Bankrupt Sean Dunne travels 2,500km for rugby match

Houston, we haven’t a problem.

That seemed to be the message from Sean Dunne as he left his bankruptcy woes behind him to enjoy the Irish rugby team’s outing against the US in the weekend’s test match in Houston, Texas.

The broke developer, whom a court heard last month had just $976 (€738) to his name in the US, somehow managed to make it stretch the 2,600km journey from his adopted home in Connecticut to the BBVA Compass Stadium to see the visitors clinch victory in the searing Texan summer.

Dunne looked a cool customer despite the temperatures, but then he’s getting used to feeling the heat as creditors owed a total of €700m clamour for whatever assets remain from his collapsed property empire.

Just last week, a court in Connecticut, where he had applied for bankruptcy earlier this year, declared he could also be made bankrupt in Ireland, where one of his biggest creditors, Ulster Bank, is seeking to have him face the music under a tougher regime than the US offers.

But the Carlow-born one-time billionaire didn’t appear to be letting that tiresome business interfere with a passion that equals his penchant for grandiose developments.

During last month’s court hearing in the US, it was stated that his personal assets included multi-annual seasonal tickets for the Aviva Stadium, Twickenham, and the Millennium Stadium worth €35,400.

The Compass may not be quite in that league but, given his current troubles, the fact that the stadium is sponsored by another financial institution, the BBVA bank, must have been priceless to him.