A west of Ireland songwriter would go to his grave believing his music had been stolen to form part of the Pat Kenny radio theme tune, a High Court judge said yesterday.
Mr Justice O'Higgins, dismissed a £30,000 copyright claim by Mr Allan Downey against a composer, Mr Ronan Hardiman. He held that Mr Downey, of Lakeside Caravan Park, Mountshannon, Co Clare, had failed to satisfy the court there had been any theft of any part of a guitar solo melody, Waitin' On The Quare One, which Mr Downey had composed almost 10 years ago. Mr Downey alleged Mr Hardiman had used a sequence of six notes from his guitar solo in the Today with Pat Kenny theme and claimed a tape of his solo piece he had given to a woman with RTÉ connections in 1996 had been passed to Mr Hardiman. "I have absolutely no doubt Mr Downey is convinced his music was plagiarised. He will go to his grave believing that, but I am not so convinced," Judge O'Higgins said. He added that it was important the integrity of Mr Hardiman was vindicated by the court.