Former TD and MEP Clare Daly has claimed in the High Court that two newspaper articles published last year amounted to a “disgraceful attempt” to damage her reputation “in the teeth” of her bid to be re-elected to the European Parliament.
Ms Daly is suing the publishers of the Sunday Times over two related stories published on May 26th, 2024, regarding her alleged links to a Lithuanian diplomat, Algirdas Paleckis, who was prosecuted by the Lithuanian security services for passing information to Russia.
On Monday, Mr Justice Barry O’Donnell gave permission to Chris Oonan, appearing for Ms Daly and instructed by Dore & Company solicitors, to serve plenary summons on Times Newspapers Ltd, Times Media Ltd and News UK & Ireland Ltd.
The judge gave permission to serve a notice of the summons outside of the jurisdiction at the publishers’ registered address of London Bridge Street, London, England. The judge made the orders with only Ms Daly’s side represented in court.
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The defendants have 42 days to enter an appearance and indicate whether they will defend the proceedings.
The articles alleged Ms Daly had, in November 2021, provided Mr Paleckis, then under house arrest pending an appeal, with the email address of dissident republican Liam Campbell. It alleged that the two men were later in contact.
In 2021, Mr Campbell, from Dundalk, Co Louth, was fighting an attempt to extradite him to Lithuania on foot of terrorism charges which were later dropped.
In 2009, he was one of four men found civilly liable in a case taken by families of victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing. He was never prosecuted in connection with the bombing, in which 29 people died.
In a sworn statement to the court, Ms Daly’s solicitor Robert Dore claims the two articles that give rise to the proceedings contain “false and defamatory statements” about his client.
Mr Dore claims that the meaning of the articles is that Ms Daly was working with and providing assistance to the Russian state and its intelligence services, that she was working against Irish interests in her role as an MEP and that she was engaged in espionage.
Ms Daly categorically denies the allegations.
Mr Dore says Ms Daly has advocated for prisoner’s rights throughout her political career – firstly as part of an ad hoc Oireachtas prisoner group, and then through the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee.
“Any engagements that [Ms Daly] has had with and/or on the part of prisoners has always been conducted through this prism,” Mr Dore says.
Ms Daly, under the Independents 4 Changes banner, contested the European Parliament elections last June, but failed to hold the seat she had won five years earlier.
Having regard for the timing of publication, Mr Dore claims the articles amounted to a “disgraceful attempt” to damage Ms Daly’s reputation “in the teeth of her re-election campaign”.
Mr Dore says that following the publication of the articles, he wrote to Kieran McDaid, editor of the Irish edition of the Sunday Times, seeking various reliefs, including a full retraction of the articles and apology.
Mr Dore says that, in response, Mr McDaid said the newspaper would not be retracting the articles or providing an apology.
Mr Dore says the articles were published in this jurisdiction, and remain accessible on the newspaper’s website.
