Denis O’Brien (top) and James Osborne.

In today’s Irish Times, former INM chairman James Osborne recalls the spat with Denis O’Brien which led to his exit from the company earlier this year.

Osborne goes back to Saturday, April 14th, when he says Denis O’Brien rang him and demanded an article about him in the following day’s Sunday Independent be pulled.

“I said, ‘No, that’s not what I’m going to do’,” Osborne explains. “It was an article that turned out to be pretty innocuous . . . about the biggest borrowers with Anglo and he was one of them.”

 

The Sunday Independent article by Tom Lyons was the first mention in an irish newspaper of the extent of Denis O’Brien’s borrowings with Anglo.

It reported that he owed the bank €833.08 million as of May 2009 “on foot of personal and corporate loans” (the article claimed the overall debt had been reduced to €500 million).

Making him Anglo’s sixth largest borrower.

And how did he acquire the debt?

Purchasing – at the top of the market – shares in INM.

‘I Don’t Mind A Bit Of An Oul’ Scrap Every Now And Then. That’s Me’ (Ciaran Hancock, irish Times)

Previously: Denis O’Brien: Dividends, Debt And Paying Back Anglo

So, You Know That Denis O’Brien Story…

Like A Spoilt Teenager

(Saso Lazarov and Eamonn Farrell/Photocall ireland)

 

Ah.

…due to high birth rates, and collapsed employment levels, ameliorated by massive emigration, Ireland is the worst performing country of ALL SOEs [Small Open Economies] (in fact we are the worst performing country amongst all Advanced Economies). This distinction was earned for the first time (since 1980) in 2011, the year when this Coalition came to power.

 

Employment rate in Ireland – beating wrong records (Constantin Gurdgiev, Tre Economics)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir93QOqPqRk

You may be familiar with the Newswhip widget thing on Broadsheet’s home page.

The box on the right which tabulates the most shared stories on social media.

Yes, that thing.

Now – finally! – Dublin-based Newswhip.com have created an app that may well become literally indispensable among the mediarati and news hounds of all breeds.

Founder Paul Quigley writes:

NewsWhip now comes in a pocket size App format for anyone with an iPhone. Like our site, it shows the news spreading fastest now on social networks, and lets you filter for news from different countries and loads of niches (like environment, psychology, or gaming).

Unlike our site, it’s really easy to use while sitting on the toilet, remembers your preferences, and has a neat picture of the Cliffs of Moher (on our Ireland page)

It’s actually a fantastic app. The best of over 100,000 stories each day, as picked by your peers, i.e. the other billion people on social networks.

Before anyone asks: Android version is on the way. 8 weeks-ish.

 

iTunes link here

NewsWhip Launches iOS Flipboard-Style News App Which Scans Facebook And Twitter (Mike Butchder, TechCrunch)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP-FlERmGnA

James Kavanagh (yes, Exchequer Street Boy!) writes:

We have just created this vid to let peeps know about the new goodness pop up shop on Chatham Row, Dublin, that Innocent opened up  this week . Free smoothies for anyone who Tweets something good they want to do in 2013. x James

 

Innocent Goodness

Previously: Exchequer Street Boy on Broadsheet

No smoothies, hugs, platform shoes, etc. were given for this post.
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