In February 2002, three men met in the English town of York.
The purpose of their meeting was to discuss how information of interest to the Moriarty tribunal – established by the Oireachtas to investigate payments to politicians – might be used to squeeze money out of billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien and Tipperary politician Michael Lowry .
Unknown to Kevin Phelan, the man who came to outline the plan, the meeting was recorded by the late Ken Richardson, one of those he travelled to meet.
The Irish Times first reported in 2003 that this meeting took place and was recorded.
Now, more than two decades on, this newspaper can publish the video of the meeting and, for the first time, reveal in more detail what was said.
In the video, Phelan is on the left, facing Richardson, who is nearest the camera, and his associate, Mark Weaver.
Kevin Phelan - Clip 01 Details of what was discussed at the meeting has taken on new relevance after Lowry acted as kingmaker for the Government established in the wake of the 2024 general election .
Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty criticised the Independent TD’s key role in bringing together other Independents to support the Fianna Fáil - Fine Gael Coalition and made new claims about a land deal that was central to what was discussed at the York meeting.
At the time of the meeting, the tribunal in Dublin Castle was investigating financial links between Lowry, a former minister for communications, and O’Brien, whose Esat consortium won the 1995 mobile phone licence competition when Lowry was in office.
A number of English deals formed part of the tribunal’s inquiries. The deals took place in the late 1990s, after Lowry had resigned from government. All involved Phelan, a land agent from Omagh, Co Tyrone.
At the York meeting, Phelan said he had information that could be used to put “pressure” on O’Brien and Lowry, and compel them to sell property in England worth millions of pounds at a discounted rate.
Richardson was the former owner of Doncaster Rovers Football Club Ltd (DRFC), which he sold in 1998 in a deal organised through Phelan. The company owned the lease on the Doncaster club’s stadium.
Richardson had two criminal convictions – one from the 1980s, a famous race-fixing fraud involving a horse called Flockton Grey, and another, in 1999, for hiring someone in 1995 to burn down the main stand at the Doncaster Rovers stadium, as part of an intended property development scam.
The third person at the York meeting, Richardson’s assistant, Weaver, gave a copy of the secret recording to The Irish Times last year, but publication was not possible until now because Phelan was before the courts in England in respect of an unrelated fraud. He has now been jailed.
In the late 1990s, Phelan acted in land deals in Mansfield, Cheadle and Doncaster that were investigated by the tribunal.
The Cheadle and Mansfield lands cost £665,000 sterling between them, while Doncaster, a more complex transaction, cost £4.3 million. Some £700,000 from the Doncaster sale proceeds was placed in a “retention fund”, the distribution of which would depend on certain matters.
The Doncaster plan involved the purchase of DRFC Ltd from Richardson, moving the team to a new stadium and developing the site of the former grounds, thereby generating a substantial profit.
Phelan told the York meeting he had put a lot of work into this project, which accounted for most of the £700,000 he claimed he was owed for his work on the English land deals.
Back in Dublin, the tribunal had been told the Cheadle and Mansfield deals were Lowry transactions and had nothing to do with O’Brien. Doncaster, it was told, was an O’Brien transaction and had nothing to do with Lowry.
The recorded meeting heard details that were different from the accounts given to the tribunal.
Phelan claimed at the meeting in York that all three deals involved Lowry and were funded by O’Brien – a point strongly disputed by Lowry and O’Brien at the tribunal.
“Michael,” Phelan said, referring to Lowry, “he has a business and all that, but he is not the funder.”
Phelan told Richardson and Weaver he had been asked to source property deals that would not generate an immediate return.
“I was dealing with this particular individual in Ireland and my instructions from him were to get two or three deals that would come to fruition in three or five years,” he said, referring to Lowry.
“He had a tax problem. He didn’t want to earn the money now. He wanted to earn the money when he had his tax sorted out. He wanted long-term projects.”
Phelan said he knew the money for the land deals didn’t belong to the man (Lowry) he was dealing with.
“But I didn’t question it,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t illegal money. It was legal money but I knew it wasn’t his.”
When Weaver said, “You knew it wasn’t drug money”, Phelan agreed.
His client had been a “minister in government” and has recently resigned, Phelan said. He had “good contacts” and could be useful.
The tribunal initially belie…
Read the full article at The Irish Times →📄Source document: Citizens' Assembly→20 reports
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