The son of Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier has agreed it was unusual for his father to ask him to deliver “substantial” brown envelopes full of cash, writes Helen Bruce.

John Paul Magnier told the High Court that he was asked to get €50,000 in cash, and to divide it into two envelopes, for the owners of Barne Estate in Co. Tipperary.

He said the envelopes were brown.

Asked if they were bulky, he replied: “They were substantial, I suppose.”

He was told by his father to give the money to John Stokes, the selling agent for Barne, for the benefit of Richard Thomson-Moore and his sister Alex Thomson-Moore.

He said his father told him the Thomson-Moores were “cashstrapped”, and that the money was to thank them for honouring their deal to sell their ancestral home, and its 751 acres, to him.

It was also to thank them for allowing Mr Magnier onto the land to farm it, he said.

Billionaire John Magnier has sued Mr Thomson-Moore in a bid to secure the deal he contends was made to buy Barne Estate on August 22, 2023.

Construction tycoon Maurice Regan, who divides his time between Tipperary and the US, made a later bid of €22.5m for the farm, and the sale is on hold pending the outcome of the case before Judge Max Barrett.

John Paul Magnier described handing the envelopes to Mr Stokes, at Barne, on September 7, 2023, following a meeting with the Thomson-Moores in which they had sought his father’s advice on tax matters.

He said he had called Mr Stokes over to his car, but that neither man had spoken as the money was handed over.

Mr Stokes did not express any surprise, he confirmed.

The following day, he said, Mr Thomson-Moore came to Coolmore to discuss his family’s tax affairs.

They had two or three minutes alone together, and no reference was made to the cash, he said.

Mr Stokes returned the money on September 11, he said.

“I was sitting opposite him and he pushed the envelopes in my direction,” he recalled.

“He said that the Thomson-Moores were uncomfortable about taking the money as they thought the farm manager might have seen them.”

He said he did not believe anyone had been in the vicinity when the money was handed over.

During cross-examination, Niall Buckley, barrister for Mr Thomson-Moore, asked John Paul Magnier: “Do you regularly make large cash payments to people?”

“No,” he replied, agreeing that it was not something his father would regularly ask him to do.

Mr Buckley said that just hours before the “purported cash gifts” were given, correspondence showed that John Magnier was concerned about the need for a contract, and whether there was a danger of the Thomson-Moores pulling out of the deal.

Mr Buckley continued: “An outside observer might put a different complexion on a decision to make over a cash payment hours after contemplating legal proceedings against people.

“At best, they might say you knew you didn’t have a signed contract, and you were hoping to keep them sweet, isn’t that right?”

John Paul Magnier repeated that his father had explained his decisions for the payment.

He said that he did not think it odd that his father had not wanted to hand over the envelopes himself.

He did not ask for a receipt, he confirmed.

John Paul Magnier agreed that it was probably correct that he co-owned around 4,000 acres of land in Tipperary.

He also agreed that he was a co-plaintiff in the High Court case, and that he knew that Richard Thomson-Moore and his wife Anna had a child who had medical issues.

The case continues.