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John O’Shea to leave GOAL after High Court action is settled

O’Shea has announced his retirement from the charity, after an attempt by its board to remove him is settled out of court.

Updated, 18:16

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the humanitarian charity GOAL, John O’Shea, is to step down from his position next month, after the High Court was today told that his attempts to stop the charity’s board from removing him had been settled.

In a statement this evening O’Shea, 68, said he had decided to step down as CEO, a post he had held since founding the charity himself in 1977.

“I wish to express my profound thanks to many thousands of individuals who have helped me in my efforts to alleviate the suffering of some of the poorest people on the planet,” O’Shea said.

“Helping the downtrodden, the deprived and the destitute was an honour and a privilege.”

GOAL said it hoped to “explore opportunities to collaborate with John for the betterment of the organisation given John’s vast experience and expertise”, and thanked O’Shea for his “astonishing work and contribution to GOAL”.

“Since 1977 GOAL has delivered over $1bn in aid and emergency relief programmes to the poorest of poor in over 50 countries, saving tens of thousands of lives and improving countless others,” it said.

Trade and development minister Joe Costello paid tribute to the “exceptional humanitarian work and the leadership” O’Shea had shown, saying GOAL had made a “significant contribution to emergency humanitarian action and longer term development efforts”.

Details of the settlement reached between the sides have not been disclosed.

The Irish Times said the High Court had been informed this afternoon that the dispute between O’Shea and GOAL’s board had been settled following “lengthy discussion” between lawyers for both sides.

O’Shea had secured a temporary order against his removal earlier this month, rejecting complaints of “institutionalised bullying” within the organisation, calling them “false and concocted”.

Additional reporting by Emer McLysaght

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23 Comments
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    Mute RJ.Fallon
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    May 20th 2018, 12:12 PM

    “privatisation Drive” , another ” lets grab all they have” scam. Like ourselves, soon to be left with nothing to call our own.

    161
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    Mute Aidan Mitchell
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    May 20th 2018, 12:16 PM

    @RJ.Fallon: beating up a 75 year old man should sort that right out…

    91
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    Mute BananaRepublic1922
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    May 20th 2018, 12:20 PM

    @RJ.Fallon: we have nothing to call our own its all been given away by our treasous politicians….this republic has been sold right under our feet and stupid paddy doesnt give a f@@k.

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    May 20th 2018, 12:47 PM

    @BananaRepublic1922:
    Good.
    I rather see them sold than the Irish taxpayer being on the hook for them
    I worked in the semi state sector for years, my god the people in them would get some fright if there jobs were actually at risk.

    21
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    Mute Sean Conway
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    May 20th 2018, 12:48 PM

    @RJ.Fallon: Millionaire FF/FG politicians are just waiting for an excuse to sell IW from under our noses.

    52
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    Mute Robert O'Rourke
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    May 20th 2018, 12:31 PM

    It isn’t the Greeks it’s the Chinese he’s after.

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    Mute Boyne Sharky
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    May 20th 2018, 5:26 PM

    We can all sympathise with how they may feel, seeing their country being sold out from under them, but beating the ever loving sh.. it out of a 75 year old man isn’t the way to solve anything. That’s the sort of thing that makes their cause worthless, it makes them worse than those they’re angry about. A big muscled lad picking on the weakest in society, yeah that sends a great message.

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    Mute John Fergus
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    May 20th 2018, 7:13 PM

    With a meeting of eurozone finance ministers set for 21 June, teams of experts from the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have met with the Greek government in recent days to discuss its privatisation drive, an overhaul of the civil service and the deregulation of the state-dominated energy market.
    In a statement that gave no detail on the agreement, the EU’s executive said a staff-level accord had been reached.

    This is the main piece of the article that deserves attention. The people they carried out the attack were labelled as being far right wing by the office of the countries left-wing leader. A cynical person would question this.
    Perhaps the attackers were people that voted for Tsipras and Syriza in 2015 and now are utterly dismayed at how their country is and sold out from under their feet.
    In any event I don’t know I wasn’t there.
    The sad thing is there is no end in sight, Greece cannot effectively survive in the euro it is the totally wrong currency for them.

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    Mute John Fergus
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    May 20th 2018, 8:46 PM

    @John Fergus: don’t get me wrong it’s tragic what happened. Those responsible for beating a 75-year-old man should be figuratively hung. That being said the official line on this is likely skewed to benefit those giving it.

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    May 21st 2018, 1:14 AM

    @John Fergus: Currency? If your economy was a basket case to begin with, does it matter much about the currency? Interestingly, most Greeks want to stay in the Euro, apparently – go figure?

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    May 20th 2018, 6:07 PM

    Disgusting hitting a 75 year old man.
    Unforgivable.

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    Mute Jasun Ó Cearnaigh
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    May 20th 2018, 11:33 PM

    Would it have been OK If he was 30 and not 75?

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