Donegal's county manager yesterday succeeded in his libel actions against the Donegal Democrat newspaper.
Mr Michael McLoone claimed damages for libel and an injunction restraining the newspaper from publishing further defamatory articles against him relating to alleged planning corruption.
Donegal county secretary, Mr Eunan Sweeney, also succeeded in his claim against the paper.
The men were awarded €38,000 and €30,000 respectively by Judge Joseph McCartan at yesterday's sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court.
The action was taken following the publication of 28 articles and editorials which appeared in the Donegal Democrat and Donegal People's Press between September 2002 and January 2003.
The articles alleged that Mr McLoone had failed in his duties as county manager, that he was involved in a "golden circle of corruption" and that he had "paid off" a senior planning official.
The case, which was expected to last four days, came to an end in its third day yesterday when counsel for the Donegal Democrat told the court they would be withdrawing their defence.
Judge McCartan said Mr McLoone was a long-standing public servant who was highly regarded.
"There is nothing more outrageous you can say about a public official than to say he is corrupt," he added.
Judge McCartan said he was surprised that the case was before him when the plaintiffs could have sought a much bigger award in a higher court.
He said he was going to award Mr McLoone the maximum award he could give him.
Mr Paddy McMullin, solicitor for the plaintiffs, said his clients did not want to be there from the very beginning and that they gave the newspaper a chance to look into the matter.
He also said that they could have served writs for each and every article, but his clients had just wanted to have their names cleared.