![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_JS394499765.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Lord Of The Dance legend has been living the ‘lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire’ by borrowing money, and has an ‘insatiable appetite for lifestyle cash’, a court in Belfast has heard.<\/p>\n
Michael Flatley outside Belfast High Court where Switzer Consulting is taking legal action in a civil case against the choreographer and dancer for alleged breach of contract<\/p>\n
Michael Flatley has been living the \u201clifestyle of a Monaco millionaire\u201d by borrowing money, and has an \u201cinsatiable appetite\u201d for \u201clifestyle cash\u201d, a court in Belfast has heard.<\/p>\n
Lawyers representing Flatley in the fight to clear an interim injunction said he had secured half a million euros \u201covernight\u201d to end his agreement with the company blocking him from engaging with stage show The Lord Of The Dance.<\/p>\n
The Irish traditional dancer and choreographer rose to international prominence performing Riverdance at Eurovision in 1994, before going on to create the stage show The Lord Of The Dance.<\/p>\n
The production\u2019s 30th anniversary tour is due to play in Dublin\u2019s 3 Arena on February 5, continuing in 2026 in a number of countries including the UK, Germany, Croatia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n
Switzer Consulting is taking legal action in a civil case against the choreographer and dancer for alleged breach of contract, relating to an agreement the firm says was reached to allow it to run the dance shows.<\/p>\n
Switzer has already secured a temporary injunction to stop Flatley from interfering with the shows, with the dancer\u2019s lawyers having argued previously the performance was in danger of \u201cfalling apart\u201d without his involvement.<\/p>\n
At The Chancery Court in the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast on Wednesday, Gary McHugh KC, for Switzer, argued the injunction was necessary to protect Switzer\u2019s interests because Flatley\u2019s financial situation would have left him unable to pay damages.<\/p>\n
The legal dispute hinges on a terms of service agreement under which Flatley transferred intellectual property rights for Lord Of The Dance to Switzer and they in turn were then required to provide business management services to Flatley such as accounts and payroll.<\/p>\n
For this, Flatley agreed to pay the company \u00a335,000 per month for the first 24 months, rising to \u00a340,000 a month thereafter.<\/p>\n
Mr McHugh read a statement by Flatley\u2019s former financial advisor Des Walsh who said the dancer \u201cknows why he finds himself in this position\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said that Flatley \u201chas lived the lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire\u201d by borrowing money \u201cas he did not even have the minimum cash required to open a residency package\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time Michael was advised that he should not move into that wealth circle as he simply did not have the resources,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael ignored this advice and has essentially maintained this facade of wealth using other people\u2019s monies ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court heard this was exacerbated by Flatley\u2019s \u201chorrendous business mistakes, which cost him millions of additional borrowings\u201d, at a time when \u201che had no income and was running out of room financially\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Walsh\u2019s statement added that \u201cinstead of reining in his spending, adjusting his lifetime costs and cutting his cloth to suit his measure, Michael simply borrowed more money from more people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all about image.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of this borrowing was used to maintain a pretence of wealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael would borrow money from anyone he could, and constantly put pressure on everyone looking for cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
His affidavit also claimed Flatley\u2019s \u201cappetite for lifestyle cash was insatiable\u201d, and he borrowed 75,000 euros for a birthday party and 50,000 euros to join Monaco Yacht Club.<\/p>\n
David Dunlop KC, representing Flatley, pushed back on the claims that Flatley \u201cwas a poor manager of his own affairs and was a man with substantial debts\u201d, saying \u201cad hominem\u201d attacks had been made on his character.<\/p>\n
Mr Dunlop argued that Switzer\u2019s entitlement is limited to a fee of \u00a3420,000 for the 60 remaining months of its terms of service agreement with Flatley.<\/p>\n
He said that \u201covernight\u201d Flatley had cleared 500,000 euro that was being held by a solicitor in Dublin that would pay for damages to end the contract with Switzer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile many averments were made about Mr Flatley\u2019s financial affairs the proof is in the pudding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is the one who\u2019s managed to generate and has made available half a million pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not Mr Flatley who has the financial difficulties in this case, it is the plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asserting that Switzer\u2019s arguments had not addressed the \u201clegal core\u201d of the case, Mr Dunlop added: \u201cTo use a football metaphor, they attacked the player not the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Dunlop further pushed back on claims made by Switzer\u2019s legal team that the financial arrangements in the contract were essentially to protect the Lord Of The Dance from Flatley\u2019s financial reputation.<\/p>\n
He told the court: \u201cUltimately if there\u2019s damage caused to the operation of the Lord Of The Dance when Mr Flatley is undertaking it, well it\u2019s his property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it suffers loss that\u2019s really his problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever if he\u2019s right, and Switzer is a completely untrustworthy agent in whom he has lost all trust whatsoever for the next 12 months or thereabouts it will control the intellectual property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could do untold damage to Mr Flatley\u2019s intellectual property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has no incentive to retain the value of the intellectual property because it\u2019s only entitled to be paid a service fee.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Switzer has no skin in the game really order to protect the Lord Of The Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judgment in the case will be heard on Thursday.<\/p>\n
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lord Of The Dance legend has been living the ‘lifestyle of a Monaco millionaire’ by borrowing money,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,1343,96,2141,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-395890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-in-the-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}