Court quashes appeal that overturned €900k libel win

THE country’s highest court has quashed a Court of Appeal ruling that stripped an alleged ‘drugs king’ of a €900,000 libel award.

The Supreme Court ruling means that Martin McDonagh, 53, will now have to be compensated for being branded ‘one of Ireland’s top drug dealers’ by a Sunday newspaper after a long legal battle.

It is 18 years since the article was published in the Sunday World in 1999, which identified the settled Traveller as ‘the mastermind of the largest drugs haul ever seen in the West of Ireland,’ the Supreme Court heard.

Mr McDonagh first filed a lawsuit against the newspaper in 2000 and was initially awarded €900,000 by a High Court jury in 2008. The jury rejected the newspaper’s description of him as a ‘Traveller drugs king’ – even though they also found that he was a criminal and a tax cheat.

The Sunday World instantly lodged an appeal against that decision in 2008 – a move that blocked Mr McDonagh from recovering the full sum awarded pending the appeal outcome. In the meantime, he collected an interim €90,000 payment.

In late 2015, a three-judge Court of Appeal overturned the €900,000 award on the basis that the newspaper had published information about Mr McDonagh’s alleged criminal activities under its constitutional right to freedom of expression.

Mr McDonagh went on to launch a Supreme Court bid to win back the money. Yesterday, seven Supreme Court judges ruled that although the original award was too high, Mr McDonagh is still entitled to be compensated.

Chief Justice Susan Denham said the Supreme Court will have to decide later whether the final decision on how much Mr McDonagh should receive will be made by the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal. It is the first time the Supreme Court has decided a libel case already considered by both the High Court and Court of Appeal.