There was much fretting in Government circles when it was announced that Rory Gallagher’s signature Fender Stratocaster guitar would be auctioned by Bonham’s in London last year.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who hosted a civic reception for Gallagher when he was lord mayor of Cork in the early 1990s, said the State would do its best to ensure Gallagher’s axe would not fall into foreign hands.
Denis Desmond’s Live Nation Gaiety Productions duly rocked up and bought the guitar at auction for a little over €1 million, saying it would donate it to the National Museum of Ireland (NMI).
Figures released by the Department of Arts show it was a harmonious deal for everyone involved. The guitar and some other Gallagher memorabilia were gifted to the NMI under a scheme called Section 1003, whereby a donor receives an 80 per cent tax break on the value of the “heritage item” they donate.
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With the Gallagher gift valued at €1,161,483 by the department, the company will benefit from a €929,186 tax break in return for its generosity.
If there’s one bum note for the MCD founder, it’s that the guitar looks like staying in Dublin for the foreseeable future. After purchasing it, Cork native Desmond said he hoped the guitar, which Gallagher bought for IR£100 in 1963 from Crowley’s music store in Cork, would end up Leeside.
Instead, the NMI is planning to use it as the centrepiece of a new exhibition in Collins Barracks in Dublin called Changing Ireland, opening this September. Sadly, visitors won’t get to try a few licks on Gallagher’s Strat.
Michael O’Leary’s down-to-earth side
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary recently said he didn’t want to become the Magnier of Mullingar when asked about his purchase of just over 250 acres of tillage land in Delvin and Collinstown in Co Westmeath last summer.
The airline chief executive has said he owns about 2,000 acres in his native Westmeath, most of it around his Gigginstown estate. He recently added another 58 acres, paying €1.45 million for the privilege – a hefty €25,000 an acre.
A representative of O’Leary bought a residential farm at Crowenstown, near Delvin, at auction just before Christmas, outbidding several other parties. We know because last week Bradley Investments, his property investment vehicle, applied for permission to upgrade and extend a house on the farm.
The high flyer may have made his fortune from running Ryanair but he obviously feels the strong pull of the land.
Rocker seeks to keep gazebo
Last year Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott got tangled up in a bizarre planning row with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council over a treehouse, of all things.
After the council initiated enforcement proceedings against Elliott and his wife, Kristine, for building the “unauthorised” treehouse in the grounds of their Stepaside home in south Co Dublin, the couple eventually received retrospective planning permission for it, with the council ruling that the 7sq m structure could remain as long as it was “used for the purposes of children’s play only” (maybe they had images of Joe rocking out on the branches).
The heavy metal icon is taking nothing for granted with yet another addition to his garden in the foothills of Treerock Mountain. Last week he applied for retention permission for a turreted gazebo measuring about 9sq m which Elliott’s planning consultant has assured the council is “purely ornamental”.
David Duffy banking on Skib expansion
David Duffy, the banker who helped drag AIB out of its government bailout and back to profitability a decade ago, told The Irish Times in an interview in 2023 that he often worked from his west Cork home when he was chief executive of Virgin Money UK, Britain’s sixth-biggest lender.
It looks like he’s set to make his office a bit more comfortable in Roaring Water House, a Victorian pile near Skibberreen he and his wife Carolyn bought for €1.25 million three years ago.
Earlier this month Duffy, who is now chief executive of Clydesdale Bank, applied for planning permission to demolish an outbuilding and build a new 45sq m home office and gym at his west Cork base. A decision is due next month.
He can well afford the construction project. When Virgin Money sold to Nationwide last year, Duffy reportedly trousered about €18 million from shares he owned in the bank.
Marty’s firm makes a tasty profit
We recently reported how Marty Morrissey is the most eager moonlighter in RTÉ, requesting permission from the broadcaster for the most external gigs in the second and third quarters of last year.
Accounts filed last week by Mutton Island Productions, his personal company, show the RTÉ staffer is starting to accrue the benefits of his additional toil.
The company, which was established in 2021, made a profit of €34,866 last year, bringing its retained profits to €77,686.
Divine intervention
Timing is everything. Streaming numbers for the 2024 film Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, spiked 283 per cent last week after the death of Pope Fracis. But the timing of the pontiff’s passing was less serendipitous for Prime Time Investigates.
RTÉ’s investigative strand had an exposé into the wealth and assets of the Christian Brothers in the can and ready to broadcast last Wednesday when fate intervened. RTÉ Investigates: Christian Brothers, The Assets, The Abusers will now be broadcast a week later in peak viewing time, a spokeswoman for RTÉ said, barring any other divine intervention.
Sheddy characters
In the run-up to the last general election in November, lobby groups were elbowing their way to the table for meetings with political party leaders. Who would have thought that among the select few to secure meetings with both Micheál Martin and Tanáiste Simon Harris was the Irish Men’s Sheds Association?
A lobbying register return filed last week showed that during the meetings the registered charity put the squeeze on the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to reinstate a €3,000 grant for each shed that had previously been available.
Could they be a burgeoning political force?
