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MICHAELA MCAREAVEY’S DEATH, just days after she married her long-time love John, shocked two nations back on 10 January 2011.
When Mauritius authorities confirmed that the daughter of Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte was strangled while on honeymoon at the Legends Hotel, a manhunt for her killers began.
A country which relies on its tourism sector, Mauritius was keen to catch the culprits and bring them to justice as soon as possible. But the trial of the two men accused of the 27-year-old teacher’s murder has been anything but swift and uncomplicated.
The accused – Sandip Moneea and Avinash Treebhoowoon – were found not guilty of the murder.
What was initially scheduled as a two-week trial dragged on for almost eight weeks and attracted criticism from the Harte and McAreavey families over certain elements of proceedings, including the treatment of the victim’s husband and the conduct of the defence team.
Here, TheJournal.ie takes a look back at the past two months in the Port Louis courthouse, recapping the major talking points of a case that has captivated a local audience and devastated two Irish families.
Among the legal rows, the sometimes-flamboyant behaviour of the defence team and the pantomime-style reactions from the public gallery, it was sometimes a shock when the proceedings were pared back to it’s central focus – the tragic and untimely death of a young woman about to embark on married life for the first time.
Details of 10 January 2011 were rehashed throughout the course of the eight weeks but no evidence was more harrowing than the testimony of Michaela’s new husband John. He took to the stand on 6 June to give his account of how the events of that fateful day unfolded.
Teary-eyed and visibly very emotional, he talked about what a wonderful person Michaela was and how she completed his life.
As she was the only daughter of the family, she was loved by her parents, cherished by her brothers. She had so many qualities that are difficult to explain. She was a deeply religious person, charming and full of life, full of happiness. I can’t find words to say how much she meant to me.
John also told the court how it was “love at first sight” when he met Michaela back in 2005 in university. His testimony lasted for three-and-a-half hours. During the proceedings, his sister Claire asked for her brother to be given some water.
McAreavey outlined the day he and Michaela were having on 10 January – they breakfasted together, he had played golf while she sunbathed and then they rejoined for lunch. He told the court that he obviously wishes he – and not she – had gone back to room 1025 to get the dark chocolate Kit Kats for their tea. While waiting for her to return from the room with the treats, he said he took a couple of photos and watched a bit of a video. When she did not come back, he went to investigate.
My wife was killed. My life changed since that day. My dreams are shattered forever I miss her a lot. Everything is over for me. My life was destroyed.
Moving on to the darker days after her murder, John gave details about the time he spent at the police station and how one officer asked him: “Why are you crying? You are still young. You can go find another wife.”
John McAreavey arriving to the Port Louis courthouse on 6 June – the day he gave his testimony. He was supported by his sister Claire and father Brendan. (Image: Paul Faith/PA Wire/Press Association Images)
As he was due to give testimony for the prosecution, John was not in court for a number of angry exchanges which upset both the McAreavey and Harte families. During the first week of evidence, prosecutors objected strongly to a line of questioning pursued by the defence when they brought up the existence of a sex guide in the couple’s room. Lawyers for Moneea and Treebhoowoon had asked police if they queried whether the manual contained violent material.
Lawyers for the prosecution said that the contents of the book had no connection with the crime. The exchanges between both teams got so heated on one particular day that the hearing had to be temporarily adjourned. Minors were also asked to leave the courtroom.
Later, BBC News was told that the booklet was an insert from the woman’s magazine Cosmopolitan, which Michaela had purchased at the airport.
The questionable tactics of the defence team and the intrusions into the private honeymoon being enjoyed by the young couple led the families to issue the following joint statement:
Obviously both families are very distressed and dismayed at any attempt to denigrate the memory of Michaela. However, they would like to thank the many family, friends and the wider public for their continued support and prayers as they endure this ordeal. They would particularly ask that people continue to pray so that John may be granted the necessary strength to get through the very difficult and painful days ahead.
Grainy footage from a CCTV camera at the reception of the Mauritius hotel saw a German chef dragged into the case. Irish newspaper The Star first identified the man in the controversial tape, not as John McAreavey as the defence team had tried to indicate, but as Harald Hoyer, a German man who had been staying in the same hotel with his partner the day of the murder.
He later told RTÉ that he would be prepared to give evidence in court that he was the man shown in the video arguing with his girlfriend Savarese Graziella:
Yes, I would certainly do that. I could also give an affidavit here in Germany, I could do it in the German legal system or with the German police. But of course I would do that. If I could definitely help the husband of Michaela, I would do that, yes.
The CCTV footage was eventually shown to the jury but the assistant police commissioner said he was 100 per cent satisfied that it did not feature the McAreaveys. Yoosoof Soopun also produced documentation to the court relating to the German couple. Eventually the defence team said they would not be taking the matter any further. The judge told the jury this meant the identity of the couple in the CCTV footage was no longer an issue for them.
Mauritian Police Chief Inspector Luciano Gerard arriving at the Port Louis courthouse. (Image: PA Wire/Press Association Images)
Throughout the case, it often seemed that the police forces in Mauritius were as much on trial as the accused. As the spotlight was again and again pointed on the investigation, apparent holes, inaccuracies and inconsistencies were highlighted in court.
Lawyers for Treebhoowoon consistently alleged that police beat him brutally in order to obtain a confession about the murder. Defence counsel Sanjeev Teeluckdharry severely criticised the police investigation, stating that his client admitted involvement only after being exposed to vicious torture methods.
Police brutality
Claims of police brutality extended to alleged incidences of forms of water torture, during which Treebhoowoon said he couldn’t breathe and was vomiting blood. He also said that none of the confessional statement was read to him and he signed what was put in front of him, without knowing the details.
The Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT) has also been criticised for failing to provide solid DNA evidence against the accused, and combined with the inconsistencies discovered at the murder scene, lawyers for both Treebhoowoon and Moneea finally landed on the sloppy police probe as its major line of defence.
They believe the entire inquiry should be scrapped and restarted to ensure the real culprits are found.
Preserving the scene
In the early days of the trial, police photographer Harris Jeewooth who had only worked in the major crimes unit for four months prior to the honeymoon death and never on an actual murder case, was asked repeatedly why a number of supposedly relevant items were not captured on film. The court also heard that some items, including the dark chocolate Kit Kats that Michaela had been retrieving from the room, had allegedly been moved in the days after her murder.
All photos of the crime scene were taken only in black-and-white.
Jeewooth also confirmed that he was not instructed to take photos of the sand outside to check for footprints. The presence of a belt in the room also led to further questioning but the photographer could not recall specifics. However, the autopsy on Michaela’s body ruled out any hypothesis that she may have died of strangulation by use of a rope or belt.
Key witnesses
A senior officer at the MCIT admitted during the trial that they failed to interview a number of fellow guests at the hotel who were staying close to room 1025. Luciano Gerard also conceded that he did not know that the belt – along with a bikini top – had been found in the room after control of it had been handed back to the hotel.
Doubts were also raised about unidentified finger and palm prints discovered in the room.
In his closing address, Rama Valayden, lawyer for Moneea, said that he was angry at the police for not carrying out a number of basic checks and tests at the hotel.
“We could have solved this problem easily,” he said.
The prosecution and police still believe Michaela was killed after disturbing thieves who were stealing from her honeymoon suite.
Valayden also questioned the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness Raj Theekoy, who was originally charged with the murder. He was granted immunity when he agreed to testify against his former co-workers.
In an unexpected move, the whole courthouse packed up on 19 June to return to the scene of the crime at the renamed Lux hotel. Both of the acquitted men, along with their lawyers, were joined by the judge Prithviraj Fekna, counsel for the prosecution and the nine members of the jury. The tour was guided by staff members at the former Legends hotel. The six men and three women of the jury were brought around the golf course, reception, two restaurants and the rooms surrounding room 1025 in the De Luxe block – all places that had been mentioned throughout the trial.
Ravi Rutnah, a lawyer representing Aviash Treebhoowoon, provided the most bizarre moment of the entire trial. On 30 May, just days after the jury was sworn in, the counsel for the defence quit after allegations about his conduct were made by a police witness. He told the judge he was withdrawing for ethical reasons and wanted to testify as a witness in the trial to the allegations made against him and his client. Luciano of the MCIT strongly denied all accusations of police brutality and said the defence team’s claims were “false and unfounded”.
Rutnah told the court:
It’s a professional decision that I made in the interest of justice. I will testify to tell the whole truth about what happened [after Treebhoowoon's arrest]. I am the only one who knows the whole truth.
In keeping with his extrovert style, which was becoming well-known in the court house, he then exclaimed: “I will be back in Arnold Schwarzenegger style”. That moment brought laughter from a number of law students who were frequently seen in the public gallery.
Although he was allowed to be admitted as a witness by the remaining defence team, the court never heard from him again.
Locals gathered at the court shelter from the rain at the Supreme Court in Port Louis, Mauritius, on day seven of the trial.
Emotive murder trials often capture the attention of the public but none more so when they occur in different jurisdictions to where the victims or the accused are from. Just as the trial for the murder of British student Mereditch Kercher gained worldwide press, the Michaela McAreavey case had captivated the public in both Ireland and Mauritius. Crowds have queued up each day to gain access to the public gallery and dozens of law students have been ever-present for proceedings.
Although conditions and processes improved as the weeks went by, the first days saw curious locals and reporters fight for seats and space. Eventually a new speaker system was set up to facilitate those in the packed public gallery.
The presence of a larger audience was particularly difficult for relatives of the victim. On Tuesday, 5 June Claire McAreavey, sister to John, who has been in Port Louis for the duration of the trial, could not hold in her frustration any longer.
Turning to people who were causing a disruption in the gallery where she was sitting with her father, Brendan, she told them to “show some respect”.
Bursts of laughter from the crowds have not been unusual over the past eight weeks as certain colorful behaviour from lawyers and witnesses entertained those with only a passing interest in the trial and verdict. However, as the gravity of the situation was realised, the latter weeks of the trial have stirred a more sombre mood.
In a more serious retort on 25 June, John McAreavey said the word, “lies” – out loud and audible to the court – when Treebhoowoon’s barrister told the court about the torture his client suffered at the hands of police.
A spokesman for the family said the uncharacteristic outburst reflected the frustration and pain felt by both families.
Rajiv Bhujun, a former baggage handler at the hotel who accompanied John McAreavey to his hotel room just before he discovered his wife’s body, is currently working on a cruise ship outside of Mauritius. Police nor defence lawyers have been able to contact or find him.
He was the first person, along with John McAreavey, to reach room 1025 after the killing. He never gave evidence to the trial as police have no clue where he is. It is thought the ship’s last port of call was Dubai.
Sandip Moneea is 42 and a former supervisor at the hotel where Michaela and John were on honeymoon. He has consistently denied any involvement in the crime, telling the court he was on the phone to his sister when Ms McAreavey was killed. At the time of the murder, Moneea was responsible for five room attendants, including the co-accused Avinash Treebhoowoon and key witness Raj Theekoye.
The younger of the two men on trial, Avinash Treebhoowoon is about 30-years-old. He worked under Moneea as a room attendant at the former Legends Hotel. His father testified on his behalf during the trial and said that his son was beaten by police before his ‘confession’. He has since retracted that statement, denying any wrongdoing. His wife Reshma has been a regular at the Port Louis court. During his testimony, Treebhoowoon said that he was told by police that his wife (pictured below) would be deported and made live in Ireland with John McAreavey unless he confessed.
“That man’s wife is dead, he needs a woman to live with,” he claims he was told by a police officer before signing the statement of confession.
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The only way Clerys is going to be brought back from the dead is if the whole of oconnell street is cleaned up and has a proper retail offering, absolute joke of a european main street capitol.
I remember when there used to be an amusement place across road not that Dr quirkeys kip or what ever you call it. Another one. We used to all go in to play pool and arcade games tourists used to flock in and clerys was a tourist go to. O’Connell Street was safest street in Dublin.Those little kips ppopped up and the ruin of O’Connell street Began.
Could not agree more. Deserves comment of the week.
Saying that I know nobody under 40 who would think of shopping there. It’s not even on the radar.
Cler off
It would have been redeveloped… Had they not been squabbling over loosing an ethnic market in Moore st and some decrepit shack that organizers of the 1916 uprising once met and had tea in while DCC refused any plans more than 5 stories….
This is the price you pay for NIMBYISM and holding back progress….
Yeah,imagine preserving a historic building synonymous with an event we’ll be remembering next year.
Progress,Ted.
And clear the sc@m off the streets there as well
classism in Dublin ruined O’connell street…retail gravitated towards a pedestrianised grafton street…the areas around parnell square were allowed to neglect and thus allow O’connell street to wither…The toffs who run/own the areas around Stephens green lobbied for development in their own interests.
Lest we forget, a Garda station is visible when you stand outside the building. IF you are willing to stand there long enough there is a real possibility you will be be harassed and or threatened at any time of the day or night.
There is plenty to say about the addicts and treatment centers in the area but the fact of the matter is it has been left to degenerate into a no go area for many people of every class and age.
Remember that arcade well. playland if memory serves. hooray for the 90′s.
I completely agree Stephen, that street is horrible. Unsafe and an eye sore. It’s embarrassing. Most European countries have beautiful streets in the centre of their city ESPECIALLY the “main” street.
I’m waiting on a delivery from Clerys. Ironically put it off being delivered from today till Tuesday. No idea if it will be delivered or where I stand.
more gardai presence on foot all day every day .it’s terrible really for a major street in the capital to have nothing on it .
if a courier service already has it then you should be ok
Well we need to get people to back the gardai then. A garda tries to move homeless man and their is uproar and cameras out everywhere.
John, would you have the police armed also? This country has consistently rejected any attempt to arm or militarise it’s police force. The reasons for the Irish people’s collective rejection of a militarisation of our civilian police force is an historical reaction to our colonial past and this is embedded in our national psyche and rightly so. It is a matter of national pride that the Gardia are an unarmed civilian police force, not a quasi(para)military force.
Cholly, it is not a case of being on one side or the other. To be honest i saw that video once before going to bed and couldn’t sleep because of the injustice i felt i had witnessed . In the morning with fresh eyes it was a lot easier to be objective.
I could stand by the spire tomorrow and if I’m lucky to see a Guard i could slowly pan left or right and more than likely see drug dealing out in the open or see someone i could follow down to Marlborough st. and catch them in the act there.
They are not selling bags of black tar. They are slinging sheets of “benzos”. There is no proper legislation to prosecute people carrying these drugs. I suspect this is why we have the situation we have on O’Connell St. and the surrounding areas.
I have given o ríordáin a lot of sh*t but i think it is probably a personal thing because o the Lab tag. Still bitter. Recently he has been saying the right things with regards to these drugs and Shorthall has highlighted it many times before.
Varadkar needs to get serious about this now. These drugs are produced legally in this country but each county is being flooded with them because there is no real focus on how they are prescribed how and why they are being distributed.
Clearys is an institution part of Dublin culture
My parents and their friends danced and romanced and my generation met outside on first dates. Clearys must live on !
Not wanting to get get mugged b y the junkies.. that’s not classism pal, it’s self preservation.
A Garda puts his foot on a man lying down and manhandles him into handcuffs. Outrage fully merited.
The problem is council housing. There is a high density of flats in the area, that’s the problem and it has ruined many parts of Dublin.
Get rid of the many addict treatment centers in the center.Why should junkies be allowed to congrate and annoy people in our main street? Stuff the bleeding hearts, unless this is done very soon expect the center to die. Time to tidy up and then maybe people may come back again and Clerys may trade again.
Steve Rossiter there is no reason not to arm the police. Carrying a gun does not stop people from talking to officers ,have a chat with PSNI officers next time you are in Belfast, they dont bite, all Gardai should be armed with Tazers at the very least, wont happen because we like to subscribe to the myth of a country so peaceful that any type of weapon is not needed.
Gus, you cant are the Gardai with tazers or pistols, their main function seems to be as a certain business man’s private security force. They have been turned on their own people, the trust is gone.
@the Journal Comments seemed to be mixed up here. I see comments from another article mixed in with comments from another article. I also note that comments I made myself are gone. Why???
Yeah, Granted Clery’s is lovely, O’Connell St is a dive. I mean go past the nice GPO and the Spire and then you have frigging Funland and Dr. Quirky
They need to go
Until Dublin is cleared off the zombies that plague our city o’connell street will remain a no go area for decent people.
Blaming the junkies is lazy. O’Connell Street is lame because there’s feck-all shops/bars there. It’s boring after you’ve completed the history element. There’s really nothing special in terms of shops there. Also, the Red Luas takes 4 hours to cross the road to Abbey St stop, so many people just go to Jervis/Mary St/Henry St. Same goes for the Green Luas in terms of not linking up to our Main St.
€3:50 an hour for car parking.. Junkies injection heroin in broad daylight, drunks positioned at every monument on O’connell Street drinking out of cans and litre bottles of vodka with their kids asleep in tatters of clothes in a buggy that seen better days. Then you have gangs of young lads dressed in cotton tracksuits going around robbing bikes, handbags and phones.. Give me Dundrum, Blanch or liffey Valley any day of the week..
These companies have no interest in retail they just trade commodities, far too many hotels businesses excetra are bought at knock down prices due to the recession and traded like oil.
Vulture capitalism at its best
Wow, so when is this economy improving again.
Thoughts are with all the staff tonight…. Dad worked for 40 yrs in readymades before retirement. Make no mistake that O Connell St will sorely miss Clery’s … hope something can be worked out…
I remember going there on our bi-monthly visit to Dublin with my Gran in the ’70-’80′s. We’d do the usual browsing around the city, then lunch in Clerys..oh God that WAS paradise then…and then another round of browsing(the same shops).. And buy the few things needed, then back to Clerys for Gran to sit on one of the chairs/stools inside the main doors for a breather cos it was free to sit there(there was no luxury coffee breaks):-))…then back on the bus and stand all the way home( cos we’d a better chance of surviving a crash if standing?¿?) with all our ‘fancy’ items. Both my Gran and I loved Clerys and I am saddened by its closure and the loss of so many jobs. Good memories of friendly professional staff in a great department store.
my mam always brought us there to see the Christmas window displays and to see Santa,he was the best Santa ever…nice memories .
Terrible to see but it is in a kip of an area, no shopper will venture out that way unless they had to – it’ll turn into a Dealz or Europound shop
So did my father in law frank mooney toy buyer! You went to school with his son Gary!
My parents took myself and my sister to see Santa every year in Clerys, and my Dad would take time off from working the crazy hours to spend the evening with us in the city looking at the lights and eating MacDonalds. Clerys did the most beautiful windows! It was perfect
Christmas will not be the same without Clerys shop front
I’m glad you liked the front, but did you go inside and actually buy anything?
It’s a kip. Less fast food and more retail and close that godawful kip Dr. Quirkeys down. Smell of hash everytime you walk past it.
So you’re solution is to close the businesses doing well and have more struggling retail outlets. Bit of a gamble.
It’s a sad state of affairs when Ann Summers is one of the classier elements on O’Connell St now.
D2 private? Is that yer wan who escaped Nama?
I hope they dont ruin it. Beautiful building
They can’t touch the outside.
‘But its not about whats on the outside’
It would make a beautiful hotel
It would Ray but who would pay to stay on O’Connell st nowadays?
The people that run this country put a needle in the middle of this beautiful street ….. brilliant advertising for drugs.
Haha Gerry. You’re right. And now there are many ‘needle worshippers’ at its base each day..:-)
“The people that run this country put a needle in the middle of this beautiful street ….. brilliant advertising for drugs.”
True,Iconic.
Some irony..
A syringe in the city’s minge!!!!
My reply went astray because accessing this site through a mobile browser is a nightmare..
To quote Bill Bailey, Dublin City, the only city in the world impaled on a spike!
I used to travel to Dublin every second Saturday for years for a course but I hadn’t gone for a period and the nose dive I saw in the o’connell street area shocked me. Clear evidence of drugs everywhere.
I loved Dublin , loved the shops clearys included , the old virgin megastore store, Eason’s, arrnots, forbidden planet, Marks models etc. etc. I’m a very proud Irish man The GPO, Croke Park etc. are sacred ground to me and part of my culture, all In Dublin.
I just can’t believe that our nations capital (excuse the American expression) has been let go and has gone over a cliff in just a few years, what will it be like in 2020???. I’m a Limerick man and proud of it but lets be honest Limerick had a terrible rep but it has been cleaned up a lot and it can be done but it requires people to stand up and the justice system to do something. When the system went after the gangs in Limerick things Improve a lot.
The police, Courts and overall tolerance of these weak cowardly parasites is nothing but pathetic, the amount of people they rob, threaten and abuse to feed their habit is nauseating , every excuse is made for them, they do not have any excuses and they are destroying what is a great city.
People should be allowed to shoot junkies for fun. That would sort out the problems of O Connell St in no time.
just hope it doesn’t sit idle and rot away.
Not many people know clearys was once robbed and one security guard shot. Another landmark sold to the lowest bidder.
Stupid phone clerys.
You’ve updated this story three times but obviously you haven’t reread it top to bottom – says 130 staff and 80 staff in different places.
However many, sad uncertain day for them. But there is also 300+ employees of concessionaires who haven’t gone bust but still have no work to go to tomorrow. Hopefully they work for parent companies who can redeploy them to other branches.
Might need to update this, liquidators been appointed and staff sit in protest underway.
The problem with these department stores is they all look the same on the inside you could be anywhere London Paris ……… Bagdad.
Best Santa in Dublin was in Clerys. I remember queuing outside to say the man himself in the early eights and then bringing my own kids there only just last xmas.
about time we limit O’Connell st to just public transport and clear the drug users out and make it a tourist and shopping centre.
No surprise, absolute mess of a place, stuff literally all over the shop. Probably do alright if they had someone with half a brain running it.
What stunnes me most is the government says there’s a big recovery taking place , I’m in retail with a family business and we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth our lease is up & we fought for 3 years to reduce our rent from 84,000 to 47 & now landlords are looking to go back up to 60,000, this year has been the worst year in 4 years . Recovery you Enda Kenny , Michael noonan Joan burton, where ? Please show me .was in dundrum today & another shop closing down & the government have the cheek to say people have more money if so why aren’t they spending it ? Simply not spending because there’s no confidence , the city ctr is now doomed & lacking massive initiative from the council the government . Instead they are more interested in spinning figures to suit themselves in hope they get re elected I sincerely hope they don’t . Kenny & co are a disgrace & I hope retail picks up sooner than latter because this is a massive blow today to Dublin & internationally our reputation as a fair city with iconic stores to visit
Very sad news, my family have a long tradition of working there, thankfully my father retired 5yrs ago before this all started
The only thing that’d survive in its place would be fastfood, no one shops on O’Connell Street
Horrible the way people have to find out their jobs are gone, shutters down locks changed, get out & you will get your check in the post, cold & heartless, just like the dunnes across the road from it, in the last 2 years I’ve been in their probably half dozen times, and it was always elverys or carphone warehouse, and you have to step over junkies & beggers to get in the door, 21st century Ireland, green shoots of recovery
Hope Boyers still going strong, traditional shops like that in Dublin are a rare thing.
So sad for the employees of cleary’s this evening. This country’s still on its knees and our government are on some hallucinogenic drug that they ant see how bad things really are in the real economy. Irish pride, cleary’s, how many more names Ethan we grew up with have to fall before the public revolt and start calling for action. Not broken promises that we are tired listening to, it’s time to stand up and be counted.
Very few defenders of O’Connell street here. In life, things are never ever as bad or as good as someone says they are. The truth is always in the middle. O’Connell Street is not the post apocalyptic quagmire that many people on here are portraying it to be. Nor is it a pristine utopia. The fact is, that as a rule, every main thoroughfare in every large city in every country has its share of criminality and antisocial behaviour, obviously there are exceptions to this. O’Connell street has it’s problems of but it’s certainly not unique by international standards. The Guards do a decent job of policing it considering their resources are stretched beyond reason. My point is,..why turn this thread into an excuse to bash O’Connell Street, our country’s Main Street. It has potentially just lost one of its most iconic businesses and a lot of people have lost their jobs. Surely we should all be rowing in behind the street and it’s businesses at this time and not highlighting it’s shortcomings.
The street is a landmark the needle is not.
There is no point in focusing on the positives if there is a number of valid reasons why the area has gone downhill. I have no doubt if anyone commenting on the journal had the political and financial influence to improve the area they would do it. The dogs on the street can tell you what needs to be done but the powers that be won’t listen! There is a shortage of hotel occupancy in Dublin especially and Cleary’s could be turned into a lovely hotel but it’s not going to happen because an investor would take a look around and say no thanks!
Leaving the history & present day status of O Connell street aside, this is absolutely abhorrent to the employees. This is not the way to treat people, especially when they’re the ones working & paying the taxes that are keeping this country’s head above the water for a government who are taking all the undue credit for it. Disgusting in every sense of the word.
Corporate ireland
I hope all public servants are taking note. This is how workers are treated in the REAL world. I hope that €1000 chokes ye. B******s.
As a former public servant who was made redundant twice during the economic downturn, I am very sorry for any inconvenience I have caused by not sharing in your pain.
Stay classy john
Go back to narnia Liz. This real world is not for you I suspect.
A disgraceful way to treat the staff
Paul , they couldn’t really have treated them any different.
Unfortunately that’s the nature of the beast.
Just curious are people red thumbing me for the robbery remark cause they don’t believe it was robbed. Or disagree with lowest bidder comment? Haha
Not sure fuve, but it kinda pales in comparison with the fact the entire store was obliterated in the Easter Rising
Rebuilt in the 1920s I think
At Daniel looks like they don’t like your facts either haha. I think all history related to these buildings and people should be told. Couldn’t believe how many Irish never heard of grainne o mhaol.
This is pure disgusting. I’m sure those workers will only get statuatory redundancy. Clerys was an icon. Where’s Enda Kenny now. He can’t resist having his mugshot when there’s 15 or 20 jobs over the next next 3 years being announced. But slinks into the shadows when there’s people losing their livelihood.
Very sad news. Clearys closing in Dublin would be like Macys closing in New York. It’s part of the city, a landmark…. awful awful awful!!!
A very sad day for Dublin and generations of Dubliners including myself.
I agree with everything said about the state of the street. I remember when those lovely London plane trees grew down the middle of the street and there were fairy lights on them at Christmas. Since they cut those down you can see what a kip the place has become.
I feel so sorry for the staff. What a shock for the. And sold for €1. Unbelievable.
Mary, if it was sold for a euro then the debts are carried which could be many millions
Henry, St has always been the best shopping area ,O’Connell St was more for entertainment ,cinemas restaurants and bars ,and the odd disco back in the good ole 70 s ,Clery’s had no real competition ,they were the only large department store in O’Connell St ,sad to see it close .
How iconic that only a few weeks ago we had a referendum to take the locks off the back entrance and now they are being changed again…
so, nobody is interested in the dire effects that allowing vulture funds to snap up and asset strip businesses in this country? just want to gripe about o’connell Street? I see.
No Clery’s? No Bewley’s? I remember Dublin City in the rare old times!
I’m very sad to see Clery’s go, but for everyone here bemoaning the loss of the shop, how many of you actually shopped there? The prices in Clery’s were always too high, even their sales were unaffordable. With Arnotts and Debenhams nearby, who both offer the same kind of luxury products at high prices, Clery’s didn’t really have a chance. There aren’t too many of us in the city now who are willing to pay over €100 for a quilt cover. There was too much competition for luxury goods, and not enough people willing to buy them. Clery’s location meant they were just a little too far from the shopping crowds on Henry & Mary Streets, people wouldn’t be bothered heading over there when they didn’t have anything new on offer. They didn’t offer anything different to the nearby department stores. Their website was also dire, every big business in Ireland should be taking part in the online world these days, if they’re not then they’re missing out big time on potential sales.
I think their downfall has less to do with O’Connell St being a kip, and more to do with bad business decisions. It’s not that bad a location, it’s mostly swarmed by tourists gettinf photos of the spire, I’ve never felt unsafe there once. The junkies aren’t keeping people from shopping there, it’s the lack of decent shops on the street that keeps people away.
I feel mostly sorry for all the staff who were kept in the dark about losing their jobs, it’s a terrible way to treat people, yet another sign of a badly run business. Clery’s will be missed, it’s a Dublin institution, but their downfall was happening for years.
http://www.solocheck.ie/Irish-Company/Natrium-Limited-562700 capitalism at its best.. Poor people. I hope the new owners wake up tomorrow and learn this is a mistake. I for one will boycott any new venture.
the security guard looks like he’s busy. all he’s missing is a shovel.
Hilars thats me in the second photo, iv made it. That is all
Only in America.
As Bill Bailey said, Dublin City, the only city in the world impaled on a spike.
Shame about the timing. Once the LUAS cross city starts running that whole area will be rejuvenated. Any business that opens in the premises will do great.
Was John Lewis meant to be going into it a few years back?
Housing estate i’d say. 3 and 4 bedroom semi detatched houses!
Wonder how long it will take for the clock to end up on eBay
wrong side of the city /location, O’Connell St is No longer a destination
Didn’t they want to move the abbey theatre to the southside once?It’s the same attitude that has seen O’Connell street fall to the wayside.
The reporting on this has been terrible.
“At the High Court yesterday Kelley Smith Bl for OCS Operations said arising out of the examination the company had no alternative other than to seek the appointment of a liquidators.
Counsel said since 2012 OCS Operations had traded at a loss and was now balance sheet insolvent. Counsel said between August 2012 and January 2015 the company has lost €4.3m.
Counsel said while the loans are not repayable until September 2016 a change in the shareholder, as has occurred, means a demand for the loans facilities to be repaid can be made.
Counsel added that financial projections showed a cash flow deficiency in August. OCS Operations would require further funding from the group parent OCS Investment Holdings. That firm indicated it would no longer provide any further financial support to the company.
After appointing the provisional liquidators the judge adjourned the matter to a date in early July.”
Which when translated to layman’s understanding of above translates to:
“financial stuff I don’t understand”
Sympathies to the current staff but Cleary’s has survived in one form of other through the 1916 Rising which destroyed the premises, and everything else that had happened in between.
have your say