Life & Times of Aodogán O'Rahilly, part 10 ....

In part 9 of this current series, we referred to the news item that appeared on April 16, 1954 (see the Blog for 9/10/2020), where we highlighted this excerpt:

"The Weatherwell Ltd plan is to demolish the former train station and all other facilities and turn the site into a modern factory with machinery for manufacturing plaster board and plaster."

As we noted, that plan was not carried out, even though a loan had been obtained by Weatherwell Ltd for that stated purpose. Due to the security guarantees for that loan the issue did not die there, because it became the subject of a question raised in a Dáil Éireann Ceisteanna - Questions debate requiring oral answers that were heard on Wednesday, April 23, 1958. The subject of the debate was the Greenore Industry Loan, as reprinted here:

"Mr [George] Coburn asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the purpose of the recent guaranteed loan granted to a firm which intends to set up an industry in Greenore; and how many will be employed in the industry.

Mr S. Lemass [replied] The purpose of the loan as set out in the statement presented to the Oireachtas in January, 1957, was:— 'To assist in the carrying out by Plaster and Gypsum, Limited, Kingscourt, County Cavan, of the following:--

'The purchase of Greenore port and railway station, the transfer of machinery and equipment from the factory of Weatherwell, Limited, at Clondalkin to Greenore, the manufacture of plaster board at Greenore, the development of a gypsum mine at Kingscourt and the provision of working capital.'

As it was not feasible to arrange immediately for the transfer of the plaster board manufacture to Greenore, approval was subsequently given for an alteration in the purposes of the guaranteed loan, the effect of which was to delete from the purposes already approved:--

'the transfer of machinery and equipment from the factory of Weatherwell, Limited, at Clondalkin to Greenore and the manufacture of plaster board at Greenore'.

I understand that it is the intention to undertake plaster board manufacture in due course at Greenore, but the Deputy will appreciate that to go into any further detail would involve a disclosure of the affairs of a private commercial concern. For this reason also I am unable to give any indication of the number who would be employed in the industry."

Notice that at no time is the name of Aodogán O'Rahilly introduced into this parliamentary question and answer session. That is because, as previously explained in this Blog, it was not Aodogán O'Rahilly who purchased the property at Greenore, and neither was that property purchased from 'British Railways'. Yet that is exactly what the crude and slapdash writers about the creation of Radio Caroline have always claimed.

This is not a matter of "splitting hairs", this is a matter of factual reporting of a legal matter. Detail does matter!

Also notice again (in the previous Blog in this series), that there was more than one director of Weatherwell Ltd., which means that Weatherwell Ltd and Aodogán O'Rahilly were not interchangeable names for the same commercial operation. Even if there had been only one director, the legal theory concerning the veil of separation between a limited company and its administrator, has to be maintained in order to prevent allegations of co-mingling of assets in the event that the company runs into financial difficulty. When co-mingling of assets can be proven, then the human being who has been shown to have had their hands in the company till, can then be held personally liable for the debts of the company.