Cork builder O’Brien and O’Flynn makes legal history

Liam Clifford, engineer, with Dan and Denis O'Flynn on the Sarsfield Rd site set for development by O'Brien and O'Flynn. Picture: Larry Cummins

One of Cork’s best-known home builders has made legal history by becoming the first Irish firm that had been put into Nama to come out of both receivership and liquidation processes.

Brothers Denis and Dan O’Flynn of O’Brien and O’Flynn, who have been responsible for the construction of 4,000 homes over 40 years, are now back in business with ambitious plans for more house building across the county.

The firm has already set down plans for the construction of new homes in Sarsfield Rd, Cork, and Harbour Heights in Passage West.

It also has further sites in Grange, Ovens, Killumney, and Glenbrook that it plans to develop.

The brothers are part of the O’Flynn construction family, with their brothers Michael O’Flynn and John O’Flynn founding the separate O’Flynn Group in 1978. 

O’Brien and O’Flynn also includes O'Flynn sibling Joan, who has long been considered one of the vital components of its history of home building.

O’Brien and O’Flynn was rocked when it was put into Nama in 2010, despite its vehement opposition to the move, insisting that its business model was viable and could withstand the pressures of the financial climate caused by the 2008 crash.

Nama-associated company Nalm petitioned the High Court in July 2014 to appoint a provisional liquidator to O’Brien and O’Flynn, which it alleged was €71m in debt with less than half that in assets. 

The brothers staunchly disputed those figures, arguing that the assets were worth far more.

Despite its attempts to show the court that the debts were not insurmountable and that it had a sound basis to trade its way out of debt with plans for further homebuilding, the firm could not avoid the receivership and liquidation order.

The brothers always harboured the ambition to regain control of the firm and, in 2019, had put in place a plan to get it back after their research revealed that it was solvent again, as they had predicted it would be.

On August 10 this year, a “permanent stay on liquidation” was ordered by Mr Justice Michael Quinn at the High Court, meaning the brothers had their firm back after six years.

Since 1976, O’Brien and O’Flynn has built large housing schemes as well as warehouses, a hotel and bar at Doughcloyne, as well as the Brookfield Holiday and Student Village with swimming pool near University College Cork.

The Harbour Heights project in Passage West has planning for 200 homes, with the first phase seeing 27 built, while the Sarsfield Rd site has planning for 65.

“It has been a long road back but O’Brien and O’Flynn is delighted to be part of Cork’s resurgence as a region," said a spokesperson. 

"We are looking forward to doing what we did best, building quality homes for people in Cork in the coming years.”