Jackie letters to stay ‘under lock and key’ at court

Copies of the letters written by the late Jackie Kennedy to a priest are to be kept under lock and key at the Four Courts.

A rare books expert yesterday handed in to the Commercial Court copies made by him of the letters written by Ms Kennedy, wife of assassinated US president John F Kennedy, to Vincentian priest Fr Joseph Leonard between 1950 and 1964.

Owen Felix O’Neill, of Cahir, Co Tipperary, copied the entire collection, and those copies will remain in a locked safe in the central office of the Four Courts pending the outcome of legal proceedings against him by MJ Fine Art Ltd, trading as Sheppard’s Irish Auction House, of Durrow, Co Laois, the court heard.