Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, Cathal Crowe, has rung up a tenant activist late at night threatening legal action.
On Saturday, April 1st CATU activists held a protest outside Crowe’s office in Ennis because he voted to rescind the ban on evictions. They issued a press release to the Clare Champion which repeated allegations made on the Ditch website about Crowe.
They had noted the fact that a Thomas Crowe and Cathal Crowe had received payments of €22,674 under CAP payments. But they queried why Crowe had not made a declaration in the Dáil register for this payment. TDs are supposed to declare any income of more than €2,600 in their annual Dáil declaration of interests.
The press release also noted that Crowe has also refused to comment about a Ditch story about his application for planning permission for a third home.
On the Tuesday after the protest, Tim Hannon received a phone call from Crowe late at night. Tim takes up the story.
At approximately 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday evening, I received a phone call from an unrecognised number. To my surprise, it was Deputy Crowe on the other end of the line. He seemed very panicked and asked if I was Tim Hannon. I confirmed that I was indeed Tim Hannon.
Deputy Crowe then accused me of slander and claimed that I had repeated false information published by The Ditch. He warned me that he would pursue legal action if I did not retract my statement and publicly apologise.
I politely told Deputy Crowe that it was already 20 minutes to 11 p.m. and that I would contact him the next day. After that, I hung up.
Following on from this, I received this text message:
‘Your statement to the Clare Champion is riddled with slander -up to you if you wish to withdraw it and apologise. If not I will pursue this legally.’
The Ditch is still waiting for Cathal Crowe’s legal letter. So is Tim and his message is: we will not be intimidated.
