Mr De Rossa was "shellshocked" by Mr Eamon Dunphy's article in the Sunday Independent, a DL party colleague, Ms Liz McManus, told the High Court. "Proinsias has a kind of sparkle about him especially when he smiles or laughs," Ms McManus said. "I think that sparkle went out of him. The man was shattered by it", she said.
Ms McManus, giving evidence on the fifth day of Mr De Rossa's libel action against the Sunday In- dependent, described the article as "a scurrilous attack, a hatchet job on a decent man".
The Wicklow TD, replying to Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, for Mr De Rossa, said she had been a member of DL since its foundation in 1992 and had previously been in the WP. She had left the Labour Party in the early 1970s because she did not agree with the party going into coalition with Fine Gael.
She had met Mr De Rossa in the mid to late 1970s but did not know him well at the time. "He was not a very significant person in the mid to late 1970s in the party."
Ms McManus said she was surprised when Mr De Rossa was elected in 1982 "not because he was not worthy. I felt he was a very good man but I felt he would not be able to win a seat."
She got to know him a lot better when he was elected to the Dail. When he became party leader in 1988 she greatly admired him and saw him as a breath of fresh air. She felt he was forward-looking and that his politics were modern. He had an approach which was "much more grounded in people's lives" and was genuinely committed to change and to fighting for social justice.
She remembered when the article was published. There had recently been an election and there was a lot of discussion and uncertainty about the future. DL was negotiating with Labour and "in many ways it was exhilarating".
On the day the article appeared "I remember my husband called me downstairs and said: `You will never believe what is in the Sunday Independent'.
"I had written for newspapers for eight or nine years and this was a scurrilous attack, a hatchet job on a decent man."
It had been done in a deliberate way. One of the obvious rules in journalism was to put the news in the first few paragraphs because most people did not read beyond those. "This was clearly the way this article was designed as far as I could see."
She had been in politics for years as a councillor. "I know we have to take a certain amount of stick and have to have a thick skin but I could not believe this was in any way justified because it was taking away a man's character." Asked when Mr De Rossa got over the article, Ms McManus said she could not honestly say there was a certain point when he recovered from it and she felt he was not snapping out of it.
"He doesn't express his feelings publicly. I felt he was hurting and he did not get over it quickly."
Mr John McMenamin SC, for the Sunday Independent, said he had no questions for Ms McManus.
The hearing continues today.