Villager - Village Magazine

8 December - January 2017

News Miscellany

Villager

Meaningful surnames

Barrister Michael Cush has been appearing for

Denis O’Brien in some of his exhausting judicial

travails. The last two letters of the senior

counsel’s name suggest posh,

plush, an advocate who cush

ions, shushingly. The first two

letters suggest something

altogether less generous.

All in all, just what you’d

want.

Map it out

Talking of what you'd want in

a lawyer, Village editor, Michael

Smith is facing a defamation action

from Michael McLoone, former County

Manager in Donegal over a 2014 article titled

‘Dodgy Donegal Planning’, published in this

magazine. Smith’s legal team at the 14 Decem-

ber 'callover' to obtain a date for the Hign Court

jury trial includes Kevin Neary and Jim

O’Callaghan. Smith and Colm MacEochaidh,

the judge designated for that callover, offered

a reward anonymously – in 1995 – through

Neary’s firm which is based in Newry. The

reward for information on planning corruption

flushed out whistleblower James Gogarty

whose allegations led to the instigation of the

planning tribunal. O’Callaghan is Fianna Fáil

spokesperson on justice and a former counsel

– on other matters - to Bertie Ahern who got

into some trouble at that tribunal. McLoone is

represented by Michael McDowell SC who

advised Smith some years ago on a private

prosecution that it was hoped would be taken

on the back of the evidence Jonathan Sugarman

could give about failure by Unicredit, Italy’s big-

gest bank, to observe the liquidity requirements

of the Central Bank. In 1995 it was the advice of

McDowell, then a PD TD, to Gogarty that he

should seek out a criminal lawyer to look at his

allegations that led Gogarty to make contact

with Neary.

McDowell and MacEochaidh stood in Dublin

South East in the 2002 General Election. As did

Village contributing editor John Gormley. The

constituency has been renamed Dublin Bay

South, one of whose TDs is Jim O'Callaghan.

Trust the trust

An Taisce, the state’s biggest

environmental campaigner,

seems to be in trouble. It

has unaddressed financial

difficulties, leading to

staff problems, and has

just lost its Programmes

and Administration Officer,

Eoin Heaney, who had been

earmarked as one part of a CEO

team – the position of ‘Director’,

effectively CEO, is mandated by the

organisation’s articles of association. Sources

told Villager that Heaney felt the organisation’s

board of management was failing to fulfil its

functions and bemoaned the absence of the

articles-mandated Strategy that could guide

employees and An Taisce’s unwieldy Council.

The organisation’s secretary is stepping down

and its chair is “rotating” after the last one

resigned in acrimony. The charity, which has

the advantage that it in general tells the truth

about planning and the environment, has had

its government subsidy cut to nothing over the

years and could do with some support from the

public, in funding, membership or

engagement.

Red and Cross

Meanwhile there is more trouble at another

worthy charity, the Irish Red Cross (IRC). Only

last year it installed Liam O’Dwyer, former

Director of the Society of St Vincent de Paul as

its new Secretary General and indeed rein-

stated former FF Minister, Pat Carey, who had

resigned after he was unethically implicated in

unsubstantiated child-abuse allegations, as

chairman. Sadly, in the end nearly everyone

resigns at the IRC because it’s so badly run but

O’Dwyer (who replaced short-lived former AIB

Managing Director, Donal Forde – the one-time

beneficiary of a €1.4m salary at the bank) have

been seen as progressive and scrupulous. Like

An Taisce, the IRC suffers from having an exces-

sively cumbersome Central Council made up of

geographically-representative non-profession

als, a weakness promoted by the legislation

governing charities and companies limited by

guarantee. The Red Cross’s Central Council con-

sists of 30 members (one per local area) elected

by the various Society local areas throughout

the country.

The IRC’s problems are longstanding. As long

ago as 1972 and the Arms Trial it was used as a

murky vehicle for transmitting most of the aid

to ‘Northern Catholics fleeing the troubles’.

Charlie Haughey had to ensure that no transac-

tion involving arms should be traced back to

bank accounts in the North of Ireland in case it

would come to the attention of British Army

Intelligence.

Thirteen years later, in 1985, the Sunday Trib-

une reported “Red Cross in Crisis over Funds

report”. In June 2007 the Secretary General left

in acrimonious circumstances. She had been

pushing for reform, a dangerous pursuit in the

IRC.

The discovery in 2008 of an undeclared bank

account which had had €162,000 lying in it for

over three years, in Tipperary under the name

of the IRC, caused consternation and panic. The

money had been intended for victims of the

2004 Asian tsunami but was not forwarded to

IRC head office as required by IRC financial pro-

tocols. The then Vice Chairman of the IRC, Tony

Lawlor, was a signatory on the account.

Whistleblower Noel Wardick, who described

the pattern of dysfunctionality in an anony-

mous blog and then in this magazine, was fired

in 2010 for “gross misconduct” – though he has

since been vindicated and compensated.

Now its Athlone branch is causing problem

according to a statement from the IRC: "The Ath-

lone branch bank account in question,

containing a small amount of money, has been

temporarily frozen due to concerns that rules of

the organisation with regard to the

NEWS

Cu......sh

December - January 2017 9

management of charity property have not been

followed. It is our hope that this matter will be

resolved quickly, internally. There has been no

discussion in relation to the disbandment of the

Athlone branch. All monies will be used as speci-

fied and any commitments made to assist those

impacted by flooding in Athlone will be hon-

oured”. Professionalise, lads.

Cross to bear

It’s all a pity as the Red Cross does crucial work

internationally. This year, in the Armageddon of

Syria for example, it has carried out 55 cross-

frontline operations, bringing food and essential

aid to 8 million of people, and clean water to mil-

lions more.

Cross Power

As Village went to press the UN Security council

was meeting in New York to discuss develop-

ments in Aleppo, which Russia now says has

fallen to Syrian Government and allied forces.

Addressing Syria, Russia and Iran, the US

ambassador to the UN, semi-Dubliner Samantha

Power (and blessed with another meaningful

surname), asked if the countries were "truly

incapable of shame".

"Your forces and your proxies are carrying out

these crimes. Your barrel bombs and mortars

and air strikes have allowed the militia in Aleppo

to encircle tens of thousands of civilians in your

ever-tightening noose”, she said.

"Three member states of the UN, contributing

to a noose around civilians. It should shame you.

Instead, by all appearances it is emboldening

you, you are plotting your next assault. Is there

no act of barbarism against civilians, no execu

tion of a child that gets under your skin … is there

nothing you will not lie about or justify?".

Power noted reports of up to 100 children

trapped in a building under heavy fire: “Clearly

… they must be terrorists”, she said. "Because

everybody being executed, everybody being

barrel bombed, everybody who's been chlorine

attacked — you're going to be told they're terror-

ists, every last one of them. Even the infants”.

Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin, who had been

the one to deliver the news about the fall of rebel

forces within Aleppo, punched back, accusing

Mount-Anville educated Ms Power of building

her statement "as if she was Mother Theresa".

"Please remember your own country's track

record, and then you can start opining from the

position of any moral supremacy”, he

vituperated.

€100k is enough, chaps

Villager takes the view that equality must be

assessed stringently. If some notable provider

of public services seeks a pay rise the thing is to

assess if that is equitable. If gardaí are earning

€100k on average he simply thinks that’s

enough. Not in any doctrinaire way but because

it must be assessed relatively. It is beyond seri

ous dispute that public sector pensions are

extremely valuable. The arrangements for public

servants — a pension after full service of 50 per

cent of final salary with a lump sum of 150 per

cent when they retire — are unavailable and (for

most employers, most notably Village Magazine)

unfundable in the private sector.

But the recent Horgan report suggests that the

premium pensions are even more valuable than

previously estimated.

John Horgan admits that his calculations are

“rough and ready”. But any more precise find-

ings will be based on the same numbers.

He estimates that the value of the garda pen-

sions amounts to a whopping 80 per cent of pay

for the average garda. Enough.

2% please

Villager, who admittedly gives only a tiny fig for

the market, is pleased to see the introduction of

rent restrictions through a 4% cap on increases

in Dublin and Cork. Last year’s introduction of in

effect a two-year freeze had little dampening

effect on rental inflation. Annual rental inflation

was 8.5% in Q3 2016 compared to 7.7% in Q3

2015. However, the two-year freeze applied only

to those renewing current tenancies, while the

new 4% cap will apply to new and existing ten-

ancies. This might mean these new controls

prove more binding on the market than last

year’s, but it remains to be seen how well they

will be enforced in the current supply-con-

strained market. Young Simon Coveney has

signalled the measures would be fast tracked

through the Dáil but Fianna Fáil, which has spent

its entire political lifetime undermining rent con-

trol and other interferences with property rights,

now – correctly as far as Villager is concerned -

wants the measures to go further.

Fingal...something

A team involving prominent people from Village

magazine was mugged by former Village art

director now museum curator, Simon O’Connor,

at the culmination of the Little Museum of Dub

lin’s annual Christmas dinner quiz. One of the

highlights of the social calendar was ruined for

many after quizmaster O’Connor went into a con-

vulsion when the radiant team packed with

Village contributors and hangers-on (and others)

correctly answered a tie-breaker question about

the (Samuel) Beckett family business: which of

course was quantity surveying. O’Connor pur-

ported not to hear the answer, instead awarding

the garlands to a team of fragrant and effulgent

nobodies from Dublin 6 which happened – use

lessly - to know all the forenames of Oscar Wilde.

Ballymun Shopping Centre: dilapidated

Little Museum pub-quiz winners

Truth spoken by Power

100k

1 0 December - January 2017

Ballynomun

Environment Minister Simon Coveney declared

some months ago that the redevelopment of Bal

lymun was ‘complete’. But it isn’t, The area’s

depressing 50-year-old shopping centre was

bought by Treasury Holdings in 2005 with a view

to demolition and reconstruction for a vast shop-

ping centre with cinema and 800 apartments.

When Treasury burnt out and died the poor shop-

ping centre lost heart, and even Tesco upped

sticks. But Dublin City Council bought the centre

and, as always with that erratic body, something

may or may not happen. In particular it appears

to be on the verge of offloading the site to devel

opers. The Ballymun for Business group claims

there is enough land in Ballymun for 2000 hous-

ing units – once services are installed. “The

economic revival hasn’t happened at the pace of

the residential development”, they say.

Ethicilliteracy

The suspension by Fine Gael of Kildare Council-

lor Fiona McLoughlin Healy went ahead despite

last month’s article in Village showing that the

complaints she levelled centring on the failure

of then-Councillor Fiona O’Loughlin (FF) to

absent herself from a vote on the Bluebells and

Blues Festival which was chaired by her brother

merit a complaint to the Standards in Public

Office Commission (SIPO). None of the local or

national media have grasped the story, which

mirrors the ethical illiteracy of Dublin City Coun-

cil some years ago when then-Councillor Oisín

Quinn voted on resolutions promoting high-rise

even though he had a share in a valuable office

block that might benefit from passage of those

resolutions. In Dublin too, none of the local

authority officials wasany difficulty with the

approach. In the end, however, SIPO found it

unethical.

The Gal way

Doubts have been thrown by the Department of

Heritage and Galway City Council at plans for the

restoration of a block of derelict buildings on

Quay Street and Quay Lane in Galway City – to

become an upmarket shop for Aran sweaters, of

which Galway, the capital of craic and knitted

jumpers, cannot get enough.

However, the Department has voiced its objec-

tion to any plan to restore the building to an

appearance as “at some notional date in his

tory”, while the Council has ordered a

redesign.

GlenAran Ltd, which is owned by the McCarthy

family from Glengarriff in West Cork, bought No

25 Quay Street and numbers 2 to 5 Quay Lane at

the end of 2015 for over its €600,000 guide

price. A previous owner had pursued a plan for

a €10m bar, restaurant and upmarket hostel

premises in the buildings which were built as a

warehouse in the Seventeenth Century, but con-

verted to residential units in the 1830s.

“The practice of ‘restoring’ a building or struc-

ture to an appearance at some notional date in

history, as is proposed to No. 25 Quay Street, is

entirely contrary to internationally accepted best

practice”, asseverated the Department.

“On the other hand, in the case of the build

ings at Numbers 2-5 Quay Lane, the original

roofs of these buildings were only removed in

recent years and the Dept believe there is suffi-

cient documentary and photographic evidence

to restore the roofs to the original profile.

Yet here it is proposed to construct an entirely

false ‘medieval style’ roof. In our opinion, the

type of works proposed in this application would

serve to confuse the evidence of the historic

buildings”, the Department’s submission reads.

Meanwhile, the City Council has ordered a

redesign of the proposals and further archaeo-

logical investigation of the site. Good enough for

them. Galway, least serious of all Ireland’s

metropolises, has transfigured so much of its

medieval heritage.

Wuthering Lows

Kate Bush has described fellow leather-trouser-

model Theresa May as "wonderful" in a Canadian

magazine interview. Villager does not like any-

thing that complacent people describe as

“wonderful”

Speaking to Maclean's magazine, Bush said

that having a female prime minister is "the best

thing that's happened" to the UK for a long time.

"I actually really like her”, she added – implau

sibly, Villager would guess. Bush previously

wrote a song for a sketch on a 1990 episode of

TV series The Comic Strip, about the former

Labour Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. The

lyrics included: "Look to the left and to the right.

We need help and there's nobody in sight. Where

is the man that we all need? Well tell him he's to

come and rescue me. Ken is the man that we all

need. Ken is the leader of the GLC”.

John Coyle RIP

The figurative painter John Timney Coyle has

died. He was born in Scotland in 1928 and edu-

cated at the National College of Art and Design

in Dublin and the Glasgow School of Art. He first

exhibited in Cork in 1948 and has exhibited in

most public exhibitions in Ireland since then.

Coyle was head of the Art Department and sub-

sequently Vice-Principal of Blackrock College in

Dublin, where he famously provided sanctuary

for anyone who could see that all of life was not

found in an oval ball, and lectured in the National

College of Art & Design and Dun Laoghaire

School of Art. A gentle man, he was famous for

carrying a roll of masking tape in his pocket. In

case of emergencies.

He and Gary Coyle were the only father and

son to be members of the Royal Hibernian Acad-

emy. Gary’s work embraces various media,

including Drawing, Photography and Spoken

word/Performance.

In a eulogy in Glasthule Church, Gary said he

was confident that after his death his father

would finally achieve the recognition he

deserved.

NEWS

John Coyle

Wutheringly wonderful