COLUMN: Sitting Tipperary TD in court to give evidence in a Circuit Court civil action

Last week, we had a sitting Tipperary TD in court giving evidence in a Circuit Court civil action involving two Clonmel-based newspapers.

This raises important questions that go to the very heart of local democracy and local media ownership.

The most important question, what is Mattie McGrath’s relationship with Cllr Niall Dennehy, a local newspaper owner?

Is there a friendship there?

And if so, has he benefited from that friendship with favourable media publicity? These are just some of the issues arising from the case last week.

Cllr Dennehy is a former Fianna Fáil councillor, and Mattie is a former Fianna Fáil TD, now both are Independents.

We know that Mattie was observed all day in court with the Dennehys inside and outside the courtroom and “had come from the far reaches of south Tipperary”, the court heard.

Premier People newspaper to close with immediate effect following civil action

In this week's Nationalist and Tipperary Star

Is it a coincidence that Mattie was before the court in Nenagh last Wednesday to give evidence?

There were no other witnesses called and given what we heard in court, it’s no accident at all that Mattie made an appearance during this whole debacle.

He was there because of evidence given by Clonmel Borough District’s Cllr Dennehy the day before, on July 18.

Judge Catherine Staines said it would be of “great benefit” if Mattie were to appear and give evidence over how a press release ended up in The Premier People.

Mattie duly came on day two of the case but his evidence offered little by way of clarity it would appear, although the case was a particularly messy one. Despite the evidence, there were some interesting insights all the same.

'They tell me my website is very poor,' admits McGrath during court case

In this week's Nationalist and Tipperary Star

First of all, there was Cllr Dennehy’s apparent umbrage that the article even appeared in The Premier People.

“I had asked if he (Deputy McGrath) had knowingly subscribed to The Premier People,” said Cllr Dennehy.

Okay, Cllr Dennehy may have been getting to the issue over who was accessing the email info@premiernewspaper.com - a key aspect of the civil action.

But did other TDs and public representatives have their press releases used?

Were they asked if they had “knowingly subscribed” to The Premier People?

It seems from the evidence that Cllr Dennehy suggested that Mattie even “went to the office”, to reassure everyone that they (assuming this to mean Mattie’s team) sent it to the original email address info@premiernewspaper.com.

It seems like a lot of effort by a TD to assuade a local newspaper and convince them they were still supporting their title with public statements.

I mean, it was a press release, it would be normal for it to go to the press or to be carried by other publications.

It’s clear that The Premier Newspaper had been a prominent platform for him on a weekly basis, and all other public representatives at both local and national level to be fair.

But none of the other elected officials were in court last week.

Just Mattie.

Now, why was that?

Why was it Mattie that Cllr Dennehy mentioned in his evidence?

There is one other issue arising out of this court case that needs to be addressed.

The involvement of a councillor in a local newspaper publication should cause some concern amongst readers and the local community in terms of editorial independence.

Especially given that The Premier Newspaper was a member of the Press Council of Ireland.

And the Press Council has questions to answer on this one.

You know the whole: “The freedom to publish is vital to the right of the people to be informed.

“This freedom includes the right of the press to publish what it considers to be news, without fear or favour, and the right to comment upon it.”

Surely Cllr Dennehy’s ownership of The Premier People caused some concerns for the Press Council in that regard.

There has been no suggestion that the owners of the newspaper interfered in editorial, but given who owned it, the optics don’t look good for the brand.

And let’s look at the evidence again. Cllr Dennehy has a vested interest in the cut and thrust of the local political world.

It’s worth remembering too that Cllr Dennehy had considered setting up a “political newsletter” according to evidence last week in court.

Cllr Dennehy admitted that he had met in 2021 with another unnamed individual who had brought Mr O’Flaherty along to the meeting to talk about setting up a newspaper.

At this stage, the focus had switched to a community newspaper, but one Cllr Dennehy would own. Given that one Clonmel councillor was involved in The Premier Newspaper, I endeavoured, in the interest of transparency, to ask each Clonmel councillor if they have any involvement, financial or otherwise, in either The Premier Newspaper or the Premier People.

I asked them all four very simple questions:

1. Are you now or have you ever been involved or had any share or vested interest, financially or otherwise, with The Premier Newspaper, Clonmel?

2. Have you ever invested in The Premier Newspaper, Clonmel?

3. Are you now or have you ever been involved or had any share or vested interest, financially or otherwise, with the Premier People, owned and operated by Jamie O’Flaherty?

4. Have you ever invested in the Premier People, owned and operated by Jamie O’Flaherty?

Cllr John Fitzgerald answered “No” to all four questions.

He stated: “I can confirm that I have no involvement whatsoever in either of the two publications set out in your email or any other publication. I haven’t ever been involved at any point with any media outlets either financially or as a contributor.”

Cllr Richie Molloy said his answer was “No” to each of the four questions.

Cllr Michael Murphy responded with “No” to all four questions.

Cllr Pat English said he has “no involvement in any paper”.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose responded with a “No” to all of the questions also.

Only Clonmel councillors were asked as both publications are Clonmel-based - although they do cover news across south Tipperary.

Cllr Dennehy was not contacted as there was no need.

The endeavours of Cllr Niall Dennehy, and his relationship with Mattie, sets a dangerous precedent in terms of local media ownership not just for south Tipperary but across the country.

It says to others that a councillor with deep enough pockets could set up their own newspaper and ensure their mates and themselves get plenty of publicity.

That raises serious concerns from the point of view of the integrity of local democracy and accountability at local government level and of Government TDs and Senators.

Where he got the idea to set up a local newspaper in the town of Clonmel; only Jamie O’Flaherty, Cllr Dennehy himself, his son, Kevin Dennehy, and at least one other individual know.

But how many councillors own a local newspaper across the country? I’d imagine not many.

In Clonmel, Cllr Dennehy has set a dangerous precedent around local newspaper ownership.

If The Premier Newspaper returns, people would do well to remember who’s behind it.