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Irish event organiser promoted FGM conference using names of Branson, O’Brien and Obama’s sister without their permission

Participants paid thousands of euro to attend female genital mutilation conference hosted by organiser Sean Collins-McCarthy in belief they would meet high-profile donors

Illustration: Paul Scott
Sean Collins-McCarthy did not have the permission of Richard Branson, Auma Obama and Denis O'Brien to use their names in promotional material for an event he held in Dublin and Kilkenny in February. Illustration: Paul Scott

An Irish event organiser used the names of high-profile figures including Richard Branson, Denis O’Brien and Barack Obama’s sister Auma to promote a female genital mutilation conference in Dublin without their permission or knowledge, an investigation by The Irish Times has found.

FGM activists and academics attended the Cycle of Life Global Forum, organised by Sean Collins-McCarthy in Dublin and Kilkenny in early February, on the understanding they would meet renowned international donors who could help their charities and foundations, but the donors never attended.

Some participants paid thousands of euro to attend.

The high-profile business figures and philanthropists used to promote the event have said they had no involvement in the conference and have no relationship with Mr Collins-McCarthy (43).

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Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the deliberate cutting or removal of a female’s external genitalia. The reasons most cited for it are religious, social acceptance, misconceptions about hygiene, a means of preserving a woman’s virginity or making a woman “marriageable”. In some cultures it is regarded as a rite of passage to adulthood and a prerequisite to marriage.

Conference attendees say fewer than 30 people, most of whom were fellow anti-FGM campaigners, attended and the expected influential and wealthy donors did not appear.

Well-known figures listed in the FGM event’s brochure of 41 “expected” speakers and special guests at the 2024 or 2025 events denied having any involvement in either in response to queries from The Irish Times.

Representatives for Mr Branson said he did not agree to be a speaker at the 2024 or 2025 events and had “no connection” to Mr Collins-McCarthy. Representatives of Mr O’Brien said he had “no involvement with Mr Collins-McCarthy”.

Auma Obama said that “at no time did I agree to attend a conference of his and am not even aware of these conferences. What he is doing is wrong.”

Responding to queries from The Irish Times, Mr Collins-McCarthy said that, shortly before the forum started, delegates received an “updated itinerary and confirmed list of guest speakers” that did not include Mr Branson, Mr O’Brien and Dr Obama, though he maintained they did feature at the forum through “film screenings, lectures, panel discussions or photography exhibitions”.

Many of the conference events were interviews with attendees conducted by Mr Collins-McCarthy, or panel discussions moderated by him, as well as screenings of short films or trailers for films he made.

Some delegates paid almost €6,000 to attend, excluding flights, and have since been unable to contact Mr Collins-McCarthy or to obtain receipts needed for their institutions and charities.

Mr Collins-McCarthy told The Irish Times that “high AB socioeconomic delegates” had been charged on the basis of their “selected tailored offerings” and that at no time did any delegate request a refund, partial or whole, which “indicates that they were satisfied with their respective packages”.

The Irish event organiser, whose most recent address on company records is listed in Monasterboice in Co Louth, first came to prominence in 2002 with a women’s tennis event and fashion show called Trilogy at the RDS in Dublin attended by tennis stars including Serena and Venus Williams, Anna Kournikova and Monica Seles. A third part of the event, a concert, did not proceed as planned.

The event was to be an annual production, but the following year Collins-McCarthy Promotions, the company behind Trilogy, went into liquidation, leaving €3.6 million in debts.

Participants at his FGM conference in February 2024 said Mr Collins-McCarthy told them the event would receive media coverage and that Irish politicians would attend, which the participants hoped would boost the profile of their charities.

Neither media nor politicians attended the forum, which was held in Buswells Hotel, Dublin and later moved to Butler House, a hotel in Kilkenny.

Several participants said they lost money and had tax difficulties caused by not receiving invoices from the event.

They expressed deep concern that others could be lured into attending similar events in future. Mr Collins-McCarthy had said he intended to hold his event again in 2025.

Who is Sean Collins-McCarthy?

The name Sean Collins-McCarthy will probably mean nothing to most Irish people, but those with long memories might recall another event he created more than 20 years ago.

Trilogy, advertised as “The Greatest Show on Earth”, was to be a three-part women’s tennis, fashion and concert event held in the RDS in Dublin December 2002. The charity Chernobyl Children’s Project was to benefit, if the event turned a profit.

Tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati did attend, competing for the Collins Cup, and the fashion show also went ahead, but the promised “class A musical act” was never secured.

Three months later Collins-McCarthy Promotions went into liquidation owing more than €3.6 million to creditors of Trilogy, many of which were small Dublin-based small businesses providing chauffeur or security services. Creditors sought to have Collins-McCarthy disqualified as a company director, but this was refused by the High Court in 2005.

Little is known in Ireland of Collins-McCarthy’s activities since. However, a profile on networking site LinkedIn and a 3,000-word biography on his own website Horizon Initiatives fills in some of the blanks, to a certain degree.

He describes himself as an “international entrepreneur, social innovator & filmmaker with over two-decades of professional experience serving at the highest level across a number of industries: sports, media, tourism, hospitality, marketing, education, private equity, impact investing and venture philanthropy”.

His “social enterprise & innovation efforts have been compared to Sir Bob Geldof and Sir Richard Branson”, he claimed. The comparisons were made, he says, “by editors and journalists and industry and non-profit leaders”, although no specific sources for these tributes are cited.

As a film-maker, he says, he has profiled “the philanthropic, humanitarian and/or conservation efforts” of Branson, Denis O’Brien, Bill Gates, Chuck Feeney, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton among many others.

In the mid-2000s, he says, he relocated to the US and in 2006 set up Horizon Group “focused on sports, marketing, media, tourism & venture philanthropy”.

In 2009, he says, he founded a US private equity firm, THG, serving as its “senior managing director” until May 2013. It has not been possible to establish the activities of this entity. In February 2014 he set up Michael Collins Foundation Initiatives, the purpose of which is unclear.

In 2016 he put his name into action with Col Media, and then, in 2017, with the Col Alliance, which offers global advisory services, and the Lins Institute, which he says provides research, training and education, including “on-campus modules”, and in 2019 established the Cycle of Life or Col Global Forum.

In addition to serving as the managing director of Col Alliance, he is head of marketing and media of Col Marketing & Media Unit, chief strategy officer of Col Strategic & Innovation unit, head of partnerships and alliances of Col-Lins Network/Horizon Initiatives, chief operating officer of Col ourism & Hospitality Unit, and senior producer and director of the Col Media for Development Team, his website states.

None of these Col or Lins entities are companies incorporated in Ireland. Only ColHQ International Holdings Limited, the company to which attendees at Collins-McCarthy’s conference on female genital mutilation paid their money, is an Irish-registered company.

In response to queries from The Irish Times, Collins-McCarthy said he and his family “have invested a significant amount of resources over many years” in social enterprise initiatives.

He said these initiatives “continue to strive to generate awareness and support for humanitarian, health, education and sustainable development projects/initiatives combating FGM/C, CEFM (child, early and forced marriage), fistula, gender-based violence, child/forced labour, human trafficking, etc.”

Olivia Kelly

Olivia Kelly

Olivia Kelly is Dublin Editor of The Irish Times