Nick Delehanty 🇮🇪 Profile picture
Lawyer ⚖️ Business Owner 🐶 Make Crime illegal

Apr 29, 13 tweets

Power Behind the Throne 👑

He organised Golfgate ⛳️
He controls votes, candidates & deals 🤝
He's the 2nd most powerful man in Fianna Fáil

He stood alongside Haughey, Reynolds, Bertie, Cowen & now Micheál.

Oh and he gets paid €5million in State Contracts for IPAS...🧵

Donie Cassidy is the Fianna Fáil fixer.

When the party needs money, hotels, venues or canvassers.... Donie PROVIDES. He knows where the bodies are buried.

In the room where decisions are made, he holds court.

Taoisigh come and go.
Donie endures.

Across ~50 years, Cassidy has led the Seanad, been a TD, fixed internal wars & handpicks candidates.

So it's only fitting that he now collects €5mill+ in State contracts....💸

Ironically, his most famous achievement will be Golfgate.. ⛳️

80 politicians and judges broke Covid lockdown rules at a Cassidy-organised dinner.

Two Minister & EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan all forced to resign.

But aul Donie didn't just survive, he thrived...

In 2022 he was re-elected as Vice President of Fianna Fáil.

Not a backbencher. Not retired. No resignation.

He sits on the national executive.
Shaping policy, selecting candidates.

He is "the machine"

In 2021, the Ditch reported that one of Cassidy's companies was granted ~€40k from the Arts Council.

Coincidently also on that list was our best pal Banty McEnany...who got ~€60k !!

Small world eh!? 🤔

So why is NOBODY reporting this: 👇🏻

Donie Cassidy's company "Great Denmark Hospitalty Limited" has been paid ~€5million+ in State Contracts for emergency accommodation!!

How has this not been picked up in the news?? 🤔

Cassidy and his two sons own 100% of Great Denmark Hospitality Limited

Donie Snr controls 100% of the A shares which give him full voting rights and control.

Its ALL him.

The Company was set up in 2021 for the specific purpose of buying the famous Barry Hotel.. (which played a part in the 1916 rising and popular GAA match day watering hole)

Its reported he paid €8m for it.

The most recent accounts tell us that Cassidy pays Dalata hotels €100k a year to manage the place. Yet he charges the States ~€1.5m annually!

It also tells us that he personally loaned €2.3M to the company... this will be repaid tax-free from State-funded contracts.

At current rate of profit, Barry’s Hotel will pay itself off in just 6 years ... all thanks to taxpayer money!

No tourist risk.
No seasonality.
Minimal operational costs.

Just sweet-sweet steady taxpayer profits.

Opinion

Given Donie Cassidy’s deep, decades-long influence inside Fianna Fáil, is it any wonder that policies around emergency accommodation and public contracts won't change anytime soon?

I'm reliably told that he is in and out of ministers offices on a daily basis.

So its reasonable to assume, Fianna Fáil won't be changing this system for another 4 to 6 years .. until Barry’s Hotel is fully paid off !! 😭

Fianna Fáil needs to modernise badly. It is stuck in the cute hoorism of the past. There is no ambitious vision of the future..... its "whats in it for me".

The fish rots from the head.
and in 2025, Fianna Fáil is no different.

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