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Blarney Woollen Mills feud settled; company to be split

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Harry Keaney

The family dispute for control of Blarney Woollen Mills, the Irish hotel, clothing and mail order business, has been settled, with the two feuding factions taking controls of different entities of the business.

The case had the subject of High Court proceedings in Ireland, but last week, under an agreement reached in private negotiations, brothers Pat, Frank and Kevin Kelleher are to assume complete control of the business retained by Blarney Woollen Mills.

The remainder of the businesses, which will trade under the Kilkenny brand, will be owned by group chief executive Mrs. Marian O’Gorman, nee Kelleher, her husband. Michael O’Gorman, and Mrs. O’Gorman’s sister, Bernadette Kelleher Nolan.

The group comprises of four Blarney clothing outlets in Ireland; two Kilkenny shops in Dublin and the Club Tricot shop on Grafton Street, also in Dublin.

The group also owns two hotels in Blarney, Co. Cork, two knitwear factories and a number of investment properties.

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The mail order division of Blarney Woollen Mills, based in Blarney, recently closed its 10,000-square-foot warehouse and offices in Fairfield, N.J.

Mark Gorman, Blarney Woollen Mills catalogue manager, said that technology had "released fantastic potential for doing business around the world from Ireland."

Blarney Woollen Mills executive vice president for North America had been Galway man Brian Nolan, the current president of the Irish Business Organization in New York.

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