Mr O\u2019Brien and his long-time spokesman James Morrissey defamed Darragh Mackin and Gavin Booth in the statement that implied the solicitors acted for the IRA.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien and Mr Morrissey were ordered to pay the lawyers \u20ac411,750 each to compensate the damage done to the solicitors\u2019 reputations arising from the defamation. The jury\u2019s award of damages fell within the category for \u201cvery serious\u201d instances of defamation.<\/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

The solicitors, partners at Belfast firm Phoenix Law, brought the proceedings against Mr O\u2019Brien and Mr Morrissey complaining of a sentence in the statement that read: \u201cSinn F\u00e9in\/IRA certainly got the report they paid for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien 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, which was commissioned by then Sinn F\u00e9in MEP Lynn Boylan.<\/p>\n

At the time of the report, Mr O\u2019Brien owned substantial stakes in Irish media companies.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Darren Lehane SC, appearing for the defendants with barrister Joe Holt, and instructed by Meagher Solicitors, told Mr Justice Tony O\u2019Connor that his clients intend to appeal the jury\u2019s award of damages to the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Denis O\u2019Brien was a dominant player in Irish media world when defamatory statement releasedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Lehane said he was applying for a stay in respect of the jury\u2019s award of damages.<\/p>\n

Setting out the appeal in general terms, Mr Lehane said the jury\u2019s award of general damages \u2013 \u20ac270,000 to each solicitor \u2013 was at the \u201cvery top of the scale\u201d. <\/p>\n

According to Supreme Court guidelines, awards of between \u20ac200,000 to \u20ac300,000 are reserved for \u201cvery serious\u201d instances of defamation. A jury should only award more than \u20ac300,000 in exceptional cases. <\/p>\n

Mr Lehane said their appeal would contend that having regard to the evidence before the jury, the award shouldn\u2019t have been at the range it was at. <\/p>\n

\"\"If Irish households are so rich, why does it feel like an illusion?<\/p>\n

On this week\u2019s Inside Business, host Ciar\u00e1n Hancock is joined in studio by senior lecturer in housing at TUD Dublin, Lorcan Sirr.The episode starts with some recent good news, that the net wealth of Irish households is nearly \u20ac1.3 trillion, or an average of \u20ac228,000 each.Sounds good but as Lorcan explains, this is an illusion. He argues that Ireland isn\u2019t really a wealthy country in spite of what the statistics tell us. Lorcan also touches on the housing crisis in its many forms and goes through some possible solutions. And he does have some solutions. He also explains why he thinks judicial reviews of planning decisions haven\u2019t caused the housing crisis. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.<\/p>\n

Mr Lehane said the jury\u2019s award of aggravated damages \u2013 \u20ac141,750 to each solicitor \u2013 was \u201cobjectively disproportionate\u201d because it represented a 52 per cent increase in the total award. <\/p>\n

Mr Lehane noted that the jury\u2019s award was one of the largest payouts in a defamation case in recent years. <\/p>\n

Counsel said they had a bona fide appeal, and were entitled to ask for a stay. <\/p>\n

Tom Hogan SC, appearing for the solicitors with barrister Conan Fegan, and instructed by Johnsons Solicitors, noted that focus of the appeal will be on the jury\u2019s award. He said he welcomed the defendants\u2019 acceptance of the defamation.<\/p>\n

Mr Hogan opposed the application for a stay, and said the test for setting aside a jury\u2019s award was \u201ca very high bar\u201d. Counsel said Mr O\u2019Brien side must convince the Court of Appeal that no reasonable jury should have made such an award. <\/p>\n

Mr Hogan submitted that the chances of the appeal against the general damages award succeeding were slim. The appeal would suggest that saying someone worked on behalf of the IRA was not a serious defamation, he submitted. <\/p>\n

He also opposed the contention that there were grounds to appeal the award of aggravated damages, pointing to the manner in which the defence was run. <\/p>\n

Mr Hogan submitted that prior to the appeal, his clients should each be paid \u20ac300,000 arising from the award of damages, and a similar amount in legal costs. He said the legal costs in the case were \u201cobviously very significant\u201d. <\/p>\n

Responding, Mr Holt said a payment of \u20ac300,000 would represent about 72 per cent of the overall award \u2013 a figure \u201cway out of line\u201d when compared with other cases. <\/p>\n

Mr Holt submitted that if his clients are successful, the costs of the appeal would offset the costs of the High Court action. <\/p>\n

Mr Justice O\u2019Connor granted a stay on the execution of judgment against the defendants, but directed they pay the solicitors \u20ac211,750 each within 28 days. The judge refused a stay on legal costs. <\/p>\n

The judge said the defendants accept that they defamed the solicitors, and the jury\u2019s verdict should not be \u201cdiminished\u201d in any way. He said the best way forward was to grant the stay sought with the condition of a payout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denis O\u2019Brien intends to appeal a High Court jury\u2019s combined award of \u20ac823,500 to two lawyers the businessman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,36941,13,14,6,10476,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-205450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-denis-obrien","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-high-court","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","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\/115629550318562285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205450","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=205450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}