RTE winner in hot seat over chair

IT HAS been dubbed Chairgate, the Chairgar mystery and the Tale of Two Chairs. The controversy over who carried out the work on the winning entry in this year's Late Late Show antiques restoration competition continues to rage.

The saga began last Friday when Ms Siubhan Maloney, from Donegal town, won first prize for the restoration of an antique chair and book.

No sooner had she received the £1,000 Paul Costelloe glassware prize, however, than a Dublin based upholsterer said he was employed to restore the chair, a claim which Ms Maloney denied.

But further doubt was cast over the winning entry yesterday when a Galway bookbinder claimed to have carried out "98 per cent" of the work on the antique hook.

Late Late presenter Gay Byrne said last night the programme will check if the accounts given by professional upholsterer Mr Joshua Duffy and Kenny's Bookbinders were correct.

Mr Gerry Kenny of Kenny's Bookbinders said Ms Maloney had taken "a keen interest" in the restoration of the book but carried out only a small fraction of the work.

"She did some finishing but very little of it because she'd make a mess of it," he said.

"I wouldn't have expected her to do that much because it's very skilled work. You'd have to be very good with your hands and be taught for about a month before you could do it properly."

He said Ms Maloney had visited the shop on a number of occasions but only for a few hours at a time.

The revelation followed claims from Dubliner Mr Joshua Duffy that he carried out all the upholstery work on the winning chair. He appealed yesterday for Ms Maloney to come forward with her chair so that the dispute could he resolved.

"There are a couple of things about the chair that I could identify to prove it's the one I worked on," he said.

"I did all the upholstery work and inserted the brass inkwells into the arms."

Mr Duffy said he had "seen red" when Ms Maloney failed to credit him for his work on the Late Late Show.

"It makes a mockery out of our trade. It simplifies a skill which takes years to learn," he said.

Ms Maloney has denied that Mr Duffy worked on her chair. Speaking on Today With Pat Kenny, this week she said Mr Duffy "didn't touch my chair" and that she did "99 per cent" of the work herself.

However, when Mr Duffy said he could identify the chair from certain marks, she claimed that he had set me up from day one".

She added that she has sold the chair for an undisclosed sum last Saturday but was unable to say who the buyer was.

In a statement, Ms Maloney said she was taking legal advice. Attempts by The Irish Times to contact her yesterday proved unsuccessful.

"It's getting worse and worse for her, and now it seems she has gone to ground," said Gay Byrne last night.