COVID-19: Van Morrison sued for defamation by the Northern Ireland government

Singer Van Morrison has been prosecuted for defamation by Northern Ireland’s Secretary of State for Health, Robin Swan, who has been highly critical of his anti-COVID health policy, going so far as to declare the latter “extremely dangerous”.

According to the weekly Sunday Life newspaper, which quoted the case on Sunday, the Public Prosecution particularly relates to a high-profile incident that occurred in June 2021, when the creator chanted “Gloria” and “brown-eyed girl” on stage. Belfast Arena Hotel: “Robin Swan is very dangerous.”

He was speaking after the last minute cancellation, due to COVID-19 restrictions, of a party he was scheduled to attend.

The video of this speech went viral.

The lawsuits also relate to two subsequent incidents: an interview in which the singer called Mr. Swan a “croaker” and the uploading of a song in which he addresses the incident at the Arena Hotel, again calling the “dangerous” minister. “.

“Laws have been filed against Van Morrison, we are targeting a trial in February,” Paul Tweed, Swan’s attorney, told The Sunday Live.

In January 2021, the 76-year-old Belfast-born singer threatened legal action against a ban on live music in pubs in Northern Ireland – which every British country has its own health policy towards the pandemic – claiming it was based on “no scientific evidence or medical”.

In August 2020, he already sparked controversy by denouncing the “pseudo-science” that, he says, surrounds the coronavirus.

The following month, he announced the release of three songs in which he denounced imprisonment as a freedom fighter and asserted that scientists were “inventing twisted facts” to justify these restrictions that “enslave” the population.

In an interview with Rolling Stones magazine, Robin Swann considered these songs to be “weird and irresponsible”, stressing that they were “really dangerous”, because they “brought” great comfort to conspiracy theorists.