{"id":311235,"date":"2026-01-30T08:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311235\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:34:07","slug":"court-skirmish-shines-light-on-michael-flatleys-finances-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311235\/","title":{"rendered":"Court skirmish shines light on Michael Flatley\u2019s finances \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Flatley<\/a> blessed himself when he emerged from the confines of a baking hot Belfast<\/a> courtroom on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The choreographer was jubilant after a judge ruled in his favour<\/a> over a legal challenge that barred him from any involvement in upcoming Lord of the Dance productions.<\/p>\n

Vowing to \u201clift the roof\u201d of Dublin\u2019s 3Arena next week when the 30th anniversary run of the show begins, its creator told reporters he was \u201c100 per cent\u201d back in control.<\/p>\n

He was quickly ushered away by his lawyers.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours earlier, the tone had been very different.<\/p>\n

His apparent lack of control when it came to his personal spending habits was outlined in excruciating detail in the same wood-panelled Chancery court room. Mr Flatley, it appeared, was in some difficulty. <\/p>\n

Eye-watering amounts of money were borrowed by the 67-year-old intent on living the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire<\/a> \u201cwithout the funds to do so\u201d, his former financial adviser, Des Walshe, wrote in a letter last month. His ex-client was \u201cfaking it\u201d on a multimillion-euro scale to maintain \u201cthe pretence of wealth\u201d, the hushed court was told.<\/p>\n

The deeply unflattering depiction of Mr Flatley and his out-of-control spending in this legal case will be difficult to shake.<\/p>\n

Borrowing \u20ac75,000 to spend on a birthday party and \u20ac50,000 to join the jet set at a Monaco yacht club when promoters\u2019 bills are stacking up at home does little to enhance his reputation.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dancing, debts and claims of deposit-diverting: Flatley battles for his Lord of the Dance showOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Walshe, who parted ways with Mr Flatley last year, told his ex-client\u2019s solicitor that many promoters were \u201creluctant\u201d to deal with the performer directly because of concerns about not being paid.<\/p>\n

The financial adviser\u2019s letter formed a significant part of the case brought by Switzer Consulting Ltd.<\/p>\n

Mr Flatley\u2019s legal team rejected claims made by Switzer\u2019s lawyers as \u201cfalse and personal\u201d, while slating the company over its own finances.<\/p>\n

The fact the performer could access \u20ac500,000 overnight \u2013 the money is sitting in an account in Dublin on a solicitor\u2019s undertaking, the court was told on Wednesday \u2013 was testament to his ability to generate finance, according to his legal team.<\/p>\n

Beyond dispute in the case were the multimillion losses incurred by Mr Flatley over the funding of his feature film, Blackbird.<\/p>\n

He \u201cfoolishly\u201d put up Castlehyde mansion in Fermoy, Co Cork, as security and the movie flopped at the box office, leaving him with debts north of \u20ac4.5 million and \u201cno way to pay it back\u201d, according to Mr Walshe. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael Flatley: \u2018I grew up a boxer, swinging sledgehammers on construction sites\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

While the legal hearing didn\u2019t spell out a total figure for his debts, the film flop was among the \u201chorrendous business mistakes\u201d he made when he was \u201crunning out of rope financially\u201d.<\/p>\n

What is clear from the case is that Mr Flatley has been in financial difficulty. The precarious state of his finances was exposed along with his levels of borrowing and alleged \u201cinsatiable appetite for lifestyle cash\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although able to secure funds at the 11th hour, outstanding debts remain. More than \u00a32 million (\u20ac2.30) is owed to Philip Moross, the individual who owns the Lord of the Dance music rights.<\/p>\n

Acrimony lingered in the courtroom on Thursday. \u201cHotly disputed\u201d allegations, as the judge described them, have been traded between the two sides since the temporary injunction was granted to Switzer a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

Mr Flatley listened intently to Mr Justice Simpson yesterday when he referred to \u201ca considerable amount of material\u201d in the affidavits presented in the case which cannot be dealt with by the Belfast court. Instead, they will be heard before a pending trial in the Republic.<\/p>\n

Lord of the Dance will return next week, but the drama will continue offstage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Flatley blessed himself when he emerged from the confines of a baking hot Belfast courtroom on Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[663,18,117,19,17,4778],"class_list":["post-311235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-belfast","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-flatley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115983133117160235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311235","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=311235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}