A stand off between family relatives of Susan Boyle has led to a blazing row about who is minding her finances.
In the middle of it is U2 manager Paul McGuinness who has warned the family about Ossie Kilkenny, the Irish financial advisor to Boyle, in an extraordinary letter.
Gerry Boyle, Susan's brother, has been suspicious of how Kilkenny is handling Susan's wealth says The Daily Mail. Kilkenny was brought on board by Kirsty Foy, Susan's niece, an entertainment lawyer, who has handled Susan from soon after she became famous.
Gerry however, and his siblings have fallen out with his niece over Kilkenny. Gerry Boyle wrote to U2 manager Paul McGuinness a former associate of Kilkenny for his opinion on him after a businessman he met had warned him about Kilkenny.
Gerry Boyle's letter to McGuinness ran 'As everyone knows, the last few months have been a fairytale come true for our sister Susan, with her sudden rise to international fame and, as you can guess, we are all very proud of her.
'Recently, we received a call from **** ****** [the businessman who had tipped them off about Ossie Kilkenny], which indicated that our sister's "management team'' and in particular Mr Ossie Kilkenny were not the ideal people to be in charge of Susan's affairs.
'I wonder, therefore, with this is in mind, if you can provide any information in relation to Mr Kilkenny's past affairs with Bono and U2, as we are naturally concerned as to what is being described.'
Two days later he received a reply from McGuinness. It was short and left no doubt about what McGuinness thought of Ossie Kilkenny, who parted company U2 in the late Nineties.
'Dear Gerry Boyle,' he wrote. 'My late mother used to advise me that if I had nothing good to say about someone, to say nothing. I always take her advice in respect of Mr Kilkenny. I have nothing to say about him.'
The email concluded: 'I hope your sister has her own lawyer.
Gerry Boyle subsequently found out that Kilkenny had been fined and severely reprimanded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland for breaching the professional code of the institute in dealings with several clients but no allegations were made that he had personally profited.
.
'We are very, very worried about Susan in light of what we have found out,' said Boyle, an entrepreneur, who runs his own entertainment company.
The family now wants to meet Kirsty Foy and Kilkenny to discuss their concerns about him. Foy continues to strongly back Kilkenny as evidenced from this e mail to Gerry Boyle earlier this month.
It begins: 'Dear Uncle Gerard, Ossie has worked tirelessly on Susan's behalf for the past nine months. Both Ossie and I spent a huge amount of time advocating for Susan and negotiating her recording deal.
'Ossie has also made lots of trips to London and elsewhere at his own expense and has funded Susan from the time her benefits stopped, as well as funding other expenses which were required. 'As a result of Ossie's and my efforts, Susan's deal is massively improved over its original form with no downside for Susan.
'Further, Ossie does not have control over Susan's money, so he will not have the opportunity to "fleece" her. Given all of that, I can't understand why you are making these completely untrue allegations. Ossie deserves a great deal of thanks for what he has done, he certainly does not deserve to be defamed after all these efforts.'
