A former local GAA star has been convicted of a "sneaky" assault on veteran journalist Ray Managh in the Four Courts, which a judge described as a "disturbing" attack on press freedom. Ex-Cavan footballer 43-year-old Eddie Óg O'Reilly "badgered" Mr Managh not to publicise his fight against a bank repossession and subsequently "lost it".
Mr O'Reilly "viciously" attacked the journalist and stole his notebook, Dublin District Court heard this week. The self-employed builder with an address in Mullahoran was given a nine-month jail sentence, which was suspended for two years.
In addition, Judge John Hughes ordered him to pay €3,000 in compensation and a €2,000 fine and to complete an anger management course while on supervised probation. Mr Managh asked for the compensation to be paid to the Crumlin Children's Hospital cancer research unit instead.
Meanwhile, father of two, O'Reilly, denied assault causing harm to the veteran court reporter and stealing his notebook on May 11, 2018. The court heard the former inter-county player pleaded with the reporter not to publicise his case about bank repossession proceedings.
When told "no", he shouldered the journalist, then 75, into a lift and violently pinned him against the walls until he could get his notebook. Mr Managh told Judge Hughes he worked as a journalist for 63 years and covered courts in Dublin for multiple national news organisations.
In his victim impact statement, he said the incident left him in shock and pain. Even during a decade of covering the troubles in the North, he had never been threatened, assaulted, or had his property stolen.
In evidence, O'Reilly, then 38, claimed the journalist asked him questions about his brother. He maintained he did not know anything about Mr Managh but thought, "this is a very dangerous man", and he had to get away.
The accused, with no prior criminal convictions, agreed that he made his way out using the stairs and claimed he feared for his safety as he went to his car parked in Smithfield. He also claimed photographers "bullied, harassed and terrorised" him earlier that morning as he entered the Four Courts.
After the case, he claimed that Paddy Cummins also chased him while he was "fearful for my life" and thought more people were about to harm him. Mr Cummins had given evidence of getting a picture of him arriving "camera shy".
However, he needed a better image and shot one of him driving out of a car park after the case. O'Reilly claimed, "it was essentially an ambush by these men; that's the way I see it".
He denied the attack and theft of the notebook, which was never recovered, saying, "I never laid a hand on him".
The court heard that O'Reilly, who also has US citizenship, went to America a few months after the incident. However, Garda McGrath obtained directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions to arrest him at Dublin Airport and charge him when he returned a year later.
