An Irish expert on rare books has been temporarily restrained from representing himself as the owner of letters written by Jackie Kennedy, wife of former US President John F. Kennedy.

A dispute has arisen over the letters, which were written to an Irish priest between 1950 and 1964.

They are due to be auctioned Sheppard's Irish Auction House on June 10th, and are estimated to reach in excess of €1 million

A High Court judge has granted temporary injunctions against Cahir-based rare books expert Owen Felix-O'Neill from representing himself as the owner of the cache of letters written by the former US First Lady.

Details of the letters were published in The Irish Times this week. Mr. O'Neill, with an address at Market Street in Cahir was apparently annoyed that he had not been mentioned in connection with the discovery of the letters.

It is alleged he may have taken photos of some of the letters without permission of their owners.

The letters were written by the former Mrs. Kennedy to Dublin-based priest Fr. Joseph Leonard before and after she became First Lady.

She met the priest only twice in their 14-year correspondence - at their initial meeting in Dublin in 1950 and then again in 1955. She was 21 at the time and he was 73.

Her initial letters claimed she was in love with "the son of the ambassador to England" and spoke of Kennedy as a rising star in American politics.

Before she married, she spoke of some trepidation, possibly being lonely and trapped "in a Hell" but she wrote to Leonard after a year of marriage claiming: "I love being married much more than I did even in the beginning".

After her husband’s assassination in 1963, she struggled with her faith and, with humour, wrote: "God will have a bit of explaining to do to me if I ever see Him".

Mary Carolan is High Court reporter with The Irish Times. She told Newstalk Breakfast what the case is all about.