Father and sons face off in court for €400m hotel group control
The High Court has ruled that a bitter family dispute over control of the multimillion-euro O’Callaghan Collection hotel group must go to arbitration, writes Helen Bruce.
Judge Rory Mulcahy said the row concerned the alleged desire of the group’s founder, Noel O’Callaghan, 76, to retain control over the family business after transferring assets worth €400m to his sons.
Mr O’Callaghan sued his sons Paul, 40, and Charles, 37, claiming they froze him out of the business after he transferred the group assets to them and another son, Bryan, 43, 11 years ago.
The judge said that while Noel O’Callaghan had transferred his entire equity interest in the company, Saira, to his three sons, he retained a shareholding in Saira with voting rights.
Saira is the holding company of the O’Callaghan Collection, a group of five hotels including the Mont, Alex, Davenport and Green hotels in Dublin and the Eliott Hotel in Gibraltar.
Saira also owns a 450-acre stud farm, Mountarmstrong Stud, and around 100 rental apartments.
Noel O’Callaghan claims that, under a 2016 agreement, he stayed as chairman and that there was a mechanism for him to retake control in the event of a dispute.
However, Judge Mulcahy said the sons resisted their father’s assertion that he retained the right to control the firm.
He noted that the Saira business had been built up by Noel O’Callaghan over 30 years.
He said Mr O’Callaghan claimed that the 2016 agreement allowed for him to be paid an annual salary of €500,000, net of tax, for the rest of his life.
In addition, he claimed that Saira would discharge his credit card expenses for the remainder of his life, and that the firm would pay all ongoing expenses incurred in his role as director.
Finally, Mr O’Callaghan claimed that he would have the use, benefit, and run the operation of Mountarmstrong Stud.
After the share transfer, his two sons took over the day-to-day running of Saira, the judge said.
The third son, Bryan, sold his shares in 2023, leaving his brothers holding all the equity.
Noel O’Callaghan told the court that Paul and Charles had refused to pay his salary of €500,000. He said they had also cut off his health insurance and credit card, removed his secretarial support and no longer made an office available to him after he raised concerns over a number of business decisions.
These included the purchase of properties for the use of Paul and Charles in Warrenpoint, Co. Down, and the payment to each of them of €1.6m in dividends.
Noel O’Callaghan has also claimed that he has been blocked from exercising the option to retake control due to a subsequent shareholder agreement in 2024.
That agreement included a clause requiring any disputes between shareholders to be referred for full and final settlement to arbitration.
Noel O’Callaghan has claimed that the 2024 agreement was “induced by misrepresentation and is void and of no effect”, the judge said.
He is seeking specific performance of the 2016 agreement, including a claim he is the beneficial owner of Mountarmstrong Stud.
He also seeks €10.4m in damages relating to the sale by him of the lease on the Archers Building on Fenian Street, Dublin, to Saira, claiming information was kept from him that would have increased the value of the deal.
His claims have been hotly disputed by Paul and Charles O’Callaghan.
The defendants brought a motion to the court, heard earlier this month, seeking the referral of all disputes between the parties to arbitration.
The application was resisted by Noel O’Callaghan on the basis there was no valid arbitration agreement binding the parties.
Judge Mulcahy found there was a valid and subsisting arbitration agreement and that all of Noel O’Callaghan’s claims, bar one relating to the transfer of a penthouse, were governed by that agreement.
The judge said Noel O’Callaghan’s claim that the 2024 shareholders agreement was induced by misrepresentation did not equate to the arbitration agreement being null and void.
He added: “As in all litigation, but particularly litigation involving members of the same family, the parties should make every effort to investigate whether mediation offers a realistic avenue for resolution.”
Earlier this month, Paul O’Callaghan lodged papers with the High Court in which he said he “greatly regrets” telling his father he wanted to shoot him after a “significant deterioration” in their relationship in 2024.
He said he and his brother had tried “very hard” to resolve the dispute through mediation.
“I do at this stage, unfortunately, have a very poor relationship with my father,” he acknowledged.
The Alex Hotel is part of the group.
He referred to an incident included in his father’s affidavit, saying that on September 10, 2025, following “several hours of back and forth, tempers between us were very frayed”.
He said that in the early hours of the morning, out of “utter frustration” he had said words to the effect “that if I had a gun I would shoot him [Noel O’Callaghan] because he was being so wholly unreasonable”.
Paul O’Callaghan said he greatly regretted making the comment and that around 3am, he and his father shook hands on a memorandum of understanding on which his father later “reneged”.
The case will return to court on May 12.
Photo: Noel O'Callaghan pictured in 1999. PIC GRAHAM HUGHES/PHOTOCALL IRELAND!
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