As the Coolock community protest group awaits a response from a person who had offered almost a month ago to mediate with owners of a proposed asylum accommodation, an interesting perspective has been shed on one of the principals of Townbe, the company which owns the former Crown Paints site.
Last Saturday, the prestigious international finance and business news site, Bloomberg, published a story under the heading ‘Ireland’s Anti-Migrant Rage Lands on a Hedge Fund Trader’s Doorstep.’
The trader in question being Kildare man Peter McGarry who has chosen tax exile in Switzerland and who is along with his wife Melanie – and Niall and Chistopher Collins of Premierbrook – one of the main owners through Brightpearl Unlimited of Townbe.
Bloomberg reports that McGarry is one of the main “money makers” for the $11 billion hedge fund, the perhaps serendipitously named Garda Capital Partners – and says his focus on providing asylum accommodation was a “well-timed investment”. “
A senior portfolio manager at Garda Capital Partners in Switzerland, McGarry, 48, is one of the $11-billion hedge fund’s top money makers. Meantime, he has also helped to build a business in his native Ireland that houses asylum seekers on behalf of the Government.
It’s been a well-timed investment. As Ireland struggles with an unprecedented surge in the number of people seeking refuge, the Government has turned to an increasing number of private companies to house them in hotels, guesthouses and other kinds of accommodation.
Garda Capital Partners is an offshoot of the American giant corporation Cargill which had revenues of over $165 billion in 2022. Cargill established the Black River hedge fund in 2003, and Garda Capital – named for the lake in Italy rather than the Public Order Unit – came about as part of a management buy out of part of Black River.
Bloomberg describes the move into asylum accommodation in Ireland by these wealthy people as a “well-timed investment.” Indeed it is. However, they go on to outline how the latest move by McGarry’s Townbe in what has been a huge money spinner for the McGarry and Collins families and friends is currently stalled by the refusal of the local protest group to accept the centre being placed in Coolock, and their repeated rejection of any promised sweeteners.
McGarry was apparently contacted by Bloomberg but “declined to comment.” A spokesperson for Garda Capital Partners which is based in Wayzata, Minnesota in the United States also refused to comment but stressed that “the fund has no investment in Townbe.”
Bloomberg reports:
The money on offer is sparking interest. Sellers of vacant properties across Ireland are increasingly hearing from bidders who want to turn buildings into refugee accommodation, according to people involved in such deals who requested anonymity as details aren’t public. In a December presentation aimed at the “savvy investor” who might want to buy an Irish hotel, global law firm DLA Piper cited asylum seekers as a reason for the sector’s “continued high demand and strong performance.”
None of those overseas investors nor the Irish based companies that are clearly acting as facilitators for such investment across the country want to become embroiled in the sort of controversy that has been attracted by unpopular accommodation centres in Coolock and other parts of the state.
The ongoing protest also perhaps brings an unwelcome focus on Peter McGarry who, as I previously reported, is generally portrayed as someone who wants to help – much as Paul Collins, who represented Townbe in a recent RTÉ documentary, implied that making money was not really his motivation either.
Just two regular guys who want to run asylum accommodation centres so that they can help.
McGarry sponsors the Earth Prize which encourages youngsters to do something to save the planet. In 2021 the prize was won by a school in Vietnam whose students had devised a biodegradable sanitary pad made from the peel of the dragon fruit.
Perhaps they might secure a franchise to install a dispenser in Townbe’s accommodation centres. It would surely save on costs if they could find a school somewhere or a Glockamara Together or Ballykissangel For All group to grow the elusive tropical plant here and supply it for nothing.
Bloomberg quotes colleagues who attest to McGarry’s “sense of social purpose” – the purpose that Garda Capital Partners recently warned its plutocratic investors was under possible threat presented by a “prolonged period of political uncertainty” posed by the electoral gains of the French Rassemblement National and other anti-establishment forces on the right in Europe.
At least the McGarrys and the Collinses and all the other wealthy people with a stake in helping have the comfort of knowing that everyone from the masked communists of Anti Fascist Action, to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and all of the establishment political parties and the mainstream media are batting for their provision of asylum accommodation.
No Pasarán is the stirring cry around Lake Geneva. Although perhaps they have more decorum.