Irish America stands up for Denis O’Brien and applauds loudly -- Ireland’s top businessman and philanthropist wows New York crowd

Irish media mogul and philanthropist Denis O'Brien (Photo: Forbes)

Denis O’Brien is Ireland’s equivalent of Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish emigrant who made billions and gave it all away in the final decades of his life.

Though he roamed and prospered far and wide, Carnegie never forgot the millions in need in his own country or anywhere else he operated.

O’Brien has made his billions through his telephone company Digicel which has provided cell phone service to millions of the world's poor.

He has also given back in the countless millions to those countries where he has prospered.

His next assignment will be Burma, he says, or Myanmar if you prefer. It is a country with a population of 63 million, where only two million have cell phones, which has recently opened up to outsiders.

Writing in Time Magazine recently, Bill Clinton rated O’Brien’s work in making financial transactions possible by cell phone as the single most important development in 2012 in helping the poor worldwide.

Impressive.

He has personally given $16.5 million to Haiti in an attempt to help get that country back on its feet.

Of course O’Brien earns a handsome buck, but he gives back. His work on behalf of the destitute in Haiti and elsewhere has won him international acclaim. He is a huge backer of Concern, the Third World agency that has inspired a new generation of Irish to volunteer in the Third World.

Read More: Business 100 Honorees and Keynote Denis O’Brien Celebrated in New York

That is why I was immensely proud to honor him yesterday in New York before a packed audience at the Irish America Magazine Annual Business 100 in New York.

We had never honored a non-American before with our premier business award but both editor Patricia Harty and I felt O’Brien deserved to be the first

Good men like O’Brien are rare as hen’s teeth and like all good men he has drawn ferocious critics as well -- mostly in Ireland.

That is not unusual. "Great hatred, little room" as Yeats wrote and O’Brien’s success began in the Wild West era of capitalism in Ireland when there were few established rules.

O’Brien was perfect for that era, a buccaneer capitalist with no special family ties to the notorious insider world of Irish business.

He emerged with the country’s first cell phone license and turned it into pure gold and some have never forgiven him for upsetting the cozy coterie.

How he got it still exercises some of the chatterati in Ireland.

I think it is time Irish America took a stance on this good and decent man and gave him the respect and acknowledgement he deserves as the pre-eminent Irish businessman and philanthropist of his era.

He is a man who has done enormous good on behalf of so many and will continue to do so. He has raised the Irish banner high and proud wherever he lands in the world. He has reached out to Irish America and is a major supporter of immigration reform.

That is the extraordinary legacy, even if he is sometimes a prophet unheard in his own land.

Over here we hear him – loud and clear. Our message is clear too -- Irish patriots working for the betterment of Ireland, Irish America, and the world, are always welcome.

Because that has always been the way. He is this generation’s Chuck Feeney doing good by doing his best and the packed venue yesterday rising to give him a standing ovation after his remarks recognizes that above all.

Ain’t that America folks.

Death of Billy Vincent a truly extraordinary Anglo-Irishman at 93 -- Deeply committed to Ireland, he helped start the American Ireland Fund

RIP Billy Vincent

Billy Vincent, who just died at the age of 93, was one of the most extraordinary characters I have ever known.

Back in the day when my world was young, about 1979 to be exact, I had the bright idea to start my first newspaper in San Francisco.

Myself and a partner, Tom McDonagh, had about $1,000 dollars and by the second edition we were broke.
I realized I had to raise money and fast. One of my unlikely friends at the time was A.W. Vincent.

Billy, as he was universally known, was an Anglo Irish gentleman who has somehow been transported to San Francisco where he lived in a palatial mansion in Pacific Heights. His mother, Maud Bourn was a San Francisco native.

Despite the clipped Oxford accent and the former British Army background – he was a highly decorated soldier in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers who saw major action in World War II — he was Irish in the best sense.

His family, the Bourn Vincents, owned Muckross House in Killarney and had given the 11,000 acre estate to the Irish state where it remains one of the jewels of the Irish state-owned park system.

He became a very successful businessman in California after the war and by the time I knew him he had begun major philanthropic work for Ireland through the American Irish Foundation, which later merged with the American Ireland Fund.

So, to Billy Vincent I went seeking money for my new newspaper venture.

He referred to everyone by their surnames, as in, “O’Dowd, what on earth do you want me to do, invest in some dubious Irish newspaper?”

‘Yes,’  I told him. He harrumphed, which is the only way I can describe his reaction.

But he did invest, and not only him, but he rounded up some rich colleagues and gave me enough to survive and eventually prosper.

He refused to take the money back. “O’Dowd old chap, don’t bother me --just make sure your newspaper works.”

We became fast friends. I often attended his private parties, always for worthy causes or visiting Irish dignitaries at his mansion. He’d usually call beforehand and tell me, “Now O’Dowd, don’t appear in some scruffy old jacket,” (I was going through my long hair and hippie phase) and, “scrub up, old chap.”

I spent time with him in Muckross, his beloved Killarney home where he was clearly at his most comfortable. His pride in his Kerry roots was evident to all. He took me on a ramble through the grounds, pointing out the family landmarks, which were generations old.

We discussed Northern Ireland at length and he displayed a keen instinct and sense of the need for American help to solve the problem. He played a huge role in the success of the American Ireland Fund, especially on the West Coast, and in later years when he moved to Monaco he helped establish its successful branch there. Kieran McLoughlin CEO of the Funds told me he met Billy during his final days and his thoughts as always were of Ireland. “An incredible gentleman,” was his heartfelt verdict.

We drifted apart when he moved to Monaco and I to New York. But I will never forget him, as patriotic and decent an Irishman as you would ever meet.

The Irish Times obituary said it well; Vincent, they said, was, “Known for a cranky directness with which he pricked pomposity and exposed humbug, he also was possessed of warmth and compassion.”

I can personally attest to that when he decided to help a neophyte Irish publisher with no dollars but only a dream.

May he rest in peace and condolences to his lovely wife Elisabeth and children and grandchildren.

‘Celtic Comeback’ or same old failures for Ireland and Enda Kenny? -- Time cover story and Irish Times lead columnist strongly disagree

Enda Kenny on the cover of Time

Landing the cover of the European edition of Time magazine this week is a landmark achievement by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.

But more importantly, Time magazine’s imprimatur for the “Celtic Comeback” as it headlined the piece, is a powerful weapon for Kenny to swipe his critics with.

Like most Time cover stories it is a fluff piece on the Irish leader who comes across as pleasant and incisive about what he has to do.

“I see returns in the signs of confidence,” Kenny said.

“People tell me their own stories, about how they have come through great difficulty. But now they have a new sense of values and they see new horizons opening up.”
Kenny described the Celtic Tiger boom as false years that were “built on the veneer of endless wealth without hard work.”

The Time piece will help Kenny battle those critics who have been growing in numbers in recent months as emigration spiked and bad times continued.

He is heading into a ball-buster of a budget in December which will hit the middle class very hard indeed.

They are already beleaguered and increasingly hostile.

Now comes a new cloud on the horizon in the context of alleged political corruption

Last week there were strident calls for the resignation of Health Minister James Reilly, after news of alleged sweetheart deals for a property tycoon in his constituency surfaced. There was also outrage after another Minister Phil Hogan was alleged to have blocked a Traveller family from getting a house in a development in his constituency

That is poisonous stuff given Ireland’s recent history and led to an extraordinary attack by FIntan O’Toole, Ireland’s leading columnist, who writes for the Irish Times on the ethics of Kenny’s government.

O’Toole claimed Fine Gael had taken on the same wide boy and coercive politics that their hated predecessors Fianna Fail had.
He wrote:

“For Fine Gael, the formula makes complete sense. It has replaced Fianna Fáil as the chief operator of The Machine, the system of clientelist politics that has held power since the 19th century. It can stay in office for a very long time by becoming as adept and unashamed in its manipulation of the levers of power as the party it looked on for so long with all the envy of a shy, spotty youth watching the slick rogue getting all the girls. The jilted lad would console himself by raging that the rogue was a bad character. But secretly he dreamed of being the rogue himself.

“And now he is. Fine Gael has been given control of The Machine and is testing out what it can do. Oooh, look, says James Reilly, pull this handle and it can deliver primary care centers for me and my buddies! That’s nothing, says Phil Hogan, if you pull this switch, you can stop Traveller families moving in to a housing estate in your constituency. Feck your civic democracy, I’ve a Merc outside.”

Kenny can at least point to international opinion that he doing the right thing. Suffice to say that like many leaders, (see Tony Blair) Enda Kenny is probably appreciated more outside his country as the Time cover shows than  he is inside it.

Which version is correct, the Time magazine praise or Fintan O’Toole’s hard-hitting critique?

That will play out in the months and years ahead.

Let’s get real about Kate Middleton’s topless shots and Muslim’s protests over “Innocence of Muhammad”

Kate Middleton sprays a dancer with perfume on Tuvalu on Tuesday. (Arthur Edwards)

The suspension of the editor of the Irish Daily Star for publishing topless photographs of Kate Middleton and the outraged reaction in the Middle East to the Innocence of Muhammad film are both connected.

Kate flashing her boobs while thinking she was in a private setting, and a lunatic filmmaker making a perfectly appalling film about the prophet, fanned flames and crises across the globe that no sane person could even remotely have expected.

But there they were, rioting and killing in Arab countries and furious reacting in media all over the world to Kate’s topless shots.

In both cases the overreaction was so intense, the global hue and cry so startling that it defied all logic.
I watched the Innocence of Muhammad film on You Tube, and it is quite possibly the worst piece of filmmaking I have ever seen.

It is incoherent, lacking in plot and laughable.  It makes The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes look like Oscar material.

Except no one was laughing when millions took to Arab streets all across the Middle East and proclaimed death to America.

God knows we get blamed for enough in that part of the world, but pretending we had anything to do with the film or that it was part of some master plan to make Muslims look bad is ridiculous.

I’d have nominated the film for the Raspberries, the anti-Oscar ceremony, as worst film ever made and moved on.

Equally, Kate’s topless shots have brought down a wave of hysterical outrage that is hard to fathom.
It was a case of “off with their heads” from Buckingham Palace on down.

Porn king Richard Desmond, who owned multiple porn sites and magazines, was the most hypocritical of all.

He wanted the Irish Daily Star, which he half owns, closed down after they published the pictures – which by the way are almost impossible to decipher because they are shot from so far away.

There is nothing worse than a pornographer and a royal family in a fit of righteous indignation, but two points come to mind.

Kate must surely know that she is scrutinized everywhere at all times – that is what she bought into when she married the future king. Stripping off outside was not a great idea to begin with.

Secondly, why is she not fair game when every other young woman of note or big boobs, from Page 3 girls on down, is wide open for tabloid exploitation?

Rest assured if it was Rihanna – and remember her in the cornfield in Northern Ireland? -- the coverage would be massive and utterly intrusive.

One law for the royals and one law for every other woman it seems.

In both the responses to the Muslim film and the royal boob shots, we have had a massive overreaction that speaks ill for reasonable debate on issues such as cultural and sexual stereotypes.

We all need to take a bottle of chill pills and relax when such issues become so inflamed.  The tragic consequences when we don’t are all too plain to see.

Denis O’Brien, a billionaire with a mission not just to make money-- Irish businessman praised by Clinton, NY Times, seeks to make a difference

Denis O'Brien (Credit: Forbes)

The O’Reilly family’s stranglehold on most of Irish journalism is over and that can only be good.

I’m delighted that businessman Denis O’Brien, much admired here in America, is taking over effectively as the chief shareholder of Ireland’s largest newspaper group, Independent News and Media.

I know O’Brien and consider him as one of the great business talents to emerge from Ireland in the past half century.

He is a straight talker, and is one of the few who avoided the calamity of believing their own propaganda, that they walked on water, based on nothing more than a property bubble and a backslapping media.

I remember discussing the issue of the plight of the Irish undocumented with him a few years back and he cast his mind back to the time he lived in the US as a penniless student and the problems he encountered then.

He asked what he could do to help on the Irish undocumented and he has done so ever since.

He chaired the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Ireland. It was the first time the Summer Games were staged outside the US with teams from 160 countries and over 30,000 volunteers. The 2003 Summer Games were the most successful in the history of the Special Olympics.

He also remains very active in Concern where he serves on the board of the international charity.

Denis O’Brien will bring a very different set of values to the newspaper world in my opinion.

He is a creator not a destroyer, who has pumped tens of millions of his own funds into Haiti and other impoverished countries where his company Digicel does business.

As The New York Times recently reported, he built 50 new schools in Haiti since the massive earthquake and has plans for 80 more. He is not involved in such work just for the photo-op, a fact he made clear to the Times.

“It’s all about project management,” Mr. O’Brien (53) said in an interview at Digicel’s offices there.  “Everyone’s on hand for the photo op, but where are the 100 houses that were promised after the
cameras are gone? I’m the guy who’s going to count them.”

Bill Clinton is another person deeply appreciative of what O’Brien has done in Haiti

“What is striking is how deeply he has embedded his Haiti work into both his business and personal life,” Clinton told the New York Times.

“Because he cares so much, it’s easier for him to motivate and hold accountable other network members.”

Back home in Ireland, as he’s a big fish in a small pond, O’Brien causes controversy because he is outspoken and direct.

He first came to prominence when he acquired the second Irish cell phone license in controversial fashion. It was a time when a Wild West atmosphere prevailed in Ireland with unregulated political and financial dealing.

O’Brien saw his chance and he took it. He turned the license into a hugely successful venture, unlike those who ended up with Eircom, the main mobile license, and bankrupted it.

O’Brien sold ESAT Digicel for $3 billion and created thousands of jobs since. O’Brien has used his money wisely. He has exercised major philanthropy and injected funds into University College Dublin and other campuses.

Many crocodile tears are being shed this past week over the issue of media monopoly because he also owns radio stations.

Yet when Sir Anthony O’Reilly owned the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday World, the Evening Herald, the Irish Daily Star, the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life, 13 local newspapers and also one of the largest newspaper and magazine distribution agencies, Newspread, and several of the largest print works on the island, those same critics hardly offered a bleat of criticism.

O’Brien has his critics and his drawbacks but he is a fundamentally decent man, trying to do good.

On that I’d bet my bottom dollar.