An Irish couple who owned a luxury mansion on Ireland’s stellar street with neighbours such as U2’s Bono and The Edge have lost their high profile battle to save their home.
The Republic’s court of appeal ruled on Wednesday that one-time billionaires Brian and Mary Patricia O’Donnell have just two weeks to vacate their hilltop property.
The now bankrupt couple owe the Bank of Ireland €71.5m and have for several months resisted attempts by the bank’s bailiffs to seize the house. In March the pair barricaded themselves in to the luxury home with its swimming pool, sauna and tennis court at Gorse Hill, Vico Road, in south county Dublin.
The O’Donnells’ courtroom struggles are another example of how Celtic Tiger entrepreneurs who borrowed heavily during Ireland’s boom years have crashed into the financial abyss.
They were supported by the New Land League – a movement styling itself on the 19th century grassroots organisation that opposed the eviction of poor Irish tenant farmers by landlords. New Land League activists occupied the property and prevented bailiffs from entering it.
But on Wednesday the court of appeal in Dublin supported a previous high court decision that the Bank of Ireland was entitled to an injunction directing the O’Donnells to vacate the property.
Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan pointed out that in a settlement agreement between the O’Donnells and the Bank of Ireland back in March 2011, that family had agreed to give full vacant possession of Gorse Hill if the bank decided to exercise its security.
The judge said the O’Donnell family had independent legal advice when they entered into that agreement.
She added that while she understood how such a decision made by the bank would be a “cause of great emotional distress for the family” the earlier high court decision made was correct and Brian and Patricia O’Donnell need to vacate the Vico Road mansion.
The two-week delay to the eviction was granted to allow the O’Donnells to apply to Ireland’s supreme court against the decision. The stay on the order allowing the Bank of Ireland to take charge of the Gorse Hill home was extended to 12pm on 29 April.
The case captured the astonishing reversal in fortunes for the O’Donnell family. At the start of this century Brian O’Donnell was a partner in a highly successful commercial law firm while his wife was a psychiatrist.
However, the couple moved into property, building multi-million portfolios that included a former Department of Education building in Westminster and a $172m property on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, just a stroll from the White House.
Yet the O’Donnell property empire was built on around €900m in debt exposing them to financial ruin when the global financial crash came.
