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DUBLIN’S REGENCY HOTEL, scene of the assassination of David Byrne on 5 February, has been suffering heavy financial losses since the shooting, the High Court was told today.
James McGettigan, director of Regan Development Ltd which trades as the Regency Hotel Group, said in a sworn statement that the hotel had suffered immense reputational damage and loss of business in the weeks which followed the shooting, in which two people were also wounded.
He said the viability of the trade and the livelihoods of staff had been undermined since the hotel was the source of wanton violence, when a group of at least four armed men had entered the premises as a boxing weigh-in was taking place.
Micheal P O’Higgins SC, counsel for Regan Development Ltd, said the hotel had been closed off as a crime scene for several days after the shooting. There had been extensive media coverage of the incident, and afterwards many booked events were cancelled.
Indemnity
The family-run hotel, off Swords Road, Drumcondra is seeking indemnity from its insurer Aviva, but Mr Justice Robert Haughton said today that the matter was not urgent and put the application back to the new law term in April.
Judge Haughton was told the incident was covered under the insurance policy, and the claim procedure had been followed.
The court heard the insurance contract provided the hotel coverage in respect of losses arising from the diminution of income and increased costs which had been triggered by events including murders on premises.
Counsel said the loss had been estimated at €217,196 but despite repeated requests his client had received no confirmation from Aviva Insurance that they had any intention to indemnify the hotel.
Mr O’Higgins, who appeared with Mr McGettigan’s legal team Gareth Robinson Bl and solicitor Georgina Robinson, said the business had suffered immense reputation damage and was in a precarious state, back in recessionary conditions.
Mr McGettigan said the gravity of the financial situation had increased and he was anxious to seek a commitment from Aviva Insurance that they will indemnify the hotel.
Difficulties
He claims that the hotel’s difficulties are not insurmountable but are critical and demand the urgent attention of its insurer.
Judge Haughton heard the three-star hotel, which caters to businesses and tourists, had been providing services such as family reunions, weddings and funerals and had played host to concerts and sports events.
Since the shooting the hotel had suffered loss of business on rugby and GAA weekends and St Patrick’s Day.
The hotel, which also provided temporary social and emergency housing through arrangements with Dublin local authorities, had turned over €7.3 million last year.
Are they doing this on purpose?
Trump 2020 seems like the only outcome.
@Sean Ryan: Was just thinking the same. The Democrats seem hell bent on ensuring the reelection of Trump.
@Anne Marie Devlin: if they don’t choose Sanders at their convention, like last time, ye could be right… Shooting themselves in the foot altogether.
@Sean Ryan: Trump says stuff like this 20 times before breakfast every day
@Sean Ryan: this is a brilliant strategy by Biden, make it about race.
If it’s about race there’s no way Trump can win. Roma Downey and her husband will release all the racist tapes they have on Trump.
Biden will gain moderate Trump supporters who are only a bit racist.
@Sean Ryan: Presidents are selected, not elected…should be pretty obvious at this stage
@Russel Steapot: What the hell is “a bit racist”?
@Kieran Stafford: exactly. People know and expect it from him
@ObsidianShine: Tulsi Gabbard seems like a genuinely decent person, would like to see her get the nomination, could take a lot of swing voters
@Pól Ó’hAodha: her sudden change of heartbreak homosexuality and hanging out wit al asad could be issues?
@ObsidianShine: Sanders will never get elected in USA. He may be popular with some young leftists but most of the americans see him as dangerous socialist.
But I thought he was a Democrat? Can only imagine if Trump said that the lefties here would have a meltdown.
@Darren: he’s not supported by all democrats, for the last 50 years the democrats and republicans have been 2 sides of the same coin, much like FG and FF here. But there’s a new progressive side to he democrats known as the Justice Democrats, with AOC, illhan omar, Rashida tlaib Ayanna Presley etc. These are the real opposition to Trump and the Republicans not the clintons or the bidens. Bernie Sanders is the man to beat Trump
@Pseudonym: not a chance any of the ‘progressives’ will beat Trump
@Joe Vlogs: Bernie sanders will beat him
@Pseudonym: If the Democrats don’t pull any stunts at the convention like they did last time, he has a chance of running, and then he would beat Trump.
@Pseudonym: If they’re the real opposition he has nothing to worry about.
The fact he’s supposedly the most likely to beat Trumpy says so much about the US. the man can’t keep his foot out of his mouth and while he may not “be playing with a full deck” he’s got a full suit or more than Trumpy.
@GrahamMManning: are you sure you’re not a trump fan? You seem to spend most of your day thinking & commenting about him.
@GrahamMManning: have you heard of Bernie sanders?
@GrahamMManning: So would it only be racist if Trump said it?
@Seamus Mac: if commenting makes me a fan I think you may have an ickle thing for me too. Flattering I suppose.
@Pseudonym: yup, your point?
@Darren: in isolation could be taken as racist but more likely a idiotic slip of the tongue. Nothing definitive but Joes history of foot in mouth makes me lean more towards the latter. Trumpys extensive racist history would make me lean more towards the former. That said well aware my own bias could be a factor too.
@Graham Wilson Wannabe: and your understanding of words hasn’t improved any with some sleep. Miss me? Which dream about me did ya have?
@Graham Wilson / Disco Pants: Interesting that The Journal continue to allow you to refer to another commenter as a ‘mongo’, a slur against people with disability. Stay classy, and enjoy the limelight of impersonating me!
@Graham Wilson: should I log in with my Orla Smith account again and pretend to be female again?
@Graham Wilson / DiscoPants: I fully support anyone who is transitioning. Xx
@Graham Wilson: how about our Jenny Boyle account. Will we go back to that one Liam? I think this one might be dead in the water. Sorry
@Graham Wilson: You do what you gotta do Disco Pants! Couldn’t beat me in an argument because of your low-IQ, got annoyed that I didn’t reply to your personal insults, so you got desperate and the last resort you had was to copy my account. So sad, now you spend your days pretending to be me! Where did life go wrong little fella? :)
Cloning accounts to make another journal user look bad is such a weirdo move.
@ObsidianShine: I’ve reported it 6 times ro The Journal, it goes against multiple sections in their own Comments Policy, but they have chosen to ignore the reports and allow Disco Pants call other commenters a ‘mongo’.
@Graham Wilson: ok how about resurrecting one of the classics then? Remember the great run we had as Open Borders, the Soros troll last year? The humiliation got too much for me in the end though :(
@Graham Wilson: we even found a friend this time in labradoodle Manning. After all these years trolling Liam. A friend!
@Graham Wilson: u impersonate another poster but they’re the troll? Words, coherent arguments and even insults with a modicum of wit are hard huh? Better than your real life though?
@GrahamMManning: I know. I’ve reported myself to the journal so many times but they keep ignoring me pet. I have a history of multi accounting and cloning hun.
@Graham Wilson: impersonating another poster is beyond weird. What sort of empty life do some people have? I suppose the original Graham Wilson should take it as a compliment that they have such a big impact on this persons life that they are now imitating him.
@Graham Wilson: Great entertainment. Thank you both.
Trump was on something alright
God love America that’s all I can say
@Treasa: I’m as OUTRAGED as the next person, but can someone tell is it racist towards non-white kids or white kids. Thanks.
@Treasa: God love them alright …
A bit reminiscent of Bernie Sanders statement of white people dont know what it means to be poor, do these people think b4 they speak
WHY are these men running? its bad enough an extremely out of touch, living in his own wee world Trump is in office. I dont care how agiest this sounds, but nobody that age should be allowed to run for the most powerful position in the world. Where are all the younger candidates? why are they all elderly men?
@Vote4Pedro: Sanders corrected himself the very next day.Has your hero (Trump) ever done that ?
What a clown, and to add insult to injury, he is one of the better ones.
@Mick paisley: no he’s not
@Pseudonym: With any luck this kind of stuff will put Bernie Sanders in top position for the Democrats
The man is nearly 80 years of age so I’d allow him a slip of the tongue as I don’t believe his intentions weren’t bad.
Also not to sound ageist but an 80 year old has no but in the White House.
@De Zach Same: *business
@De Zach Same: Youre right. And its not ageist, its just realistic and logical. The person sitting in office should represent the views and aspirations of all age groups, people 70 and over just cant do that
@De Zach Same: interesting how we have an idea at what age people should retire, but one of the most important jobs on the planet seems to be exempt from this…
Trump should learn to spell his own name before calling someone else out for not playing with a full deck…
@Ashish Uday Lal: Annoyed because it wasn’t Trump making the comments then?
@Darren: Not at all- Trump has 11000 lies and counting, and a history of bigotry stretching a long way back. You jumping to reply to me because Biden made a racist comment it makes Trumps OK? Maybe you want to say something else but are having trouble articulating it?
Listened to Bernie Saunders on Joe Rogan. The guy is a breath of fresh air….a real peoples person and president
They’ve learned absolutely nothing. Trump will be loving it.
Hes starting to make Donald Trump look smart. I bet the makers of the comedy Parks and Recreation are mortified that they had their lead character, a supposedly kind and highly intelligent civil servant, be totally smitten with this old coot
‘oranges’
If anyone is not playing with a full deck it is trump!
As an OAP myself I just feel that Biden and Sanders are too old now. Its time for the Democrats to skip a generation and blood someone younger. The US & us by extension need someone new with a vision and the energy to bring it to fruition.
@Jane Waters: i agree, Bernie and Joe seem like good people and seem to have served well, but I think the worst thing to compete against Trump is another old white guy, and saying that as an oldish white guy myself too. I would like to see Oprah Winfrey have a go at running :-) . A popular black woman against Trump … he would have no chance. I think Democrats have their eyes off of the ball, at the moment.
Any response to this is destined to be perceived as @toxic@…
Hes a creep if all creepians.
@Mark: of all .
What are we going to do about Creepy Uncle Joe Biden?
By Alexandra Petri February 18, 2015 The Washington Post.
When Joe arrives, everyone he knows (Jill, Barack, Michelle, Sasha and Malia, John (Kerry), John (McCain) and several women he recognizes only from having told them, once, in passing “No dates ’til you’re 30!”) is already sitting in his office in a semicircle of folding chairs. He blinks once or twice, startled.
“Where’s the yogurt bar?” he asks. “TCBY, with all the fixins. The e-mail said. Sprinkles!”
“Joe,” President Obama says, as gently as he can, “there is no yogurt bar.”
Joe sits down on a folding chair. His is, oddly enough, facing all the other chairs. He turns it around to face the door. “So,” he says, in the ensuing silence, “who’re we waiting for? Looks like some kind of an intervention. Is it ol’ Speaker Johnny Bone? Orange Julius? I call him Orange Julius because, heh, you get it? I get it.”
“No, Joe,” Michelle says. “This isn’t for –” she grimaces “– Orange Julius.”
“Who’s it for then?” Joe gets up and makes his way around the room, shaking hands and leaning in. “Hey there, hi! No dates ’til you’re 30! Sorry to hear about your ma, God bless her.”
Jill shudders. “You’re right,” she says, turning to President Obama. “It’s just as bad as you said.”
“Joe,” the president says. “We’re here to talk to you. Sit down, please.”
Joe sits. The chair is still facing the wrong way. He sits in it backwards.
“Joe, we all love you,” the president continues. “More or less. We want the best for you. But lately –”
“Not just lately,” Michelle says. “Really for decades now.”
“Lately you’ve gone from America’s Wacky Uncle to America’s Creepy Uncle.”
“It’s the leaning,” Malia says.
“Yeah,” Sasha adds, immediately.
“You need to stop leaning like a creeper,” Malia says.
“Here is a slideshow that New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer put together,” Sasha says. “You’re just lucky there isn’t a Tumblr.”
“Joe Biden Looming Creepily Over Uncomfortable Women Dot Tumblr Dot Gov,” Malia suggests.
“Do any of these women look comfortable?” Sasha asks. She produces the most recent picture.
Joe squints at the picture. “Looks pretty comfortable to me,” he says. “Jill, that’s a comfortable face, right? That face says ‘I’m comfortable around this suave man.’”
“No,” Jill says.
“But,” Joe says.
“No,” Jill says. “No, Joe. That is not a comfortable face. That is the face of someone who is trying to get as far away as possible without being rude to the vice president of the United States.”
“You look like you used to be a bird and you’re still getting used to your human form and are trying to perch on her shoulder with your hands,” Malia says.
“Look at this one,” Sasha says.
“You look like you’re auditioning for Dracula, but, like, old creepy hunchback cloak Dracula, not the new Dracula with Luke Evans that nobody saw.”
“I saw it,” John McCain says.
“You look like you’re trying to tempt her to join the Dark Side.”
“You look like a Dementor.”
“You do look a little like a Dementor.”
“Look at this one,” Sasha says, flipping through the slideshow.
“Nothing wrong with that one,” Joe says. “Heh heh. Bikers. Tell your old man I said hello, rest his soul!”
“He doesn’t even know what he’s saying, does he?” Michelle asks, turning to the president. “So sad.”
“Joe,” John Kerry says. “Wacky Uncle is a role to which you are generally well-suited. It’s a series of recognizable tropes. The Onion loves it. You can call the president clean and articulate and people will still willingly spend time with you. But you can’t overplay it. And right now, you keep landing on just the wrong side of the line. Here is a chart.”
“You called that representative your butt buddy,” Sasha says. “Do you even know what that means?” Michelle looks at her. “I don’t, obviously, Mom, but, like, you definitely don’t.”
“It means buddy,” Joe says. “But it’s more fun to say, because in addition to the word buddy, you get to say the word butt, heh heh. Butts. A whole Senate full of ’em!”
“I had no idea it was this bad,” Jill says.
“Do something for me, would you, Joe?” President Obama asks. “Just get up and greet Sasha.”
“Please no,” Sasha says.
“Just do it the way you think it should be done,” President Obama says. “Sorry, Sasha. For this, I’ll let you get Snapchat.”
Joe Biden rises from his chair and goes to stand behind Sasha, leaning over her and whispering, “You know, I have a lot of friends in your community, including a very dear colleague of mine, Barack America.”
“THIS IS THE WORST,” Sasha says. “DAD MAKE HIM STOP.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do!” President Obama says.
Malia has taken a picture. “Look at this,” she says. “Does Sasha look comfortable at all?”
“Yes,” Joe says. “That is the face a young person makes to indicate that she is excited to meet you. It’s like a flesh emoticon. YOLO! Ha ha.”
“Can we lock him up somewhere?” Michelle asks. “Can we just send him to somewhere he won’t do any damage?”
“The vice presidency?” John McCain suggests, laughing to himself because he thinks this is a good joke and feels that the rest of the room is unlikely to appreciate it.
“He’s been spending a lot of time in Iowa,” John Kerry says. “Why don’t we just send him there and tell them not to let him leave?”
The president and first lady exchange a look. “That could work,” Michelle says. “Just keep him off C-SPAN.”
“Right,” President Obama adds. “And come 2016, he’s on his own.”
@Pat Patovic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ-YjGmpO4Q
@Pat Patovic: the journal.ie let’s you post an entire piece from the Washington Post. What does that say about the journal.ie ?
@Mark Fields: Maybe they feel its relevant who knows. I have no doubt that you reported it, perhaps it hit the nerve but nevertheless it pretty much sums up who Creepy Joe really is.
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