New Year’s Eve in Dublin city centre can be a bit too exuberant for those of a certain vintage. But word comes to us that Fáilte Ireland is cooking up a series of family-centred events in the city this year. MCD has been hired to organise two alternative concerts to the annual city centre bash, one on the southside and one on the northside.
On the southside, the concert promoter is planning music at Newtownsmith in Sandycove from 4pm to 9pm, with fireworks on Dún Laoghaire’s east pier at 8pm, while on the northside, there will be a similar event featuring music and fireworks in Howth Harbour. The organisers expect there to be about 7,000 tickets available for both events – subject to planning permission, as they say.
Collison brother moves close to the folks in Dublin 4
Employees at Stripe’s Dublin office on Grand Canal Street in Dublin should look lively in the coming months. The boss, or at least one of them, is going to be around a bit more often. John Collison, one of the Co Tipperary-raised brothers who founded the tech payments unicorn, has bought a period pile at the heart of Dublin 4′s embassy belt close to where his parents already have a home.
Collison, the younger of the brothers, dropped about €4 million on the restored six-bed, which comes with planning permission already in place for a huge two-storey over-basement extension. As with his €11.5 million purchase of Abbeyleix House in Co Laois, the deal was done through a Jersey-registered company.
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Phil Hogan is only one half of an exclusive Irish club
There was a sense of deja vu to a story in The Irish Times on Thursday about the European Commission raising concerns about former EU commissioner Phil Hogan working for a law firm just a year after stepping down from his role as EU trade commissioner. Hogan was subject to a two-year cooling-off period at the time but couldn’t contain his enthusiasm to share his expertise with DLA Piper, an international law firm. After concerns were raised, he stepped down in March 2022 to ensure there was “absolutely no doubt” about his compliance with the rules. He now belongs to a very exclusive club, alongside another former Irish commissioner.
In 2010, shortly after stepping down as internal market commissioner, Charlie McCreevy was forced to resign from the board of another banking firm due to concerns over a possible conflict of interest. McCreevy, who could be found more recently on the sidelines of Kildare GAA matches as a member of ex-manager Glenn Ryan’s back-room staff, stepped down from NBNK Investments after ethical issues were raised by the EU, becoming the first former commissioner to do so since a new oversight body was introduced to monitor conflicts of interest.
Road Safety Authority in hunt for new face
There’s a new chapter on the horizon for another former member of the Progressive Democrats. Liz O’Donnell, who served as a Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs during the Belfast Agreement talks on that Good Friday in 1998, has been synonymous with the Road Safety Authority since taking over as chairwoman from Gay Byrne a decade ago. Overheard has been told her term of office, which was extended five years ago, is due to expire next month.
Will the Department of Transport seek another well-known face for the high-profile role?
Change of plan for Terenure Synagogue
Dublin’s Jewish community has given up on attempts to sell Terenure Synagogue, as it is known, on Rathfarnham Road. Members of the capital’s Hebrew congregation put it on the market last year, seeking €7.5 million, but after turning down a number of bids, they’re now going to redevelop the site themselves. They have teamed up with developer Martin Lydon of Granbrind Ltd to build 66 apartments in three blocks, ranging from three to six storeys in height.
Their planning application states that their congregation will be rehoused in another synagogue. These days it is made up of native Dubliners, many of them elderly, and newcomers who moved to Ireland to work in the tech sector.
Winner alright in citizenship bid for ‘high performance athlete’
The Irish football team have long had to field tricky questions about selecting players with only distant familial links to the country. For those competing for Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) in the recent Paris Olympics, there was no granny rule. All competitors were required to hold a valid Irish passport ahead of the games. Interestingly HSI was busy in the weeks prior to the games seeking citizenship for an unnamed “high performance athlete”, according to a recent filing on the Lobbying Register.
Denis Duggan, chief executive of the showjumping body, sent several emails to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and her special adviser, Patrick Cluskey, seeking to secure citizenship for the athlete. Horse Sport Ireland declined to name the athlete in question last week. At the very least, they may have had a receptive audience in the Co Meath politician - when champion jockey Barry Geraghty retired back in 2020, she tweeted that she had learnt to horse-ride in the same yard as him.
How to do early retirement in style
John McGuire, the entrepreneur who sold Quotedevil.ie for more than €30 million two years ago, is having a hell of a retirement. McGuire, who is married to former Virgin Media presenter Karen Koster, moved into a new house on Eglington Road in Donnybrook, Dublin 4 last year following the sale, announcing that he was going to enjoy his retirement. Now 52, he is being true to his word.
McGuire was recently granted planning permission to build a garage to house his fleet of vintage cars and he is now also looking for permission for a garden room to house a gym and, with the evenings closing in, a golf simulator.
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