Byrne thought TD had gone ‘doolally’
RTÉ’S Claire Byrne thought a Labour TD had ‘gone doolally’ the moment he claimed on live radio that a Sinn Féin official was a member of the IRA Army Council, she has told the High Court.
Ms Byrne was called to the witness box to defend the station against claims by Nicky Kehoe that he was defamed in 2015 by Joe Costello.
Mr Costello – then a Labour TD – spoke of ‘a member of a criminal organisation [who] like a puppet master… controlled how Sinn Féin councillors [on Dublin City Council] voted on important decisions’.
Later on in the broadcast, another panellist Eoin Ó Broin said that Mr Costello was referring to Nicky Kehoe.
Mr Kehoe, who is suing RTÉ seeking ‘significant compensation’, yesterday admitted under cross-examination that the offending remarks were ‘blown out of the water’ by his Sinn Féin colleague Mr Ó Broin during the RTÉ Radio 1 broadcast on October 24, 2015.
Following Mr Costello’s remarks on Saturday With Claire Byrne, Mr Ó Broin had defended Mr Kehoe, the court heard. Mr Kehoe did not participate in the programme himself.
He is suing RTÉ in the belief that Ms Byrne ‘let my name go across 250,000 people’, he told the court.
Cian Ferriter SC, for RTÉ, put it to Mr Kehoe that he hadn’t wanted ‘just an apology’ as his solicitors had written to RTÉ in November 2015 seeking ‘proposals for substantial compensation’. Pressed on his compensation demand, Mr Kehoe said: ‘That’s what my legal team said I’m entitled to.’
When asked if Mr Ó Broin ‘blew it [the allegations about him] out of the water’, Mr Kehoe replied: ‘He did. But he didn’t stop my name going across 250,000 people.’ Other RTÉ presenters would have handled the live radio discussion differently, Mr Kehoe claimed.
Asked by Judge Bernard Barton what Ms Byrne should have said or done, Mr Kehoe said: ‘She should have said, “Eoin Ó Broin stop, don’t be mentioning names here”.’
Opening RTÉ’s case, Mr Ferriter SC said Mr Kehoe is a ‘notorious former IRA terrorist’, adding: ‘That legacy still remains today and he can’t get away from that.’
Stepping into the box, Ms Byrne, 42, recalled her career from the BBC, ITN and Channel 5 to her latest role with RTÉ. When she went to air with a panel including Mr Costello in October, 2015, a report co-authored by MI5 and the PSNI about paramilitaries was the ‘talking point’ of the week, she said.
She hadn’t anticipated what the Labour TD would say and she’d instantly felt his surprise remarks were ‘outrageous’, she said.
‘I thought he’d gone doolally, to be honest with you,’ she told the court. ‘I was sitting there thinking, “Where is this coming from?” What I expected him to do was represent government policy. What he did was bring it down to local politics… My tone [to Joe Costello] was incredulous because that’s how I felt at the time.’
Ms Byrne said she generally has no problem ‘cutting off’ any guests when it becomes necessary for legal reasons. She said: ‘I’ve done that many times without fear or favour.’
Niall Counihan, who has worked with Mr Kehoe on an anti-drugs community policing board in Cabra, told the court he had been ‘flabbergasted’ to hear the allegations. He said: ‘I approached him, [and] said, “Nicky what’s the story, the word going round is you are back in the IRA?” He said, “Not a chance”.’
The case resumes on Tuesday.
‘Felt his remarks were outrageous’