Model and former Miss World Rosanna Davison has sued Ryanair for damages alleging she was defamed in a news release posted on its website which, she claims, wrongly meant she was racist, xenophobic and jealous.
The news release was posted on November 11th, 2008 in reaction to remarks by Ms Davison relating to the absence of any Irish female cabin crew from a Ryanair charity calendar for 2009 featuring international female cabin crew in bikinis and under titles including Miss Cockpit and Miss Fuel Pump.
Rynair denies defamation, denies the release contains the alleged meanings, and pleads the release, which remained on its website today, was “fair comment” on matters of public interest.
The action by Ms Davison (27), a model and newspaper columnist, with an address at Cornelscourt, Dublin, opened today before Mr Justice Eamon De Valera and a jury and is listed for three days.
Opening the case, Jim O’Callaghan SC, with Declan Doyle SC, for Ms Davison, said it arose after Ryanair published the 2009 charity calendar on November 10th 2008. There was no issue about the calendar which some people would consider distasteful, others fun, he said.
Ms Davison was contacted by a journalist from the Irish Independent the same day and asked what she thought about the absence of any Irish female cabin crew in the calendar.
The next day, she was reported as saying: “If I was (organising) it, I would have made sure that Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising. Any person from any part of Europe would say that Irish women are gorgeous”.
There was "nothing earth shattering" in those remarks, published in an Irish Independent article entitled "Ryanair's Irish Girls are not keen on take off for calendar", Mr O'Callaghan said.
However, Ryanair then launched “an attack” the same day on Ms Davison via a news release published on its website which contained “very serious charges”. It was Ms Davison’s case that release meant she was racist, xenophobic and jealous, she was deeply offended by it, regarded her reputation as very damaged and was seeking damages.
Counsel read the release which said: “Ryanair today hit back at comments made by Irish glamour model Rosanna Davison in relation to the absence of Irish cabin crew from Ryanair’s 2009 charity calendar which ‘bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair’s international cabin crew’.
“Ryanair confirmed all cabin crew were invited to apply for the calendar and that while only a small number of Irish staff applied, one Irish girl was invited to participate but was unavailable to do so. Ryanair pointed out that while it is registered in Ireland, it is Europe’s largest international airline and is proud to be one of the largest Irish employers of international staff.
“Ryanair confirmed it had received applications from charities throughout Europe and Dublin’s Simon Community was chosen.
“Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “There is nothing more unattractive than jealousy. We cannot believe that Ireland’s former Miss World would engage in such narrow minded remarks about a calendar which will raise money for charity. We conducted a fair and unbiased selection process for our calendar participants and for our charity partner which was based on the strongest applications received.
“Ryanair does not participate in tokenism. While we originally selected an Irish girl it was because she deserved to be included not simply as a token gesture. To replace that girl with another applicant on the basis of her being Irish would have been unfair to all the girls who applied to participate. The strongest candidates were selected irrespective of race. This narrow minded attitude is disgraceful.
“Ryanair is an international airline and all the staff members involved in this calendar irrespective of where they came from are delighted to help this year’s charity. We hope that next year we will receive more applications from our gorgeous Irish cabin crew. However, we will never place any staff members ahead of others simply because they are Irish.”
In evidence, Ms Davison said she won Miss Ireland in August 2003 and went on to win Miss World that December. She travelled to many countries and did a lot of charity work in her year as Miss Ireland and Miss World and since.
In 2006, she completed an honours degree in Sociology and History of Art in UCD and later did a diploma in PR and event management. She works as a model and a columnist for the Evening Herald.
She said she made her remarks concerning the Ryanair calendar after being phoned by a journalist, Stephen O’Farrell, whom she did not know. She was regularly phoned by journalists for quotes.
She said the journalist told her the Ryanair calendar had just been published, there were no Irish women in it and asked, as an Irish model, what she though of it. He also asked what she thought about Irish women as there had been some remarks about them.
When she answered his questions, she did not know much about Ryanair, having flown with it just twice, or about the selection process for the calendar.
The next day, she was contacted by a journalist about the Ryanair news release and was absolutely shocked and upset when she saw the words used in the release, particularly racist. She did not believe the calendar should be limited to one nationality.
Of all people to call racist and elitist, she was not such a person as she worked with and for people of all nationalities. Her family was also upset.
Her solicitor Paul Tweed wrote to Ryanair looking for an apology and donation to charity. She felt Ryanair’s response in its replies to her solicitor’s “reasonable” letters was aggressive. References by Ryanair in its letters describing her comments as “stupid” and “ill-considered” were “incredibly juvenile”, “downright rude” and “schoolyard talk”, she said.
The jury heard Ryanair had in one letter stated it had been contacted by Chris de Burgh, father of Ms Davison, about the news release and had said it would not be bullied by Mr De Burgh.
In cross-examination, Martin Hayden SC, for Ryanair, said Ms Davison’s solicitor had initially written seeking a substantial donation to charity.
Ms Davison agreed she knew little about Ryanair when she made her remarks to Mr O’Farrell, whom she had never spoken to before. Flights were often organised for her and these were with Aer Lingus.
She agreed she had considerable dealings with media. She also agreed a charity calendar is a great idea and said she had participated in a charity calendar, Angels for Moldova.
She felt her comments concerning the calendar were “considered” and “very measured”, she was expressing her opinion when she said she would have ensured Irish girls were involved, and did not mean to insult anyone.
She agreed she knew nothing about how girls were chosen for the calendar and said her opinion was based on the information given to her by the reporter. While the article had stated she believed more of an effort should have been made to include Irish girls, she had not said that but had not taken that issue up with the newspaper. The other quotes attributed to her were correct.
The case resumes on Tuesday.
