{"id":308904,"date":"2026-01-29T00:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308904\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:27:08","slug":"michael-flatley-living-life-of-monaco-millionaire-without-funds-to-do-so-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308904\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Flatley \u2018living life of Monaco millionaire without funds to do so\u2019, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Micheal Flatley<\/a> has been living the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire \u201cwithout the funds to do so\u201d and borrowed \u20ac75,000 to pay for his own birthday party, the High Court in Belfast<\/a> has heard.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a barrister representing a company which barred the choreographer from involvement in The Lord of the Dance tour submitted documents detailing \u201chorrendous business mistakes\u201d that cost Mr Flatley \u201cmillions in additional borrowing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Claims were made by Mr Flatley\u2019s former financial adviser, Des Walshe, that his ex-client was \u201call about image\u201d, the court heard on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the bluntest terms, he was faking it on a multimillion euro scale,\u201d Mr Walshe wrote.<\/p>\n

Many promoters were \u201creluctant\u201d to deal with the Lord of the Dance creator directly \u201cas he has an industry wide reputation for not paying his bills\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael\u2019s appetite for lifestyle cash was insatiable, including borrowing \u20ac75,000 for his birthday party and \u20ac50,000 to join Monaco Yacht Club. All during a time when he had no income other than borrowing,\u201d Mr Walshe wrote in a letter.<\/p>\n

The civil case centres on a temporary injunction granted to Switzer Consulting Ltd a fortnight ago that blocks Mr Flatley from participating in any upcoming productions.<\/p>\n

Switzer is suing the 67-year-old for alleged breach of contract.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, both parties struck a formal service agreement which allowed Switzer to run the shows.<\/p>\n

The production is to begin its 30th anniversary run in Dublin next week.<\/p>\n

Despite criticism of Mr Flatley\u2019s \u201cdifficult financial history\u201d by Switzer\u2019s legal team, the court heard the retired dancer had taken steps \u201covernight\u201d to secure \u20ac500,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf a million pounds is now sitting in an account in Dublin on a solicitor\u2019s undertaking,\u201d David Dunlop, a barrister for Mr Flatley, said.<\/p>\n

During lengthy submissions on Wednesday, Mr Dunlop said the injunction is akin to \u201chandcuffing together\u201d the two sides.<\/p>\n

There was \u201copen war\u201d in relation to \u201cevery aspect of their relationship\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Granting an injunction will lead to catastrophe \u201cbecause it is simply going to be impossible for the court to police\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither party is able to work with the other\u2026Mutual trust and respect have completely disappeared,\u201d Mr Dunlop said.<\/p>\n

The temporary injunction granted to Switzer was \u201cimproperly brought before the courts\u201d and \u201cdeceptive and misleading in many respects,\u201d Mr Dunlop claimed.<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the agreement, Switzer\u2019s fees were to be capped at \u00a335,000 (\u20ac40,427) per month increasing to \u00a340,000 per month after two years.<\/p>\n

Mr Flatley had transferred intellectual property rights for Lord Of The Dance to Switzer.<\/p>\n

Business management arrangements, such as accounts and payroll, were to be run by the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything appeared to be operating swimmingly\u201d until October 2025 when Mr Flatley was a patient at the Beacon Hospital in Dublin and \u201cwanted all his debts cleared\u201d, according to Switzer\u2019s barrister, Gary McHugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Flatley pirouettes on the 2024 agreement and is now seeking to soft shoe shuffle into 2026 with new arrangements altogether\u201d, Mr McHugh said.<\/p>\n

Blackbird, the feature film made and funded by Mr Flatley, was a commercial flop in which he had \u201cfoolishly\u201d used his home at Castlehyde in Fermoy, Co Cork, as security to borrow money, leading to debts of \u00a34.5 million with \u201cno way to pay it back\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Once Switzer took over Lord of the Dance, the production became a \u201ccommercial success\u201d with more 260 performances booked for this year in a \u201cglobal\u201d tour, Mr McHugh said.<\/p>\n

He read a letter written by Mr Walshe, in which he expressed a \u201cgrowing sense of frustration with Michael\u2019s misbehaviour within a group of people who\u2019ve been working with him for a number of years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, I\u2019ve lost all tolerance with this type of nonsense,\u201d Mr Walshe wrote in response to correspondence issued by Mr Flatley\u2019s solicitor in Dublin last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael knows the full extent of his liabilities and personally he knows why he finds himself in this position.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2019, Michael has lived the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire without the funds to do so. He borrowed the initial moneys to move to Monaco\u2026Despite advice to the contrary, as he did not even have the minimum cash required to open a residency bank account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Walshe became involved with Mr Flatley\u2019s affairs in 2022.<\/p>\n

In his letter, he said Mr Flatley was advised that he should \u201cnot move into that wealth circle (in Monaco) as he simply did not have the resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael ignored this advice and has essentially maintained this facade of wealth using other people\u2019s monies ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of reining in his spending, adjusting his lifetime costs and cutting his cloth to suit his measure, Michael simply borrowed more money from more people.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael would borrow money from anyone he could, and constantly put pressure on everyone looking for cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all about image.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Walshe said his former client would frequently show him his balance on his banking app.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew exactly what he was doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Flatley\u2019s barrister rejected claims that Mr Flatley \u201cwas a poor manager of his own affairs and was a man with substantial debts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAd hominem attacks\u201d had been made on his character, according to Mr Dunlop.<\/p>\n

The fact he had secured \u20ac500,000 the previous evening was \u201cproof in the pudding\u201d regarding his finances.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the one who\u2019s managed to generate and has made available half a million pounds,\u201d Mr Dunlop said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not Mr Flatley who has the financial difficulties in this case, it is the plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying that Switzer\u2019s arguments had not addressed the \u201clegal core\u201d of the case, Mr Dunlop added: \u201cTo use a football metaphor, they attacked the player not the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Switzer\u2019s legal team singled out Philip Moross as a \u201ccentral character in the proceedings\u201d, as he holds the music rights to Lord of the Dance.<\/p>\n

The court heard a debt of more than \u00a32 million was owed to Mr Moross by Mr Flatley.<\/p>\n

A deal was brokered between Switzer, Mr Flatley and Mr Moross to pay the debt in instalments.<\/p>\n

There was a fear Mr Moross could \u201cpull the plug\u201d on the tour if there was a default on the deal and money owed to him \u201cwas going to be impeded or interfered with\u201d, according to Mr McHugh.<\/p>\n

The court heard the previous evening that representatives from Mr Flatley had contacted Mr Moross and appeared to be \u201ctrying to buy him off\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was \u201ccomplete silence\u201d from Mr Flatley\u2019s legal team on the matter, Mr McHugh said.<\/p>\n

A judgement will be delivered on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Micheal Flatley has been living the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire \u201cwithout the funds to do so\u201d and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[663,18,117,19,17,4778],"class_list":{"0":"post-308904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-michael-flatley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115975555952760091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}