Tag Archives: Frank Connolly

Property developer and Fianna Fáil donor John Fleming (left) and Micheal Martin; Mr Martin’s holiday home in Courtmacsherry, West Cork built by Mr Fleming

Murky pasts.

We all have them.

Via VIllage magazine [more at link below], Frank Connolly writes:

‘…A successful house builder on the newly zoned lands around expanding Cork city, John Fleming also developed what was, at the time, a luxury holiday-home complex at Courtmacsherry in picturesque West Cork, in the late 1990s.

In December, 1999, Micheál Martin took out a mortgage of £135,000 from Irish Life and Permanent to purchase 4 Meadowlands, one of the first of the large houses built in the scheme overlooking the sea in the small holiday village.

The property was purchased from John J Fleming Construction, one of the companies in the larger Fleming Group.

By this time, Martin was in government after being appointed to his first cabinet position by Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in 1997. A former school teacher, he was made Minister for Education before he was given the health portfolio in 2000 and then served as Enterprise, Trade and Employment minister from 2004 to 2007.

In January 2007, Fleming travelled to Hungary with Martin as a member of an Enterprise Ireland delegation headed by the minister and later announced that he had won a contract to develop a wind-farm project in the eastern European country. Later that year, Fleming’s company made a donation of €900 to the minister’s general election campaign.

…On 11th March, 2010, six days after Fleming’s property company went into liquidation (on 5th March, 2010) the Irish Permanent mortgage on the Courtmacsherry holiday home purchased by Martin, was cancelled, according to documents lodged with the Land Registry.

There is a reference in the Land Registry documents connecting the charge on the holiday property to the Martin’s family home  in Ballinlough, Cork which they purchased many years previously.

In July 2009, a further charge “for present and future advances” with AIB was lodged with the Land Registry in respect of the Courtmacsherry property.

Village asked Martin to explain the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the property and the cancellation of the loan on 11th March 2010.

A Fianna Fáil spokesperson replied:

“The property was bought through an auctioneer with a mortgage in 1999.  In 2010, Micheál switched mortgage provider and the loan was restructured to include the balance of this loan and refurbishment of Micheál’s family home.  Repayment of this mortgage is ongoing.”

Asked was there any significance in the fact that the loan was cancelled, according to Land Registry documents, just six days after the company which sold the property, owned by John Fleming, went into liquidation (on 5th March, 2010), the spokesperson said:

“None.  See above.  These questions clearly represent an attempt to raise a controversy in the dying days of the General Election campaign where there is none.” [more at link below]

Micheál Martin, evasive and misleading, in 2020 (Frank Connolly Village)

Previously: So, Why Did That Money End Up In Your Wife’s Bank Account, Mr Martin?

Village/Rollingnews

Frank Conolly’s Namaland.

Launching tonight in the Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2.

Ex-Nama executive?

Rollingnews

Frank Connolly

Yesterday.

In the Sunday Business Post.

It was reported that a book by investigative journalist Frank Connolly, called Nama-land, will be published by Gill & Macmillan in October.

Tom Lyons reported:

A book to be published in October is expected to contain significant revelations concerning the operations of Nama and the manner in which its disposal of public assets has transformed property ownership and created a new elite in Ireland.

Written by investigative journalist Frank Connolly, Nama-land details events from the establishment of the ‘bad bank’ in 2009 and its management and subsequent sale of huge property portfolios, mainly to US vulture funds over recent years. It examines how the process has enriched international investors and their local agents against the background of a deepening housing and mortgage crisis.

It also looks at the role of key players in politics and business, North and South, including in the controversial sale by Nama of its Northern Ireland portfolio, Project Eagle, to US fund Cerberus in 2014.

“I hope it will get behind what has been something of a veil of secrecy surrounding the operations of Nama and the largest disposal of public assets in the history of the state. It is based on research, facts and investigative journalism and will be published in October,” Connolly said.

Book to lift lid on Nama’s operations and their fallout (The Sunday Business Post)

Rollingnews

175009581-e433a031-27f6-4494-829c-fd4bd0ff76d0 Frank Cushnahan1.jpgScreen-Shot-2016-06-08-at-16.03.18
From top: Ronnie Hanna, Frank Cushnahan and Enda Kenny

You may recall how Taoiseach Enda Kenny has repeatedly rebuffed calls from various TDs for a Commission of Investigation into Nama’s sale of its northern Ireland portfolio, Project Eagle.

The calls came after two men were arrested in Co. Down on May 31 in relation to the sale and later released pending further inquiries.

Earlier this month, in the Dáil, Mr Kenny said, “Nobody has presented me with evidence of wrongdoing by Nama in this jurisdiction” and, on another occasion, Mr Kenny said: “Nama has done nothing wrong”.

Just last week, Mr Kenny stated: “I am informed that this loan sell was executed in a proper manner. Despite all the comments and allegations, there are no claims of wrongdoing against NAMA.”

Further to this…

Frank Connolly, in Village magazine, reports:

The arrest of two men in connection with the criminal investigation into the sale of Project Eagle, the single largest disposal of Irish state assets, has discharged a seismic shock through the establishment, north and south.

…Ronnie Hanna, a former head of asset management at NAMA in Dublin and Frank Cushnahan, a former member of the agency’s Northern Ireland Advisory Committee were arrested by police who also seized documents and computers during raids on a number of properties in Belfast.

Village has learned that the arrests came just days before the BBC ‘Spotlight’ programme was due to reveal fresh information concerning the role of both men in the Project Eagle saga.

The arrests of the two men by the NCA forced the cancellation of the programme, for legal reasons.

On Thursday, 2nd June, the Irish News reported that Hanna and Cushnahan had been arrested two days earlier by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and were being released on bail “pending further enquiries”.

It was the only news organisation to identify those arrested although, in its report, the Irish Times mentioned the pair as having been previously named in the Dáil by Mick Wallace in connection with the Project Eagle controversy.

… It is utterly wrong to say there is no allegation of wrongdoing against NAMA, when a central figure to its Dublin operation has been arrested, in the North.

The figleaf the Taoiseach and Michael Noonan sought, that there was no taint on the southern operation, has now been blown out of the water.

Kenny and Noonan under pressure and in denial (Frank Connolly, Village magazine)

Previously: Spotlight Falls On Noonan

Pics: Irish News