Few people represent the extremes of Ireland’s recent history more than Thomas McFeely.
By 2008, the 63-year-old had transformed himself from Irish Republican Army hunger striker in Belfast to millionaire property developer in Dublin. Then the real estate bubble popped. Now bankrupt and facing criticism after residents of one of the properties he developed were forced to move because of fire-safety concerns, McFeely last month lost a battle to keep his home in one of the Irish capital’s most affluent areas.
“It is the latest episode of the unfortunate situation that has befallen the country,” Justice John Hedigan told the Dublin courtroom as the Irish government seized the property. “There’s nothing I can do.”
Such rulings will become increasingly familiar in Ireland as one of the biggest property bubbles in European history unwinds, a crisis masked this year by falling bond yields as investors bet that the worst is over. Yet for Irish banks, whose losses forced the government to follow Greece in seeking a bailout, the true cost of the debacle is about to hit.
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