Longboat Quay: Pillar of the establishment brought low

Unlike Tom McFeeley, who developed Priory Hall, Bernard McNamara was a pillar of the establishment.

From Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, Mr McNamara served two terms as a Fianna Fáil county councillor and ran unsuccessfully for the Dáil in the 1981 general election, before concentrating on the construction business left him by his father, Michael.

He moved to Dublin in the 1990s as the economy was taking off. By 2000, he was living in what was described as a palatial residence on Aislesbury Rd, which previously housed the Japanese ambassador. Soon after, he bought the property next door and expanded his home.

His political background came in handy as Fianna Fáil strengthened its ties with developers through the early 2000s. Mr McNamara always hosted major functions at Galway race week.

In business, he went from strength to strength. He built in the public and private sector, getting involved in the development and redevelopment of a number of well-known hotels, including the Conrad, The Shelbourne, The Burlington, and Parknasilla in south Kerry.

Just as the property bubble was hitting its peak in 2005 and 2006, he went on something of a spending spree, on his own and in conjunction with others. In 2006, he made his most disasterous investment when he got involved with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to purchase the Irish Glass Bottle site in the docks for over €400m.

That deal ended up in litigation between the parties.

This was around the time that he was also involved with the DDDA in developing Longboat Quay. In retrospect, it can now be seen that, as Longboat was being built, McNamara was attempting to juggle a huge number of projects, all of which left him vulnerable just as the distant rumble of something unpleasant could be detected on the horizon.

The sudden crash left him hugely exposed. He suffered the indignity of the sherriff visiting his Ailesbury Rd pad to confiscate an art collection he had built up during the illusory times of plenty. His Mercedes was also taken to satisfy debts as his creditors rushed for judgments in order to get their spake in before everything was gone.

In the end, he became one of Nama’s biggest debtors, owing around €1.5bn. He owed another €500m to other non-Nama banks.

The years after the crash were filled with court appearances in attempts to deal with his debts. In 2010, the Commercial Court was told that he “is no longer a person of significant worth”.

In 2012, he availed of bankruptcy in the UK, where all of the debts can be worked out in a period of 12 months.

Since the discharge of his bankruptcy in 2013, he was reportedly involved in consultancy work in Nigeria. Last year, he was reported to have been involved in a development on St Stephen’s Green on a site owned by billionaire Denis O’Brien.

Efforts to contact Mr McNamara for this story were unsuccessful. According to sources in the development business, he has kept a very low profile since his discharge from bankruptcy. It is unknown whether he is aware of the extent of the problems at Longboat Quay.