Glen of the Downs Golf Club faces liquidation

The golf club behind one of Wicklow’s finest courses, which was hit hard by falling fees and bar sales during the downturn, is set to go into liquidation this week, as a creditors meeting is called in Dublin on Friday.

However, members of the Glen of the Downs Golf Club, set up in 1995 on 107 acres in Delgany, are seeking to set up a task force to create a new golf club, according to a notice issued by the men's captain and lady captain of the club last week.

The latest set of accounts published with the Companies Registration Office, showed it posted a €157,476 loss for 2013 as subscriptions, green fees and bar and catering sales continued to decrease following the downturn.

At the end of the year, the company had net current liabilities of €2 million, which exceeded total assets by €640,410.

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The accounts, signed off on in March 2016, said the club had not been in a position to fund loan repayments in 2014 and 2015 and that €1.65 million of bank loans were formally placed on demand in October 2015.

The directors, including Michael Doyle, who owns the club land that is separately the subject of receivership and put up for sale last year, said in the report that they believed the club would have enough cash flow in 2017 to form the basis of a debt restructuring. Mr Doyle could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

AIB and Permanent TSB are listed as the club's bankers.

The Sunday Business Post reported that the club's members and preferential shareholders include hotel magnates John and Bernie Gallagher, technology multimillionaire Cyril Maguire, Tom and Donal Roche of the NTR dynasty and Barnardo's chief executive Fergus Finlay.

The note to members, issued by the club’s lady captain Maggie Cunniffe, and captain Fiachra O’Donnell, said that access to the club ended last Monday and that they intend to engage with the liquidator, when appointed.

One of the “aspirations” of a sub-group of members “is the establishment of a new Glen of the Downs Golf Club run by the members”, they wrote. “We realise this may come as a shock to you, but we want to emphasise that this could lead to a very positive outcome for the future of the men’s and ladies’ clubs.”

Conor O’Boyle of O’Boyle & Associates in Galway is the proposed liquidator ahead of the creditors’ meeting in the Clayton Hotel in Leopardstown on Friday.

It is understood that the directors are currently working on a statement of affairs ahead of the meeting, with Mr Doyle himself among the main creditors.