Paper to sue over minister's IRA claim

Dan Milmo
Tuesday February 22, 2005
The Guardian

The confrontation between the republican movement and the Irish government spilled over into the newspaper industry yesterday after three businessman behind the Daily Ireland title started libel proceedings against the Irish justice minister.

Two directors of the Daily Ireland, including a former Sinn Féin councillor, and a financial backer of the newspaper yesterday instructed lawyers to issue a libel writ against the government minister Michael McDowell.

Mr McDowell appeared on Irish radio over the weekend and repeated allegations that the Daily Ireland, an all-Ireland republican newspaper, is backed by the IRA. Last month he compared the Belfast-based newspaper with Völkischer Beobachter, a Nazi propaganda sheet of the 1930s. <snip>

Mr O'Muilleoir said the Daily Ireland was "pro-peace and anti-violence". Robin Livingstone, a fellow director of the Daily Ireland, and businessman Peter Quinn, an investor in the newspaper, are also joining the lawsuit against Mr McDowell. The Daily Ireland has 40 staff and is available on news-stands in Northern Ireland as well as the counties of Sligo, Leitrim and Louth in the Republic. <snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,9061,1419940,00.html