A protest meeting will be held in Castleblayney this evening at 7pm to voice opposition to an application for an exemption to use the former Convent of Mercy building on New Street to house persons who have applied for International Protection.
Some local people had also heard claims that the Glencarn Hotel in the town was also down to be used as an IPAS centre, but that was denied by Matt Carthy, the Monaghan Sinn Féin TD, in March after meeting with shareholders who assured him that it would continue to be a hotel. There appears to be no application for a planning exemption for the Glencarn registered with Monaghan County Council.
I contacted all of the Councillors for the Carrickmacross-Castleblayney ward to ask them to confirm that no exemption for the use of Glencarn as an IPAS centre had been registered with Monaghan County Council. I had received no response from any of the Councillors prior to publication.
The Glencarn is owned by Glencarn Hotel Holdings and is leased in part to Moraghy Property and Investments. The ownership of Glencarn is interesting. It was owned by John Deane of Ardrahan, County Galway, until the end of 2017 when he sold his shareholding to NI Pension Trust based in Hollywood, County Down.
Since 2023 it has been fully owned by a company with the title CTMLS (ATO EQUUS RATS RE S MALLON) who have an address in a Post Office Box at the Europort in Gibraltar – which happens to be the address of quite a few companies who seem to wet their beaks in finance and pensions funds.
Among them is the Equus International Pension Plan who seem to be our hosts at the ‘Blayney hotel. The last financial statement for Glencarn showed assets of more than €800,000 but also liabilities of slightly more than that; net equity of just €10,507 and profits to the end of August 2024 of just €100. Watch that space maybe.
There is an application for an IPAS planning exemption listed for the old Convent building – made by a company called IAT Futures. The property records still list the Sisters of Mercy through Mary Ann Doyle Properties as the full owner but it was reported as having been sold for €575,000 in late 2024. I contacted the Order to confirm that this was the case and who had bought the building, but had received no response prior to publication.
IAT Futures have an address in Dalkey, County Dublin. The two directors are Aaron Sherlock of Ballsbridge and Michael Brennan of Ardee. The company, in common with many new entities which have spotted the great success of the asylum accommodation sector, is only recently formed, having been registered with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) only last November.
The two joint owners of the company are Cooledmond Unlimited which is owned by Michael Brennan and Orla Brennan; and A&A Sherlock Capital Limited which is wholly owned by Aaron Sherlock. The only other detail supplied is that they intended to conduct their business from Convent Lands, New Street, Castleblayney. Their ownership is confirmed by the fact that they registered a charge on the property with Onate Finance in December last.
Onate Finance is itself interesting. It is owned by the Onate Designated Activity company which when formed in 2014 had one owner Daniel Gandesha who has an address in County Kilkenny. He moved here from the UK where he was founding owner of Fintech. In an interview with the Kilkenny People in 2021 he said that he liked taking risks. Well, there is little risk in giving a loan to a company whose earnings will be guaranteed by myself and yourself and the rest of the country’s taxpayers. .
What do the boys do when they are not helping, you cry? Brennan also owns three other companies, one called Proper Innovation, as well as Ormi Developments and another Premier Start through Cooledmond; while Sherlock is a joint owner of Wyvern Base Investment with one Eoin Brady which is involved in real estate.
Sherlock is also a one third owner of Grand Canal Capital Partners along with Mosato Limited owned by Johnatan and Caroline Hillyer of Clane and by Richfort Investment which is owned by Christopher Belton.
Sherlock was also for four years a consultancy surveyor with the National Assets Management Bureau (NAMA), and then an asset manager with the NAMA unit of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. This seems to be a recurring theme in the accommodation sector, and one which I will continue to explore.