Drawing Table with FixedHeaderTable plug-in. Performance issues in IE

Drawing Table with FixedHeaderTable plug-in. Performance issues in IE

I am using the fixedheadertable.com plug-in to create a re-sizeable/scrollable table.
 
Unfortunately, it works great in FF but performs pretty slowly in IE.  I am hoping to figure out a way to make it work, as I am a new JQuery programmer and this seems rather complex.
 
The data in my table is dynamically obtained from groovy/grails framework.  The page loads significantly faster when I put the JQuery code near my </body> tag.  However, my table initially draws without the plug-in formatting...which doesn't look nice.
 
Does anyone have an idea for how I can get the initial page to load faster.  I wanted to copy the author who used $('tbody').append(<content>), but I don't think I can correctly resolve groovy with JS.  When I try, I am always getting a '\n' error.  Go figure.
 
Any help what-so-ever would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks,
 
Lisa