A FORMER chairman of the Irish Greyhound Owners and Breeders Federation (IGOBF) who "was grossly libelled" by an article in a sporting newspaper was awarded £15,000 and damages at Nenagh Circuit Court yesterday.
Mr John McGrath (62), a farmer from Outrath, Cahir, Co Tipperary, was also awarded costs by Judge Diarmuid Sheridan, who granted a stay in the event of an appeal.
Mr McGrath, who also breeds greyhounds, brought an action for libel against Mr Jerry Desmond, of Greyhound and Sporting Press Ltd and as chief executive of the Irish Coursing Club and Powerstown Park Ltd, Clonmel.
Mr McGrath claimed that on February 14th, 1991, the defendant falsely and maliciously wrote and printed and published or caused to be written, printed and published on the front page of the Sporting Press, while he was chairman of the IGOBF allegedly libelous words under a banner headline which said: "IGOBF appals industry ... and own membership".
He also alleged the newspaper published letters purporting to comment adversely on an alleged false, malicious and incorrect report of an Oireachtas Joint Committee submission by the plaintiff.
Giving judgment on the second day of the hearing, Judge Sheridan said he did not accept as a matter of defence that Mr McGrath should take responsibility for remarks passed at a Joint Oireachtas Committee hearing in February 1991. They were passed in the course of a long hearing.
He said: "The word `malice' has been mentioned, and in my opinion the entire nature of this exercise from first to last was redolent of malice. I am sorry to say this was the impression made on me which achieved the effect of having Mr McGrath resigning from the IGOBF.
"I believe that what happened in this case was that Mr Desmond and some of the other people involved read the newspapers ... and then embarked on this situation. In my opinion, newspapers do their best to be accurate, but anyone who relies on newspapers is taking a terrible risk". He said Mr McGrath had been grossly libelled in relation to these matters.
Earlier, Mr Desmond said he had no doubt the IGOBF delegation, which included Mr McGrath, was speaking as one voice when it appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee and was acting on the principle of collective responsibility. He wrote his articles after reading what appeared in the Irish Independent and Cork Examiner in relation to the Oireachtas hearing.
He said he felt the IGOBF's submission was detrimental to the position of the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) because at that time the ICC was under pressure from anti-field sports elements, as well as a number of politicians.
He said the opening remarks by Mr McGrath, as chairman of the IGOBF, had concentrated on criticism of the ICC. He questioned the relevance of that as the particular Oireachtas hearing was in relation to Bord na gCon.
Mr Desmond said he considered it significant that the constituent bodies of the IGBOF had no knowledge of what their representatives were submitting to the Oireachtas Committee, nor had they been consulted in advance of the submission being made. Several county organisations had written to the Sporting Press and one of them, who was on the delegation to the committee, wrote to the paper dissociating them from elements of the submission made.