Tag Archives: Paul Williams

This morning.

On Newstalk FM.

Paul Williams broadcast a pre-recorded interview with the former former president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) (above) after the OCI claimed the ticketing scandal, and Mr Hickey’s arrest, has cost the OCI €1.5million to date (top).

In the interview, Mr Hickey outlines what €763,000 of that €1.5million has been spent on, while he’s scathing of how the Minister for Sport Shane Ross and the Irish Government handled, or didn’t handle, his arrest.

In addition, Mr Hickey admits that he has tried to block the publication of the Government’s report into the controversy – by Justice Carroll Moran – which was given to Mr Ross on June 12. Mr Ross has given the report to the Attorney General and is awaiting his advice in regards to publishing it.

Mr Hickey said:

“I saw a draft of the report and my legal team have advised Judge Moran and the minister and the attorney general that this report should not be published until after the court case is heard in Rio. Because anything coming out of it could prejudice my fair trial but even worse still any media reports can also be used by the prosecutor in Brazil against me in the case.”

From the interview…

“I would like to, first of all, say to you Paul that I cannot go into the actual court case in Rio because the case is still in front of the courts so we’re forbidden to go into detail on that but I would be very happy to answer what you said there. The impression has been given that, in the media, that I was the cause of a spend of €1.5million by the OCI [Olympic Council of Ireland].

“Now I can categorically tell you that is not the case because I have been able to check figures and what I’m aware of is as follows, how that €1.5million is made up: the Olympic Council of Ireland got legal advice from Arthur Cox and Co solicitors, which cost them €400,000; they embarked on the Grant Thornton report which cost €214,000; they employed a technology company Espion which was nearly €40,000; they engaged with the Communications Clinic which was €80,000; and the report from Deloitte’s which was €18,000; and Wilson Hartnell, WHPR, €11,000. And that’s the bulk [€763,000] of that €1.5million.”

“Now I can tell you that my legal costs today in Brazil amount to €280,000 and there is an insurance policy in place, that I put in place, over 15 years ago. It’s called directors and officers’ liability and it’s particularly for the something like what happened to me.

“The cover on that policy is €1million, that’s the cap on it so my fees have been taken out of that €1million.

“And can I say, in addition to that, before I left Dublin on the plane for Rio, I left the OCI in a very clean state of health. There was €3million surplus in the bank and a property out in Howth that’s valued at €3million.

“Now I’d like to just emphasise that I am totally innocent of all these charges and I will be proven innocent and my legal team in Brazil are working flat out.”

Listen back to the interview in full here

Previously: How Much?

UPDATE:

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RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy and Irish Independent crime correspondent Paul Williams on The Late Late Show earlier this year

You may recall Irish Independent Crime Correspondent Paul Williams’s appearance on The Late Late Show on February 19 of this year, just a week before the general election on February 26.

Yesterday, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland rejected two complaints made about Mr Williams’s interview with presenter Ryan Tubridy.

In it’s decision, the BAI noted that, although live, the interview had been previously rehearsed and Mr Williams had unexpectedly raised the Special Criminal Court, Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin voters.

In the first instance, the complainant was John Flynn.

The BAI explained:

[Mr Flynn] objects to an interview with the journalist, Mr Paul Williams, who he claims was freely allowed to malign Sinn Féin voters as criminals.

The complainant believes that in the initial reply he received from RTÉ, the Producer relied on the weak intervention of the presenter and on the hazards of live TV to excuse the failure of the broadcaster to distance itself from Mr Williams’ claim.

The complainant maintains that Mr Williams stated that only people/organisations
opposed to the Special Criminal Court were Sinn Féin members of criminal enterprises.

The complainant states that RTÉ chose not to repudiate the remarks both on the night
and later in reply to the complainant. This was especially repugnant during an election campaign.

In response, the executive producer of The Late Late told Mr Flynn:

RTÉ state that this was a wide ranging and lengthy item that told the story of two criminal families and their vast wealth over a number of years.

The broadcaster states that towards the end of the item, which, for legal and editorial reasons, had been strictly rehearsed and planned in advance, Mr Williams unexpectedly started discussing the Special Criminal Court and his support for its ongoing existence.

The broadcaster states that the presenter attempted to cut him off but Mr Williams continued and made the accusation that the complainant and several others have found offensive. The interview continued about the feuding families thereafter.

RTÉ state that while it is worth noting that Mr Williams did not say that anyone who votes for Sinn Féin is a drug dealer or killer, he did say that the only people who support that part of their manifesto are.

This was unplanned, unscripted and the opinion solely of Mr Williams.

In rejecting the complaint, the BAI concluded:

…Mr Williams’ comments about the position of Sinn Féin in respect of the Special Criminal Court and their proposal to abolish it were factually correct.

From a review of the programme, it was evident that the comments made by the guest concerned the response of some segments of the electorate, in particular those engaging in criminal activities, to this aspect of the election manifesto of Sinn Féin.

While the comments could be reasonably seen as an implied criticism of that aspect of the Sinn Féin manifesto, the Committee did not agree that it amounted to a
comment on supporters of this party as a whole, as stated by the complainant.

While audiences would have benefited from a more forthright response from the presenter to the remarks of his guest, it noted that the presenter quickly stated that the proposals of Sinn Féin in respect of the Special Criminal Court were not relevant to the discussion and also noted that the party, had it been in studio, would disagree with Mr Williams’ analysis.

Given the focus of the discussion, the factual nature of some of the comments in respect of the Special Criminal Court, the response of the presenter, and having also had regard to the right to free expression, the Committee was of the view that, on balance, the programme did not infringe the fairness, objectivity or impartiality requirements of the Broadcasting Act 2009 or the BAI Code of Fairness, Objectivity and Impartiality in News and Current Affairs in the manner stated by the complainant. Accordingly, the complaint has been rejected.

The second complaint was made by Enda Fanning who claimed Mr Williams’ comments were an attempt to harm Sinn Féin in the then forthcoming General Election. He said Sinn Fein was the only political party referred to by Mr Williams in his comments.

RTÉ sent the same response to Mr Fanning as it did to Mr Flynn.

And, in rejecting Mr Fanning’s complaint, the BAI made the same conclusions in its rejection of Mr Flynn’s complaint.

Read the BAI decisions in full here

Previously: Passing Stools

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRvxpBuxTQc

 

Newstalk reports:

Newstalk’s political Editor Shane Coleman will be joined by TV3 news broadcaster Colette Fitzpatrick, INM’s Paul Williams and former Irish Rugby star Alan Quinlan to anchor the station’s new Breakfast Show.

…Current Breakfast presenter Chris Donoghue will now co-anchor a new Drive show, where he will be joined by Sarah McInerney, political correspondent with The Sunday Times. The duo will be on air daily from 4pm and listeners can expect an exciting and lively debate on the day’s news, with everything from business and technology to entertainment and sports on the table.

FIGHT!

From top, from left: Alan Quinlan, Colette Fitzpatrick,  Sarah McInerney and Paul Williams

Newstalk welcomes four new prime time presenters (Newstalk)

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Hmmm.

Meanwhile, in yesterday’s Irish Independent…

A leak about leaks written by man who got leak.

Paul Williams reported:

A three-year GSOC investigation into claims by Independent TD Clare Daly that gardaí leaked details of her arrest for suspected drink-driving has been closed after finding no evidence to support the allegation.

The controversial probe was launched after Ms Daly had lodged a complaint alleging that gardaí leaked details of her arrest for suspected drink driving on January 28, 2013 – subsequent tests showed that Ms Daly was below the limit….

Garda cleared of leaking TD arrest details (Irish Independent)

Previously: The Daly What

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Irish Independent’s Paul Williams speaking with Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show on February 19

Gareth Naughton writes:

Country star and native Liverpudlian Nathan Carter will pay tribute to the victims of the Hillsborough disaster with a performance of a song specially written to honour the 96.

…We’ll also hear from Kevin Keegan, one of the many former Liverpool players who stood by the families of the Hillsborough victims as they fought for justice.

…Fresh from her election victory, Senator Lynn Ruane will join us in studio to share her inspiring story of triumph over adversity.

…Meteorologist Joanna Donnelly has gone down a storm since making her television debut and now, alongside husband and fellow meteorologist Harm Luijkx, she’ll be telling us why our weather is going crazy.

And is it time that we armed all the Gardaí? We’ll be asking if the Gardaí are properly equipped to deal with the spiralling violence on our streets. A panel including crime correspondent Paul Williams, Clonmel solicitor Kieran Cleary and former assistant commissioner Martin Donnellan will debate the issue.

Previously: Passing Stools

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From top: Irish Independent security editor Paul Williams and actor John Connors

Last night RTÉ2 broadcast the documentary I Am Traveller, fronted by John Connors.

The documentary included footage from a ‘Save Our Community’ meeting in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, on October 8, 2015.

The meeting, which was chaired by security editor of the Irish Independent Paul Williams, saw those in attendance discuss rural crime. It followed the jailing of seven men for the aggravated burglary of the Corcoran family in Thurles in 2013.

Two days before the meeting in Thurles, Mr Williams did an interview with Niall Delaney on Ocean FM about Travellers and crime, following the sentencing in relation to the Corcoran burglary.

From that interview…

Niall Delaney: “Paul what’s your views on this? You’re claiming that these seven are part of a wider network of family-based gangs, which is very worrying for a lot of people.”

Paul Williams: “Well they’re not just family based but they’ve very strong links with the Travelling community which is controversial I know but it’s a fact. There are two, they are using networks, they’re using them down in Sligo, the same way they use them in Mayo and different places. They have people all over the country who are related through marriage and extended  families. They identify and pick out targets and that’s what happened in Tipperary two years with the Corcoran family… You saw them when they were leaving the court, when there were these orangutans coming out. The only reason they weren’t dragging their knuckles behind them was because they were in handcuffs. And I think the visceral reaction from the public last week was extraordinary because people have become desensitised to a lot of this but, Jesus, there was some serious sense of anger everywhere. Everybody was talking about it and they’re the kind of people who are responsible for this kind of crime.”

Meanwhile…

In I Am Traveller, Mr Connors attended the community meeting in Thurles and, a few weeks later, spoke with Mr Williams about the meeting.

From their discussion:

John Connors: “I went to Thurles that time and it seemed to be, the general consensus in the room, from the settled people and the farmers, people who worked in agriculture, that this was an exclusive Travellers’… rural crime.”

Paul Williams: “No, in fact, I think you’re wrong, there was little mention, the elephant in the room yeah, there was mumbling, yeah but they were mumbling about it amongst themselves…”

Connors: “Yeah, 100 per cent.”

Williams: “But, yet again, an awful lot of people didn’t want to express that.”

Connors: “Why do you think? Do you think it’s fear? There was one particular person, a man who talked about an experience he had with a Traveller and there was a big, great laugh about it and then the farmer went on to say that this sort of criminality is ingrained in these people and I think that’s very damaging because criminality wasn’t ingrained in me, we’re never…”

Williams: “But you’re being let down by the criminal element all the time, John.”

Connors: “100 per cent, I agree. But I, but, but…”

Williams: “I think one of the things…”

Connors: “Do you not think there’s a problem with generalisation though, within the media..’

Williams: “No, I’ll tell you why…”

Connors: “The media, like, kind of run amok sometimes I think.”

Williams: “Well.”

Connors: “With stereotypes…”

Williams: “We can talk about that but..”

Connors: “With flashy headlines and sensationalism, for instance, the Corcoran burglary right? A lot of headlines described that as a Traveller gang, not travelling gang – as in travelling from Dublin down to Tipperary…”

Williams: “Yeah, it was Traveller gang, yeah. The two Joyce brothers are the main players in that gang.”

Connors: “Yeah, yeah. But there was seven people involved in the gang. Four of them were settled people, three were Travellers. What they did was horrible.”

Williams: “Were they settled now or were they settled Travellers?”

Connors: “No they were settled people, absolutely not Travellers, four settled people, three Travellers – gets called a Traveller gang. Do you think that’s fair?”

Williams: “I would say it’s fair because…”

Connors: “It’s fair?

Williams: “The people who run the gang were Travellers and were and they were notorious for, they were specifically involved in dozens and dozens of robberies around the country. The Travelling community have a big, big problem and it’s clear, from talking to you that, you know, that you and you’re challenging me about the media and media perceptions and what we say about you. And it’s society’s fault and it’s the guards fault, and it’s everybody’s fault and – to a degree – it is society’s fault, to a degree. But it is also your fault, as a community and ethnic group, but when is the Travelling community really going to come out? When are they going to go up and march on the streets and say we want the drug dealers, the rapists, the people who are terrorising their own people, we want them fucked out?”

Watch I Am Traveller back in full here

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From top: Actor John Connors and journalist Paul Williams

A documentary, entitled I Am Traveller, will be broadcast on RTÉ2 next Thursday (March 24), at 9.30pm.

Love/Hate actor John Connors will present it.

Kitty Holland, in the Irish Times, reports:

Connors discusses crime among Travellers with the crime journalist Paul Williams, putting it to him that media coverage of rural crime has implied that it is being run by “Traveller gangs”.

Williams argues that some Travellers are involved in rural crime and tells Connors that his community is “being let down by the criminal element all the time”. Society bears some responsibility, says Williams, “but it is also your fault as an ethnic grouping”.

He asks Connors: “When is the Traveller community going to really come out? When are they going to go up and march on the streets and say, ‘We want the drug dealers, the rapists, the people who are terrorising our own people, we want them f***ed out’?”

In his narration Connors responds: “Why should I protest about a gang of drug dealers who have nothing to do with me? I’ll take responsibility for things I can control.”

I am a Traveller, not a ‘knacker’ (Kitty Holland, Irish Times)

Rollingnews

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Last night’s Late Late Show..

There you go now.

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Interim Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and Irish Independent crime reporter Paul Williams at the launch of Murder Inc. The Rise Of ireland’s Street Gangs at DTWo nightclub, Harcourt Street, Dublin last night.

G’wan the guards

Launch Of Paul Williams Book (Independent.ie)

Steve Collins comes home for Williams’s book launch (Independent.ie)

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The front page of the Irish Independent on Monday, June 24, 2013 which revealed the first Anglo Tapes story and, above, the paper’s Special Correspondent Paul Williams who wrote the story and subsequently won Scoop Of The Year at the National Newspapers of Ireland Journalism Awards last November for the same

Yesterday Independent News and Media (INM) agreed to remove parts of its Anglo Tapes coverage from last week by Paul Williams from independent.ie after the DPP sought a High Court injunction.

After INM agreed to take down certain sections from the website, the injunction application was adjourned until Friday.

The Irish Times reported:

“The DPP claims the publishing of further material is calculated to interfere with the criminal trial process in relation to events at the former Anglo Irish Bank. The DPP is also seeking an order directing the attachment and committal to prison of the Independent editor Claire Grady and of editor-in-chief Stephen Rae, and/or the sequestration of the company’s assets, as the case may be, for contempt of court in relation to material published last Thursday under the heading “Anglo: the new tapes revealed”. The newspaper denies contempt and contests the DPP’s claims.”

Further to this, readers may wish to recall an interview that the Irish Independent’s Paul Williams gave to Newstalk’s Lunchtime host Jonathan Healy on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 – day two of the newspaper’s Anglo Tapes coverage.

During the interview, Mr Williams explained how the tapes came into his possession after they were posted to him at his office anonymously.

He told Mr Healy he believed he was “chosen as a conduit” but pointed out he wasn’t a financial journalist and struggled with the “banking-ese” or “business lingo” in the tapes.

A week later, in a written parliamentary reply to Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation received a court order in 2010 securing electronic and other documents related to 18 employees of Anglo Irish Bank whose phone lines were taped.

From the Newstalk interview:

Jonathan Healy: “Paul, the one thing that’s been said a lot in the last couple of days is ‘why now?’. Why has all this information been coming in to the public domain. And I know you obviously want to protect your source and I don’t expect you to betray that source now. But did you get full copies of these tapes? Did you get hours and hours and hours or are you in a position to say how much of the material…”

Paul Williams: Well I’d prefer not to go into it, other than to say that the two tapes arrived to me at the office, they were posted to me anonymously…”

Healy: “And do you know why they, whoever posted them to you. Do you know what of their motivation?”

Williams: “Well, it’s obviously somebody who has come across them and said ‘look we really need, you really need to have a look at this’. I have theories as to why I was approached or whatever and they’re irrelevant and my involvement is really irrelevant in it but I think that…”

Healy: “Well you’re the messenger.”

Williams: “I had, I had, I was chosen as a conduit, but I would say that I’ve had them for over two months. And the reason I’ve had them over two months is because obviously I had to do a lot of work on them, in the background myself, to work out what this was about, who these people were.”

Healy: “Would you be afraid, you’ve obviously done this and it is in the public interest and this is journalism at its best – that you’re putting stuff in there that people need to know about and that arguably mightn’t have been known about previously but can we say, can you say for certain that you’re not in some way being played by somebody, by putting this selective element of it into the public domain?”

Williams: “All I’ll say to you is this Jonathan and, you know, I’m very, very…I have to be very, very protective of my sources. I know where I’m at in this and I know what the motivations are and I know, I know all the background to this. That’s why it’s taken me a couple of months to put this out. And the Irish Independent did a brilliant job on it. And it’s great to be a part of that team now. They really gave it the support and it’s in a way…but it is again, going back to another aspect of it. Isn’t it a sad indictment that after five years and the biggest economic crash and one of the most profound events, economically in the history of our nation that 28 minutes of tape through an Irish, a national newspaper, is the only chink of light that’s been shone on the shadowy corner that has cost the Irish taxpayer €64billion at least…That’s. And in a way that’s Stephen Rea, our, the editor of the Irish Independent, that’s the way he saw it from day one: this is an absolute disgrace and scandal and if it does shine any kind of a light, then it’s worth it. Even…I don’t see how anybody, you know, it might…”

Healy: “No, look, come here, there’s nobody questioning this isn’t in the public interest Paul, and it absolutely is. My…”

Williams: “That’s what I’m saying…Even if it was a mendacious sort of effort or a malign motive behind it, I think you would agree Jonathan, and everybody who’s listening to your show and everybody in Ireland who’s listened to these tapes in the last 48 hours, would say ‘Jaysus, well, that’s benign.”

Healy: “When you got these tapes you obviously found them for the first time. But, since you’ve been working on them, you’ve come to realise that these have been sitting somewhere in officialdom since they were recorded on day one. And part of the wider investigations that are going on. When you hear Michael Noonan saying he didn’t even know these tapes existed were you surprised?”

Williams: “I have to say, and remember, OK, so we’re looking at this for a number of months, because remember I’m not a financial journalist so I [inaudible] understand what this was all about. Banks and liquidity, you know, when they’re talking about certain, a lot banking-ese and business lingo that they use and to try and get around that and, by the way, as an aside, this is the only stuff that I’ve seen yet or anybody else that’s seen that’s easy for the people to understand because nobody, everybody is confused by it. Do I? I’ve no reason to doubt what Michael Noonan says. However I would be very, very, very skeptical, based on my own enquiries and ongoing enquiries that officials in the Department of Finance didn’t know about this. I would be very, very surprised. Because I believe, remember this bank has been owned by the Irish taxpayers for the past number of years. This is the property of the taxpayer effectively. What we’re doing is sharing the property of the taxpayer when you think about because these calls were made at the time and we now own it after a very expensive purchase. Look there are several major investigative bodies and groups have all of this stuff. This is not, like this stuff, the point we were making yesterday Jonathan, and I make it again today, is that all this stuff is available. That would be, account for 80 or 90% – if you really wanted to investigate Anglo Irish Bank and know what was going on behind the Irish, as part of a public inquiry, all you do is, you just look at, or listen to a couple hundred hours of tapes.”

Healy: “The recordings are there.”

Williams: “Because if you, because when people are speaking spontaneously and off the cuff and honestly, and they’re speaking mostly honestly to each other, you get a picture of what was happening and you’ve got the dates and the times and all that kind of stuff so it should be easy to piece together. But…and I believe that a lot of State, different State interested State bodies and civil servants know all about these tapes and I don’t accept it. I can’t prove it but I don’t accept it.”

Healy: “Well no, I think that a lot of people would share that suspicion. You said that you had 28 minutes of it, so we’ll have more tomorrow, do we?”

Williams: “No, the 28 minutes is what we put out so far.”

Healy: “Oh so far, so how much more do you have, are you willing to tell me?”

Williams: “No, we have, we have more. But we’re looking at it at the moment, what we’re going to do tomorrow and the next couple of days. So we’I just have to meet my colleagues at the Independent, it’s just been so crazy and busy over the past few days. It’s just one of those things that, there’s been an extraordinary reaction to this. I genuinely did not anticipate that there would be this…I actually thought that most of the rest of the media would ignore the story because a) it was an exclusive for the Independent and b) everyone would be afraid of it, legally.”

Listen in full here

INM to remove certain portions of Anglo tapes from website (Irish Times)

Irish Independent editors threatened with jail over Anglo tapes (Irish Independent)