A former childminder with the Cranberries' singer Dolores O'Riordan and her husband, Don Burton, who is suing them for alleged breach of contract, became upset in the witness box in the High Court yesterday when defence counsel asked her about the salary for "a second-string nanny".
Ms Joy Fahy said she had never been called a second-string nanny before. But Mr Justice Quirke intervened to say that counsel did not mean a second-rate nanny.
The judge said that counsel meant a second-string nanny as Dolores O'Riordan's mother was the primary childminder and Ms Fahy was the second person responsible for the Burtons' baby.
Mr Justice Quirke told Ms Fahy (34), of Moyleggan, Batterstown, Co Meath, that the term second-string nanny was in no sense a denigration of her qualifications.
On the third day of the action Ms Fahy was being cross-examined by counsel for the defence, Mr Bill Shipsey SC, about the terms of her employment when she went to work with the Burtons in 1999.
Ms Fahy disagreed with several suggestions made to her by counsel in relation to her pay and other terms of her position.
The hearing of the action was adjourned to April 20th.
During prolonged questioning about the salary she was to be paid by the Burtons, Ms Fahy rejected a suggestion that her pay was to be £500 gross and said she was to have got £500 "clear".
She said she did not understand gross and nett but did understand "clear". Ms Fahy, who previously worked for the family of Larry Mullen of U2, said that in early 1999, before she went to the Burtons, she was earning some £186 a week as well as overtime.
Counsel put it to her that she was earning roughly £200 a week and did not have a car (with her work).
Under further cross-examination, Ms Fahy said she did not live in with her previous employers and had to pay for facilities elsewhere for her horse. She agreed that in early 1999 she would not "have much change" out of £100 in paying for facilities for the horse.
Asked if she spent about 50 per cent of what she was earning on the horse, Ms Fahy said that at times she would possibly have spent 100 per cent.
Mr Shipsey said that what was offered to her by Mr Burton was a period of work as assistant to Eileen O'Riordan (Dolores' mother), with terms greatly in excess of what she had had in the previous job. Ms Fahy said that, as she had stated already, she was promised "the sun, moon and stars".
Mr Shipsey said Ms Fahy's "sun, moon and the stars" did not coincide with the Burtons' "sun, moon and stars".
Questioning Ms Fahy about what she was to be paid with the Burtons, Mr Shipsey said £38,000 a year for "a second-string nanny" was not remotely close to the going rate in 1999. Ms Fahy then said she had never been called a second-string nanny before. She did not know what other nannies were earning at the time.
Before going to the Burtons, she had had a happy, privileged and fantastic job with a family she adored and were not shoddy in paying her. Counsel said he was not suggesting any underpayment but added that no nanny was paid anything remotely like what Ms Fahy was saying. The figure was £500 gross.
Ms Fahy said she was deeply upset. The judge said he was not taking what had been said as any criticism of her former employers, and Mr Shipsey said he was not doing so.
Ms Fahy said she was still owed money by the Burtons in respect of some days off. When employed by them, she added, she was to be provided with a new Cherokee jeep. It was to be hers on termination of the contract.
Mr Shipsey suggested that Ms Fahy was to have the jeep while she was employed by the Burtons and that there was no suggestion it was to be Ms Fahy's or was to be of a particular model or a new one. Ms Fahy: "There most certainly was."
Counsel said Eileen O'Riordan would say that when they got back from America "a perfectly good Pajero jeep" was there, and Ms Fahy was delighted with it.
Ms Fahy said that was not true.
Mr Shipsey said she had been told she would be provided with a jeep, not a Cherokee jeep. Ms Fahy said the only type of jeep she knew was a Cherokee.
Asked if she knew the cost of a new jeep at the time, Ms Fahy said: "A lot of money." Asked if she was suggesting she was to receive something costing £40,000-£50,000 as a gift, she said she was.