{"id":404139,"date":"2026-03-26T01:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/404139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T01:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:59:08","slug":"judge-criticises-tit-for-tat-litigation-over-michael-flatleys-lord-of-the-dance-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/404139\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge criticises \u2018tit for tat\u2019 litigation over Michael Flatley\u2019s Lord of the Dance show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Flatley<\/a>\u2019s continuing legal battle with an entertainment company over control of the Lord of the Dance show is fast becoming farcical, a High Court<\/a> judge in Belfast has said. <\/p>\n

Judge Ian Huddleston expressed frustration at the \u201ctit for tat\u201d style of litigation being waged between the star and Switzer Consulting Ltd.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Flatley obtained a new emergency injunction<\/a> against the firm amid allegations it had breached an undertaking not to interfere with a 30th-anniversary tour of the multimillion-euro show.<\/p>\n

At an ex parte hearing his lawyers claimed Switzer was in contempt of the agreement in advance of a show due to take place in Zagreb, Croatia.<\/p>\n

Proceedings returned to court on Wednesday as the Northern Ireland-based company confirmed it will seek to have the injunction set aside and mount a separate application to be discharged from previous undertakings.<\/p>\n

In a further development, Flatley advanced attempts to secure the removal of Alexandra Walshe, the daughter of his former financial adviser Des Walshe, from her role in Switzer.<\/p>\n

The judge heard it was an urgent bid to have another trustee installed which could \u201cunlock\u201d the other legal disputes.<\/p>\n

Stressing the need to reach a resolution, the judge indicated that the current style of litigation will not be tolerated indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is fast becoming farcical. It needs to be brought to some sort of measured conclusion, and quickly,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t go on like this, and the courts are not going to be allowed to be drawn into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge called for applications to be based on facts rather than \u201cvague\u201d unsigned documents. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy frustration is it\u2019s just tit for tat, that isn\u2019t helpful to the court,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, and it is just a preliminary observation, the urgency … has overtaken the actual discipline of making sure affidavits are properly grounded. That is not a happy position for a judge to be in and then having to determine the issues which arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flatley has been locked in acrimonious actions over running the Lord of the Dance show he created. Switzer initially issued proceedings against the 67-year-old choreographer and retired performer amid disputed allegations about his financial affairs which it said had put the tour in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Lord of the Dance at 3Arena: The whole Celtic kitschen sink plays out under Flatley\u2019s watchful eyeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Amid counter moves, he has terminated the 2024 service agreement at the centre of the legal row and claimed he owns the company and rights to Lord of the Dance. <\/p>\n

Earlier this year an interim ban on Flatley being involved in forthcoming shows was lifted.<\/p>\n

Undertakings were also given that Switzer would not obstruct him from staging a premiere in Dublin in early February.<\/p>\n

The star now alleges that the firm has breached those pledges through interference in the European leg of the tour.<\/p>\n

His barrister, David Dunlop, also confirmed an application was being advanced to remove and replace Walshe as a trustee.<\/p>\n

No allegations of wrongdoing were being made against her, the court heard.<\/p>\n

But contending Flatley has a 100 per cent right to the company\u2019s shares, Dunlop suggested she can be replaced \u201cat the behest of a disgruntled and unhappy beneficiary\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf that issue is dealt with it is a mechanism of unlocking a lot of the other heavy litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counsel for Walshe, Plunkett Nugent, questioned the alleged urgency of the application and suggested it may be an attempt to \u201coutflank\u201d the separate proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a multitude of litigation going on and suites of documents which are interlinked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A barrister representing Switzer told the court it will seek to have the latest emergency injunction lifted before mounting a bid for undertakings to be dismissed.<\/p>\n

He submitted: \u201cThere are live issues with regards to shows that are ongoing, issues in relation to the provision of services contract between the parties.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Flatley\u2019s continuing legal battle with an entertainment company over control of the Lord of the Dance show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,10476,19,17,4778],"class_list":["post-404139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-flatley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116293007088982134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404139","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=404139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}