Celebrity chef avoids jail for smashing ex-partner’s door

One of the most celebrated chefs in the country has been given a four-month suspended jail sentence for smashing in the door of his ex-partner’s home.

Seamus O’Connell of Ivory Tower, Princes Street, Cork, pleaded not guilty to the charge of causing criminal damage to the door of Jacinta Cronin’s home at Ard Na Greinne, Greenmount, Cork, on December 2 2012.

The chef, who was raised in Arizona, has been a pioneering force in Irish cooking and established one of the most distinctive establishments in Cork City, the Ivory Tower.