By Maeve Rowan
The High Court has allowed Meta Platforms Ireland to expand its defence in Dana Rosemary Scallon's defamation action arising from reports about her brother's 2014 criminal trial.
Ms Justice Nessa Cahill also granted Meta discovery of documents connected with Scallon's settlements and claims against other publishers, subject to one exclusion. The ruling does not decide whether Scallon was defamed or whether Meta is liable; it determines what arguments and evidence Meta may rely on when the substantive case is eventually tried.
Scallon, a recording artist and former politician, sued The Irish Times and what was then Facebook Ireland over publications concerning her brother's trial in England. He was unanimously acquitted of all charges on 24 July 2014.
Meta sought three groups of amendments to a defence first filed in 2016. The first would allow it to rely on defences already pleaded by The Irish Times, including truth and qualified privilege. The second would expressly plead that Scallon waited almost a year before asking Facebook to remove the material. The third would argue that settlements with other publishers may reduce or extinguish any damages payable by Meta under the Civil Liability Act 1961.
Scallon opposed the amendments, arguing that Meta had delayed too long, that the changes would prejudice her by further postponing a trial, and that some of the new arguments were bound to fail.
Cahill J accepted that Meta had delayed in bringing the motion and that this had caused prejudice, particularly by prolonging proceedings issued in 2015. However, she found that the relevant legal threshold for amendments had been met and that the prejudice could be addressed through strict case management rather than by refusing the amendments.
The court also ordered discovery of settlement agreements or equivalent documents, pleadings and publications from specified related cases. It refused discovery of an Irish Sun article from 2 April 2014 because its relevance had not been shown.
The matter was listed for 18 December 2025 for submissions on measures to minimise further delay and advance the case towards hearing.