Thomond Park tickets go under the hammer in sad ending

Last year Wilsons Auctions was hired by the receivers of Roadbridge Ltd to sell off the assets of the Limerick-based construction company. Up to now it has been mundane stuff – heavy machinery and garage equipment – but a far more intriguing lot goes under the hammer on Friday: 24 season tickets for the East Stand in Thomond Park, home of Munster Rugby.

Valid until the end of the 2028/29 season, the tickets are being sold individually by way of an online auction, with no reserve prices. The bidding opens on Friday at 2pm, and will end on Monday afternoon. Four of the seats are beside each other on Row Z, and there’s another four in a row on Row EE.

While the online auction is an opportunity for rugby fans to grab a bargain, it’s a sad end for what was one of the country’s biggest civil engineering and construction firms. Established in 1967 by businessman Pat Mulcair, Roadbridge employed 630 people in Ireland, Britain and Sweden before going into receivership in March 2022. At the time the firm owed about €35 million to Bank of Ireland, and had trade liabilities of at least the same amount to subcontractors and suppliers.

Be more like Ailesbury Road

With the newspapers full of stories about neighbours fighting over trees and rights-of-way, it is heartening to discover the residents of leafy Ailesbury Road in South Dublin take a more civilised approach. Jamie Rohan, who now runs the property company founded by his father Ken, has applied for planning permission to extend his recently purchased €5 million residence on the road. Far from objecting, next-door-neighbour Ken Mintern has written to Dublin City Council to offer wholehearted support.

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After carefully reviewing the development proposal, the corporate financier said he was confident it would have no adverse effect on his property or its surrounds. In fact, Rohan’s plans would enhance the area, Mintern enthused. “I find the scale to be appropriate, and believe the design to be in harmony with the surrounding area,” he said. “I am pleased to note that the applicant has engaged with me throughout the design stage and taken concerns into consideration.” Why can’t everywhere be more like Ailesbury Road?

Over the wall at Lansdowne Place, the luxury development of apartments on the site of the former Berkeley Court hotel where Roy Keane and Rod Stewart have already purchased, we note the latest buyers include Frederick and Aileen Maguire, owner of Massey Funeral Homes.

Disappearance at the RDS

With the Dublin Horse Show less than two weeks away, the chief executive of the RDS has mysteriously disappeared. According to her LinkedIn and Twitter, Geraldine Ruane is still chief executive, but she no longer features on the Executive Team page of the RDS’s website, which lists three deputy chief executives and an interim commercial director. A message to her RDS email address bounces back while a message sent to her via LinkedIn was not returned. Asked to clarify what is going on, the RDS press officer replies “no comment” to all our queries.

Ruane, a former COO at Trinity College Dublin, took up the role in February 2021. Only last month, when she was still at the helm, the RDS lodged a planning application to build a new Anglesea Stand at its arena, one capable of accommodating 6,775 people on three levels, as part of a €50 million project due to start in August 2024. Exactly two weeks ago, Ruane appeared alongside Charlie McConalogue, the agriculture minister, at the promotion of the RDS’s flagship event, saying: “Looking forward to seeing you at the Dublin Horse Show.” Seems like we may not be seeing her there as CEO, however.

Denis and Rory go golfing

While Rory McIlroy won the Scottish Open a couple of weeks back, he was less successful in the Pro-Am competition beforehand, where he was partnered by businessman Denis O’Brien. We’ve had a peek at the scorecards, which show the two Irishmen were on a team with Euisun Chung, chairman of the Hyundai Motor Group, and KC Crain, chief executive of Crain Communications. They carded a 63, four behind the leaders, and only good enough for a share of 7th place.

Donegal distillery’s celebrity lure

“One celebrity per alcohol brand is quite normal these days,” says Laura Bonner, founder and chief executive of The Muff Liquor Company. “I don’t think there’s another alcohol brand in the world that has four, let alone two mega stars.” With financial support from those celebrities – Russell Crowe, Ed Sheeran, Ronan Keating and Jimmy Carr – the Donegal company has now applied for planning permission to develop a mini-distillery, visitors’ centre, shop and office on the main street of Muff. A decision is due in September.

Having all that celebrity support does mean “more eyes” on her company, Bonner admits, and there is “definitely more pressure” to make sure the business is successful. “But when I was originally looking for funding, I didn’t even know if the business was going to survive, as the pandemic was so difficult. Then Russell Crowe came along,” she recalls. “The first year of their investment is about getting more bottles produced and into more markets. Next year, when we promote the distillery, hopefully all the investors will be there.”

While The Muff Liquor Company has launched in Australia, and is planning a sales drive in Asia, Bonner says the €750,000 put in by the celebrities via MLM Distillery Investments is sufficient for now. “When we look to enter the United States, we will most likely have to look at it again.”

In the meantime she has to cope with all the attention. “I understand why people ask why on earth would Russell Crowe and Ed Sheeran be interested in this brand named after a tiny village at the top of Donegal, but thank God they are. They are great supporters and we are delighted to have them.”

Hanging Tough no more

Hang Tough Contemporary, the only new art gallery to have opened in Dublin city centre in the last decade, has closed and is appointing Tom Murray of Friel Stafford as liquidator. The gallery on Exchequer Street was run by Michael Hennigan, known by his college nickname “Rubio”, who had breathed new life into the Dublin art scene and built up a dynamic young artistic community.

“We never quite bounced back after Covid,” he said. “As our framing business and gallery were linked, once one card fell the entire house came down. It is quite devastating, as I think with a bit more time the gallery could have survived.”

Rubio was one of the founders of the Contemporary Art Gallery Association, set up last year to raise the profile of the sector. It asked for some modest state support, such as a cut in the 23 per cent VAT paid by galleries, and a reduction in rates valuation in recognition of the cultural contribution they make to Dublin city centre.

Any such moves will be too late for Hang Tough, but Rubio says he is still passionate about being a gallerist and working with artists, and is going to take some time out to “see if the art sector can support any new sustainable ideas or approaches”.

RTÉ and state agencies

Apart from the TV licence, ad revenue, and the odd bailout from the government, RTÉ benefits from another lucrative stream of cash: the support of state agencies. Up to this year, for example, the Department of Health paid about €280,000 annually towards Operation Transformation, while Bord Bia has been spending six-figure sums on series such as Home Grown and Neven’s Greenway Food Trails.

As listeners and viewers will know from the sheer volume of road safety ads on RTÉ radio and television, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is also a big spender on the national station. But, in more bad news for Montrose, the percentage of the RSA’s advertising budget being spent in RTÉ is steadily declining. In 2020, of its total media spend of €2.5 million, over €750,000 of it went to RTÉ, the authority tells me. Last year, RTÉ got €920,000 out of a total spend of €4.3 million.

So far in 2023, the RSA says it has spent almost €1.2 million on ads, and only €168,500 of that has gone to RTÉ. “The RSA’s media-buying strategy has been adapted over the last 10 years to take account of changing media consumption among target audiences and increased digital consumption,” the agency said. “[Our] spends are aligned to those changes.”