The (Not So) Bloody Keys

Former multi-millionaire John O’Donnell stages stunt in which he pretends to hand over the keys to his Dublin mansion

“Ireland’s answer to Grant Bovey” Brian O’Donnell is a man who doesn’t do things by halves and in throwing the keys to the Dublin mansion he once owned at the Bank of Ireland’s CEO Richie Boucher yesterday, he again proved himself as nothing other than a self-serving publicity whore.

A one-time multi-millionaire turned £52 million debtor, O’Donnell appeared at the bank’s AGM with his son and after taking a front row seat, proceeded to confront Boucher carrying a key ring tagged with a printed sign reading: “The Bloody Keys”.

The Irish Independent reported that O’Donnell then “loop[ed] them on his finger” and “threw them on the table with an air that was casual, while laced with furious intent”. As he did so, he is reported to have stated: “Here are the keys to Gorse Hill [the £5.1 million home adjoining the singer Bono’s residence that he until yesterday shared with his wife Mary Pat] you spent €9m getting”.

Boucher is said to have looked on “with a weariness that only a six-year legal battle can induce” but in a separate turn, the locks of O’Donnell’s former home were changed by his “de facto spokespeople”, the New Land League, earlier in the day. Mr and Mrs O’Donnell subsequently announced that they now intend to take their sham of a case to the European Courts.

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