
Michael Flatley says security for costs application an attempt to embarrass him
And the entertainer in an affidavit opened to the Commercial Court said it was also an attempt to embarrass him.
Advertisement
Michael Flatley's counsel, Ronnie Hudson BL, instructed by Maxwell Mooney solicitor, told the court that the dancing star is an Irish citizen and has assets in this jurisdiction, and he contended it could be 'a form of discrimination' if the court were to make an order for security of costs against him.
Ms Justice Eileen Roberts has been asked by the parties being sued over work carried out on Castlehyde in Fermoy after a 2016 fire to order that as much as €2.8m be lodged in court by the entertainer in advance of the hearing of the action.
A security for costs application is usually made when the defendants in the case apply to the court seeking to have their costs covered if they end up successfully defending the main proceedings.
The application in the Flatley case is expected to last two days.
Advertisement
In an affidavit opened to the court Mr Flatley said said Lord of the Dance is continuing to sell out venues worldwide and he had spent the last 30 years of his life travelling the world promoting Ireland and Irish culture globally.
He said Lord of the dance has sold over €1 billion worth of tickets.
Lord of the Dance, which he said had received ' a lifetime of standing ovations' has been valued 'at a conservative minimum of €200 million.
Mr Flatley also said a section of New York's 42nd St was renamed Flatley Way in recognition of his Irish American cultural work .
Advertisement
Mr Flatley said his Statement of Affairs which valued Lord of the Dance at €200million, his whiskey business at €10million and his Castlehyde mansion at €20 million is accurate.
He said he owns all of the rights and intellectual property for Lord of the Dance and the valuation could be double the €200million figure.
He said his liability is a €7.9 million mortgage on Castlehyde which will be repaid from his business activities over the next two years.
He said he agreed with the €20 million valuation on Castlehyde and he regarded the suggestion that a €10.5 million valuation by the defendants for the mansion is in any way credible as 'complete nonsense.'
Advertisement
Mr Flatley in the affidavit which was sworn last month also said he 'intends to return to live in Ireland permanently as soon as possible.'
Andrew Fitzpatrick SC for the underwriting and insurance defendants submitted Mr Flatley lives in Monaco, outside the EU. He said Mr Flatley's suggestion that Lord of the Dance could be worth €400m was a "wild assertion."
The entertainer, he said, has repeatedly averred in court documents that he is a man of means and has means to pay costs and the court could take comfort in the fact that if it makes the order for security for costs it won't stop Mr Flatley's access to the courts.
The question to be answered, counsel said, is whether Mr Flatley has sufficient or ample assets in this jurisdiction against which an order for costs can be forced.
Advertisement
He said his clients were concerned there are not sufficient assets in this jurisdiction and he contended the €20million value Mr Flatley puts on his Castlehyde mansion should be discounted.
Ireland
Michael Flatley's legal battle over security for c...
Read More
Counsel for Austin Newport , Stephen Dowling SC said his side say that Mr Flatley used Castlehyde, as a holiday home and as 'an ad hoc temporary residence from time to time.'
In the main proceedings, the Riverdance performer claims he and his family had to vacate the Castlehyde period property in October 2023 after alleged toxic chemical residue was detected during routine maintenance.
Mr Flatley is suing Austin Newport Group Ltd, the main contractor and insurance underwriters — MS Amlin Underwriting Ltd, AXA XL Underwriting Agencies LTD and Hamilton Managing Agency Limited along with Lloyds Insurance Company.
All of the allegations are denied. The application for security for costs continues on Wednesday.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BreakingNews.ie
6 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Everything was so beautiful: Jenna Ortega on filming Wednesday in Ireland
Jenna Ortega has praised the kindness of the Irish people and the beauty of the landscape after filming the second season of the Netflix hit Wednesday in the country. The 22-year-old American actress, who reprises her role as Wednesday Addams, the morbid, sharp-witted teenager with psychic powers, said she had never visited the island before working on the new season. Advertisement The new season sees Wednesday return to the halls of Nevermore Academy, where fresh foes and woes await. Directed once again by Tim Burton, the latest instalment of the gothic hit welcomes a number of new cast members to the team including Dame Joanna Lumley as Grandmama, Steve Buscemi as Barry Dort, the new principal of Nevermore, and Billie Piper as Isadora Capri, the school's new head of music. Director Tim Burton with Wednesday star Jenna Ortega (Ian West/PA) While the first season was filmed in Romania, the latest instalment of the popular series was shot in various locations around Wicklow, Dublin and Offaly. 'I'd never been to Ireland and it was wonderful,' said Ortega. Advertisement 'My favourite thing was just how kind the people are, but also the countryside was really nice. I did my best to see as much of the island as I could while I was there. I went north, south, east, west, I went all over. I'm pretty proud of myself.' According to Tourism Ireland, some of the locations used to shoot the new series include Charleville Castle in Co Offaly, Dean's Grange Cemetery in Co Dublin and Ashford Studios in Co Wicklow. Lumley, 79, said: 'I was pretty thrilled, because having filmed there a few times, in Ardmore studios, I didn't know there was a studio even further south of that, and then to come to Ashford Studios was marvellous. 'There's something in Ireland which is slightly otherworldly and it embraced the whole feeling of Wednesday.' Advertisement Dame Joanna Lumley is joining the cast of Wednesday for its second season (James Manning/PA) Buscemi, 67, famous for his roles in Reservoir Dogs and The Sopranos, said he enjoyed the Guinness. 'I was surprised at how much Guinness I could actually drink every day, never while shooting,' he joked. 'It was so lovely shooting there. The people are amazing.' Ortega added: 'Everything about Ireland was so beautiful and we had such a hard-working crew, and people who really just gave it their all, and were so skilled. Advertisement 'But the only real challenge we had was fighting the green. It was so green there and it was so bright for the show. Suddenly the Addams looked alive.' Wednesday season two, which sees Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones continuing to play Morticia Addams, comes out on Netflix on August 6 with a first part and a second part coming on September 3. Created by cartoonist Charles Addams, the macabre family have inspired a 1960s TV show, and 1990s films starring Anjelica Huston and Christina Ricci, who also appeared in Wednesday season one as a teacher.


BreakingNews.ie
36 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Paddy McKillen jnr in dispute with receivers over Dublin office properties
Businessman Paddy McKillen junior is in a Commercial Court dispute with receivers over the taking possession of three valuable Dublin office properties allegedly due to millions owed in rent arrears on them. Perfect Stripe Ltd, trading as Grafter, is suing Ken Fennell and Brendan O'Reilly, of Interpath Advisory, who were appointed joint receivers over three companies which rented the properties, at Stephen's Green, Leeson Street and Ely Place from Perfect Stripe. Advertisement The three companies, Wonderbay Ltd, Crossville Properties Ltd, and Discovery Dawn Ltd (all in receivership) were McKillen group-related firms. Perfect Stripe claims that on the morning of June 23rd last, agents of the receivers broke into the properties having unlawfully purported to have forfeit the leases. The locks were changed and Perfect Stripe and its agents were prevented from gaining access. The claim of breaking in is denied. The purchase of the buildings was funded largely through loans from RELM Loan Opportunities DAC who appointed the receivers after calling in the loans. RELM began calling in the loans and Perfect Stripe says that the forfeiture happened despite discussions with the defendants about rent adjustments. Advertisement It believed the parties were negotiating in good faith and no steps would be taken towards any enforcement until the negotiations concluded. The defendants claimed the sums due on the properties in rent arrears at the time was some €2.7 million for Stephen's Green, around €321,000 for Ely Place and some €530,000 for Leeson Street. Perfect Stripe, in its statement of claim, says the defendants have unlawfully forfeited the properties "under the guise of seeking inflated amounts in excess of the interest due" under the loan agreements. It also says they have "misappropriated the plaintiff's business in order to achieve a higher sales price for the properties". Advertisement On Monday, Mr Fennell and Mr O'Reilly, in their capacity as receivers of the three defendant companies, applied to have the dispute admitted to the fast track Commercial Court. James Doherty SC, for the defendants, said the total debt now due in arrears was in excess of €4.1 million and the leases were forfeited and possession taken some five weeks ago. Ireland Man (37) repeatedly stabbed ex-partner after putti... Read More Counsel said there was mediation for a short time, which was unsuccessful. The claim of misappropriation by the defendants of the business to themselves is "wholly without foundation", he said. Counsel also disputed a claim by Marcus Dowling SC, for Perfect Stripe, that from his client's perspective, what had happened was the receivers' agents breaking into the premises in the middle of the night. Mr Dowling said his side was neutral on the application to admit the case to the commercial list. Mr Justice Mark Sanfey said it was clearly a matter suitable for entry to the Commercial Court. He approved the agreed directions and adjourned the matter to later this year.


Times
an hour ago
- Times
Is it worth buying Whitbread shares right now?
It is only a matter of time before Whitbread changes its name to Premier Inn. Ever since it started the Travel Inn chain in 1987, augmented by Premier Lodge in 2004, hotels have gradually been elbowing other activities — brewing, coffee shops, pubs — out of the nest. It has reached the point where food and beverage revenues and profits are no longer broken out in the annual report's segmental analysis. Instead, the two named divisions are Premier Inn UK & Ireland, and Germany. The restaurants, under the names Beefeater, Brewers Fayre and others, are either being sold or turned into Premier Inn rooms. One or two particularly profitable outposts may linger, but even they will soon surely not be worth the management time to monitor them. So the group is changing before our eyes, and is heading towards becoming a UK and Europe-wide budget hotel chain. Much hard work has gone into adapting the Premier Inn formula for Germany since the first one opened in Frankfurt nine years ago. That will inspire a rollout to other countries. A toe has already been dipped in the water in Austria, and for some years there has been a Middle East joint venture with Emirates Group. The German experience will provide a natural platform for expanding to Scandinavia and other northern European territories. Dominic Paul, the chief executive, told The Times last month: 'We are proving Premier Inn can grow and that, once the right model is in place, we can grow quite quickly. We're getting to a point where the German business is learning from the UK business and the UK is learning from Germany.' It is still a work in progress, and the transition was well illustrated by the results for the year to the end of February. Total revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation actually edged down a touch, to £2.9 billion in the UK and £1 billion in Germany. UK business revenues fell 3 per cent to £2.7 billion, while revenues in Germany rose £41 million or 21 per cent to £231 million. UK adjusted pretax profit fell from £588 million to £507 million thanks to cost inflation and lower interest income. But cost savings in Germany cut the loss there from £36 million to £11 million, so it is going in the right direction and in 2025 profits should begin to flow. Paul seems to have imbibed the Peter Drucker idea of management by objectives. The latest Whitbread annual report is replete with targets, led by the three-pronged strategy to grow and innovate in the UK; focus on strengths to grow in Germany; and enhance capabilities to support long-term growth. There is, of course, a five-year plan, to recycle at least £1 billion of its most mature property, to generate at least £300 million of incremental profit, distribute more than £2 billion in share buy-backs and dividends, and expand the estate from 86,000 to 98,000 rooms, all by 2030. Some rooms will be converted from existing attached restaurants, and 5,000 are earmarked for Germany. As the group is deep into hospitality, it has been held back by sluggish economic growth in Germany and the UK, and the effects of last October's UK budget, which increased national insurance contributions and the minimum wage. That was reflected in the share price, which tumbled from £33 to £23. Since April, however, it has climbed nearly all the way back up, reaching £32 on the back of the general stock market recovery and the prospect of falling interest rates. The planned £250 million share buyback did no harm, either. Last month's first-quarter figures sent the analysts back to their spreadsheets, as total revenue and revenue per available room both fell by 2 per cent. The UK outside London was the laggard, while Germany steamed ahead by 16 per cent. None of that phased Paul, who preferred to point to the five-year plan. 'In the UK, we continue to outperform against a challenging market backdrop,' he said. Clearly the real returns are not going to break through until the economic background improves. Peel Hunt rates the shares a buy, saying: 'Whitbread continues to create value: room openings are accelerating, skewed to higher-priced London, business market penetration is growing and independent competitors are struggling.' They see earnings per share bursting from 193.4p to 234.3p by February 2028, for a prospective 13.2 price-earnings ratio and a 3.8 per cent dividend. ADVICE HoldWHY A sound long-term expansion prospect at the end of the road