This article is from page 13 of the 2008-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
A FORMER award winning Clare FM presenter has claimed that he was not given a pay rise for ten years by the station.
The claim is highlighted in court documents lodged by the Ennis sta- tion to secure a “gagging order” against Tommy Kelly preventing him from speaking about his relationship with the company.
Mr Kelly (44) recently failed in his attempt to secure monies alleg- edly not paid by Clare FM for bank holidays or Sundays as he was “out of time” in bringing the case to the Labour Court.
The Labour Court case was the lat- est part of a long running dispute be- tween Mr Kelly and the station.
Clare FM secured the “gagging or-
der” preventing Mr Kelly from talk- ing about his association with the station and its affairs after a court hearing in October 2006 .
Documents lodged by Clare FM show that the source of Mr Kelly’s grievance is his claim that he was not given a pay increase by Clare FM over a ten year period.
Asked by gardai why he sent anon- ymous emails to the station’s chief executive, Liam O’Shea in 2001, the award winning presenter told gardai in July 2002, “I left Clare FM two years ago and I felt a little aggrieved at the way it ended and that I had been unfairly treated and I wanted to get some things off my chest.
Asked did he intend the emails or postcards to be construed as a threat to anyone, Mr Kelly responded, “No, it wasn’t a personal thing. It was
Clare FM and the whole experience that I had while I was there. I realise what I did was wrong, but again I felt like I was unfairly treated and I just wanted to get it off my chest”.
The station secured the court order at Ennis Circuit Court in October 2006 when Mr Kelly gave a sworn undertaking that he would not com- municate with third parties on the business of the station and Clare FM promised that they wouldn’t pursue Mr Kelly for costs. Clare FM has the option of re-entering the matter in court.
Court documents show that Mr Kelly admitted sending anonymous emails and postcards to the station in 2001 alleging fraud at the station. Clare FM states that there is no basis for the allegation of fraud.
No further emails or postcards were
sent until 2006 when Clare FM was part of a consortium seeking a re- gional licence that is now Spin South West FM.
However, in his affidavit, Mr Liam O’Shea said that in or about Septem- ber 2006, Mr Kelly “commenced communicating by email with a wide variety of organisations and indi- viduals in the world of broadcasting making allegations of fraud and oth- er allegations against Clare FM”’.
Mr O’Shea said that Mr Kelly’s attempts to generate adverse public- ity or to stir up resentment amongst unsuccessful bidders for the new li- cence and or to alienate Clare FM’s potential advertisers was calculated and without justification.
When contacted yesterday, Mr Kel- ly said, “I would love to speak about how I was treated during my time at
Clare FM but I’m not able to because of the court order”’. In an emailed query from