An Irish publican who cut his lover of 25 years from his will and instead left everything to his son, claimed she was only his housekeeper.

Years earlier, the Irish High Court was told this week, the late Bernard 'Ben' Smyth, 80, gave a copy of his will to Bridget 'Breege' Lennon, 60, leaving the house they lived in together for decades to her.

But as the Irish Independent reports, unknown to Lennon months later Smyth made a second will, this time leaving everything to his son Michael Smyth.

Lennon now wants the High Court to order that Michael Symth comply with the original agreement that she was to be left the house and three acres at Cornacarrow in County Cavan.

Smyth put his vow to Lennon in writing when he made a will in November 2001 - a copy of which he gave to her after they left his solicitor's office.

But later Lennon was startled to hear that Smyth made another will in April 2002 leaving everything to his son Michael.

Michael Symth, a bricklayer living in Hertfordshire, England, has denied that Lennon and his father lived together like man and wife. On the contrary he claims his father had told him she was his housekeeper.

Lennon told the High Court on Wednesday that she began working for Smyth in 1977 at the Tullyvin Tavern, where three of his five children also resided.
She worked in the bar, where she had a room upstairs and cooked for the children.

Smyth moved into the pub later in 1977 and he and Lennon developed a close personal relationship. Nine years later, in 1986, Smyth and Lennon moved into his family home where they bred greyhounds for racing and continued to do so until his death in 2005.

When told by her counsel that Michael intended to say that she was his father's housekeeper, Lennon replied: "We lived together as man and wife, for God's sake, who was there to say we didn't."

The case is ongoing.