Ardstone Homes is threatening a defamation action against Ballyboden Tidy Towns regarding social media postings on its fundraising site, writes Rachel Cunningham.
The developer has claimed that remarks made on the tidy town group’s sites could be damaging to its business reputation.
Letters have been sent by solicitors on behalf of the company, requesting the names and addresses of individuals who may have been involved in the posts from Ballyboden Tidy Towns.
Angela O’Donoghue, the group’s chairperson, expressed her shock at this development, describing the arrival of the letters from one of Ireland’s largest developers as “intimidating”.
The tidy town group currently has a judicial review proceeding pending in relation to two of Ardstone’s planning applications and its solicitor, Fred Logue, has stated that suggestions of defamation are an attempt to discourage these cases from being pursued.
Ardstone has denied allegations that this is a strategic tactic, identifying the tidy town group’s ifundraise.ie site, and its Twitter and YouTube channels, as the sources of the defamatory comments.
In response, Ballyboden Tidy Towns has denied that its postings were defamatory, calling them “valid criticisms” relating to previous work that had been conducted by the developer.
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