A LIBEL action against Cork Examiner Publications taken by a farmer arising out of an article in the Evening Echo three years ago was settled in the High Court yesterday.
Mr John O'Flaherty (68), of Watergrasshill, Co Cork, also described as an occasional writer, had claimed that an article in the Evening Echo implied that he had used a commemoration ceremony to stimulate support for paramilitary violence.
The court was told that Mr O'Flaherty was asked to give a speech at a commemoration ceremony for Arthur Mulcahy at Currabeha, Co Cork, on March 25th, 1993.
Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for Mr O'Flaherty, said Mulcahy died at the age of 22 years in 1921 when he was taken from his parents' house by the Black and Tans and shot.
Mr O'Flaherty claimed that the Evening Echo on March 26th, 1993, referred to him in an article headlined "A United Ireland of Sorts" by a journalist, Mr Pat Brosnan. He was not named, but he claimed that he was the "orator" referred to in the article.
The article said "This week the IRA achieved a united Ireland not politically, but an Ireland united in condemnation of and revulsion at, the barbaric bombing in Warrington which caused the appalling deaths of two young innocents.
Mr Brosnan's article referred to the burials of Jonathan Ball (3) and Tim Parry (12) as well as the bombings in Enniskillen and the killing of four workmen by loyalists in Co Derry.
The article continued. "Last Sunday, the very next day after little Jonathan Ball had his young life extinguished, a commemoration ceremony was held near Fermoy for a man who, 70 years ago, gave his life, at the age of 22 for Ireland.
"The memory of Arthur Mulcahy was desecrated by the orator who, among the lovely countryside of Currabeha, peddled rabble rousing anti British drivel. Yet there were ordinary decent Irish country people who listened to him. Warrington might never have happened.
"There are still among us people with twisted minds, like last Sunday's orator, who support, and promulgate, the distorted vision of an Ireland united at any price once they personally do not have to pay that price.
Mr O'Flaherty alleged that the words meant he believed in, and advocated, unification of Ireland by any means, including unlawful violence that he was supporter of and apologist for, unlawful violence, including murder that he used the commemoration to stimulate support for paramilitary violence and that he was callously indifferent to the victims of paramilitary violence and, in particular, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry.
The defence denied that the article was false or malicious. It denied that the words in question were written of Mr O'Flaherty, except in so far as they related to the commemoration ceremony, but not otherwise.
The newspaper denied that the words defamed Mr O'Flaherty in their ordinary or natural meaning or that the plaintiff had been damaged in his character and reputation or that he had been exposed to odium, ridicule and contempt as alleged, or at all. The newspaper pleaded that the words were fair comment on a matter of public interest.
The action was settled after the case had been opened before Mr Justice Kinlen and a jury.