IS Paul Howard an evil genius who manufactured the siege of Vico Road for his own ends? Howard is the prolific author of the Ross O’Carroll Kelly columns and novels.

The news has been dominated by the possible repossession of a mansion on Vico Road but if you want to see true pain, go into a local court. Sitting through 60 repossession cases in Cork Circuit Court was nothing but tragedy.

Let’s hear the case for the defence, at a time when most of the country is gunning to prosecute. The O’Donnell family at the centre of the siege of Gorse Hill are not the class of people likely to elicit sympathy in these days of austerity and want.

A solicitor turned billion euro property investor is facing eviction from a mansion on one of Ireland’s most exclusive addresses after a judge refused a last minute plea from his family to halt a repossession.

Rita de Brún is impressed by the four star Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, which has been lovingly refurbished recently.

The adult children of solicitor Brian O'Donnell are in the Supreme Court trying to stop Bank of Ireland from taking possession of their luxury home in Killiney in Dublin.

The Commercial Court has today refused to delay an application by Bank of Ireland to jail solicitor Brian O'Donnell and his wife Patricia.

THE stories are mainly to be found in the business pages these days, but the lengths to which some of the formerly rich are going to hang onto their assets while not repaying the money borrowed to purchase those trophies, are extraordinary.

A solicitor and his wife were declared bankrupt in London yesterday just as a bank sought to have them questioned in the Dublin High Court over “alarming” discrepancies in statements about their assets.

SOME might call it bare-faced cheek, but two of Ireland’s most spectacular beaches feature in a US guide to the Top 100 Places to Get Naked.

U2 BAND member David Evans — The Edge — was in the High Court yesterday for the second day of a hearing on his challenge to a Bord Pleanála decision.

ONE of the country’s most successful pharmacists was knocked unconscious and his wife, daughter and a friend locked in the boots of two cars during a violent robbery at the family’s multi-million euro south Dublin home.