Traveller alleges newspaper libelled him as 'land-grabber'

A MEMBER of the Travelling community has claimed the Sunday Worldlibelled him in an article describing him as a "land-grabber" and the lands as "Crime- ville".

David Joyce (50) had secured €1 million in compensation following the compulsory purchase of the lands in Finglas. He had acquired squatter’s rights after living on the land unhindered for more than 20 years.

Paul O’Higgins, for Mr Joyce, said the article was “poisonous journalism” reflecting a “Mississippi-burning” attitude towards Travellers and to Mr Joyce, who has no convictions and an excellent reputation in the Finglas area.

While Mr Joyce did get €1 million compensation in 2007 over the compulsory purchase of the lands at Dunsink Lane by Fingal County Council, that payment was not, as the Sunday Worldarticle claimed, "at the taxpayers' expense", Mr O'Higgins said.

The money would have had to be paid anyway, either to Mr Joyce or the Switzerland-based absentee owner of the lands, Joan Forbes-Majoli, he said.

Mr O'Higgins was opening an action before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne and a High Court jury in which Mr Joyce, a father of six, alleges he was libelled in the Sunday Worldarticle of March 27th, 2005.

The article was headlined “The Land Grabber”, featured a sub-heading of “Traveller in squatter’s rights claim on €2 million strip of prime ground”, and included a pixellated photo captioned “Defiant Traveller trader David ‘Buzzy’ Joyce says he will see off anyone who tries to force him to leave the valuable site”.

The person in the photo was not David Joyce, one of a series of errors and inaccuracies in the article, Mr O’Higgins added.

Mr O’Higgins said Mr Joyce and his family had moved in the 1980s on to the lands at Dunsink, owned by Ms Forbes-Majoli, and ran a horse-trading business and later a car-parts business from there. He had fenced off some 10 acres of land and, having lived there unhindered for years, acquired certain rights over it.

His assertion of those rights during unrelated proceedings, in which the Probation Act was applied to his son Wayne, appeared to have provoked the ire of the Sunday World, Mr O'Higgins said.

Those proceedings related to public order offences arising from Wayne allegedly obstructing gardaí chasing a motorcyclist hijacker on to the lands.

In his claim, Mr Joyce alleges the article meant he would offer violence to anyone who objected to his claim to the lands and suggested he was a gangster involved in organised crime.

The article featured references to the general Dunsink Lane area on which he and other Travellers lived as “a haven for organised crime” and referred to armed robbers, smugglers, illegal dumping and gangland killings.

The Sunday Worlddenies the article bears all the meanings alleged by Mr Joyce. It pleads the references to Mr Joyce being a land-grabber are true, and that the article meant Mr Joyce received compensation for the compulsory purchase of the lands.

In cross-examination, Eoin McCullough, for the newspaper, said the lands were acquired by the council for open space and Traveller accommodation purposes. He suggested to Mr Joyce that “some people would be surprised” a Traveller would make a claim over long-term occupancy and ownership of lands.

Mr Joyce said he did not know whether that would be the case, but he had regarded the lands as his. The case continues today.