‘We will sue them’ vows Pat McDonagh after hotel rumour spread like wildfire online

A YOUNG couple who had booked the Charleville Park Hotel for their dream wedding feared that plans for their big day were in tatters after reading on social media that the venue looked set to house asylum seekers or refugees.

On Saturday morning at 11.28am, a man posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account: “Charleville Park has been taken over by IPA. Staff have been given notice”.

By 10pm, the post had accumulated 115,000 views, 126 reposts, 345 likes, and 64 comments. The couple were two of countless people to believe the post which has since been deleted.

Pat McDonagh’s Só Hotel Group, which owns the Charleville Park Hotel, were contacted on Saturday night.

A spokesperson said: “This post is false, vexatious and has caused considerable damage and upset to the hotel staff and owners.

“The hotel has maintained its status as a community hotel throughout many challenging years. We are proud members of the Charleville community and will remain so. Thank you for your continued support.”

Supermac’s boss Pat McDonagh spoke to the Leader this week about the falsehood on social media, saying, “We will sue them because it is not something that can be tolerated”.

“The gardai are investigating it. We will leave it in their hands as to who it is. We will definitely prosecute whoever it is once we find out for definite who is involved,” said Mr McDonagh, who added that for anyone to imply he met staff and was letting them go is “totally malicious”.

He said they are currently spending €500,000 on upgrading the Charleville Park Hotel which employs up to 150 people between full and part-time staff.

Mr McDonagh said he was disappointed in the likes of X and Facebook that they allow this to happen and “not do anything about it”.

“They were quick enough to take it down for the GAA thing but they weren’t quick enough to take down a malicious rumour,” said Mr McDonagh, in reference to Supermac's having their social media accounts suspended after an April Fool's prank concerning Croke Park.

Mayor of the County of Cork, Frank O'Flynn received a number of calls from people who had read the post.

“I know one couple who have a wedding booked there and they were very upset. Not alone the couple but their parents and all their friends. It caused a lot of worry and anxiety,” said Cllr O'Flynn, who also spoke of the concerns of people who have Holy Communions, Confirmations and meetings booked for the Charleville Park Hotel.

The mayor said something will have to be done where people put up something online that is “completely untrue.”.

“This is happening every day - I call them keyboard warriors. They are completely outside the law. The laws will have to be looked at.

“I know people who were on Twitter and Facebook and they have actually taken down their profiles because they said they couldn't put up with the comments from people who probably didn’t even know them,” said Cllr O'Flynn.

The Limerick Leader reached out to the person on whose account the original post appeared on but they declined to comment on the record.