One of Dublin's best-known GAA clubs, Erin's Isle of Finglas, has secured High Court injunctions against its pitch-and-putt section after the court rejected a claim by officers of the section that it was an independent and autonomous body.
In a reserved judgment, Miss Justice Carroll said that when the legal proceedings were issued the pitch-and-putt section officers had, instead of trying remedy matters, opted for a head-on clash with the GAA club.
The pitch-and-putt section was not and never had been an autonomous independent body, the judge found.
She granted injunctions to the trustees of the GAA club which restrain the defendants, as officers of the pitch-and-putt section, or their servants or agents from trespassing or interfering with the property and premises of the GAA club and from carrying out any activity concerning the pitch-and-putt section of the GAA club.
She noted that Erin's Isle would permit the pitch-and-putt section to continue its fixtures, subject to the overall control of the GAA executive committee.
Miss Justice Carroll said the GAA club was entitled to the substantial costs of the five-day hearing, held last June, but she put a stay on the costs award in the event of a Supreme Court appeal.
The GAA club trustees had brought the proceedings against Thomas Emmet, Casement Park; James Donoghue, North Road; and James Nolan, Westwood Road, all Finglas.
The defendants counterclaimed that the pitch-and-putt section was a club within the meaning of the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1971, and was entitled to a sporting lease. The counterclaim was rejected.
Miss Justice Carroll found that the pitch-and-putt section existed by virtue of the GAA club's constitution and had no constitution of its own.
It was subject to the control of the GAA club's executive committee and was permitted to use the pitch-and-putt course.