Brian O’Donnell speaks of ‘bullying’ by Bank of Ireland
The retired solicitor said his family were “very resolved” to get justice through the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) even if it took another five years.
“We are very resolved. We know that this could take another five years until we get justice. We are in this for the long haul. We don’t like being bullied, never liked being bullied and our whole family feel that we are just an example of people being bullied,” he said in an interview with Newstalk.
Mr O’Donnell said his extensive property portfolio was valued in the region of €1.5bn with tenants like the British and Swedish governments, but that on Christmas Eve 2010, he received 18 letters from Bank of Ireland “demanding all of the money that we had from Bank of Ireland – which was around €60m – to be repaid within 24 hours. We were unable to do that”.
He said it was accepted money was owed to Bank of Ireland and that “we wanted to pay it back” and “would have if we had been given time”.
Mr O’Donnell also explained that deals he had arranged would have allowed for Bank of Ireland to be repaid the entire amount it was owed, but the offer had been refused by the bank.
He added that he had been refused meetings with Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher on multiple occasions.
Mr O’Donnell said his family was “not looking for sympathy” but said his family were unable to walk away from its battle with Bank of Ireland.
In relation to Gorse Hill, he insisted he did not own the property with his wife and Bank of Ireland had forced his family into going through the courts.
“Vico Ltd owns it. My wife and I do not own the asset and never have. This was put into a trust in 1998 and the beneficiaries of the Trust are the four children. In Vico Ltd, the shareholders are the four children and two of them are the directors... We have been in court very regularly and the impression has been given that it’s by choice. It’s not by choice. We are being forced through this by the Bank of Ireland,” he said.
Mr O’Donnell also said he had recently met a man who had planned to take his own life until he heard Mr O’Donnell and his son Blake speaking about the legal battle on the radio.
“I was walking down the street and this man came up to me and said ‘I was going to shoot myself yesterday and I had a shotgun out’. We came on some programme, my son Blake and I, and he said ‘I saw that, you’re fighting, you’re doing something which is helpful and is fighting back against these banks’. And he put the gun away,” he said.
Mr O’Donnell and his wife Mary Patricia left the Gorse Hill mansion in South Dublin. The couple, who owe the bank over €70m were refused leave by the Supreme Court to appeal a trespass order.
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