Van Morrison takes legal action against Northern Ireland Department of Health over covid article

Van Morrison has commenced authorized motion towards the Northern Eire Division of Wellbeing and its minister Robin Swann.

The action will come soon after Swann wrote an op-ed piece for Rolling Stone in September 2020, which slammed Morrison’s stance on lockdown and covid constraints.

The piece explained that Morrison’s anti-lockdown sights could hurt general public overall health messaging in Northern Ireland and Swann additional that the songs that the artist experienced written relating to covid ended up “dangerous”.

Morrison released a amount of tunes which additional shared his impression, like “No More Lockdown”, “Born to Be Free” and “As I Walked Out”.

“We in Northern Ireland are very proud of the point that one particular of the biggest tunes legends of the earlier 50 yrs will come from our component of the earth,” wrote Swann in his op-ed.

“So there’s a serious experience of disappointment – we anticipated superior from him. If you see it all as a significant conspiracy, then you are much less most likely to abide by the very important general public wellness advice that retains you and other folks harmless.”

Morrison has now initiated lawful proceedings, wrote BBC News NI on Monday (30 May well).

“We affirm that authorized proceedings have been issued in opposition to Mr Robin Swann MLA and the Department of Health and fitness as co-publishers of an op-ed in Rolling Stone,” confirmed a spokesperson for Morrison.

This arrives following Swann himself started legal proceedings from Morrison very last year after the singer identified as him “very dangerous” for his handling of coronavirus limitations.

The Belfast-born singer vocally opposed limitations to suppress the unfold of the virus, and introduced a number of songs criticizing lockdowns. He denounced Swann in the course of a accumulating at Belfast’s Europa Hotel just after a Morrison live performance was canceled at the previous minute for the reason that of virus limitations.

The defamation fit similar to three incidents in which Morrison criticised Swann, contacting him “a fraud” and “very unsafe.”