Born May 2nd, 1947
Died July 31st, 2023
Property developer and businessman Jim Kennedy, who has died aged 76, was a man of contradictions. He was a larger-than-life, flamboyant character who studiously avoided publicity. He had dyslexia and left school at 11, but associates described him as someone who could read maps and land folios better than most. He became a controversial public figure when he refused to co-operate with the planning tribunal, which was set up to investigate allegations of corrupt payments to politicians and officials in connection with land rezoning.
Jim Kennedy was the youngest of four children born to Sheila and Patrick Kennedy in Abbeyleix, Co Laois. His father had worked in the steel mines in Connecticut and returned home to open a butcher shop on Abbeyleix’s main street with his brother.
Jim’s severe dyslexia meant that school was an ordeal, and he spoke about the harsh treatment he received from the Christian Brothers. When he was 11, his father died, aged 55, from an asthmatic condition that had been exacerbated by working in the mines. He left school to work in the butcher shop and help his mother manage the family farm. He often said his experiences of cattle and horse trading in fairs and marts around Ireland had given him all the education he needed.
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Kennedy inherited the 120-acre family farm on the edge of Abbeyleix. Laois County Council placed a compulsory purchase order on the land when he was in his early 20s, and this gave him the financial freedom to seek his fortune in Dublin. He got an auctioneer’s licence, bought The Laurels pub in Clondalkin, and bought a building on Westmoreland Street that became the Amusement City arcade. It is still run by his family today.
He turned to construction with the company Lismore Homes Limited, which built Weston Park in Lucan. The following years would see him buying, selling and taking options on sites all around Dublin. He could often be spotted having lunch in the Saddle Room in the Shelbourne Hotel, a popular haunt for developers and builders. He had investments and properties across Europe, and the planning tribunal heard that he moved abroad in 1989 for tax reasons.
While he was well known in property circles, he did not come to public attention until the planning tribunal investigated his involvement in the purchase and rezoning of farmland in Carrickmines, south Dublin. Former lobbyist Frank Dunlop alleged he was paid £25,000 in cash by Jim Kennedy for the express purpose of bribing councillors to support the rezoning of the land. The tribunal first contacted Kennedy through his Dublin-based solicitors in 2000, asking if he had any beneficial interest in the lands, or in the property company Jackson Way, or other companies associated with the land. Through his solicitors he denied any interest in the land or in any company associated with them.
The Circuit Criminal Court heard he “emphatically denied” giving Frank Dunlop £25,000 to bribe councillors and that he told gardaí he could have bought a small house for that sum
When the tribunal sought more information in 2002, his Gibraltar-based solicitors told the tribunal that he lived in Gibraltar, had renounced his Irish citizenship and was refusing “with regret” to co-operate with the request for information. His refusal to attend the tribunal generated much media interest and led to televised attempts to doorstep him in Dublin and in the Isle of Man, where he also had a house.
His wife, Antoinette, appeared before the tribunal in 2002 and said she believed that, if the tribunal was fair in its findings and based them on facts put before it “and not the media circus and the slanderous media campaign that has been conducted, that my husband would be fully vindicated of all the malicious allegations that have been made”. She complained of a “savage campaign” by the media that had irreparably damaged her husband’s reputation. However, in its final report in 2013, the tribunal accepted Frank Dunlop’s testimony that Jim Kennedy was aware money would have to be paid to councillors as part of any rezoning campaign to secure political support for rezoning and accepted Dunlop’s evidence that £25,000 was handed over in the manner outlined by him and for the purposes stated by him.
Ultimately, Jim Kennedy’s refusal to attend the tribunal and state his case meant his voice was never heard on these allegations. However, he did return to give evidence in another forum, when the Criminal Assets Bureau instigated High Court proceedings against Jackson Way Properties Ltd, alleging the company was unjustly enriched as a result of the rezoning of the Carrickmines land.
When he returned to Ireland to contest this in 2010, he was arrested on corruption-related charges. He pleaded not guilty, and the Circuit Criminal Court heard he “emphatically denied” giving Frank Dunlop £25,000 to bribe councillors and that he told gardaí he could have bought a small house for that sum. The court also heard he told gardaí: “If someone offered to do something for bribes for me, I’d go to the police.” The trial collapsed in 2013 when Frank Dunlop became too ill to give evidence. The Cab case against Jackson Way Properties was withdrawn the following year.
He was never plagued with self-doubt, and he never looked back if something didn’t work out. He had no time for regrets
If the corruption controversies put Jim Kennedy under enormous pressure, he never showed it, according to people close to him. “It just didn’t seem to stress him,” one acquaintance said. “He was very much in control, never lost the plot no matter how much pressure he was under. If he thought he was in the right, then he would just keep going until he got there. He had the attitude that he would never be bested. He had huge belief in himself.”
One friend described him as “sharp as a tack” and said he could assess a business opportunity very quickly and act decisively. “He was never plagued with self-doubt, and he never looked back if something didn’t work out. He had no time for regrets. He was not a man to roll over and was well able to stay the course if he felt he was in the right.”
He knew his way around the courts better than most and never shied from litigation. His tenacity was evident in a lengthy action between Lismore Homes/Lismore Builders and Bank of Ireland Finance Ltd and Deloitte, Haskins and Sells (DHS) that wound its way around the courts for well over two decades. Ruling in his favour when the case reached the Supreme Court at one stage, Mr Justice John MacMenamin described the various court actions as “byzantine”.
Those close to him described him as “a warm-hearted, flamboyant, magnetic personality who adored his family and enjoyed the simple pleasures in life”
Although he had homes in several countries, he was proud of his roots in Abbeyleix and was described by one person close to him as a country boy at heart. In fact, he returned to farming in his later years, buying a 176-acre beef farm in Kill, Co Kildare. He checked up on its progress on his visits home, when he stayed at his apartment at Dublin’s Intercontinental Hotel.
Jim Kennedy was married twice, first to Mary Dunne, from Co Kilkenny with whom he had four children. After her death in a car crash, he married Antoinette Carey, whom he met through friends at The Laurels, and they had six more children. He was determined that his children receive the education denied to him and was pleased that some of them obtained law degrees, after his advice that most issues in business could only be dealt with through the law.
Those close to him described him as “a warm-hearted, flamboyant, magnetic personality who adored his family and enjoyed the simple pleasures in life like grass-fed beef, country music and a cold pint of Guinness”.
His death in London followed a short illness.
Jim Kennedy is survived by his wife, Antoinette; children Danny, James, Patrick, Anne, John, Joe, Katie, Alana, Erin and Michael; his brother Richard, and extended family.