No match for Marty Morrissey when it comes to RTÉ moonlighters

The list of staff who requested permission from RTÉ for an outside event during the second and third quarters of last year shows Marty Morrissey is the undisputed king of the liggers. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin

When RTÉ began compiling a quarterly register of external activities documenting requests by staff to engage in side hustles, it was assumed the most eager moonlighters would be young influencers with large Instagram followings.

On the contrary, it turns out there’s no party like a Marty party when it comes to sideline gigs. The list of staff who requested permission from RTÉ for an outside event during the second and third quarters of last year, released under freedom of information legislation, shows Marty Morrissey is the undisputed king of the liggers.

Despite not being a client of agent to the stars Noel Kelly, Morrissey requested permission for five external activities in the second quarter of last year and 22 in the third quarter.

RTÉ will not disclose how much staff are paid for their sidelines and will not say whether they were granted or refused permission. Many will presumably be unpaid, including those for charitable causes.

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Marty’s gigs included emceeing the Repak Environmental Awards in the Shelbourne Hotel and the Supervalu Tidy Town Awards in Croke Park, along with interviewing the cast of Riverdance about their careers.

The list for the fourth quarter will presumably include what sounds like his most lucrative outside gig: fronting the Marty Party holiday package in the Costa del Sol last October where holidaymakers were entertained by the likes of Tommy Fleming and Sharon Shannon. Where does he get time for the day job?

Not that Morrissey, who had to return his free Renault last year after the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal, was the only sports presenter juggling jobs last year.

[ Marty Morrissey: ‘I’m an only child of an only-child dad and an only-child mum. I’ve no aunts, uncles or first cousins’Opens in new window ]

The second and third most requests came from the sport department, with presenter Darragh Maloney seeking permission for 17 outside gigs during the two quarters and fellow broadcaster Jacqui Hurley seeking 15, including presumably hard-hitting interviews with retired rugby star Brian O’Driscoll about his Land Rover Defender and Q&As with rugby player James Ryan and jockey Rachel Blackmore on behalf of Volvo.

Michael O’Leary’s painted into a corner over rent

Michael O’Leary is estimated to be worth about €900 million, mostly down to his stake in Ryanair. But he also has an expanding property portfolio with his 2,000-plus acres in Co Westmeath leading to the nickname “The Mullingar Magnier” after the Coolmore Stud boss, who is estimated to own more than 10,000 acres in Co Tipperary.

In Dublin, O’Leary owns several period piles which he lets out, including houses on Raglan Road and Clyde Road in Dublin 4. When it comes to pursuing his rent, he’s not shy of a trip to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), the arbiter of landlord-tenant disputes, even if it’s over only €754.

Last week the RTB published a judgment following a case taken by Bradley Investments, O’Leary’s investment vehicle, against a couple who underpaid their €2,260 monthly rent at a property his company owns in Blackrock, Dublin by about €754 one month.

The couple said they had cut the rent for one month because they had been forced to move out while the house was painted, which took 10 days. They say they initially objected to the house being painted, arguing it would be “too disruptive”.

When O’Leary’s company suggested a reduction in their rent for the month of the painting, they said this was “an insult” as it did not include any compensation. However, when Bradley Investments insisted it needed to paint the place, they moved out for 10 days and reduced the amount they paid.

At the RTB O’Leary’s representative argued the tenants had rejected the suggestion that a portion of the rent would be waived, adding there was no proof they moved out for the 10-day period and should have paid their rent in full.

However, the RTB found in favour of the tenants, ruling O’Leary’s representatives did not have “carte blanche” to carry out painting or repairs at the expense of the tenants’ right to “peaceful occupation”.

Perhaps the reason O’Leary was so keen to keep up the house’s appearance was because of a former resident – it’s where his wife Anita Farrell lived before marrying the Mullingar man.

Anne-Marie O’Brien climbs aboard Horse Racing Ireland

Speaking of Coolmore Stud, the latest addition to the board of Horse Racing Ireland is Anne-Marie O’Brien, the wife of Aidan, the trainer at John Magnier’s Ballydoyle Stables.

A trainer in her own right, she grew up in the business – her father Joe Crowley was previously Coolmore’s head trainer.

She was nominated courtesy of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association and appointed by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon, himself from good bloodstock country in Kilcullen, Co Kildare.

Old Belvedere’s padel plans

Hot on the heels of Wanderers FC, Ireland’s second oldest rugby club, getting planning permission for a tricky conversion to their clubhouse on Merrion Road, Old Belvedere has lobbed in an application to expand its own base on Anglesea Road with a larger bar and, of course, three padel courts.

The decision to add the padel courts was endorsed by members in a recent egm, with 97 per cent voting for the game that seems to be smashing squash and tennis in the popularity stakes. We can guess which way neighbour Dermot Desmond, an honorary life member of the club and devotee of padel, voted.

The Michael Lynn story continues

Rogue lawyer Michael Lynn has obviously been keeping busy in prison reading journalist Michael O’Farrell’s book about him. Fugitive: The Michael Lynn Story was published a year ago by Merrion Press and Irish Academic Press.

But it was only last week that Lynn, represented by John P O’Donohoe solicitors in Waterford, filed a High Court defamation action against O’Farrell and the book’s publishers. Perhaps he discovered it in the prison library.

Talbot Street and a quest for the soul of Éire

Mediahuis boss Peter Vandermeersch has been living in Ireland since taking over as publisher of the Independent stable of newspapers in 2019. Now he is turning his journalist’s eye on the “history, culture and paradoxes” of Ireland in a new book aimed at the Dutch market. Described as “not a classic travel guide”, it is instead “a quest for the soul of Éire”.

[ ‘Talbot Street is known as Tablet Street now’: Will a €2m makeover be enough to turn things around?Opens in new window ]

We wonder if he’ll mention Talbot Street, his favourite Dublin street and the location of Mediahuis HQ. In a blog post five years ago, he rhapsodised about the cosmopolitan stretch where you will find the most “junkies, nutters and crackpots” in the capital. And no, he wasn’t talking about his colleagues.

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