What did Gerry Adams say to David Trimble when they stood in neighbouring urinals in Stormont at a critical stage of the Good Friday Agreement talks back in 1998? Their joint comfort break has gone down in legend but a wee difference has emerged in various accounts over what was said as the pair relieved themselves.
In an interview with The Irish Times last year, Adams rejected as apocryphal the suggestion that he followed the then Ulster Unionist Party leader into the men’s toilets deliberately to have a quiet word. “Famously, I said to David Trimble, ‘How are you doing, David?’ and he said, ‘Grow up,’ as we stood shoulder to shoulder.”
But in Owen McCafferty’s The Agreement, running at The Gate theatre in Dublin, which got a five-star rave from The Irish Times, the exchange has the Adams character saying: “So, this is where the big lads go,” when he bumps into Trimble, to which the late UUP leader responds: “Grow up.”
So what did they actually say as they held the fate of Northern Ireland in their hands? Asked about it at a Q&A on stage after the performance, Adams corrected the record, saying his ice breaker was: “We have to stop meeting like this,” to which Trimble replied: “Grow up.”
Of course, we’ll have to take Adams’s word for it, as Trimble died two years ago. And unlike his bathroom buddy, there were never any leaks from him.
Saoirse Ronan – aiming too high, thinking too big
Saoirse Ronan has been a chameleon-like actress since emerging as a child star in the 2007 film Atonement. Whether she’s playing a teenage assassin or a homesick Irish emigrant, she slots seamlessly into each role. Her plans for a new home in west Cork, though, have been deemed too obtrusive by local planners, who say plans submitted by the actress jar with the local landscape.
Ronan, who recently married Slow Horses actor Jack Lowden, told planners earlier this year that she planned to make Foilnamuck, near Ballydehob, in west Cork, her permanent home. She bought a house in the townland for €650,000 in 2020 and applied for planning permission earlier this year to demolish it and replace it with a larger home extending to 332sq m.
Ronan’s planning consultant argued the existing “uninsulated” house was in poor condition, with cracks, leaks and “woodworm”, adding that it didn’t meet fire safety regulations. But Cork County Council has refused permission for an eco-friendly, contemporary-style replacement dwelling.
Council planners said the existing house integrates well into the rural, coastal landscape, whereas the replacement house was to be built at a higher level on the site which would have “seriously detracted from the visual amenities of the area” due to its “siting, scale, design and mass”. Back to the drawing board.
More turmoil at Dún Laoghaire law firm
The turmoil continues at south Dublin law firm Thomas Montgomery & Sons, which was forced to stop practising last year after a €1.7 million hole in its client account was discovered. Last week Revenue issued two judgments against the Dún Laoghaire firm, one for €86,707 and another for €606,552. Neither have been satisfied to date.
The managing partner of the firm, David Montgomery, drowned in Dún Laoghaire harbour in October 2022. At the time he was under investigation by the Law Society. The firm was established by David Montgomery’s father, William, who is named in the two judgments issued by Revenue.
Last month the High Court heard claims that a pension fund operated on behalf of Foxrock-based businessman Connie Kelleher by David Montgomery is owed another considerable sum from the late solicitor’s estate. Montgomery allegedly operated a scheme loaning out money from Connie Kelleher’s pension scheme to borrowers, who paid interest on the loans, helping to top up the pension but there is now a €618,834 hole in the client account.
Multimillionaire’s Napoleonic building plans take a battering
Tipperary’s Louis Ronan snr, a multimillionaire who made his fortune from BSE testing kits, splurged €3 million last year on The Battery in Sandycove, south Dublin, a landmark military structure built in the 1800s as part of Ireland’s defences against a Napoleonic invasion. But securing planning permission on the site of the protected structure, on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Forty Foot, could prove more difficult than conquering Russia.
Ronan snr submitted plans to add a contemporary-style extension to the granite coastal defences over the summer but his plans, which were opposed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, have now been blown out of the water by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
The council ruled that the proposals were not appropriate at a protected structure, which is also designated as a historic monument. It ruled Ronan’s proposed home would negatively impact on the area’s military heritage and would be contrary to various provisions of the county development plan.
‘Keep the noise up’
It’s common for people to object to a neighbouring development because of all the noise it will cause. You don’t see people objecting to apartments as much because it could affect how loud they can play their music. But on Grafton Street, the buskers are rebelling. A group of them, including Andrew Glover and Andrew Kavanagh of pop band Keywest, who started out plying their trade on Grafton Street, are objecting to plans for four new luxury apartments on the upper floors of numbers 4-5 Grafton Street, bought last year for €16 million by Brian McKiernan, the former Davy stockbrokers chief executive, and David Goddard, who runs Davy’s real estate arm.
Glover points out in his objection that buskers and residents frequently clash in Temple Bar over noise. He fears the same will happen on Grafton Street, which he says is “most famous worldwide for its street musicians”. He says the “charm and culture” of street musicians attract thousands of tourists every year to Ireland but they will be left with nowhere to perform if streets like Grafton Street turn residential.
Kavanagh echoes his points, saying Gavin James, Dermot Kennedy and U2 have given the street a reputation worldwide for busking. Anyone for a cover of Where the Streets have no Buskers?
Sabina Higgins takes on a woolly role
A press release caught our eye last week announcing that Sabina Higgins, the wife of President Michael D Higgins, had become the patron of an organisation called Wool in School. Apparently the first lady will be encouraging children to get knitting and appreciate wool as “a natural, renewable resource”.
If Higgins, an actress and activist, is wondering what to encourage children to crochet, she can look to her peculiarly knittable husband for inspiration. After all, he has already spawned a collection of Michael D dolls, as well as a popular range of Michael “Tea” cosies.
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