A bankrupt former multimillionaire has dropped the keys of his luxury South Dublin home on to the desk of the Bank of Ireland’s chief executive in a final symbolic protest against the repossession of his seaview mansion.
Just before the noon deadline to vacate his family’s property on a road populated by Irish rock stars including U2’s Bono, Brian O’Donnell interrupted the bank’s annual general meeting at University College Dublin and handed back the keys. They were on a printed background stating: “The Bloody Keys”.
On Tuesday the Irish supreme court announced it would not grant an 11th-hour order preventing the Bank of Ireland from seizing the Gorse Hill property, a sprawling residence with a swimming pool, sauna and tennis court in the fashionable Killiney area. The court also noted that there was no basis in law for an appeal to the European court of justice.
The O’Donnells owed the Bank of Ireland €71.5m (£51.2m) after the family borrowed heavily during the Celtic Tiger boom years to play the global property market, buying office properties in London, two Canary Wharf skyscrapers, and Washington DC. But the global financial crash left their empire in ruins and the bank demanded the property back as it clawed back the family’s debts.
In their bizarre battle with the bank, the O’Donnells enlisted the unlikely support of a radical anti-repossession group in an attempt to hang on to their home, which was once valued during the boom at €30m. In a near two-month standoff with the Bank of Ireland, the New Land League, a group that models itself on an anti-landlord grassroots movement from 19th century, patrolled the mansion and prevented bailiffs from entering the property.
Before the AGM at O’Reilly hall (named after the former newspaper tycoon Sir Tony O’Reilly), O’Donnell told the media: “We vacated the property this morning and we are extremely disappointed in relation to the decision by the supreme court.”
At the AGM, the bank’s governor, Archie Kane, referred to its approach to supporting mortgage customers in financial difficulty, insisting that “we strive to help them”.
On hearing this, O’Donnell shook his head while Kane continued: “It is critical to us that we adopt a consistent approach when dealing with any customers who may be in difficulty.”
The O’Donnell family had started packing up from Gorse Hill on Tuesday night and were seen carrying bags from the property on Wednesday morning.
Their departure marks the end of a long legal battle over their debts and the Bank of Ireland. New Land League members remained at the property until the O’Donnells left but confirmed that their protest there was over.
The original Land League was the created by Michael Davitt, a former member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood jailed in 1870 following a failed uprising against British rule.
After a second famine in Ireland in 1879, poor tenant farmers could not meet rent demands from landlords and faced the prospect of eviction. Davitt helped found the Land League, which organised physical resistance against evictions.
Some commentators in Ireland have questioned whether Davitt and the original founders of the Land League movement would support a global property dealer such as O’Donnell.
