Компания Майкла Флатли переехала из заброшенного промышленного дворика в офис в Белфасте

A company linked to Michael Flatley’s multi-million pound Lord of the Dance tour, once headquartered in a seeming abandoned yard on a Newry industrial estate, has moved to a far more upmarket address. Switzer Consulting, at the centre of a complicated legal dispute involving the dancer, has switched base from the Greenbank Industrial Estate to a respectable looking office block in south Belfast. The previous registered address on the industrial estate, once used as a depot for shipping cement, was home to rusting cars, a van, a lorry trailer and a bus. Details of the Newry address were revealed by the The Irish News in February at the height of a High Court battle over control of the 260-date Lord Dance of the Tour, which began in Dublin earlier this year and is currently playing venues across England. Legal representatives for Mr Flatley finally decided to visit the registered address in April, later telling the High Court the office for the company could not be found. A barrister for Mr Flatley told the court Switzer Consulting was required to give a valid address for official company records, as a matter of company law. A solicitor for the dancer, who drove to the Newry industrial estate listed in the provided address, could not find the units given as the headquarters of Switzer, the court heard. This was causing problems serving documents. The barrister told the court: “There’s a Greenbank industrial estate, but there’s no unit which one can identify has any connection to Switzer. There’s no post box, there’s no literature, there’s nothing.” Michael Flatley and others subsequently gained control of the company. Mr Flatley is now a director. It was then the headquarters were moved to Aisling House on Stranmillis Embankment in Belfast. At the centre of legal arguments earlier this year was control of the 260-date tour. The court heard the total market value of Lord of the Dance is €200m (£175m). Switzer Consulting’s previous director Joe Gallagher, the Co Tyrone-based music promoter, claimed in an affidavit the company had put a strong team together and had booked 260 shows across eight to ten countries and that the tour had a contract value of more than £10m over two years. During a visit by The Irish News to the registered address in the industrial estate close to Páirc Esler in Newry, the lot’s gates were padlocked, beyond which were the cars, the van, the trailer and the bus.