We reported on the sale of Our Lady's Psychiatric Hospital, Cork, in our issue of July 2nd, 1996. That report implied that Mr Walter MacEvilly, as a former chief executive officer of the Southern Health Board, and the Principal in the firm Hughes & MacEvilly. Solicitors, acting for the Board in the sale of the Hospital, had acted in an improper manner in causing delay in the closing of the sale to facilitate the purchaser and to the detriment of the Board.
The Irish Times accepts that such an implication was without any substance and apologises for and withdraws any such implication. The Irish Times also acknowledges that Mr MacEvilly retired as chief executive officer of the Board in 1978, and from the practice of law in 1992, and that he was never the principal of Hughes & MacEvilly and that he had no involvement whatever in the transaction.
The Irish Times apologises for and regrets the embarrassment and distress caused to Mr MacEvilly and his family by the publication of the report. The Irish Times has paid to Mr MacEvilly an appropriate sum in compensation together with his legal costs.