The Canadian-born husband of Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan told the High Court today he and his wife had retained a private investigator to look into the character of their former nanny.
Mr Don Burton rejected a suggestion that he came from "the Wyatt Earp school of industrial relations".
Mr Burton was being cross-examined on the sixth day of the action brought by Ms Joy Fahy, former nanny to the Burtons' son Taylor, against the Burtons for alleged breach of contract and, in Mr Burton's case only, false imprisonment.
Ms Fahy (34), of Moyleggan, Batterstown, Co Meath, had worked with the Burtons as a childminder for a short time in mid-1999.
Under cross-examination by Mr Richard Keane SC, for Ms Fahy, Mr Burton said they had retained a private investigator for a couple of days to investigate Ms Fahy's character as "she was accusing us of everything."
Mr Keane suggested that employing a private investigator to look at Ms Fahy's character culminated in a savage attack on her integrity. Counsel suggested Mr Burton had attacked Ms Fahy on the basis that she had notions of herself over and above her station and was nothing more than a second-string personal assistant emoloyed on a three-month contract.
Mr Burton said: "That is what you are saying." He denied he had tried to present her as being dishonest.
Counsel put it to Mr Burton that he seemed to enjoy a "cowboy image" and that he kept western horses and wore a Stetson on occasions. What was wrong with that?, Mr Burton replied.
Mr Keane said Mr Burton seeemed to come from "the Wyatt Earp school of industrial relations." Mr Burton said that was untrue.
Asked by Mr Keane how many people Mr Burton had fired over the years, Mr Burton said people came and went all the time.
Asked how many times he had been in court, Mr Burton said he had been in court for traffic incidents. He had been in court once in Ireland when he took an individual to court over a conservatory building. There had been a case at an employment tribunal over the dismissal of a farm hand which arose after a farm manager had let somebody go.
People "get sued all the time in the record industry", Mr Burton said.
He said he accepted that Ms Fahy was very highly regarded and he accepted she was good at her job. He had never said there was anything wrong. He did not dismiss her. She had come to their employment on a trial basis.
Earlier, Mr Keane put it that, from the evidence, Mr Burton was a man who enjoyed the trappings and the associated power that the success of his wife Dolores had brought. Counsel suggested that being on "Team A" made Mr Burton feel powerful. Mr Burton said he enjoyed working for himself. He was self-employed.
Mr Burton agreed that he was not the primary breadwinner and also agreed that Dolores was extremely generous. He agreed that the Cranberries were a very substantial employer and that, as a direct result of Dolores' success, many people were employed.
Mr Burton said there was no documentary evidence concerning the terms and conditions on which Ms Fahy was employed. He denied he had made an extravagant offer "to dupe Ms Fahy into coming to work" or that he had phoned her constantly about joining his family as a nanny. He had spoken to her three or four times before she came to work for them.
Mr Burton also rejected a suggestion that he was drinking in the morning, afternoon and evening and that his drinking made him behave unreasonably towards the plaintiff.
When it was put to him that his actions were drunken and bizarre and that, during one incident, he had said to Ms Fahy that: "My wife is not Bono, my wife is Larry", he said those claims were untrue.
Asked had he and his wife employed another childminder, he said they had, through an agency, employed a woman named Rosaleen. He couldn't remember her second name. She was with them for about four or five weeks but that hadn't worked out and they had let her go. They had heard nothing more from her.
The hearing, before Mr Justice Quirke, continues tomorrow.