Van Morrison, Robin Swann Settle Defamation Battle Over Covid Lockdown Spat

Van Morrison and Robin Swann, the former Northern Ireland Minister of Health, have settled their defamation battle. The dispute stemmed from disagreements over Covid-19 safety precautions, including an opinion piece Swann published in Rolling Stone critical of Morrison’s opinions on the coronavirus and lockdown measures.

As the BBC reports, the settlement was announced at the High Court in Belfast on Friday, Sept. 6, just a few weeks before Morrison and Swan’s competing defamation suits were set to go to trial. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and neither Morrison, nor Swann were in court for the hearing. 

During the hearing, a lawyer for Swann — now a member of parliament for South Antrim — read a statement agreed upon by the parties. 

“Sir Van, while not agreeing with a number of the steps adopted by government during the Covid crisis, acknowledges that in performing his then role as minister for health in Northern Ireland, Mr. Swann acted at all times honestly and in good faith and on the advice of responsible officials,” the statement read. “Mr. Swann, while not agreeing with Sir Van’s views on the handling of the pandemic, acknowledges that those views were sincere and expressed in the context of Sir Van being prevented by government regulations from performing in a role for which he is justly famous.”

The judge congratulated the parties for reaching a settlement, calling it “a very fair outcome” and saying “it’s in the best interests of all.”

Reps for Morrison and Swann did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment. 

Back in 2020, Morrison emerged as one of the most vociferous critics of Covid-19 lockdown measures and their impact on the live entertainment industry. In launching a campaign to “save live music,” Morrison railed against what he called the “pseudoscience” surrounding the coronavirus; and he released a trio of songs — “No More Lockdown,” “Born to Be Free” and “As I Walked Out” — that he said were “about freedom of choice.”

In response to these actions, Swann, then serving as Northern Ireland’s Minister of Health, published an op-ed in Rolling Stone where he expressed his “disappointment” with Morrison. “Some of what he is saying is actually dangerous,” Swann wrote. “It could encourage people to not to take Coronavirus seriously. If you see it all as a big conspiracy, then you are less likely to follow the vital public health advice that keeps you and others safe.”

The spat continued into 2021, reaching a boiling point in June ahead of a planned Morrison concert at the Europa Hotel in Belfast. The concert was canceled because of pandemic restrictions just before it was about to start, prompting Morrison to take the stage and criticize Swann in front of the crowd, calling him “very dangerous.” 

That — along with similar comments Morrison made in a YouTube video and newspaper interview — prompted Swann to sue the musician for defamation. Eventually, Morrison filed his own suit against Swann and the Department of Health over the Rolling Stone op-ed. (As the legal battle dragged on into 2022, Morrison appeared to take a swipe at Swann in a new song, “Dangerous,” which contained the lyric, “Somebody said I was dangerous/I said something bad, it must have been good.”)

The settlement statement read in court no Friday also came with an acknowledgement from the Department of Health that, in hindsight, “any views they may have wished to express about Sir Van’s song lyrics might have been more appropriately expressed in the usual form of media interviews or statements provided to the Northern Ireland media, rather than providing copy to a US rock music magazine.”