{"id":326598,"date":"2026-03-03T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/326598\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:01:08","slug":"paddy-mckillen-jnr-challenges-bankruptcy-move-against-him-over-alleged-e2-1m-debt-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/326598\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy McKillen jnr challenges bankruptcy move against him over alleged \u20ac2.1m debt \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Businessman Paddy McKillen jnr<\/a> is challenging a bid to bring bankruptcy proceedings against him over an alleged \u20ac2.1 million debt.<\/p>\n

McKillen jnr denies he is indebted to Herbert Street Finance Unlimited Company in any sum exceeding \u20ac20,000 and claims he is entitled to court protection from a demand that he alleges is invalid and unenforceable.<\/p>\n

A bankruptcy summons, the first step in bankruptcy proceedings, was issued in late January by Herbert Street Finance over the alleged \u20ac2.1 million debt. <\/p>\n

The summons alleged that unless McKillen jnr paid the \u20ac2.1 million sum, he would have committed an act of bankruptcy \u2013 unless he applied to have the summons dismissed on the grounds he was not indebted to Herbert Street Finance in any sum (or only in the sum of \u20ac20,000).<\/p>\n

Herbert Street Finance claims the \u20ac2.1 million debt arises on foot of McKillen jnr covenanting to pay on demand the obligations of Cool Dust Ltd to Herbert Street Finance, up to a maximum \u20ac3 million.<\/p>\n

It claims sums of \u20ac2.3 million were received in part payment of Cool Dust\u2019s obligations but about \u20ac2.14 million remains due and owing, plus daily interest of about \u20ac533 since November last year when the demand was served.<\/p>\n

When the matter came before the High Court<\/a> bankruptcy list on Monday, barrister Keith Farry, for McKillen jnr, of Torquay Road, Foxrock, Dublin, said he was seeking to set aside the summons. <\/p>\n

Farry said he wanted time to reply to a sworn statement from the creditor. He was flagging this matter would be \u201cfully contested\u201d and he would be raising points that the alleged debt was overstated and in relation to the nature of the lending.<\/p>\n

There is an issue whether debt can ground a summons if the debt cannot be proven in bankruptcy, and whether the debt has been overstated and the effect of that on the summons, the court was told.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Paddy McKillen jnr, the mystery man of Dublin nightlifeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Barrister Niall \u00d3 hUiginn, for the creditor, said he was very anxious to get the matter on. He said the issue concerning whether the debt was provable had not been raised prior to this but his side would deal with it.<\/p>\n

Judge Liam Kennedy made directions for the exchange of affidavits and submissions and adjourned the matter for mention on April 13th when a hearing date for the set-aside application is expected to be fixed.<\/p>\n

Who is Paddy McKillen jnr?<\/p>\n

Paddy McKillen jnr has been the figure behind many of Dublin\u2019s most significant entertainment and dining venues over the past 20 years, but the man himself has mostly shunned the limelight.<\/p>\n

Founded with his old school friend Matt Ryan, McKillen jnr\u2019s Press Up grew fast by developing its own restaurants and existing, successful operations including Wagamama, Elephant & Castle and Wowburger.<\/p>\n

At one point, it had more than 2,000 staff across 50 venues, but by September 2024, Cheyne Capital had taken a majority stake in the business, later renaming it Eclective Hospitality Group. Since then issues appear to have piled up for McKillen jnr, with multiple firms seeking judgement against him.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Read more: Paddy McKillen jnr, the restaurateur and hotelier who shuns the limelightOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Businessman Paddy McKillen jnr is challenging a bid to bring bankruptcy proceedings against him over an alleged \u20ac2.1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,73,61,60,59971],"class_list":["post-326598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-paddy-mckillen-jnr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}