Dún Laoghaire Golf Club is holding an unprecedented e.g.m. on Mondayto consider expelling one of its members. Johnny Watterson traces a long-running row.
From the the way officials presented the company accounts, to enforcement of parking regulations, Patrick Coen has many issues with his golf club in Dún Laoghaire. Numerous letters have been exchanged in the past year in an escalating dispute which threatens to damage individual reputations, as well as the good name of one of the most established clubs in south Dublin.
Now, it seems, club officials have had enough. They have called an emergency general meeting (e.g.m.) for Monday night, which could result in the expulsion of Coen, a full member.
The disagreement between Coen and Dún Laoghaire has sucked in a number of club officials, including the captain, the treasurer, several staff and committee members, and it may yet end up in the High Court, as claim and counter-claim create a long paper trail of documents, many of them legal.
The Dún Laoghaire club committee, which believes Coen's actions over the past year have been "injurious" to the club, has already asked him to resign. But he has declined to do so.
Coen has vigorously defended his persistent questioning of club matters and contends that the club has seriously failed to address issues which, he believes, have been injurious to the interests of the club for which the officers are accountable.
The dispute is taking place against the backdrop of the golf club's historic decision to sell its grounds in a prime location in Dún Laoghaire and move to another site, at Ballyman, situated between Shankill in Co Dublin and Bray in Co Wicklow. It was agreed overwhelmingly by the members that the Dún Laoghaire land, worth €100 million, would be sold to developers Cosgrave Brothers and that the club would receive a new 27-hole golf course and a new clubhouse with ancillary facilities and equipment, as well as €20.3 million in cash. The deal is contingent on rezoning of the lands, which Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown councillors voted against in the first application.
Coen voted for this arrangement but, subsequently, it too became a source of his discontent.
"I have been motivated about this from the very start," he says. "When I was asked to vote for something, I believe I am entitled to receive all the relevant information. The information I subsequently received from the chairman of the Relocation Committee would suggest that I didn't receive all the information before I cast my vote, and I consider that to be a very, very serious matter.
"My interest, at all times, has been in the best interests of the club. That's all I ever sought. Nothing more, nothing less. I wished it hadn't come to this. I tried to meet with those in the club but all my attempts have been rejected. I don't know how the members are going to react to my proposed expulsion. I feel I have an obligation to my fellow members to pursue this."
The club strongly disagrees with Coen but, when contacted by The Irish Times, declined to discuss the matter. The general manager, Dermot Murphy, explains that "Dún Laoghaire Golf Club is a private members' club and, as such, the business of the club is a private matter".
The two sides are polarised. Both have in recent months made allegations about the behaviour of the other. Both, at great expense, have brought in legal teams. Dún Laoghaire Golf Club has taken on Arthur Cox and Coen has engaged Eugene Collins Solicitors.
Coen has threatened a High Court action against a club official for defamation and has indicated that other officers of the club may be called as witnesses. The Relocation Committee has concluded that Coen's activities are "occupying a disproportionate amount of time and resources, obliging the club to incur major costs, including that of securing legal advice at every turn".
It also accuses him of the "incessant raising of issues at every turn and challenging the decisions of the council of the club". In short, the committee's view is that Coen is bombarding club officials with never-ending and vexatious issues, from the questioning of car-park lines to the way they have presented the company accounts. They consider him a nuisance, whom they now want rid of.
Coen sees his position as that of a dutiful and responsible club member, who is merely pointing out what he understands as serious flaws in the way the club carries out its business. Many of his complaints are signed off in his correspondence as "a concerned member of the club" or as "a very concerned member".
"It has been a difficult year for me and has not been easy down at the club," says Coen, presumably somewhat understatedly given that one of his allegations is of verbal abuse by another member.
In one of his many communications to the committee, he queries the Heads of Agreement for the deal with Cosgrave Brothers, which was furnished to members in June 2002. He asks about a letter "A", which he says states that within seven days of the e.g.m. of June 2002, Cosgrave Brothers should have lodged with the club a sum of €872,410, which he claims is not reflected in the club's financial statements. He concludes that this is a "grave and serious matter".
Cosgrave Brothers was unavailable for comment but the golf club committee notes show that the manner in which financial information was presented at the June 2002 e.g.m., and the manner in which negotiations were conducted, were overwhelmingly approved by club members. Other issues also come under Coen's impressively forensic scrutiny. Following the retirement of the bar manager, Coen in a letter notes with amusement "that his name continues to be printed on all bar receipts. It is, I believe, a common view among the members that the name of the staff member who serves should be on the receipt and this basic requirement should be addressed as soon as possible".
The parking controls in the club car park are also an issue and the consequences of cars parking on the yellow lines, as opposed to between them, prompts more investigation.
"As one of these vehicles was parked directly behind mine, opposite the putting green, I would be grateful if you could advise what are the insurance consequences for me, the owner of the offending vehicle, or for that matter the club, in the event that reversing from a legitimate parking space, I should strike an offending vehicle," Coen states.
Coen also takes issue with the income from the bar, the catering, subscriptions, green fees, expenditure, fixed assets, investments, bank accounts, creditors, and members' funds, as well as the honorary life membership of a former general manager. In a letter, stamped "private and confidential", sent to Ned Dempsey, chairman of the club's Parent Council, and seen by The Irish Times, Coen outlines a complaint which centres on the former manager's eligibility for the position of honorary life membership.
"Other such members listed include Dr Paddy Hillery, former president of Ireland, and the Rev Canon Williams," he writes. But he says he is not aware that the former general manager "could, under any circumstances, meet the criteria required under 15.1, 15.2 or 15.3 [club rules] and as I am unable to locate any evidence that such an appointment was approved by the members, I must conclude that this is in total disregard for the rules of the club".
The former general manager was not contactable and the club will not comment, although the club rule 15.1 does state that a person who has "rendered special service to the club" can be elected at a general meeting to that position - a common practice in private clubs.
Coen claims that the triviality of some of the issues raised is deliberate and accepts them as such but argues that they should not cloud the more serious and fundamental allegations he has been making about how the club is governed and particularly about the level and accuracy of informationclub members receive in the day-to-day running of the business.
"I think some of those petty issues go way back and they have to be read in the context of the circumstances and the personalities at the time. You cannot treat those issues in complete isolation but have to understand the relationship between me and the club general manager at the time," says Coen.
In all, there are 90 documents in existence that have crossed between Coen and various representatives of the club. Coen's request that a stenographer be present to record Monday's meeting has been turned down. There are around 420 club members eligible to vote on the expulsion issue but just how many will turn up for the private ballot is unknown, as it is the first time in the club's history that an e.g.m. to eject a member has been called.
What is accepted anecdotally is that Dún Laoghaire is an establishment club and that to overturn what the committee clearly wants to happen would have seismic repercussions.
"One issue that is of the gravest concern to me, more than anything else, is that the documentation does not make clear to the members that this is a secret ballot [on Monday] and people may stay away for fear of raising their hand at a public meeting," Coen says.
What is known is that before Monday the eligible voters have a 115-page document to go through, outlining much of the correspondence between club members and their solicitors and Coen and his legal advisers. It will take about three hours to read it cover to cover and probably not everyone who votes will have spent that much time examining the details.
The club is clearly at a stage where it wants the issue dealt with so that it can move on and deal with the myriad issues pertaining to the relocation of the course. So, too, does the man facing the club at 7.45 p.m. on Monday with his membership on the line. Such is the level of animosity that both sides will have legal observers in place to count the votes and ensure correct practices are followed.
"It is," says Coen, "something that should never have happened."