Judge: Lord must wait to recover paintings

A High Court judge has refused to grant the 18th Baron of Inchiquin, Conor O’Brien, a mandatory order for the recovery of his 37 ancestral portraits that hang in Dromoland Castle Hotel.

While also declining Lord Inchiquin an injunction restraining their reproduction, pending the hearing of a full trial later, Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe said yesterday he felt the status quo should remain as the hotel company could face damages if it was later found the paintings had been unlawfully copied.

Judge O’Keeffe said there was no clause banning reproductions in the agreement under which Lord Inchiquin had loaned the portraits to the hotel.