Court awards Kitty Holland €35,000 damages in defamation case against John Waters

“Fortunately, this attack on her reputation as a journalist did not result in consequences for her career,” Judge O’Connor said. “She is held in very high esteem as a journalist by her peers and this is confirmed today by this court.” 

He said the defamation by Waters had been careless and reckless of Ms Holland’s reputation in order to make a political point. Waters’s words had suggested that she was a journalist who was deceitful in her presentation of an important news story, probably the biggest of her career.

Judge O’Connor said he was attempting to be proportionate in making an award of €35,000, exactly half of the award he could have made against Waters. He noted Waters had arranged for his speech to be deleted from the Renua website, though there had been no clarification or apology.

Holland had sued former colleague Waters for up to the €75,000 Circuit Court limit for defamation of character in which, she alleged, he had seriously injured her standing as a journalist.

Holland (53) of Ranelagh, Dublin, broke the story of the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar at the age of 34 in the University Hospital Galway 12 years ago.

She alleged that Waters had, without specifically naming her, made a claim in an address to a political party conference that she had lied in her report, making her out to be a dishonest reporter, inaccurate and unfit to be a journalist.

The court heard that both journalists had been passionate advocates on either side of a public debate on abortion leading up to the 2018 ‘Repeal the Eighth’ referendum and “the sting of the libel” was a wrong observation by Waters that Holland not only was a bare-faced liar, but the journalist who started the lie and continued promulgating lies for money and awards.

Waters, of Sandycove, Dublin, described in court as a strident pro-lifer, denied in a full defence to Holland’s claim that he had defamed her or called her a liar, and stating he had nothing to do with the political party publishing his speech on the worldwide web.

Holland had told the court that having received a tip-off about Ms Halappanavar’s untimely death she had thoroughly investigated the matter and her story had been published by the Irish Times under the headline “Woman ‘denied a termination’ dies in hospital” after having been vetted by editors and lawyers for three days.

She had reported that Ms Halappanavar had been refused a termination because of a foetal heartbeat being still present and because she had been told “this is a Catholic country”. During the hearing, Waters said Holland was in many respects a sincere and decent person who had been used as a tool by unscrupulous interests inside and outside the Irish Times.

“I did not accuse Kitty Holland of personal dishonesty but I do believe she has become embroiled in the telling of an enormous untruth that has had, and will continue to have, disastrous consequences for Irish society and, in particular, for its unborn children who have been stripped of the most fundamental protections as a result of that untruth,” he stated in a 100-page defence.

Holland attended court but Waters was not present for Wednesday’s judgment.

Judge O’Connor said he would sit on July 9 to hear representations by Holland’s counsel Andrew Walker SC and barrister Shane English on the question of her legal costs.