Alan Shatter has said he plans to take a defamation case against Paul Murphy, the People Before Profit TD, for Dublin South-West, over an X post that claimed he had met Jeffrey Epstein.
Shatter was subject to a tirade of false allegations and anti-Semitic abuse in January and February after a new tranche of Epstein files were released by the US department of justice.
On various social media platforms, a US department of justice document containing a 2011 travel itinerary of Eric Holder, former president Barack Obama’s attorney general, was falsely claimed to be the itinerary of Epstein, the convicted sex offender.
Holder’s itinerary showed him meeting Shatter and Brian Purcell, the then secretary general of the Department of Justice, on his visit to Ireland in September 2011.
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Users on X erroneously claimed the itinerary was part of the Epstein files and showed Epstein had met Shatter at the Department of Justice.
Shatter last month received a payment of damages and an apology from the Social Democrats and its justice spokesman Garry Gannon over an Instagram post that falsely portrayed Shatter as having met Epstein.
In a now deleted post, Murphy reposted another user who questioned why RTÉ was not reporting Epstein’s supposed meeting with Shatter in 2011. The post contained a photograph of Epstein playing the piano and a separate photograph of Shatter.
Shatter, who was minister of justice from 2011 to 2014, and who never met Epstein, said on Friday that court proceedings against Murphy were being prepared.
“I expect they will be served by my solicitors in the coming week either directly on the deputy or furnished to his solicitors if they accept service of proceedings,” he said.
Murphy said he was unable to comment when asked about Shatter’s complaint.
Separately, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) confirmed it has contacted Bohemian FC in relation to a series of banners that were displayed at Dalymount Park during a match against Shamrock Rovers last week.
It followed a complaint from Shatter about banners targeting him. One asked “how do you sleep, Alan?”
The first part of the banner referred to the 20,000 reported deaths of children in Gaza during the Israeli invasion.
An FAI spokesman said it and the League of Ireland “review all spectator conduct issues that arise from fixtures each week as was the case after last weekend’s fixtures in the League of Ireland. The matter referred to was part of this process.
“The League of Ireland and FAI have since engaged with all member clubs to remind them of the applicable regulations in this area.”
The FAI said improper conduct under its rules included “displaying insulting slogans in any form”.
In his complaint to the FAI, Shatter said the banner was anti-Semitic, defamatory of him and an incitement to violence. He complained that other pro-Palestinian banners displayed before the match were a violation of FAI and Uefa rules prohibiting political slogans at matches.
Deirdre Ardagh, the FAI’s newly appointed general counsel and governance director, wrote back to Shatter to tell him that the issue raised by him “is being addressed with Bohemian FC”.
She wrote that the FAI “takes allegations concerning discriminatory, racist or anti-Semitic conduct, incitement, or breaches of FAI and Uefa regulations extremely seriously. All such matters are assessed in accordance with the applicable provisions of the FAI Disciplinary Regulations and relevant competition regulations.”
Bohemian FC was approached for comment. It is understood the club’s solicitor has written to Shatter to defend the rights of supporters to display banners.
Shatter said he was disappointed that Government Ministers had not intervened.
“Clearly my being a member of Ireland’s Jewish community and opposing the renaming of Herzog Park is part of the backdrop and partly acted as a catalyst to this despicable event,” he said.
“The total failure of the FAI to properly address it and penalise Bohemians FC compounds what took place and utterly fails to deter its repetition.”
