One of the more colourful characters on the GAA management stage is Davy Burke who since 2022 has been in charge of the Roscommon senior football team. He is from the Sarsfields club in Newbridge, County Kildare and his major achievement to date was presiding over the Kildare under 20 football team that won the All Ireland in 2018 when they beat Mayo in the final.
He was manager of Wicklow for two years and has enjoyed moderate success with Roscommon. They finished third in Division I in 2023, were relegated last year but won promotion back into the top flight alongside Monaghan, a county that has been good to Davy.
Roscommon have not won Connacht under his watch and drawing with Dublin in 2023 was probably the highlight of his time so far. This year they were easily disposed of by Galway and are in a tough group for the play-offs.
Things have been going better off the field as Davy has joined a number of other leading GAA figures in the accommodation industry.
He is now joint owner alongside Declan King of a company called Grangelough Limited which since it began providing accommodation to persons who have applied for International Protection in 2022 has earned €2,072,700 in payments from IPAS.
Not bad for a company that was only set up in April 2022 and of which Burke and King became directors and subsequently joint owners of five days after it was established. In April 2024, it reported accumulated profits of €716,000. Grangelough is the contractor for Sinclair House IPAS centre on Hardwicke Street.
The address provided by Grangelough to the Companies Registration Office (CRO) is 14 Farney Street, Carrickmacross. This is the same address as Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney’s Brimwood which is among the top earners in the accommodation field.
I attempted to contact Davy Burke through the email provided in Grangelough company records with the CRO and the email contact for the Business Centre at 14 Farney Street but received no response. The contact is through Regan and Company accountants which is associated with MKF Business Consultants which is owned by a Ken Farmer.
We must remain in the dark, therefore, as to the connection between Burke’s arrival into the IPAS business and Banty. The only apparent connection between Davy Burke and Banty is through the GAA.
There would, however, appear to be a connection between the Burkes and the McEnaneys that predates the launching of Grangelough. Burke is listed as a director and a shareholder in Nulodge along with a Lisa Burke and a June Burke.
That company is listed with the CRO as having been dissolved in 2016 after being placed into liquidation with relatively modest debts. It appears to have owned a guesthouse at 2 Lower Buckingham Street in Dublin. Rather oddly, to my eyes at least, the guest house is registered as Nolodge at that address. Nolodge was dissolved in 2017 but is listed as jointly owned by Lisa and June Burke.
A search of that address now leads to a Connolly Lodge whose owners since 2017 according to the property records are Trenthall Limited of 14 Farney Street, Carrickmacross. As you will recall, that also happens to be the address of Banty’s Brimwood and of Davy’s Grangelough.
Trenthall Limited is owned by John McEnaney who is Banty’s son. John and Banty’s nephew Gary are also joint owners of Longfield Ventures which has drawn down somewhere in the region of €10 million in accommodation payments. Last year the Sunday Business Post calculated that the extended McEnaney family had already by March 2024 trousered more than €130,000,000.
So Davy and his associates have landed a two pointer through becoming associated with Banty. They are not the only ones in the GAA world to have done so, as I shall be exploring over the coming days.