nice little arse on her
Fine Gael Senator sues newspaper over comparison to ‘highway robber’
Coffey believes comments in newspaper story cost him Dáil seat in 2016
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Paudie Coffey: claims article meant he was unfit to hold the position of minister of state
A Fine Gael Senator claims he was defamed when likened to an 18th century highway robber in a report in a local newspaper which featured comments from a party colleague about boundary changes.
Paudie Coffey, a former TD and minister of state, is suing Iconic Newspapers, publisher of the Kilkenny People in the High Court over the article which appeared on January 15th, 2016.
The court heard that he believes he lost his Dáil seat in 2016, by a margin of 300 votes, as a result of the article.
The article, headlined ‘Coffey the Robber’, reported that Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan had launched a broadside on the then minister of state accusing him of trying to “rob” a chunk of south Kilkenny.
Mr Phelan said Mr Coffey and then minister for the environment Alan Kelly were “banding together to commit ‘daylight robbery’ ”.
“We’ve all heard of Crotty the robber – the 18th century highwayman who hid himself away in a cave in the foothills of the Comeragh mountains,” Mr Phelan said. “He was the leader of a gang of bloodthirsty highwaymen.”
Ill-repute
Mr Coffey, from Portlaw, Co Waterford, claims those words were defamatory and meant, among other things, that he was guilty of misuse of public office and was a person of severe ill-repute, akin to an 18th century highwayman. He also claims it meant he was unfit to hold the position of minister of state and was involved in attempting to have part of the Kilkenny constituency taken into Waterford.
Richard Kean SC, for Mr Coffey, said his client became depressed after losing his Dáil seat and was subjected to comments such as ‘Coffey the robber’ at sporting events and other occasions. He said it was extremely defamatory to call a man a robber who had not so much as been cautioned by gardaí and to do so was not parody or humour.
‘Sloppy’
Mr Kean said Mr Coffey was never asked to respond to what Mr Phelan had said and that not getting the other side of the story was “sloppy” journalism. Counsel said Mr Coffey did not have any involvement in the boundary commission which made the changes criticised by Mr Phelan.
The newspaper publisher denies the claims. It denies the article in its natural and ordinary meaning could be understood to mean what Mr Coffey says.
It pleads the natural and ordinary meaning of the article was, among other things, that a review of the Waterford-Kilkenny boundary was underway and that Mr Phelan disagreed with his party colleague in relation to it. It also meant Mr Phelan believed his chances of future electoral success would be adversely affected by the change.
The paper says it will rely on the Civil Liability Act 1961, insofar as the individual wholly or partly responsible for publishing the allegedly defamatory words, is Mr Phelan, to who the defendant has no links or responsibilities.
The paper says the article was published in good faith as part of its lawful and legitimate reporting on matters of public concern.
The case continues.
Am I reading this correctly that this was one blue shirt attacking another?
Correct
Coffey appears to be suggesting that an article in the Kilkenny People which nobody in Waterford reads cost him his seat in Waterford.
The ‘People is widely ready everywhere over Rice Bridge which we all know is Co. Kilkenny. Very high selling newspaper in Ferrybank…
are the fatties not slimshaming poor ould SMG?
the mind boggles
Emotional Coffey wants newspaper to stand and deliver over ‘highwayman’ slur
Senator suing newspaper over comparison with 18th-century thief
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Senator Paudie Coffey arrives at the Four Courts, Dublin, yesterday for the second day of his High Court action; (inset): Coffey’s parliamentary party colleague John Paul Phelan PHOTOGRAPH: COLLINS COURTS
MIRIAM LORD
When Crotty the Robber stood on the gallows in Waterford city in 1742, he probably assumed his courtroom days were behind him.
He was wrong.
And when Crotty, bloodthirsty leader of a band of cutthroat highwaymen, was hiding out in his cave in the Comeragh Mountains, little did he know that his 18th-century criminal exploits would form a central part of a court case in Dublin almost three centuries later. “This is not folklore,” said Paudie Coffey in the High Court on Tuesday, for the benefit of those of us just learning about William Crotty and his many misdeeds. “There was a man called Crotty the Robber.” He robbed and he murdered and he was hanged for his crimes, explained the Fine Gael Senator.
Coffey is suing Iconic Newspapers, the publisher of the Kilkenny People , for describing him as a robber and comparing him to the notorious highwayman in an article carried just weeks before the last general election. He was a minister of state in Enda Kenny’s government at the time, and lost his seat by a narrow margin.
He says that while he accepts his loss was due to a number of factors, the story “contributed in a huge way” to the result. It was about local authority boundary changes proposed for the Waterford/Kilkenny border, an “emotive” subject.
The piece quoted a press release sent to the newspaper by Coffey’s parliamentary party colleague, John Paul Phelan, who was unhappy about the prospect of parts of Kilkenny going into Waterford. Coffey said its publication amounted “to a huge hatchet job done to me at the most vulnerable time in my political career”.
Bloodthirsty leader
All human life is on show in the courts. You never know what you might hear. But nonetheless, it isn’t every day you hear a member of the Oireachtas telling a High Court jury that he accepts he wasn’t being compared to a cannibal or the bloodthirsty leader of a gang of robbers, but that he was “clearly likened to a known highwayman from Waterford”.
Such was the reputation of the aforementioned Crotty.
This was Coffey’s first day in the witness box and the second day of his defamation action against the Iconic Newspapers group. The article in question carries wholesale verbatim quotes from the press release labelled “exclusive” and sent to the Kilkenny People by Phelan, who is now a Minister of State in Leo Varadkar’s Government. In it, Phelan likens his party colleague to the highwayman, accusing him of “robbing chunks of south Kilkenny” through a boundary review. The newspaper story is headlined with one of Phelan’s phrases – “Coffey the Robber”.
Phelan also accuses Coffey, along with then minister for the environment, Labour’s Alan Kelly, of going into hiding in the manner of the Waterford highwayman, who had a hideaway cave in the Comeragh Mountains. Rossa Fanning SC, for the newspaper, asked the plaintiff if the Kilkenny People was actually suggesting that he too had been hiding in the foothills of the Comeraghs. Coffey replied: “No, but I come from the Comeragh area.”
Coffey took to the stand first thing in the morning and remained there all day. He is back today.
From the outset, he was quite emotional as he told of his early family life and how he got into politics. He got upset when talking about his family and what it meant to him and apologised for this on a number of occasions. His father had been a county councillor and his mother was the district nurse and there was always a strong spirit of community service in the family.
They went through “tough times” in the 1980s and this gave him his resilience in life, a resilience which has helped him in his political career. He entered politics in 1990 and was elected to the county council. He lost his first general election but was elected to the Seanad. He was elected to the Dáil in 2011 and became a minister of state in a reshuffle with a general election looming.
He thought things were going reasonably well.
“And then this happened.”
Mutual friend
Coffey’s cousin drew his attention to the offending article, having found out about it in an email from their mutual friend, former Irish rugby international Mick Galwey. He had sent a photo of the article with the message: “Is this the best headline ever in the Kilkenny People this week. Class. Not, not even the Bomber will get ye out of this!!!”Six exclamation marks.
A number of sporting greats got mentions – the cyclist Seán Kelly (who launched Coffey’s first campaign), hurler Henry Sheflin (who held Paudie’s “first-born in his arms” at the Piltown Show), rugby players Galwey, Liam Toland and Peter Clohessy, and an individual called “The Bomber”, who may or may not have been the great Kerry footballer Eoin Liston.
Choking back the tears, the witness described his shock at being labelled a robber. “I was never, ever a robber.” And he thought of the words of his dear mother: “If you scatter the feathers to the four winds, how are you ever going to collect them?”
The paper was dragging his name and his family’s name into the muck.
“It was pure lies. It was wrong.” He had nothing whatsoever to do with the boundary review.
“I’m fighting for my good name today. My good name!” he cried, holding up the article, welling up again as he stabbed the air with his index finger.
After the piece appeared, some young lads abused him at a hurling match. He couldn’t bring himself to attend the Piltown Show. He was given a “non-welcome” when he canvassed Kilkenny councillors for Seanad votes, as their county had fared worst in the proposed boundary change. (It didn’t happen in the end.)
Worst of all was the incident which made him contact his solicitor nine months after publication. He was at the testimonial game in Thomond Park for the late Anthony Foley and he met Galwey, Toland and Clohessy.
“Aah, here comes Coffey the Robber!” cried Galwey.
“I was extremely embarrassed,” a choked-up Coffey told the court. “I thought, ‘when is this ever going to stop?’” He didn’t accept that the rugby player didn’t take the article seriously and was only joking. “He ridiculed me.”
Coffey had gone from being an energetic, up-and-coming politician to feeling depressed with his head in the sand. When Enda Kenny offered him a Seanad seat as one of his nominees, he had to think hard before accepting it.
When Rossa Fanning showed him Phelan’s press release, Coffey said it was the first time he saw it. Under cross-examination, he agreed it defamed him, but it was the newspaper which published it. “I’ve often released press releases to the media but I’ve never expected them to be published verbatim in an article.” He didn’t agree his real complaint is with Phelan. He never considered suing him and never mentioned the article to him, although Phelan brought it up with him. He didn’t complain about him to the party chairman. And while the senior counsel may have considered “Coffey the Robber” as a play on “Crotty the Robber”, he had a different view.
“It isn’t a joke in my eye.”
Savage internetting
the 3rd photo is a bit close up.
and the headline should read: attention seekers get knickers in a knot.
jesus wept, the youth of today.
articles features gems such as
5:00 pm – I have a doctor’s appointment to have my IUD removed (€75).
9:30 am – For breakfast this morning we construct a cheese board from a few bits he was sent as samples.
11:00 am – We sleep in and I bake eggs into last night’s leftover curry for breakfast. We also finish off the naan bread
The red haired girl is being very half hearted about it.
She might as well be rummaging in bins for her grub.
You’re on fire with the misogyny these days.
explain?
you seem to think that any condemnation of women in any shape or form is misogyny. I think ive show that I’m an equal opportunities abuser and that my abuse is based on the circumstances and not the sex of the person getting abused.
I’m even open to abused gender fluid little shitebags like you