{"id":407804,"date":"2026-03-28T02:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/407804\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T02:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:47:10","slug":"flatley-vows-to-push-on-with-lord-of-the-dance-shows-following-court-ruling-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/407804\/","title":{"rendered":"Flatley vows to \u2018push on\u2019 with Lord of the Dance shows following court ruling \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Flatley<\/a> appears set for victory in his legal battle to regain control of the Lord of the Dance show, it was claimed on Friday. <\/p>\n

He obtained an order to have the daughter of his former financial adviser removed from her role in an entertainment company at the centre of the dispute.<\/p>\n

A judge at the High Court in Belfast<\/a> granted an application to replace Alexandra Walshe as trustee holding his shares in Switzer Consulting Ltd \u2013 the firm that has been suing him.<\/p>\n

Those shares are expected to be transferred to Flatley, providing a route to intellectual property rights in the stage show he created.<\/p>\n

The development could bring an end to a wider litigation<\/a> over the running of Lord of the Dance.<\/p>\n

In a statement after Friday\u2019s hearing, Flatley said he now intended to \u201cpush on with the 30th anniversary tour of Lord of the Dance and will immediately reach out to all our dancers and crew and venues with this very good news.\u201d <\/p>\n

Proceedings centred on a 2024 service agreement between the 67-year-old choreographer and Switzer.<\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland<\/a>-based firm mounted legal action amid disputed allegations about Flatley\u2019s financial affairs which it said had put a 30th anniversary tour in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

In a counter move, he terminated the service agreement, claiming to own 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

He returned to court earlier this week to obtain an emergency injunction amid allegations Switzer breached an undertaking<\/a> not to interfere with the tour.<\/p>\n

Flatley also advanced an application to secure the removal of Walshe, whose father Des Walshe previously acted as his financial adviser, from her position in the company.<\/p>\n

His legal team argued that he has a 100 per cent right to the shares she held in trust.<\/p>\n

In court on Friday, barrister David Dunlop, instructed by McIldowies Solicitors, insisted it was not appropriate for her to remain as trustee.<\/p>\n

He cited a failure to reply to legal correspondence and a potential conflict of interests based on her father\u2019s former association with the dancer.<\/p>\n

Lawyers on both sides had previously agreed that the application to have Walshe replaced could \u201cunlock\u201d the wider litigation. <\/p>\n

Belfast-based chartered accountant Paul McCann attended the latest hearing and confirmed his agreement to step in as trustee.<\/p>\n

Counsel for Walshe, Plunkett Nugent, did not oppose his proposed appointment.<\/p>\n

The court also heard she was \u201cdelighted\u201d that a $3 million bill owed to a company which owns rights to music in the show has now been settled.<\/p>\n

Consenting to Flatley\u2019s bid to have her removed, the judge confirmed: \u201cAs it no longer seems to be a contested application I am happy to grant the relief sought.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Flatley appears set for victory in his legal battle to regain control of the Lord of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[663,18,117,19,17,4778,954],"class_list":["post-407804","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","tag-northern-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116304520327798675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407804","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=407804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}