A High Court judge will deliver judgment this afternoon on the action brought against Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan and her husband, Mr Don Burton, by their former nanny, Ms Joy Fahy.
Evidence in the eight-day action ended yesterday afternoon. After hearing closing submissions from lawyers for both sides, Mr Justice Quirke said he would give his decision as close as possible to 2 p.m. today.
Ms Fahy, Moyleggan, Batterstown, Co Meath, has sued the Burtons, of Riversfield Stud, Kilmallock, Co Limerick, under a number of headings, including alleged breach of contract and breach of duty. Initially, there was a claim against both defendants for alleged false imprisonment but, during the hearing, the judge was told that claim is not proceeding against Ms O'Riordan.
In his closing submissions yesterday, Mr Bill Shipsey SC, for the defence, said Ms Fahy (34) must have hoped that the case would never have come to court. She had been determined to make a claim "from the start".
Everything about the way she had approached the claim, from her arrival back in Ireland from Canada in 1999 and from her then contact with a doctor and a solicitor, was indicative of her determination to make a claim, counsel said. However, the defendants "did not buckle" and had faced many of the damaging allegations against them and the publicity that attached to such allegations, Mr Shipsey said.
Ms Fahy's claims were incredible and must be dismissed in a comprehensive manner, he urged.
Mr Shipsey also said that Ms Fahy had a number of heads of claim but she had coupled those with grave and damaging allegations against the defendants. Those allegations, had they not been clothed in the guise of court proceedings, would have been of a very serious and defamatory nature.
In his closing submissions, Mr Richard Keane SC, for Ms Fahy, said he agreed that the case should never have come to court. He argued Ms Fahy would not be in court if Mr Burton had complied with his statutory obligations under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994, which was in operation at the time.
Mr Keane said there had been an allegation that Ms Fahy had deliberately falsified her diary (to which she had referred during her evidence). That was a serious and outrageous allegation which had never been proven, advanced or withdrawn, he said.