Galway Bay fm newsroom - Galway City Council and one of its councillors have unreservedly apologised to two Galway brothers who claimed they were defamed in comments made in the wake of the cancellation of the 2011 Galway City Marathon.
The apology was to athletes Paul and Richard Donovan who sued both the Council and Fianna Fail Councillor Mike Crowe for defamation arising out of several publications and statements made by the defendants.
The actions were taking over the remarks concerning the brothers' role as organisers of the Galway City Marathon.
The brothers claimed they were defamed in August 2011 when the defendants issued statements to the effect that the brothers had delayed unnecessarily in informing prospective participants in the 2011 Galway City Marathon that the event had been cancelled
It was further alleged that Cllr Mike Crowe published or caused a number of statements to the effect that the plaintiffs had failed to honour an agreement to pay a portion of the entry fee from each participant in the Galway City Marathon to the Galway City Sports Partnership.
While Cllr Crowe did withdraw the allegations in respect of the donations on August 11th 2011 and acknowledged that the earlier statement was incorrect, it was claimed he refused to apologise for the defamatory remarks he had made.
It was claimed these statements were not true, damaged the brothers good names as well as their personal and professional reputations.
The allegations and the failure to apologise caused additional distress to the brothers, who are athletes and are involved in the organisation of running events.
At the High Court today Paul Burns SC for the brothers told High Court President Mr Justice Peter Kelly that the defamation actions had been settled.
In a statement issued through their solicitors, Johnsons, the Donovans said they were very satisfied with what had been a comprehensive retraction of totally unfounded allegations, together with an unreserved apology from the defendants.
The brothers said they regretted having to bring the actions but are now delighted that the record has been set straight.
