Lawlor pulls no punches in Deadman’s Inn

THE theory of six degrees of separation states that any two people in the world can be linked through only six moves of mutual connection.

For Tom Gilmartin, it happened in only three. This, in his words, is how it happened.

By mid-1988, Gilmartin's dream of building a shopping centre on Bachelors Walk in Dublin city centre was "turning to sand". At this stage, he was looking for new opportunities in west Dublin. After a bit of looking around, he plumped for a site at Quarryvale (now Liffey Valley). On a visit to his bank manager in Blanchardstown, he asked him if he know any landowners there.