Late late deal in land row

COPERNICUS was a wise man, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Maureen Harding Clark.

The former was the scientist who proved that the earth was not in fact the centre of the universe but was merely another ball of mud bobbing around the sun.

The latter is the judge who made two giant egos realise they are not the centre of the universe either but merely two menbickering over a hedgerow.

Gerard Charlton should have seen this revelation coming. The legal eagle is consultant to the firm of Reddy Charlton McKnight, which chooses Copernicus as its inspiration. “Like Copernicus we are guided by a strength of integrity, a passion for our work and clarity of thinking,” goes their advertising blurb.

Pat Kenny, a chemistry graduate, should have anticipated the volatility of pouring celebrity, law and land into a test tube and shaking it vigorously in the unsafe setting of a public arena.

Instead, the Dalkeyites huffed, puffed, fumed and fought over a scrap of land until the whole sorry saga spilled into the courts. Even the badgers and birdies who called it home must have considered packing up and taking their chances of dodging the smoking tyres of Eddie Irvine who lives nearby, or risk being blasted out of their nests by Bono practising scales in the garden down the road.

But then Justice Harding Clark stepped in, a tiny woman with a a minuscule ego and a wisdom so vast she could coat the expansive Kenny and Charlton homes with it and still have enough left to paint a lighthouse.

Clarke spent time in the International Criminal Court, dealing with war crimes committed during the break-up of Yugoslavia. She knows how territorial disputes can fester, erupt and destroy. Gorse Hill wasn’t worth it and she told the warring parties so.

They listened, they talked, they resolved. It cost the Kennys up to a million euro and the Charltons a lot of noughts also. It also cost them their friendship. “We will have civil discourse when it arises,” Kenny said stiffly.

May the hedgerows grow high, but the egos stay pruned.