Ryanair executive denies calling Davison a racist

RYANAIR’S HEAD of communications has denied he called former Miss World Rosanna Davison a racist in a press release criticising remarks by her about no Irish women featuring in a Ryanair charity calendar of bikini-clad female members the airline’s cabin crew.

The news release posted by him on the Ryanair website on November 11th, 2008, was not an attack on Ms Davison herself but rather on comments she had made, Stephen McNamara said.

It was “pretty juvenile” for her to take High Court proceedings for defamation over it, he believed. He denied suggestions the release was an “unjustified”, “unprovoked” and “vicious” attack on Ms Davison and that Ryanair was a “corporate bully” towards people who got on the wrong side of it and was using the case to generate publicity.

The release was issued to ensure people were aware Ms Davison’s comments were unjustified and to ensure sales of the calendar were not damaged, he said.

He denied he was trying to be “smart” in his replies to correspondence with her solicitors where he described her remarks as “stupid” and “ill-considered”. He was responding to an attack by a model who “should have known better” and whom he still believed was “silly” to have become involved.

“I would never claim to be smart,” he said.

Ms Davison’s father, singer Chris De Burgh, had threatened to sue him and he may have been “defensive” as a result of being threatened with legal action by “wealthy and well-known persons”.

He was giving evidence in the continuing action by Ms Davison (27), Cornelscourt, Dublin, who claims the release defamed her in that it wrongly meant she was racist, xenophobic and jealous.

Ryanair denies defamation, denies the release contains the alleged meanings and pleads it was “fair comment” in response to matters of public interest.

The cross-examination of Mr McNamara continues today.

In evidence, Ms Davison has said she was contacted by a journalist from the Irish Independenton November 10th, 2008, the day the Ryanair calendar was launched, and asked what she thought of the absence of any Irish female cabin crew in the calendar.

She said she was correctly quoted the next day as saying: “If I was (organising) it, I would have made sure that Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising. Any person from any part of Europe would say that Irish women are gorgeous.”

The following day, Ryanair posted the release which stated Ryanair “today hit back at comments made by Irish glamour model Rosanna Davison in relation to the absence of Irish cabin crew from Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar which ‘bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew’.”

The release stated: “There is nothing more unattractive than jealousy” and also said: “Ryanair confirmed all cabin crew were invited to apply for the calendar and that while only a small number of Irish staff applied, one Irish girl was invited to participate but was unavailable to do so.”