Two of the organisers of the Miss Ireland beauty competition have settled their High Court libel action against the Mail newspaper group.
Under the settlement, Associated Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd, publishers of the Mail, “apologised unreservedly” to professional model Andrea Roche, a former Miss Ireland, and to Margaret Humphries of Assets Model Agency over allegations related to their capacities as organisers of the Miss Ireland competition.
The apology was read in court today by Eoin McCullough SC, for Associated Newspapers, and stated the articles in question related to the two women as organisers of the competition between 2003 and 2006.
“We fully accept that the Miss Ireland competition was organised and run according to the highest standards of professionalism and propriety,” it said.
It added: “Ms Humphries and Ms Roche are person of integrity and honesty and we unreservedly apologise to them for the distress, embarrassment and damage caused to them by these articles.”
The court heard three articles were published in the Irish Daily Mail on June 27th, 29th and July 1st, 2006, while a fourth was published in Ireland on Sunday (now Irish Mail on Sunday) on July 2nd, 2006.
The action was listed for hearing before Mr Justice Eamon de Valera today when counsel for the plaintiffs, Hugh Mohan SC, said the matter was going ahead and it was expected to take two weeks to hear.
Talks later began between the sides after which Mr Mohan said the matter had been settled on terms including the apology being read out. A number of other terms of settlement, which were to be handed into court, were confidential, counsel said.
Outside court, Ms Roche said she was very happy her good name had been vindicated.