The Sunday World has apologised at the High Court to two businessmen brothers under a settlement of their case alleging defamation in an article which, they claimed, wrongly suggested they had amassed properties at the expense of churchgoers.
As part of the settlement, Sunday Newspapers accepted in its apology that neither Niall Hade nor his brother Cormac had profited from exploitation of the congregation of the Victory Church.
Niall Hade, with an address at Woodstown Way, Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham, had, along with his brother Cormac, of Greenfield Park, Ballycullen, Dublin 15, sued over an article published in the Sunday World on June 30th, 2013.
When the case was mentioned before Mr Justice Bernard Barton on Wednesday, he was told by Paul O’Higgins SC, with Jim O’Callaghan SC, instructed by John Carlos, solicitor, of Padraig O’Donovan & Company, for the brothers, it had settled and could be struck out on terms including an apology to the brothers.
The apology was then read to the court by Eoin McCullough SC, for Sunday Newspapers.
It said: “On the 30th June 2013, the Sunday World published an article which may have implied that Niall and Cormac Hade had profited from the exploitation of the congregation of the Victory Church and may have amassed their properties at the expense of churchgoers. The Sunday World accepts that Niall and Cormac Hade did not do either and that they had no involvement in the Victory Church. The Sunday World apologises for the distress caused.”
