Claims by Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams in her new memoir, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, have made headlines around the world.
Wynn-Williams, who worked directly for Facebook’s former chief operations officer Sheryl Sandberg, alleges her then boss spent almost €12,000 on lingerie for herself and an assistant, and asked Wynn-Williams to “come to bed” with her while on a private jet flight. The claims are strenuously denied by Sandberg and Facebook, now known as Meta.
The Facebook executive-turned-whistleblower was fired by Mark Zuckerberg’s company in 2017 for alleged “poor performance” and “toxic behaviour” shortly after she accused another Facebook staffer of sexually harassing her.
But when it comes to former taoiseach Enda Kenny, it’s a resounding two thumbs up from Wynn-Williams.
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Recounting a meeting with Kenny in Davos, she describes him in her exposé as “charming, a charismatic man who occasionally recites poetry from memory or sings in the raucous dinners he hosts each year in Davos”.
“Ahh the beautiful ladies of Facebook,” Kenny would declare whenever he bumped into Wynn-Willians and Sandberg in Davos. “Coming from another man, this would be creepy. Somehow, from him, it’s almost charming,” she recounts.
She was also charmed by Kenny’s “sense of mischief”.
“One year at Davos, tipsy after dinner, he breaks me and Sheryl’s assistant Sadie into a beyond-exclusive wine party thrown by an obscenely wealthy private equity guy, telling us, ‘Come, you’ll never have better wine in your life.'
“He barrels past security into a dark room where a number of sombre-looking men are sipping from glasses and literally taking notes, declaring brightly ‘someone get these gorgeous ladies some wine’. And we’re begrudgingly handed the most expensive wine I’ve ever tasted in my life.”
It’s hard to imagine Micheál Martin up to the same devilment, isn’t it?
James Dyson could be grounded in Waterford
Is James Dyson about to be brought down to earth in Ireland? The inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner spent about €35 million last year on Ballynatray House, a Georgian pile on 850 acres on the banks of the river Blackwater in Co Waterford.
Dyson is undertaking a grand restoration of the historic house, with planning permission granted last week to add an internal lift – a good idea when you’re 77.
But there is one must-have for which the billionaire industrialist is finding it more difficult to secure permission: a landing pad for his chopper.
The inventor owns an Augusta Westland AW-139 and uses it to flit between his trophy homes (he is said to own more property in the UK than the queen). But some of the locals in Co Waterford and in neighbouring east Cork aren’t happy with the prospect of the vacuum tycoon raising a din in their tranquil part of the world.
One objector to Dyson’s plans for a helipad claims the sound of helicopters is “greatly amplified” in the Blackwater Valley, with passing choppers “loudly reverberating”. He is also concerned about the effects of frequent flights on the local birds.
Another objector said if Dyson is granted permission for a landing pad, several other local property owners may seek to do the same, ruining the peace and quiet of a “sensitive area”.
Last week Waterford City and County Council asked Dyson for more information about how often he planned to use his chopper and what flight paths he intended to take before it makes a decision on his application.
The real Irish master of plaster
The best-known plasterer in Ireland must be Paddy “The Plasterer” Reilly, Bertie Ahern’s dig-out buddy. But it should really be George O’Malley. The specialist in decorative plasterwork is responsible for the meticulous restoration of many of Ireland’s great houses and historic buildings including Belvedere College, Newman House and Longford Cathedral.
Now O’Malley has been recognised for his craft, being awarded a master certificate from the Worshipful Company of Plaisterers (sic) in London, a trade guild founded in 1501. He is the first Irish man to receive the award since Michael Stapleton in the 18th century.
“It is virtually impossible to be recognised by the Worshipful Company as a master,” O’Malley said last week. “You need 20 years’ experience over a broad spectrum of practices, which must be judged by your peers, and the fact that I am Irish and Catholic would, at one time, have been a huge barrier,” he said.
The glass is not big enough for daughter and son-in-law of Johnny Ronan
Last year Jodie and John Savage, the daughter and son-in-law of property developer Johnny Ronan, won a tricky planning battle allowing them to develop the Goulding Summerhouse, a floating glass box hanging over the Dargle river in Co Wicklow into a home straight out of the pages of Architectural Digest.
A year on and they’re back to the drawing board. The couple, having decided the original plans were too modest for their needs, have asked Wicklow County Council for permission to enlarge the extension to the protected structure.
They want an additional 26sq m at ground level to squeeze in another double bedroom and a boot room, as well as an additional 69sq m family room and a 30sq m home gym and office, accessed via a lower ground-floor garden terrace, which itself will be extended by 42sq m.
The council may be reassured that the creator of the original Goulding Summerhouse, Scott Tallon Walker, is back on board to design the extension.
NCH’s staff bonus buyout
In 2023, staff at the National Concert Hall (NCH) must have felt like all their Christmases had come at once. The annual report of the NCH for that year shows the board decided not to give the 56 staff a Christmas bonus that year – instead it paid them a “buyout” to compensate them for the loss of the perk into the future at a cost of €276,592, which works out at almost €5,000 each.
The reason for their magnanimity may have been the arrival of an additional 89 staff from National Symphony Orchestra who might also have felt entitled to an annual bonus into the future.
The accounts show that it’s imperative for the NCH to keep costs in check given how expensive it is to run. Take the cost of keeping the pianos in Earlsfort Terrace tuned correctly: some €48,316 in 2023.
