A FORMER chief executive of the Athletic Association of Ireland faced “resistance and hostility” from two powerful men in Irish sport from the day she was appointed, it has been claimed in the High Court.
John Treacy, chief executive officer of the Irish Sports Council (ICS), and its chairman Ossie Kilkenny, were part of an orchestrated campaign to get rid of Mary Coghlan, Brian O’Moore SC, for Ms Coghlan, has claimed.
This campaign arose from the ISC’s desire to control the association’s high-performance unit for athletes and the appointment of the organisation’s director of athletics, Mr O’Moore said yesterday.
Mr Kilkenny had supplied a “dishonest” statement to the Minister for Sport which omitted his “extraordinary” comment to a meeting of the association board describing Ms Coghlan as “a cancer” within the organisation.
Mr O’Moore was opening Ms Coghlan’s action before the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, against the Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) and the Irish Sports Council (ISC).
Ms Coghlan alleges the ISC was guilty of misfeasance in public office in allegedly putting pressure on the AAI to dismiss her and that her dismissal in July 2009 was invalid. She is also seeking damages for alleged defamation. Both defendants deny the claims.
Mr O’Moore said the issue was whether the sports council, as the organisation responsible for funding sport in this State, could “effectively bludgeon and compel” a non-governmental body to dismiss its chief executive.
The “resistance and hostility” which Ms Coghlan faced from Mr Treacy and Mr Kilkenny – “two powerful men” – began from her appointment in April 2008 and manifested itself quickly in relation to two significant areas of the association – the replacement for the existing director of athletics and the controller of the high-performance unit for athletes.
Mr Treacy wanted to control those two areas and was facilitated in this by the chairman of the high-performance committee, Patsy McGonagle, Mr O’Moore said.
Ms Coghlan did not accept this, stood up to the ISC and tried to do her job, including taking a more “hands-on” approach following the Beijing Olympics.
In doing so, she discovered Mr McGonagle had written an e-mail in which he described her as “a silly bitch”. She made a formal complaint about this to the board of the AAI which set up an inquiry, but that never took place.
A newspaper article about that proposed inquiry prompted a statement from the AAI alleging that Mr McGonagle was under investigation for gross misconduct, Mr O’Moore continued.
A few days later there was a meeting of Mr Treacy, Mr Kilkenny, other ISC members and the “top brass” of the AAI at which Mr Kilkenny threatened the €1 million annual funding for the AAI, asked whether Ms Coghlan’s contract had a probationary clause and referred to having to “remove this cancer within us”.
Mr Kilkenny’s solicitors later wrote to deny this was a reference to Ms Coghlan, Mr O’Moore said.
Arising out of this, for the first time in its history, the AAI was not given its funding at the normal time funding was announced, the following February. The ISC did provide monthly funding.
Mr Treacy had told an official in the Department of Sport that once the “core issue” was resolved, there would be no question of the AAI getting its funding. The official asked that Mr Kilkenny provide a comprehensive statement to the Minister but that omitted a number of things, including the “extraordinary phrase” relating to removing “the cancer within us”.
The AAI later served three months notice on Ms Coghlan and she left the organisation.