Man was ‘devastated’ at losing job running Irvine’s bar

SACKED pub manager John Foley was “devastated” after losing his job running ex-F1 racer Eddie Irvine’s trendy Cocoon bar.

“Immediately afterwards I was devastated, I was just distraught, but I gathered myself together,” he told an Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) hearing.

At the end of a 13-day hearing, Mr Foley’s lawyer Frank Callanan, SC, said his client’s preferred outcome was to get his old job back.

Mr Foley took the unfair dismissals case against Calview Investments Ltd, a company he co-owns with Mr Irvine. Apart from the Cocoon off Grafton Street, Calview runs O’Reilly’s pub on Tara Street.

Mr Foley claims he was dismissed from his €75,000 job in April 2003 because Mr Irvine wanted to take total control of Calview.

The company claims Mr Foley was dismissed for bouncing cheques in Cocoon as well as using the firm’s money to pay off his personal debts.

Calview’s barrister Tom Mallon, SC, said Mr Foley’s conduct merited dismissal when he cashed cheques without authority which he knew were likely to bounce. He had paid a tiler working on Mr Irvine’s palatial home in Dalkey despite being told not to write cheques outside the walls of the Cocoon business.

Earlier, Mr Callanan described how the company was run on “a loose basis” but insisted what Mr Foley had done did not merit dismissal. No attempt was made to give Mr Foley a fair hearing.

Mr Callanan claimed Mr Irvine had an ulterior motive, not only to oust Mr Foley as employee but dilute his shareholding.

Mr Callanan criticised Mr Irvine who, he claimed, was directly responsible for the attack on Mr Foley, for failing to give evidence.

Businessman Riobaird Lyne from Ennis, Co Clare, described finding Mr Foley “completely broken” after his dismissal.

He offered 15% of his own South African property investment to Mr Foley, who took it up and got a bank guarantee for €650,000.

The EAT hearing in Dublin, which began in July 2004, forms part of a bitter battle between the former friends. Mr Foley is also taking a number of High Court actions against Mr Irvine to decide on ownership of Calview, as well as suing the former racing driver for defamation.

The tribunal will issue its decision at a later, unspecified date.