Court case: The first blows in a US versus Europe Ryder Cup battle will be struck in the High Court this morning.
A judge is to be asked to decide from where on the K Club golf course high-profile American guests will view the struggle by their country's top golfers to take the Ryder Cup from their European counterparts.
US-Ireland Alliance, which invited former US president Bill Clinton and Bill Gates to join them in Straffan, claims it has been thrown out of a 17th fairway hospitality suite it had booked and paid €180,000 for.
The non-profit making organisation, founded eight years ago to promote ties between the US and Ireland, will ask the court to reverse a European Tour Hospitality Ltd decision to move its 30-seater hospitality suite from a choice position on the 17th to a poorer viewing site on the 16th fairway.
US-Ireland Alliance's Irish board includes Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, US senators George Mitchell and Edward Kennedy, as well as John Hume and would-be coalition partners Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte.
It brought families of New York firefighters and police officers who lost their lives in 9/11 to Ireland for respite breaks.
The alliance claims that solicitor Ruth Shipsey, a director of the Irish sister organisation, and Trina Vargo, president of the American body and leading player in the Northern Ireland peace process, negotiated a week-long residency in the Liffey hospitality suite.
The suite is opposite the clubhouse, giving full views of tee-shots and approach shots to the 17th green and easy access to the 16th green, the eighth green and the 17th fairway.
Shipsey and Vargo said in a grounding affidavit that joint plaintiff Transaction Network Services Ltd, an Irish company and "generous corporate supporter of the alliance," had paid half the €180,000 bill on the basis it shared invitees on the guest list.
The US ambassador James C Kenny, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen and Minister for the Gaeltacht Éamon Ó Cuív are among many who have already been invited to "drop in" to the Liffey Suite.
The alliance is suing event management agency Platinum One Ltd, The Courtyard, Carmen Hall Road, Sandyford, Dublin, and European Tour Hospitality Ltd, Wentworth Drive, Virginia Waters, Surrey, which trades as Ryder Cup Official Hospitality ("Ryder Cup") for alleged breach of contract.
Both defendants have told the alliance they have a full defence and will oppose their application for a mandatory injunction from the court directing they be reinstated to the Liffey Hospitality Suite.
Mr Justice John Mac Menamin told Mr Michael Howard, SC, counsel for the Ryder Cup; Jim O'Callaghan, counsel for Platinum One Ltd and Ms Eileen Barrington, counsel for the alliance and Transaction Network Services, the matter would be heard by a High Court judge at 11.30am today in the Four Courts.