A senior Coolmore financial adviser has denied that a KPMG tax consultant passed information about Barne Estate owner Richard Thomson-Moore’s tax affairs to Coolmore without Thomson-Moore’s knowledge.

A Whatsapp message previously read out in court from Coolmore accountant and financial adviser Eddie Irwin to John Magnier on 15 September 2023 said: “Got off the record report from Andrew Gallagher. The Thomson-Moores do not know he is keeping me in the loop.”

However, on Thursday, Mr Irwin told the court there was “no question” of the tax consultant “keeping me in the loop of any confidential information”.

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John Magnier and his children JP Magnier and Katherine Wachman allege that Richard Thomson-Moore, Barne Estate Ltd and two Jersey-registered companies broke a binding deal to sell the 751ac estate to him for €15m in August 2023 and broke an exclusivity agreement by agreeing to sell the estate to construction magnate Maurice Regan.

Mr Regan agreed to pay €22.25m for the estate, some €7.5m more than Magnier’s alleged deal at €15m.

Mr Irwin arranged an online meeting between the KPMG adviser and Richard Thomson-Moore at Coolmore headquarters on 8 September 2023 to discuss the tax implications for the Thomson-Moores of the now-contested €15m deal.

Mr Irwin said he was present while discussions took place.

He said the tax consultant was providing advice “under our instructions in Coolmore as a favour to us as a client to him".

“And the Thomson Moores could decide at the end of that whether they wanted to retain him or not. They had not retained him.”

‘Inside track’

Under cross-examination, Martin Hayden, senior counsel for Richard Thomson-Moore, put it to Mr Irwin that “because you introduced KPMG to the Thomson-Moores and because Coolmore is a big client of KPMG that was going to give you some inside track or enticement to be kept in the loop?”

“Absolutely not,” Mr Irwin replied.

He told the court: “I’d like to put on the record at this point, because I think a very honourable man’s reputation is being defamed here, there is no question of Andrew Gallagher keeping me in the loop of any confidential information that he got from any other client without their permission.”

Mr Irwin told Mr Hayden that his Whatsapp message to John Magnier was “giving him the breadth of knowledge that I had, not anything that was disclosed to me separately by Andrew Gallagher”.

Later, Mr Irwin reiterated: “I didn’t obtain any information from Mr Gallagher that I wasn’t entitled to.”

The case continues in the High Court next week under Mr Justice Max Barrett.

This article was updated on 6 August 2025 to reflect that the message read in court was a Whatsapp message from Eddie Irwin to John Magnier.