Ballroom dispute settled at High Court

A DISPUTE between two men involved in the relaunch last summer of a landmark Dublin dancehall, the Ierne Ballroom, has been settled at the High Court.

James Cafferty and Ierne Entertainment Centre Ltd had sued Austin Kelly, a builder, of Castleknock, Dublin, and owner of the Ierne, over a lease for operation of the ballroom premises at Parnell Square, Dublin, and over the nature of works carried out for the Ierne’s relaunch. The Ierne was one of the foremost venues of the 1960s showband era until it closed in the 1980s. It reopened last June.

The hearing opened yesterday before Mr Justice Thomas Smyth but, after talks between the sides later yesterday, the judge was told by Martin Hayden SC, for Mr Cafferty, with the consent of Robert Barron SC, for Mr Kelly, that the sides had resolved their differences and the case could be struck out with no order except that a bank draft of €43,000 lodged in court should be returned to the plaintiffs’ solicitor.