A postmortem was carried out on the remains of Niamh Flatley last week over concerns that her lung condition was caused by inhaling toxins in Castlehyde, the mansion in Cork she shared with her husband Michael Flatley and their son Michael St James.
Niamh Flatley, née O’Brien (52), died in the Beacon Hospital in south Dublin last Monday after suffering from a lung condition in recent years which meant she regularly had to use an oxygen mask.
There had been plans to fly her from Dublin to Cleveland, Ohio, for a possible double-lung transplant but she had been deemed too ill to fly to America before her death.
The funeral of Niamh Flatley, who was originally from Kilbride in Co Meath, took place in the Church of St Thérèse in Mount Merrion, Dublin, on Saturday.
Michael Flatley paid an emotional tribute to his wife, saying her long illness and death was the worst pain he had ever experienced.
He described her as the “love of his life” and “my dream girl”. His wife had been diagnosed 12 years ago with scleroderma, an autoimmune disease, and given two years to live at the time.
“Every day of her life she fought it. The last two years were very difficult,” Flatley said in the eulogy. “I told her, ‘focus not on the storm, but focus on the hand of the Lord’.” .
The last year was “particularly difficult” and the last three weeks “were torturous and unbearable for her because she could not breathe”, he recalled.
She was a dancer with Riverdance, the show that received its big break as the interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest and subsequently propelled Michael Flatley to fame.
She was later a lead dancer with Flatley’s Lord of the Dance show before they married in 2006 in St Patrick’s Church, Fermoy in Cork.
Niamh Flatley had travelled with her husband and son to meet Pope Leo in late April and she was in Scotland in August while Lord of the Dance was touring the UK.
Sources close to the family said she had suffered stress arising from the acrimonious battle for control of the Lord of the Dance show between her husband and his former business partners.
In an affidavit opened to the High Court in Belfast earlier this year, Denis O’Sullivan, a consultant working with Michael Flatley, alleged one of Flatley’s former business partners was verbally abusive to Niamh Flatley at a meeting last November.
“This was particularly distressing given that Mrs Flatley was seriously ill that day and required an oxygen mask throughout the meeting,” he said. This allegation was later denied.
The results of the postmortem examination carried out last week will influence how a High Court claim for damages that Michael Flatley has brought over remedial works on his Castlehyde mansion in Cork proceeds.
Flatley has alleged that the remedial works left chloride residue in their family home after a 2016 fire. He alleged his family suffered ill-health due to the presence of toxins in the air of the house which he bought in 1999.
In a sworn statement, he said his family have “all suffered ill health since moving back to Castlehyde”.
Flatley has sought €30 million in damages from the insurance company and builders responsible for carrying out the restoration work after the fire. He and his family moved out of the house in October 2023.
In High Court filings, Flatley has claimed that unsafe levels of chloride residue were detected arising from PVC combustion in the 2016 fire.
He has alleged that the main contractor, Austin Newport Group Ltd, was aware of a residue issue. The company has denied the claims.
Ronnie Hudson, Flatley’s former barrister in the case, previously told the court that Flatley was not told about the PVC residue issue.
In the proceedings, Flatley claimed the remediation works carried out were defective, done in a negligent manner and that defects, including the PVC residue, were hidden from him.
In a newspaper interview, he blamed the toxins issue for him developing cancer.
“I was one of the fittest people in Ireland,” Flatley said to the Daily Mail in 2024. “But when we moved back in I never felt right, and all of a sudden I got cancer. All of a sudden I’ve developed asthma too. How did this happen? We must have been breathing in toxins. We were told to leave immediately and we’ve been living in hotels ever since.”
The Flatley family lived in Monaco in recent years.
On Thursday, Flatley posted a picture on Facebook of the Irish Tricolour flying at half-mast outside Castlehyde in honour of his wife. He thanked those who left flowers at the entrance gates to the estate.
Flatley is suing Austin Newport Group and five insurance underwriters: Lloyds Insurance Company SA, Hiscox SA, MS Amlin Underwriting Ltd, AXA XL Underwriting Agencies LTD and Hamilton Managing Agency Limited alleging negligence, endangerment, misrepresentation and breach of duty and contract.
He is also suing David Cushion, an accountant and broker who allegedly arranged the insurance. Flatley claims that unknown to him, Cushion was paid commission and acted as an agent for the insurance firms.
All of the allegations are denied.
Flatley is represented by Creed McStay solicitors in the legal action. The same firm represents Maurice Regan in an ongoing case against John Magnier.
Regan is one of two billionaires – the other being Luke Comer – that have backed Flatley financially in a series of legal actions over the last two years relating to Castlehyde and Lord of the Dance.