Two human rights solicitors have been awarded more than €400,000 each in damages after a High Court jury found they were defamed by businessman Denis O'Brien and his spokesman, James Morrissey, almost ten years ago.
They are among the largest awards of damages for defamation in this country.
The jury found that Darragh Mackin and Gavin Booth, from Phoenix Law, a human rights firm in Belfast, had been defamed by a press release issued in October 2016.
The statement, from Mr Morrissey, was in response to a report on media ownership in Ireland.
Mr Mackin and Mr Booth were co-authors of the report commissioned by then Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan.
The press release said that "Sinn Féin/IRA certainly got the report they paid for".
Mr Mackin and Mr Booth said the statement meant they received payment from the IRA and implied they were dishonourable, unprofessional, lacked integrity and were unfit to be solicitors.
Watch: The jury found Darragh Mackin and Gavin Booth had been defamed by a press release
After deliberating for two hours and 20 minutes, the jury found this sentence meant the solicitors had acted for an unlawful organisation - the IRA.
It awarded each man €270,000 in general damages and almost €142,000 in aggravated damages - a total of €411,750 each.
An order for costs was also made against Mr Morrissey and Mr O’Brien.
In a statement, Johnsons Solicitors said the press release advanced serious and entirely baseless allegations against Mr Booth and Mr Mackin.
It said they were both highly respected human rights lawyers and the allegations had no foundation whatsoever.
Solicitor Karl Rooney, for the two men, said the award of substantial and aggravated damages was a public vindication of Mr Booth’s and Mr Mackin’s reputation and professional standing.
He said it underscored the gravity of the defamatory allegations and reaffirmed such unfounded attacks on individuals who serve the justice system should not be tolerated.
Mr Mackin said it had been a very difficult journey to live with very damaging allegations for the past decade.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
But the result, he said, showed it was not "the size of the dog in the fight, it was the size of the fight in the dog".
Mr Mackin said the allegations levelled against them were the most serious that anyone could imagine.
He pointed out that human rights lawyers had been killed in Northern Ireland for being aligned with their clients.
Mr Mackin said there were very serious and real-life ramifications to words such as these.
Words like these put people’s lives in danger, he said, and the award of damages reflected that.
Mr Booth said the case had gone on far too long.
He said it could have been deal with much earlier, but instead they were made to go through every court to get justice.
Finally, he said, they had been given justice.
Mr Booth said it was always concerning when you are taking someone on in court, but they were right from day one and had been vindicated.
The men were just doing their job, he added, and Mr Morrissey and Mr O’Brien had chosen to defame them.
