{"id":135983,"date":"2025-11-12T17:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T17:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/135983\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T17:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T17:03:07","slug":"defamation-action-taken-against-denis-obrien-by-two-solicitors-opens-at-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/135983\/","title":{"rendered":"Defamation action taken against Denis O\u2019Brien by two solicitors opens at High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two lawyers claim they suffered an \u201cunjustified attack\u201d on their reputations in a press release issued on behalf of billionaire businessman Denis O\u2019Brien, the High Court has heard.<\/p>\n

Darragh Mackin and Gavin Booth, solicitors with Belfast human rights firm Phoenix Law, claim Mr O\u2019Brien defamed them in the press statement, issued in response to a report on the concentration of media ownership in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Mr Mackin and Mr Booth allege the press statement implied they acted for and received payment from the IRA and were unprofessional and lacked integrity.<\/p>\n

They claim they were defamed by a sentence in the October 26th, 2016, statement that said: \u201cSinn F\u00e9in\/IRA certainly got the report they paid for\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement was released on September 26th, 2016 on behalf of Mr O\u2019Brien by his spokesman James Morrissey, also a defendant in the case.<\/p>\n

The defendants deny the material defamed the plaintiffs or means what the plaintiffs allege.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien, who used to hold substantial stakes in radio and print media companies, and Mr Morrissey have advanced defences of truth and honest opinion, and fair and reasonable publication in a public interest matter.<\/p>\n

A trial hearing into the case opened on Wednesday before Mr Justice Tony O\u2019Connor and a jury of nine men and three women. Mr Mackin, Mr Booth, Mr O\u2019Brien and Mr Morrissey were present in court.<\/p>\n

Opening the solicitors\u2019 case, Tom Hogan SC, appearing with barrister Conleth Fegan, and instructed by Johnsons Solicitors, said that his client had spent years building substantial reputations as human rights lawyers.<\/p>\n

Mr Hogan said the essence of the case is about the vindication of the solicitors\u2019 reputations, following what they believe to be an unjustified attack by Mr O\u2019Brien and Mr Morrisey on their reputations.<\/p>\n

Mr Hogan said his side believe the words complained of mean that Mr Mackin and Mr Booth received payment and acted for the IRA, an unlawful organisation.<\/p>\n

Further to this, Mr Hogan said his side assert the words mean the solicitors weren\u2019t acting in line with their professional obligations, lacked integrity, are unfit to be solicitors, and that they were unprofessional and dishonourable.<\/p>\n

He told the jury that ultimately, they must decide the meaning of the words.<\/p>\n

Noting the IRA\u2019s role in \u201cshocking atrocities\u201d during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Mr Hogan said it \u201calmost goes without saying\u201d that suggesting someone was paid by or acted for the IRA is defamatory. He added that this will ultimately be a matter for the jury.<\/p>\n

Mr Hogan explained the report on Irish media concentration \u2013 which preceded Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s statement \u2013 was commissioned by Lynn Boylan, then an MEP for Sinn F\u00e9in. Mr Mackin and Mr Booth authored the report alongside human rights barristers Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Jonathan Price KC, Mr Hogan said.<\/p>\n

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Mr Hogan said it was fair to say the report was critical of Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s ownership of media in Ireland, among other things.<\/p>\n

At the time of the report, Mr O\u2019Brien was the largest shareholder in the Independent News and Media group, publisher of the Irish Independent and Belfast Telegraph, among other titles, Mr Hogan said.<\/p>\n

In addition, Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s Communicorp company owned Newstalk and Today FM, among other regional titles, Mr Hogan said.<\/p>\n

The case continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two lawyers claim they suffered an \u201cunjustified attack\u201d on their reputations in a press release issued on behalf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-135983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}