Maria Bailey takes defamation action over Swing-gate
FORMER TD Maria Bailey has initiated defamation proceedings against the publishers of the ‘Irish Mirror’ over its coverage of ‘Swing-gate’.
The High Court action is understood to relate to two articles published last year about her controversial personal injuries claim against a Dublin hotel after she fell off a swing on its premises.
The 44-year-old’s lawsuit against the Dean Hotel on Harcourt Street caused considerable controversy.
In legal documents filed on her behalf, she claimed the hotel was negligent because the swing was unsupervised and there were no instructions on how to use it.
But she withdrew the claim after the Irish Independent revealed she had run a 10km race within three weeks of the incident, even though her endorsement of claim stated she had been unable to run for three months.
The case attracted much publicity and now the former Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire has initiated proceedings against one news outlet which covered the story.
A defamation action was initiated on Wednesday in the High Court against MGN Limited, the publishing company for the ‘Irish Mirror’ newspaper and website. The precise grievance Ms Bailey has against the publisher has not yet been outlined to the court.
However, it is understood Ms Bailey is unhappy with language used to describe her illfated personal injuries action in two columns published by MGN last year.
The first of these was published a year ago this week and Ms Bailey’s case was initiated just inside the statute of limitations for defamation.
As of yet no papers have been filed in the case. Ms Bailey is being represented by Osbornes Solicitors, a firm based in Naas, Co Kildare.
The ‘Irish Mirror’ declined to comment, but is expected to defend the action.
The ‘Swing-gate’ controversy blew up in the middle of the local elections campaign last May and some in Fine Gael blamed it for the party’s poorer than expected performance.
Last November Fine Gael deselected Ms Bailey as a general election candidate after a motion by party members in her constituency asked for an urgent review of candidates.
The incident with the swing occurred when Ms Bailey was on a night out with friends in July 2015. She was a county councillor at the time.
The politician sat on one of a set of swings in the hallway outside Sophie’s, a rooftop restaurant and bar in the Dean Hotel, but fell backwards off it while having her photo taken.
A legal filing said she hurt her head, hip and back and was “dazed and shocked”. It said she was diagnosed with concussion, soft-tissue injuries and contusions and advised to attend physiotherapy.
Ms Bailey would later list 18 different particulars of alleged negligence against the hotel.
But the hotel defended the claim, alleging in a legal filing that Ms Bailey had items in both hands and that if any injury was suffered this was due to her own negligence.
Ms Bailey later admitted in a radio interview with RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke that she had a beer in one hand and was reaching for her friend’s bottle of wine when she fell.
She attempted to defend her claim and said she was genuinely hurt in the fall. But the interview further inflamed the controversy.
Ms Bailey was represented in the personal injuries case by Madigan Solicitors, the firm where Culture Minister Josepha Madigan worked prior to joining the Cabinet in 2017.
An internal Fine Gael inquiry cleared Ms Madigan of any wrongdoing. It found she assisted Ms Bailey with her Personal Injuries Assessment Board application, but did not deal with the subsequent legal proceedings.