THE ARCHBISHOP of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has been awarded €1.5m by the Commercial Court in respect of a case taken against a solicitor who admitted to embezzling €1.5m in donations meant for the Church.
At the Commercial Court this morning Justice Peter Kelly ruled that Ruairí Ó Ceallaigh, who has previously admitted to gambling away millions of his clients’ money, had ‘plundered’ the money left to Martin by a late churchgoer.
RTÉ News reports that Dónal Ó Súilleabháin, who had died in 2006, had left €75,000 to the Archbishop personally, and a further €1.5m to be donated to the Archbishop to be donated by him to charitable causes of his choosing.
A solicitor to Ó Ceallaigh – whose prior behaviour had seen his family’s law practice in Phibsborough wound up by the High Court – said his client offered his apology to the court, and consented to the judgment.
The court also adjourned proceedings against Ruairí’s brother Cormac, who the Archbishop’s counsel said owed an equal duty of care to the management of the late client’s estate.
It is understood that the cash was spent on two properties.
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