O'Riordan says jetski incident 'never happened'

Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan has told the High Court that an incident in which her husband Don Burton was alleged to have gone out on a jetski, clutching a beer and carrying their young son without a life jacket, "never happened".

"There is no way I would have put up with that behaviour from any man," she said. "He's a very good father and that is one of the reasons I love him and am still with him." Giving evidence in the continuing action taken against the couple by their former nanny, Ms Joy Fahy, alleging breach of contract, Ms O'Riordan (32) said Ms Fahy had travelled to Canada to work for them initially in 1997 and was with them for 11 days.

However, Dolores said, her feeling after giving birth and experiencing motherhood for the first time was overwhelming and she found it difficult to hand over the baby to Ms Fahy. "I found it difficult to share him." Ms Fahy was very understanding.

Ms O'Riordan said that on an occasion in St Tropez, when she was going out, she had told a previous babysitter to "do the usual" with her son and to "wake him up and give him a bath". She later phoned that babysitter, asked why the child was screaming and the babysitter had said she could not wake him up and had put him in the water. She told that babysitter: "You could have traumatised him."

This incident had become a big joke between Ms Fahy and her mother, Mrs Eileen O'Riordan, and she was surprised Ms Fahy had brought it into the case. Ms O'Riordan said she felt that earlier babysitter was not the right person and she had left their employment.

In 1999, Ms O'Riordan said that when they decided to bring baby Taylor with them to Canada, they made it clear to Ms Fahy she would be helping Ms O'Riordan's mother.

Asked about claims of excessive drinking during the tour, she said: "I don't think so. They might sit down and have a few beers or wine in the evening but they never drank during the day." She had never seen Don drinking during the day unless he was in Hawaii.

It was completely untrue to suggest she had instructed Ms Fahy to wake Taylor to ensure the parents were not disturbed. "Hand on my heart, it never happened." Referring to a boat outing in Canada, Ms O'Riordan said Taylor had a little life jacket on him. While the child wanted to take it off, her husband would not allow him. He was always very strict about life jackets.

Asked about events on July 31st, 1999, when she discovered Ms Fahy was leaving Canada, she said this was really bad timing and distasteful to leave telling them until she and her husband were going away for a time. Ms O'Riordan said she was crying. Mr Burton later gave out to Ms Fahy about that. He was upset and told her she was very unprofessional. She did not recall her husband being abusive.

Asked about a remark that her husband was alleged to have made to Joy stating Dolores was "Bono, not Larry", she said he was not "childish like" and "wouldn't say something like that".

Earlier, Mrs Eileen O'Riordan, Ms O'Riordan's mother, said there was no "wild carousing and drinking" at the Canadian holiday home of her daughter and her husband.

The case resumes on Tuesday.