A FAMILY row over ownership of two boats well known around Howth Harbour has been settled in the Circuit Civil Court in Dublin.
One of the boats, The Saint Therese, is a former lifeboat, The General R Dudley Blake, famous because it was said it used to feature on the insignia of the RNLI.
The row erupted between Sheila Doyle, a peace commissioner, of St Lawrence's Terrace, Howth, Co Dublin, and widow Mary Doyle, of Rathmore Park, Raheny, Dublin, a sister-in-law of Sheila and her son Mark, a nephew of Sheila, of the same address.
Daithaí MacCarthaigh, counsel for Sheila Doyle, told the court her father, Cyril, bought The Saint Therese in Limerick in 1947 and another boat, known as The Little Flower, in 1960.
The two craft had been used to ferry passengers to and from Ireland's Eye from Howth as a family business until Cyril Doyle died in 1985. He had made no will and by family agreement the two boats went to his wife, Kathleen, the mother of Sheila Doyle, who claims ownership of them.
She claimed they had been bequeathed to her by her mother, Kathleen, on her death in 1995 but this was disputed by her nephew Mark who claimed ownership of them on the basis they had been passed on to him and his brother, Gregory, by their late father Frank, who had managed them as Ireland's Eye ferries.
Yesterday, Donal Ó Laoire, counsel for Mary and Mark Doyle, told Judge Joseph Matthews the dispute had been settled on the basis that Sheila Doyle would own The Saint Therese while the defendants would own The Little Flower.