Week two of O’Brien vs the Post

The tycoon’s defamation action against The Sunday Business Post saw the paper’s former editor and former business editor both take the stand to defend a 2015 story

Denis O’Brien leaves the Four Courts last week after giving evidence in his defamation action against the Post Picture: Fergal Phillips

‘A pirate, originally one operating in the Caribbean; a person who acts in a reckless, adventurous and often unscrupulous way, especially in business.” This, the Oxford English Dictionary definition of a buccaneer, was put to Denis O’Brien in the witness box last Tuesday as part of his ongoing High Court defamation action against The Sunday Business Post.

Senior counsel Michael McDowell, for the Post, was exploring the businessman’s contention that being described as ...