“Can you still dance like that - or has Father Time caught up?”

US president Donald Trump’s question to Michael Flatley at the shamrock ceremony in Washington DC last month generated a warm-hearted ripple of laughter in the room.

“Father Time has never lost - you know that, right?” the president added. “You’re doing great - you look fantastic.”

The gentle ribbing will have provided the 66-year-old Lord of the Dance star with some respite from his recent legal encounters.

The day before attending the St Patrick’s festivities, it was reported he had paid off a €6.9 million loan secured on his Castlehyde mansion in Cork. The final payment was made after Novellus Finance had appointed a receiver to the property over three months earlier. It had made the move after alleging Flatley had defaulted on repayments - a claim he denied.

The loan was taken out by his Blackbird Films Production company in 2023, with monthly repayments of €67,000 over two years.

Michael Flatley with a bottle of his Flatley Irish Whiskey.

Blackbird was the name of the 2018 film which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in. A spy thriller in the James Bond mould, it was roundly panned by critics as a dreadful “vanity project”.

The manner in which he arrived in Dublin to sign off on the refinancing, however, was akin to something straight out of a screenplay. Photographed on board a private jet with Prince Albert of Monaco on their way to Ireland, the two reportedly enjoyed dinner that night before attending Ireland’s Six Nations rugby game against France the next day.

The exact details of the refinancing remain vague - but billionaire property owner Luke Comer and Kerry-born construction magnate Maurice Regan helped Flatley piece it together - the retired dancer’s whiskey business being used as collateral.

Among those who he reportedly met while in Dublin for the rugby weekend was Brian Comer - brother to Luke.

The case heard allegations from Flatley that Novellus chief executive Billy McManus had “scuppered” an earlier attempt he had made to refinance the loan with Tenn Capital. He accused McManus, a relative of JP McManus, of “underhand intentions”.

McManus told the Commercial Court the characterisation of him was entirely untrue and that Flatley had defaulted on the loan almost immediately after drawing it down.

Mr Justice Mark Sanfey said he had “expressed amazement” at the idea that any defendant would do what Flatley had alleged McManus had done.

Prior to the refinancing, lawyers for Novellus told the court it had “serious concerns” about Flatley’s finances after what they described as “various false promises, acts of insolvency and acts of bankruptcy”.

There has been wrangling over costs as well since, but for now, Flatley has declared victory in his efforts to retain the property.

Conor McGregor, another attendee of the general St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington last month. was also reportedly involved in discussions around the future of Castlehyde at one point.

Among the filings, an email from Blackbird Films to Novellus revealed that Flatley had been in talks with McGregor Sports Entertainment about a possible refinancing of the loan in early 2024.

A spokesman for Flatley was quoted by the Business Post as saying there had been one exploratory meeting with Conor McGregor’s representatives about a possible investment or collaboration. It could have formed part of an overall refinancing of the loan, but came to nothing.

The stately pile in Co Cork is at the centre of another case being taken by Flatley. He is suing contractors and insurers over renovation work carried out on the property following a fire in 2016. He claims that he was forced to move out in 2023 when toxic chemical residue was discovered during routine maintenance.

Flatley claims the unsafe residue was due to the combustion of PVC in the fire and that the main contractor, Austin Newport Group Ltd, was aware of the residue issue. The contractor denies the claims.

He is also suing the insurance underwriters - MS Amlin Underwriting Ltd, AXA XL Underwriting Agencies Ltd and Hamilton Managing Agency Ltd, along with Lloyds Insurance Company.

However, he faces two applications for security of costs.

The applications seek to have €2.8 million lodged in court in advance of his hearing. This is usually done when defendants want to ensure their costs are covered if they successfully defend the proceedings.

The entertainer’s counsel, Ronnie Hudson, said the applications were being brought to “embarrass Michael Flatley” and that he was clearly “a man of means”.

Hudson added that Castlehyde had been valued in excess of €20 million, and dismissed the figures for the security of costs as “pie in the sky”.

Flatley’s solicitor did not respond to a request for comment about the ongoing case.

The high-profile dancer has had a tumultuous few years.

In January 2023 he underwent surgery for an aggressive form of cancer, and is now in remission.

Appearing on the Late Late Show last May, he said: “I felt confident and my surgeon was great, but there’s a chance I won’t come out of this. I can’t explain the love I have for my wife and son, and the love I have for Ireland and the Irish people, and the love I have for life.”

His former partner Lisa Murphy died in February of last year after having received a cancer diagnosis in 2018.

In March, he was the subject of a Sky documentary, Billion Dollar Dancer, in which he detailed the acrimonious end to his time with the Riverdance show in 1995 over a creative dispute with the show’s producers.

“The night before the show, the phone rang and it was my lawyer and he said: ‘You’re out – they’re going ahead without you,‘” he says in the programme.

“How dare they? They should be ashamed of themselves. I could understand if I didn’t create it … but that was all me and it still is today.”

The split with Riverdance saw Flatley quickly transfer his talents into the hugely successful Lord of the Dance franchise. Featuring him as the star, the show sold out 21 shows at the Wembley Arena in 1998. During this time, Flatley was presented with the Irish American Award by then US president Bill Clinton.

It was with the riches that flowed from Lord of the Dance that he bought Castlehyde for about £3 million in 1999. Built in 1801, and set on 150 acres on the banks of the Blackwater, it was the ancestral home of Ireland’s first president, Douglas Hyde.

Michael Flatley at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Ballinteer, at the funeral of his former partner Lisa Murphy in February 2024. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin

Flatley set about restoring the property, which was then on the edge of ruin – spending an approximate €30 million over four years. The 12-bedroom house was almost entirely rebuilt within the existing four walls - with original stones removed and restored.

Castlehyde was adorned with the trappings of modern wealth. Flatley added an indoor pool, cinema room, wine cellar and billiard room.

The purchase and lavish redevelopment of his new home was concrete evidence of Flatley’s rags-to-riches story. From humble roots in southside Chicago, the Irish-American boy had transformed Irish dancing into a global phenomenon - and made millions along the way.

The mansion has been in and out of the headlines over the past decade.

It was listed for sale in 2015 with a price tag of €20 million, including contents - only to be withdrawn in 2017.

The following year it was again put on the market with a revised asking price of €12.5 million. Despite speculation that it had been sold privately to a hotel company, Flatley and his family continued to live there.

In late 2020, auctioneers held a “residue sale” of items from Castlehyde deemed surplus to requirements following its renovation.

Among the several hundred lots was a muzzle-style mask worn by Anthony Hopkins when he played Hannibal Lecter - this item fetched €85,000.

The second most expensive lot was a painting by Flatley himself - an acrylic on vinyl titled The Finish Line – which sold for €37,000.

It was during this period that he embarked on his Blackbird film project.

Completed in 2018, it was only viewed by a small group of people before its eventual Irish premiere in Dublin in August 2022. Financed by Flatley, it currently has a rating of 18 per cent on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The Irish Times awarded it one star out of five.

It was Blackbird Film Productions that was later taken to court by Novellus. According to the British Record of Companies, a registration of a charge was made on the company by Galveston Investments last month - the Comer brothers’ property vehicle.

Flatley’s career since the heady days of the late 1990s has seen a series of retirements from dancing.

Having stepped back in 2001, he returned to the stage in 2005 with Celtic Tiger. A further retirement in 2011 followed, - only for him to re-emerge with Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games in 2015, aged 55.

The dancing shoes were finally put away in 2016. Flatley cited the physical toll he had endured over the previous 20 years, with mention of broken bones and torn calf muscles.

In early 2017 he staged part of the Dangerous Games performance at Donald Trump’s first inauguration party, though did not himself perform. He described the invite to him and his dancers as a “great honour”.

His energies over recent years have been devoted to saving the mansion he once sought to sell on.

When it was first listed in 2015, he said the decision to sell was one of the most difficult of his life. Castlehyde was the place where he had been married and his late father’s favourite location to visit.

For now, he is savouring the success of his efforts to remain lord of his manor.