Businessman Ulick McEvaddy has explained that it was through his son’s school that he became involved in the campaign to have Irish man Richard O’Halloran released from house arrest in Shanghai.
The aviation entrepreneur helped draw up a proposal with the Department of Foreign Affairs to secure the release of Mr O’Halloran, who returned home to his wife Tara and their four children last month after being detained in China.
“He was there almost two years before I knew [of the case]”, Mr McEvaddy told RTÉ radio’s News at One.
Both men’s sons go to the same school and when he became aware of the case Mr McEvaddy telephoned Mr O’Halloran to ask how he could help.
“He said join the board,” said Mr Evaddy, so the aviation entrepreneur did that. “It was all about confidence building with the Chinese. All the heavy lifting was done by Richard himself.”
Mr O’Halloran previously told The Irish Times that while he was thankful for Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney’s help on his case, he believes the Minister was badly advised initially. And he added that a suggestion there was “no smoke without fire” around Mr O’Halloran might have deterred more intensive efforts by the department. He believes this might have cost him a year.
Mr O’Halloran claims that it took Mr McEvaddy – someone known to the Minister – joining the board of his company to encourage Mr Coveney to become more involved.
“It shouldn’t have taken Ulick as a private sector individual to sway the Minister to get involved,” he said.
A source close to Mr Coveney said he was actively involved in Mr O’Halloran’s case long before Mr McEvaddy joined the board.
Mr McEvaddy said the agreement finally concluded with the Chinese had been changed five times, but ultimately “he was delivering the same deal as three years ago. They got nothing more than what they were offered on day one.”
‘Chinese will not be bullied’
There was a lack of understanding on the part of the Chinese that there was a robust corporate law in Ireland that would protect their assets, added Mr McEvaddy.
“The Chinese will not be bullied; we were not going to bully them into letting him go. Richard convinced the judges. I’m glad I was able to help . . . It was a terrible ordeal for him.”
There were lessons to be learned in the future for any dispute resolution for Irish citizens abroad. Mr McEvaddy said he would not go to China for any dispute resolution.
The department did a lot behind the scenes because they could not do it in public, he added.
“Simon Coveney flew out to meet Chinese officials in China on one occasion. There were other interventions,” he said.
Mr McEvaddy said that President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Micheál Martin had written to their counterparts in China.
China was the guilty party on this occasion, not Richard O’Halloran, he said. China had a lesson to learn, that they should trust the corporate laws of other countries to protect their assets.
In response to queries on its handling of the case, a spokeswoman for Mr Coveney’s department said the Government was engaged on, and remained committed to, the matter throughout.
“There was at all stages very extensive engagement on Mr O’Halloran’s case at the most senior political and diplomatic levels – stressing the urgent importance of Mr O’Halloran being allowed to return home as soon as possible,” she said.
“This involved multiple channels – with engagement by the Taoiseach, Minister Simon Coveney and the most senior political levels in Dublin as well as by our most senior diplomats in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere throughout Ireland’s diplomatic network.”