Settlement talks in a dispute between members of the gay community over the ownership of a £500,000 social centre for gays are ongoing, a court heard yesterday. Hirschfeld Enterprises Ltd - in which Senator David Norris was stated to be a 60 per cent shareholder - and the National Lesbian and Gay Federation had asked the Circuit Civil Court to determine the issue.
Judge Liam Devally heard Mr Norris was one of a group which bought a four-storey Georgian building in Fownes Street, Dublin, for £69,500. It became the hub of gay and lesbian activity in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Mr Martin Hayden, counsel for Hirschfeld Enterprises, said Senator Norris and the other directors had personally guaranteed bank loans to fund the purchase.
Since the gay community had become accepted in society, it had moved towards the use of public venues for its social activities, and the Hirschfeld Centre had run into disuse. It had been damaged by fire in the early 1990s and was now listed as a dangerous building.
Mr Hayden said an attempted sale had fallen through because of the legal proceedings over ownership.
Mr Frank Callanan SC, counsel for the federation, said his clients believed that Hirschfeld Enterprises was a legal device to enable the purchase of the Temple Bar property, now conservatively worth £500,000, in trust for the gay community.
The federation claimed that as a charitable trust it had never been intended that the shareholders should obtain personal financial gain from it.
Mr James Doherty, who appears with Mr Callanan, told Judge Devally that while the proceedings had not been settled discussions were continuing. The case will be mentioned again next Tuesday.