Rumble Brewing at Village

It's heartwarming to see that Michael Smith, owner/publisher/editor of the new Village hasn't let his recent Four Courts tussle with Declan Ganley hold him back from starting another one.


A brief recap: two months ago, Ganley took offence to the coverage he got in Village's second issue - in his defence, most people would get uppity if they saw themselves called a 'snake oil salesman' on a magazine cover - so he took them to court, looking to get all copies of the issue pulped. In the event, Ganley seemed to have backed down (perhaps a lengthy show-trial on the issue didn't appeal) and agreed to do a 'wide-ranging interview' in the next issue. All was well in the Village.


Well, not quite. After much to-ing and fro-ing about who would interview Libertas' esteemed leader, they finally agreed on Bruce Arnold, a commentator sympathetic to the party. His article isn't worth the cover price of 3.95, being mainly a recycled version of this Indo rant. What follows, however, is worth buying for posterity.


Editor Smith runs down through the whole sorry saga - I particularly enjoy him noting that Arnold was Village's ninth choice interviewer - with quite a barb for the writer:


Michael Smith:
He informed me that he had conducted a telephone interview with Mr Ganley but there is no evidence in his filed copy that he did in fact conduct the interview [which is true - there isn't]. For this and other obvious reasons, Village will not be paying him the €500 free he sought. Mr Arnold also delayed publication of Village by a day by spuriously and counter-factually claiming he had not been sent a copy of the February-march article.


Don't be surprised if the slapdown leads a furious Arnold into the court, or if Ganley looks to resume his action. Credit to Smith: the barrister has already demonstrated more flair at stoking up controversy than the magazine's previous owner. Village's website, sadly, is appalling, but a new one is launching soon - presumably whenever Smith finds a minute to do it.