{"id":305574,"date":"2026-02-19T05:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305574\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:50:07","slug":"five-travellers-settle-e75000-defamation-claims-over-refusal-of-entry-to-howth-restaurant-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305574\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Travellers settle \u20ac75,000 defamation claims over refusal of entry to Howth restaurant \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five members of the Traveller community<\/a> who were refused entry to a north Co Dublin<\/a> restaurant have settled \u20ac75,000 claims for defamation of character against the restaurant and its security company.<\/p>\n

Barrister Dermot Francis Sheehan, who appeared with O\u2019Hanrahan Solicitors for the claimants, on Tuesday told Judge Ken Connolly in the Circuit Civil Court<\/a> the claims against Howth<\/a> Railway Refreshment Rooms had been settled. The compensation involved was not divulged in court.<\/p>\n

The five complainants were previously awarded damages against the restaurant in the District Court<\/a> for discrimination. They then pursued defamation claims against the restaurant and the security company, Security Partners, of Mountmellick, Co Laois. <\/p>\n

Pat and Margaret Gavin, of Baskin Green, Swords<\/a>, and John and Kathleen McDonagh, of Sillogue Green, Swords, and Mary Reilly, also of Sillogue Green, Swords, made reservations at the restaurant on April 9th, 2022. <\/p>\n

They alleged they were refused admission and told at the door their reservations had been cancelled and they were \u201cnot getting in tonight\u201d.<\/p>\n

All five claimed they were shocked and humiliated by being held out, in front of others, as disreputable, dangerous and people of bad character not suitable for admission and who may have been barred.<\/p>\n

The five alleged that insofar as any qualified privilege might be claimed by the defendants, this was vitiated by malice in that they were members of the Traveller community. <\/p>\n

It was argued that the alleged statements were prohibited conduct under the Equal Status Acts. Each plaintiff specifically claimed damages up to the court\u2019s jurisdiction of \u20ac75,000.<\/p>\n

In a full defence to all of the claims, the Howth Railway Refreshment Rooms stated that in February 2023 the restaurant issued the five with apologies in writing without admission of any liability for defamation. <\/p>\n

The restaurant claimed the District Court had directed it to pay each of them \u20ac900 as compensation in the discrimination proceedings, paid in January 2023, which the restaurant considered as adequate compensation for any alleged defamation that it denied having made.<\/p>\n

Howth Railway Refreshment Rooms said any words complained of were said by a doorman at the entrance of the restaurant only in the presence of the other parties to the table reservation that was made.<\/p>\n

The judge struck out the five claims with no order as to legal costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five members of the Traveller community who were refused entry to a north Co Dublin restaurant have settled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13553,5721,615,7725,61,60,43,30951,42856],"class_list":{"0":"post-305574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-circuit-court","9":"tag-district-court","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-howth","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-swords","16":"tag-travellers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305574","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=305574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}