Diageo, which owns brands such as Guinness and Bailey's, presented a petition to the court earlier this month to wind up Kitty O'Shea Limited.

A full hearing has been scheduled for 30 January.

Kitty O'Shea is owned by brothers Brian and Kevin Loughney and is based at Grand Canal Street in Dublin, site of the original Kitty O'Shea's pub, opened by the Loughneys in 1981. The pub is now part of the Grand Canal Hotel, where it operates under licence from McEniff Hotels.

Kitty O'Shea Limited is listed as "non-trading" in Companies Of"ce documents and has been dormant since 1998.

Apart from the Dublin pub, the Loughneys have opened Kitty O'Shea's pubs in Galway, in several cities across Europe, including Paris and Brussels, and in Chicago and Boston in the US.

The brothers won a longrunning court case against international hotel group Hilton four years ago, granting them exclusive rights to use the trademark Kitty O'Shea in the Boston area, where they own one of the best-known Irish bars in the city at State Street.

A spokeswoman for Diageo said the company had no comment to make before the court hearing next week. The Loughneys could not be reached for comment.

Conor Brophy