A BID by the board of the ShowJumping Association of Ireland to remove its chairman and three other board members was due to go into private mediation yesterday, Friday. The parties involved have agreed to a leading senior counsel acting as mediator in the hope that he can facilitate a resolution and avoid an expensive court trial. A mediated settlement would also avoid further public exposure of allegations unlikely to aid a settlement being reached.

In August of last year, the Board was restrained by a High Court injunction from voting on a resolution which proposed to remove its chairman, Des McFadden, and three other directors, namely Neal Doherty, Derek Reid and Aldyth Roulston. The board asserted these parties should be removed because they failed to properly inform the board of the content and extent of litigation involving the association’s Ulster Region and its former treasurer Allison Mercer, whom McFadden claims had failed to account for certain monies following queries raised by the association’s auditors.

The High Court had heard that the proposed resolution would most likely have been supported by eight directors identified as Marguerite Ryan, Taylor Vard, Melvyn Kennedy, Tony Hurley, Tomas Ryan, Aideen Kirby, Tommy Gibbons and Kenneth Feeney.

In initial written evidence, McFadden stated that if not restrained, the association’s dismissal of him and his colleagues would cause catastrophic and irreparable damage to their good names and reputations.

The defendant directors are being represented by barrister Sean Ahern, the association is being represented by Clodagh Gartlan and the chairman and directors facing dismissal are being represented by Martin Canny.