Gossip columnist Terry Keane said yesterday that she believed words used by journalist John Waters in an address at the Abbey Theatre before the start of the play Medea two years ago were a gender-based assault on women.
She told Mr Justice Kearns and a High Court jury that the words were intemperate, insulting and "obsessively cracked". She was giving evidence on the the third day of the libel action by Mr Waters against the Sunday Times over an article by Ms Keane about his speech in the Abbey. Ms Keane said she had been told of it the following day by journalist and author June Levine.
The action is over an article in the "Terry Keane Column" of the Sunday Times on June 18th, 2000. Mr Waters claims the words used meant he was a bad father and an unsympathetic person in particular in relation to his daughter, Roisin, and her needs. Roisin is the six-year-old daughter of Mr Waters and singer Sinead O'Connor with whom he had a brief relationship.
The article, referring to Mr Waters's Abbey speech, said:"His un-credo makes me cringe and my sympathy goes out to his toddler, Roisin. When she becomes a teenager and I hope, believes in love, should she suffer from mood swings or any affliction of womanhood, she will be truly goosed. And better not ask dad for tea or sympathy. . .or help."
In its defence, Times Newspapers Ltd denies the words bore the meanings claimed and says they were fair comment on a matter of public interest. It is also pleaded that the words were true in substance and in fact.
Ms Keane, who went into the witness box late yesterday afternoon, described herself as a retired journalist, having retired in the last few months. She said she had worked with The Irish Times, Sunday Press and Sunday Independent, where she was a gossip columnist. In 1998, she joined the Sunday Times on a two-year contract but was unable to fulfil that because of illness.
She said she had known Ms Levine - who was the first witness for the defence - for 40 years and they were very close friends. She (Ms Keane) had not attended the production of Medea involved in the case but had attended another production. Ms Levine came to her house the day after Mr Waters's speech for a chat. She had not come specifically to discuss what Mr Waters had said.
Ms Levine was "reeling" from the previous night in the Abbey and was extremely angry and upset at what she had heard from Mr Waters. She (Ms Keane) was not surprised by the intemperance of the words used by Mr Waters. She was familiar with Mr Waters's columns about men's rights and his grievances and the apparent damage that had been done to him by the custody case (relating to his daughter) he had gone through.
She scribbled down notes from what Ms Levine told her. Subsequently, she believed, she contacted Ms Levine again on the phone. She assumed Ms Levine was speaking from her notes (taken at the Abbey). She thought what Mr Waters had said was intemperate, violent, unpleasant and highly insulting to women. He had "overshot his own standards" in his intemperance in what he was saying viz-a-viz men and women.
Ms Keane said Ms Levine was an accurate journalist and she had no reason to believe she was speaking anything but the truth. She (Ms Keane) described Mr Waters's words as intemperate and insulting and obsessively "cracked". Asked by Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for Mr Waters, if she had also used the word "cracked," she said she had - "as an adjective for cracked pot".
Asked by Mr Eoin McCullough SC, for the defence, about the use of the word "masculinist" in the column, Ms Keane said she would have thought Mr Waters would have described himself as that with pride.
Earlier, Ms Levine, in her evidence, said she attended Mr Waters's speech in the Abbey and became so angry with what he was saying that she wrote notes. She noted down three passages which she found upsetting. They were about women being the main cause of divorce and of suicide in Ireland and abuse of children. She was hurt and angered. It was a general onslaught against women. The speech was so provocative that she felt a little time could have been provided to discussing it.
She got a copy of the speech and put it in a safe place but could not find it for a few weeks. She talked to Ms Keane about Mr Waters's speech the following morning.
Under cross-examination by Mr Cooney, Ms Levine said her husband was well-known psychiatrist Dr Ivor Browne. She knew Mr Waters had consulted him professionally in relation to the difficulties about his daughter and Ms O'Connor.
When she told Ms Keane about Mr Waters's speech next day, she (Ms Levine) had the passage of the speech "off by heart". She had listened to it in the Abbey and written it down. She was satisfied that what Ms Keane had written was accurate. She agreed it was not a full reproduction of what was said.
Asked if she had deliberately omitted to tell Ms Keane of words at the start and end of the passage quoted, Ms Levine said she did not think she did. She probably did not think them of any importance. She had the words "off by heart" for quite a while.
When counsel put it that she remembered 80-90 per cent of the passage but could not remember the qualifying words and the commencement and conclusion of it, Ms Levine replied:"Do you not think 80-90 per cent is pretty good?" Counsel said the omitted words changed the sense of the words quoted by Ms Keane. Ms Levine said she obviously did not remember them.
She knew Ms Keane had been working with the Sunday Independent previously and if she had still been working for that newspaper she would not have given the words to her. She thought the whole case was "much ado about nothing". Asked by counsel for the Sunday Times if she felt she misled Ms Keane, she said she thought she must have misled her.
Mr Waters, who was in the witness box for the third day yesterday, told the court that he had turned down an offer from the Sunday Times to write a letter of reply to Ms Keane's article because it would have meant a public squabble with the newspaper about "my private capacity as a father". He said he would debate any other issue with her but that would have meant he would be dragged into a controversy about something which did not have a public dimension, his fatherhood.
Mr Waters said the Sunday Times presented a very serious misrepresentation of his statement. His speech in the Abbey had run to 7,000 words. The column was about 300 words. To deal with his speech in that way was inappropriate.
Ms Keane was "sneering" at him through his daughter - that hopefully Roisin would not be like her father and would believe in love.
The statement attributed to him "I don't believe in love" was an extraordinary one and one he was glad he did not make it . It was meant to mean he was not capable of loving a woman.
The Irish Times Religious Affairs Correspondent. Mr Patsy McGarry, called as a witness by Mr Waters's side, said he read the Sunday Times article. It would have been perceived as deeply injurious to Mr Waters's reputation. It would have conveyed to the reader that he was a "freak".
The hearing continues today.