A 51-year-old former Navan councillor has been ordered to pay €50,000 damages after falsely claiming a Sinn Féin councillor had threatened to arrange a punishment beating.
Eddie Fennessy, Sinn Féin councillor for Meath County Council, took legal action against former independent councillor Wayne Forde, of Parnell Park, Navan, at Trim Circuit Court.
In making the award against Mr Forde, Judge Mary O’Malley Costello said the case was “at the highest level of defamation”.
Barrister David Lennon, instructed by Cosgrave solicitors, for Mr Fennessy, said certain allegations were posted by Mr Forde on Facebook and Tik Tok around the time of last year’s local elections. He said the most serious of these claimed Mr Fennessy had threatened to arrange a “punishment beating of the defendant by his IRA comrades and the petrol bombing of his home”.
Mr Lennon said the defendant accepted he made the posts but he challenged the interpreted meaning of those posts and made a “somewhat unclear” challenge whether or not he identified Mr Fennessy in the posts.
Mr Fennessy said in evidence that he had been engaged in politics since he was aged 11 and was co-opted to Meath County Council in 2018. It was alleged, and it was accepted by Mr Forde, that in a post of November 2023 he had said that he “could see why EF is getting a bit of a belly after getting €50,000 and €7,500 as Mayor. Nice, nearly €60,000, over €1,500 a week”. In fact, Mr Fennessy earned €42,000. He took those remarks as an attempt to try to damage his election campaign.
Mr Fennessy said in the witness box that he had never said anything about a “punishment beating” to Mr Forde.
He described as “preposterous” any suggestion that he might be responsible for organising punishment beatings. He said it was “easy pickings” because there was a history that might have been there 40-50 years ago but it was certainly not in the history of the Sinn Féin party he joined in 2004/2005.
He said these allegations had an effect on his family. His wife in particular would meet people on the street and they would mention them to her.
Mr Forde, who represented himself, said in evidence that Mr Fennessy had threatened and intimidated him and left him “petrified”. He said he had put up on Facebook about Mr Fennessy’s wages “but I never mentioned his name”. He said he was claiming the publications were true and he did not believe they were in any way damaging to Mr Fennessy.
The judge said the publication of incorrect figures of Mr Fennessy’s council salary would not attract a huge amount of compensation and that might have arisen through misunderstanding. However, all the other matters were very serious and they were going to have very serious consequences for both parties involved, she said.
There is no question but that Mr Fennessy was an upstanding member of the public, she said.
She found there was no truth in the allegation that he might have links to an illegal organisation and there was no truth in the allegation that he threatened to have anyone be subjected to a punishment beating.
She told Mr Forde he was “somewhat of a fantasist”.
The judge made an order directing Mr Forde to pay €50,000 damages to Mr Fennessy for defaming him. She also made an order restraining Mr Forde from defaming or disparaging Mr Fennessy in any way whatsoever in the future.
