RTÉ to broadcast feature-length documentary on the life of Denis O'Brien

_Kaiser_

I'm not sure what the motivation/aim is behind this piece?

Zebra3

sdanseo wrote: »

Gospel according to Denis so far. How surprising.

Worth saying I'm not all against the man, if some of his capitalism had rubbed off in better areas we could have benefited hugely. Public services in this country for example would be unrecognisable if they had a business logic applied to them.

Oh look, a wild Lowry appears.

He became wealthy by bribing a government minister.

And you're not all against him?

WoollyRedHat

Joking about bribing Lowry ah begorah

Wheeliebin30

I’m not watching it but go on is it a glowing report of him like people were saying seems he owns RTE and the government?

Brae100

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

I’m not watching it but go on is it a glowing report of him like people were saying seems he owns RTE and the government?

It is fairly positive so far, but IME he was great to work for back then.

sdanseo

Zebra3 wrote: »

He became wealthy by bribing a government minister.

And you're not all against him?

Doesn't mean his opinion that public services didn't function efficiently wasn't true.

Pity about the rest.

Brae100

Now Barry Maloney - I've had dodgy experiences there. Shark.

SEPT 23 1989

A meeting in a Dublin pub

No talk about the licence

Of course there wasn't

SEPT 23 1989

Brae100 wrote: »

Now Barry Maloney - I've had dodgy experiences there. Shark.

Seems like fine upstanding character...

valoren

An Irish Plutocrat.

Zebra3

sdanseo wrote: »

Doesn't mean his opinion that public services didn't function efficiently wasn't true.

Pity about the rest.

He's a criminal. We don't look to scum like that for guidance.

_Kaiser_

Lowry still disputing the tribunal findings. What a country

delboythedub

And comments are not closed ¿??lost the plot

SEPT 23 1989

1990's money you could buy 10 starter homes for that back then

That's what Lowry trousered

CramCycle

Not one red cent....

This is comical, if I didn't know better I'd say he was going to run for President.

Brae100

Lowry not coming out well here. +5 boost in Tipp.

_Kaiser_

I won't be at all surprised if legal action follows this show.

Fred Swanson

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I won't be at all surprised if legal action follows this show.

I am surprised he didn't get an injunction to prevent it airing.

Zebra3

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I won't be at all surprised if legal action follows this show.

Seems to be mainly just re-reporting what has been said before.

They're not making new allegations.

sdanseo

I take my reservations about the show back

Not the ones about RTÉ in general but at least it developed into more of a Prime Time Investigates than I expected it to

Probably the single worst conclusion from this though is the fact that none of the things about Lowry are surprising yet he remains a TD elected most recently on the first count. Says a lot about the Irish electorate and our small minded political ideaology. He fixed the local problem and continues to be enabled and supported because the good at local level is seen to be better than the bad. It's people who vote for pricks like that who keep parts of our society - most notably planning and housing - in the dark ages.

Zebra3 wrote: »

He's a criminal. We don't look to scum like that for guidance.

Nor would we.

Sycamore Tree

How did Lowry never go to prison?

WoollyRedHat

Have to say the show is scathing of these crooks, and really showing how complicit FG are in their support of DOB.

At every turn DOB has behaved in a cynical manner for self-preservation, PR stunts, legal action and outright obstruction at every turn.. aided by INM and the ruling party of these state.

Denis operates like the mafia. The day he and Lowry are brought down along with those complicit in helping him.. the better.

Wheeliebin30

sdanseo wrote: »

I take my reservations about the show back

Not the ones about RTÉ in general but at least it developed into more of a Prime Time Investigates than I expected it to

Probably the single worst conclusion from this though is the fact that none of the things about Lowry are surprising yet he remains a TD elected most recently on the first count. Says a lot about the Irish electorate and our small minded political ideaology. He fixed the local problem and continues to be enabled and supported because the good at local level is seen to be better than the bad. It's people who vote for pricks like that who keep parts of our society - most notably planning and housing - in the dark ages.

As I said, this notion that RTÉ and the media is owned and run by denis o brien and Leo or whatever is just pure conspiracy nonsense peddled out by the opposition.

Fake news.

_Kaiser_

Zebra3 wrote: »

Seems to be mainly just re-reporting what has been said before.

They're not making new allegations.

True, but I can't imagine him being very happy at all this being aired again.

I'm still not sure what the purpose of this show is.

Zebra3

Sycamore Tree wrote: »

How did Lowry never go to prison?

Thought he did a couple of very short stints?

WoollyRedHat

Anglo Irish Bank got me going.... on your epitaph.

Denis, a menace on society.

CeilingFly

Huge amount of jealousy coming across from some people being interviewed.

WoollyRedHat

Bolt and Denis, would be a great Tv show.

WoollyRedHat

Dividends that Denis has taken from Digicel 1.1b
Debts of Digicel - 6.6 b

Zebra3

CeilingFly wrote: »

Huge amount of jealousy coming across from some people being interviewed.

Yeh, wish I could become wealthy by a bit of quick bribery instead of hard work and get away with it all scot free.

Zebra3

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Dividends that Denis has taken from Digicel 1.1b
Debts of Digicel - 6.6 b

Was the latter not its' value and the debt was 2/3 of it?

WoollyRedHat

Zebra3 wrote: »

Was the latter not its' value and the debt was 2/3 of it?

Pretty sure that 6.6 B is it’s debts.

Brae100

There's nothing really new here. It has always been known that Buckley was behind the media takeover.

WoollyRedHat

**** off Lowry.

_Kaiser_

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

**** off Lowry.

.. And Bill

Thank you, Denis O'Brien. The only person to bring His Majesty Lord O'Reilly and all his anti-democratic sycophants in journalism down after controlling the Irish media for some 40 years. And lovely the way he refused to sack Anne Harris from the Sunday Independent because he'd then have to pay her compensation. Classy revenge right there.

Long may he sue every one of the sycophants in the Irish media who cross him. They've all been doing the bidding of O'Reilly's business interests by ganging up on everybody else - including O'Brien - for decades. "Free press" indeed.

When they're all taken down, I look forward to O'Brien being brought down. He's doing great so far!

sdanseo

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

As I said, this notion that RTÉ and the media is owned and run by denis o brien and Leo or whatever is just pure conspiracy nonsense peddled out by the opposition.

Fake news.

The media in general aren't. But RTÉ are uniquely abysmal at taking politicians to task unless a particular presenter (i.e. Tubridy) gets a bee in his bonnet because of a personal link. There are of course the odd exceptions (Claire Byrne and yer wan who presents the week in politics at least appear to give being the tough guy ago before they give up).

I don't believe RTÉ are corrupt bit I do think that look, the community is small, they all know each other, RTÉ don't want to rock any boats more than they have to be to give the impression that they are earning a wage. A higher proportion of the indy journalists of the more modern variety are in it for the principle rather than the cash (and that's not saying much because the general standard of journalism in the more anti establishment media is equally shíte). My comment was that they are a useless waste of money on the whole, and that they often appear not to be unbiased. I don't think they are on anyone's payroll - other than yours and mine of course.

TomOnBoard

About as much new information in that as in a Bertie Bank Account...

Waste of money, unless its just a foundation episode and parts 2, 3 and 4 give us the meat.

bmm

Denis won't be happy seeing all this together. Its nice to get a refresher as us Irish tend to forget too easily . Denis has managed to stay controversial for almost three decades . That is a feat in itself!

TomOnBoard

I have to say I was struck by the similarities between his modus operandi and that of Donald J Trump..

Mebbe when Micky D goes for Pres V2, Denis BigHead ought to throw his very big hat into the ring??

HeidiHeidi

bmm wrote: »

Denis won't be happy seeing all this together. Its nice to get a refresher as us Irish tend to forget too easily . Denis has managed to stay controversial for almost three decades . That is a feat in itself!

For those who though this would be a whitewash puff piece, you may stand corrected.


There may not be much new in it, but as the above poster said, interesting (and a bit scary tbh) to see it all together.


He didn't come out of it looking well. But marginally better than Lowry, who just looked like a deluded maniac.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

It brought the whole timeline together for me nicely. Do feel a bit sorry for what happened to Sam Smyth.

Getting the mobile phone license was like a printing press for money. That phone license was worth billions. That's why I never want to argue against TD and Ministers pay. If they are paid enough to make it easier for them to behave corrupt you'll get a higher percentage who won't. The decisions they make affect everyone, and can have ramifications for decades, or generations. They are the biggest and most important CEO's in the country and have to be treated like so. Regardless of your political party of choice.

Hopefully they play as the Christmas Day film every year going forward as a reminder to the country.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

Do feel a bit sorry for what happened to Sam Smyth.

Not at all. He was a key bootboy for O'Reilly in his battle against O'Brien. Like the rest of them - Shane Ross, Anne Harris, Aengus Fanning, etc - they thought Lord Anthony could not be overthrown. They backed the wrong horse and they deserve to be thrown out on the street.

realitykeeper

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

McMurphy

realitykeeper wrote: »

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

Ironic username.

valoren

realitykeeper wrote: »

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

That's a generalization and deflection. Does this same jealousy and thinking apply to say the Collison Brothers for example? They are now billionaires and I can't recall any instances of begrudgery towards their success, if anything it's respect and admiration. The difference between them and a Denis O'Brien type is that they became incredibly wealthy without the need for underhanded, shady and corrupt business dealings and transactions and the ire directed towards O'Brien in particular is that he thinks he can take people for fools and he isn't particularly shy about using his wealth to shut people up with litigation. Nobody likes a plutocrat after all. People aren't fools. He can say that he never handed one red cent to Lowry and that in itself is a true statement. He never physically handed over any money, cheques or cents or otherwise. So he and Lowry can continue to trot out that bull**** and continue to delude themselves that people haven't copped on to the reality of it all.

The Moriarty Tribunal showed that reality which was through a series of clandestine transactions with little transparency between corrupt intermediaries that Lowry was the ultimate beneficiary from these transactions of up to a million euro for which the ordering customer so to speak was O'Brien. So essentially, the one individual who would decide who would get that lucrative contract was gifted with a million euro by the person who, shock horror, eventually got the contract. It bears repeating. People are no fools.

Mikenesson

reality keeper is a troll

Dob made his money through bribes and monolopies

He then buys up the media and uses lawyers to stop people saying anything bad about him

jiltloop

realitykeeper wrote: »

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

Are you delusional? He has directly benefitted from corruption. The reason he is so rich and powerful is because of this corruption. It's quite simple really and this has been proven in court. That's what people have a problem with.

Water John

If DOB didn't get €1M to ML then he now has the perfect opportunity to prove it. He simply sues RTE and Michael McDowell SC.

realitykeeper

valoren wrote: »

That's a generalization and deflection. Does this same jealousy and thinking apply to say the Collison Brothers for example? They are now billionaires and I can't recall any instances of begrudgery towards their success, if anything it's respect and admiration. The difference between them and a Denis O'Brien type is that they became incredibly wealthy without the need for underhanded, shady and corrupt business dealings and transactions and the ire directed towards O'Brien in particular is that he thinks he can take people for fools and he isn't particularly shy about using his wealth to shut people up with litigation. Nobody likes a plutocrat after all. People aren't fools. He can say that he never handed one red cent to Lowry and that in itself is a true statement. He never physically handed over any money, cheques or cents or otherwise. So he and Lowry can continue to trot out that bull**** and continue to delude themselves that people haven't copped on to the reality of it all.

The Moriarty Tribunal showed that reality which was through a series of clandestine transactions with little transparency between corrupt intermediaries that Lowry was the ultimate beneficiary from these transactions of up to a million euro for which the ordering customer so to speak was O'Brien. So essentially, the one individual who would decide who would get that lucrative contract was gifted with a million euro by the person who, shock horror, eventually got the contract. It bears repeating. People are no fools.

Dennis O`Brien cannot be blamed if Ireland is corrupt. Lets say for the sake of argument that he paid Michael Lowry. Do you think he wanted to do that in order for the contract to go to himself as the best bidder? Hardly. Likewise, I refrained from building my own house back in those days because politicians are corrupt and they would want a backhander. Also, I suspect other politicians had corrupt reasons of their own to see some outsider get the contract. Also, imagine if all those billions going to the Norwegians just because we are jealous of other Irish people.

You mentioned the Collison brothers. Well they are too young to have had much of a history and their enterprise did not involve high profile state contracts with political shenanigans on all sides.

As for the Moriarty tribunal! That is a byword for corruption in itself. If a crime had been committed, they would have brought charges and let the regular courts handle it. The very fact that they used a tribunal proves Denis O`Brien`s complete innocence in these matters. Dennis O`Brien is absolutely right to bring legal action against those who slander him and the wonderful thing is that the European court of justice is there as the final arbiter.