As Mrs Robinson, Aoife Kelleher’s documentary on former president Mary Robinson, opens in cinemas this weekend, word reaches us of another presidential feature in the works. Director Alan Gilsenan, who has previously made documentaries about Noël Browne, Liam Clancy, Paul Durcan, Ivor Browne and Sean Scully, has been visiting Áras an Uachtaráin in recent months to record material for a cinematic documentary about Michael D Higgins. The film, provisionally titled MDH, is being produced by O’Sullivan Productions and recently received €15,000 in documentary development funding from Screen Ireland.
Although it might only seem like yesterday when MDH was re-elected for seven years, his final term in office comes to an end in a little over 12 months, so the documentary is timed to coincide with the end of his 14 years as president. Gilsenan said this weekend the documentary will be a portrait of the President’s life, as well as a chronicle of his last days in office.
Eoghan McCabe of Intercom donates to Trump campaign
Wealthy Irish business figures based in the US have been opening their wallets in recent months to support the Democrats’ bid to retain the presidency. Patrick Collison of Stripe has donated almost $40,000 (€36,000) in the last year to the Democratic war chest, including $6,600 in recent weeks to the party’s presidential nominee Kamala Harris. In contrast, Eoghan McCabe of Intercom has donated more than $50,000 to Donald Trump and the Republican Party, according to filings. McCabe, who recently appeared in a photograph with Trump after meeting him at a fundraising dinner for tech bros in San Francisco, said afterwards he favours Trump’s policies on “war, immigration and crypto” over those of the Democrats.
Property developer Garrett Kelleher, more used to working with concrete than code, seems to have backed the wrong horse, though. The Chicago-based businessman donated $3,300 to Robert F Kennedy jnr’s campaign last year. Unfortunately for Kelleher, his money seems to have gone to waste with Kennedy jnr’s rambling tale about dumping a dead bear in Central Park a decade ago all but ending his unlikely tilt at the Oval Office.
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Landlord Shane Byrne wins thorny dispute at RTB
Mulleted former rugby player Shane Byrne didn’t get to see his daughter, Kerry, win the Rose of Tralee last week. But he did win a ruling at the Residential Tenancies Board in a thorny case involving a property he owns in Dún Laoghaire. Byrne, who lives in his native Arklow, Co Wicklow, turned to the board after tenants of a property he owns in Glandore Park challenged a November 2022 notice to quit. Byrne gave his tenants six months to leave the property, telling them he wanted to sell up. When they still hadn’t moved out in August 2023, he went to the board.
Although the board initially ruled in Byrne’s favour, the tenants appealed, claiming a number of technical errors in the notice to quit, including a discrepancy between the date it was signed by Byrne and the date they received it. The board has now ruled again in Byrne’s favour, ordering the tenants to vacate the house within 42 days and to continue paying rent of €2,700 per month in the meantime.
Adam Clayton seeks permission for gardener home on his land
There may be some respite from sky-high rental prices and crippling mortgages for one green-fingered resident of south Dublin. Adam Clayton, the U2 bassist, has sought planning permission for new accommodation for the head gardener at Danesmoate House, his Georgian estate on the banks of the Little Dargle in Rathfarnham. The 110sq m accommodation will consist of an L-shaped single-storey building in contemporary style with a zinc roof wrapped around a small private courtyard. “Historic elements” will also be incorporated to match the character of Clayton’s walled garden.
Gardening truly is the new rock‘n’roll.
Neighbours line up against Jack’s Hole expansion plans
There’s trouble in paradise at Jack’s Hole beach resort in Brittas, Co Wicklow. The seafront mobile home development made headlines two years ago when a unit came on the market for €495,000 and sold for close to its asking price. But plans to extend the resort by adding a further eight mobile homes, a five-a-side football pitch, two pickleball courts and a padel court haven’t been universally welcomed by neighbours. One neighbour, who has lodged an objection with Wicklow County Council over the plans, notes in her submission that legal proceedings have begun between the mobile park’s owners and local residents over an alleged right of way through the resort to the beach.
At least there’s no shortage of lawyers with weekend getaways in the resort to defend the proceedings.
Killiney Golf Club in the rough over right of way
A similar right-of-way dispute has broken out at Killiney Golf Club. PJ Drudy, an economics professor at Trinity College Dublin and chairman of the Roscahill Residents’ Association, has complained to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council that the golf club has erected two fences, one stretching to 12m and the other 10m, blocking two established rights of way beside the course.
Drudy, who is seeking a declaration from the council that the fences require planning permission, claims locals use the route to access Killiney shopping centre. And woe betide anyone who gets in the way of a Killiney resident and their nearest SuperValu.
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