A woman who claims she is the illegitimate daughter of a Co Tyrone farmer who died without making a will staked a claim to his £500,000 estate in the High Court in Belfast yesterday.
Mrs Frances Feeley (55), from Lower Braniel Road, Belfast, applied for a declaration that she is the only child of a bachelor, Mr Samuel Kerland, of Tullyhogue, Cookstown, who died in 1992 at the age of 83.
The defendants in the action are the executors of the estate, Mr Ivan Elliott and Mr John Millar, both from Annaghone Road, Cookstown.
Opening the case, Mr Donnell Deeny QC, who appeared with Mr Mark Orr QC, said there would be evidence of DNA examinations carried out on samples from the bodies of Mr Kerland and Mrs Feeley's late mother, Miss Emily Creighton, who died in 1986 aged 80.
The bodies were exhumed on October 10th, 1996; Mr Kerland's from Desertcreat Church of Ireland burial ground and Miss Creighton's from the churchyard attached to Claggan Presbyterian Church.
"The DNA report states that it was 20 times more likely that Sam Kerland, as he was known, was the father of Mrs Feeley than anyone else," said Mr Deeny.
"And a bundle of family photographs show similarities between Mrs Feeley and Sam Kerland."
Mr Deeny told Mr Justice Coghlin: "We say this and other evidence amounts to an overwhelming case that the late Sam Kerland was the father of Mrs Feeley and she is entitled to his estate which represents substantial lands at Tullyhogue with a value approaching £500,000."
Mr Deeny said Mrs Feeley's mother moved away from Cookstown shortly before the birth and she was born in 1942 at Saintfield, Co Down. She was fostered by a "decent Christian family" and her mother then returned to Cookstown.
"Occasionally her mother came back to see her and wrote and sent her money, but she remained in Saintfield until adulthood and in time she married, had two children and got on with her life."
Mr Deeny said Mrs Feeley had never known who her father was, and it was not until she received a phone call in 1993 that she learned of the death of Mr Kerland.
"There will be evidence that her mother was close to Sam Kerland, who was similar in age and unmarried," said Mr Deeny. "They were close friends at the time of the birth and remained close friends. The evidence will be that she had no other close male friend and retained this friendship with Sam Kerland until old age, with him calling down to her cottage regularly and frequently over the years."
Mr Deeny added: "Nowadays a child born out of wedlock is commonplace, but in Co Tyrone in the 40s it was very, very different.
"This was not a matter that people made public. It was dealt with in the way that was done in this case, with the unfortunate mother going away to have her child somewhere else.
"In the circles in which Sam Kerland moved he was reputed to be the father of a child born to Emily Creighton. But, of course, people never saw the child who was brought up in Co Down."
Dr Tim Clayton, a DNA specialist from England who examined samples from the two bodies, said he found matching "hits" on three out of the six standard tests with no evidence to exclude Mr Kerland from being the father.
"This led me to conclude that he was 20 times more likely to be Mrs Feeley's father than not," Dr Clayton added.
Mr Richard Neave, a facial reconstruction expert from the University of Manchester, gave evidence of examining photographs of Mr Kerland and Mrs Feeley.
He said he was looking for features such as the shape of the nose, eyebrows and ears which could be attributed to inheritance.
"In the 12 features I examined I found a family resemblance in nine," he said. "I also examined photographs of Mrs Feeley and her mother and found four points of similarity."
Mr Neave added: "Given the number of similarities it is quite probable that they [Mr Kerland and Mrs Feeley] were related."
The hearing continues today and is expected to last for the rest of the week.