Niall Quinn is star turn at property managers lunch

Former Republic of Ireland soccer legend Niall Quinn was the star turn at the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland's Property and Facility Managers annual lunch on Friday last. It was the first outing for the freshly minted group following the merger of the IPFMA with the SCSI in July last year.

The perennially youthful Quinn gave a suitably upbeat address to the assembled audience of more than 250 property professionals at the Doubletree by Hilton (yes, the Burlo) in Dublin 4.

Ireland was on the way back and so was property, said Quinn, who apart from a very successful professional career with Arsenal, Manchester City, Sunderland and of course the Republic of Ireland is no stranger to the highs and lows of the property market.

Quinn spoke about the characters he met during his football career and recounted fondly how he and a handful of other mainly Irish businessmen formed the Drumaville consortium and successfully took over Sunderland football club in 2006.

That consortium had an interesting line up, including several property developers and publicans , and when Roy Keane was added to the mix as manager it ensured exciting if turbulent times would follow.

But no one asked Quinn – publicly at least – about his relations, past or present with Keane. Very polite bunch, those property managers.