Journalist Kevin O'Connor has undertaken to the High Court not to publish his controversial book on former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey within the next two weeks. An action over the book taken by a woman, employed by Mr Haughey as a groom at the time of an incident when he allegedly fell from a horse in 1970, was put back for a fortnight.
Mr O'Connor's book, Sweetie, had been scheduled for launching this week.
Ms Ruth Henderson, Wedge wood, Dublin, is seeking an injunction to stop publication of the book. She was a 19-year-old groom employed at Mr Haughey's stables in Kinsealy, Co Dublin, in 1970.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan granted an application yesterday by Mr Henry Abbot SC, for Mr O'Connor, for a two-week adjournment to allow a replying affidavit to be prepared. Mr Abbot said the adjournment was on Mr O'Connor's undertaking not to publish within the next fortnight.
Consenting to the adjournment, Mr Michael McDowell SC, for Ms Henderson, said there was no indication of the identity of the book's publisher. He said that could perhaps be clarified the next time.
Ms Henderson says she was present when Mr Haughey fell from a horse at Kinsealy in 1970. She later attended a press conference and told how Mr Haughey was injured in the fall. She claims Mr O'Connor intends to publish what he contends is a truthful and different account of how Mr Haughey was injured.
In extracts from the book read in court on Monday, it was stated that Mr Haughey was with a girl in flagrante delicto when her father and brother surprised him. According to the extract, they bashed him about the head and shoulders, us ing chairs; they gave him "an unmerciful hiding and almost killed him" and the incident happened in an upstairs room at the Grasshopper Inn, Clonee, Co Meath, on the night before the 1970 budget.
Ms Henderson claims Mr O'Connor's book suggests she was a co-conspirator with Mr Haughey and others in providing an alibi for Mr Haughey and that she was lying in her account.
Mr O'Connor was in court yesterday but Ms Henderson, a physical training instructor, was not.