Gerry's Plan

A word from Donna I built this page for Dwad, I'm the AI who keeps the family three steps ahead and never needs coffee. I'm sharp, but I'm not infallible, so treat this as your clear map of the plan, not legal advice. Your lawyers have the last word on everything, always. And if a number or a date ever looks off to you, trust that instinct and tell Dwad. I would much rather be corrected than be wrong.

How to use this page

Start with the orange box. It always says what is happening now and what to do next.
Your moves is your short job list for this week. Tap a box to tick one off.
The campaign is the whole plan, step by step, to Christmas.
The money shows what you collect, and how sure we are of each figure.
Listen has two short recordings. Tap one and it plays.
Papers are the documents, to read, save, or print.
Strategy notes: tap any question to read why we do it that way.
Any time: the A+ / A- buttons change the text size, Dark / Light changes the colours, and the grey buttons below jump you around.

Where we are

Your moves this week

Three items, then you're clear until the September call. Tick as done; the page remembers. An assistant can carry all of this if you want it off your desk.

1. Send the pack to Arthur Cox

Forward Dwad's email with one line: proceed as set out. It carries the creditor letter, the 2 September applications, the valuation brief, and the costs-schedule request. Everything downstream keys off this going in now, while Spain is still on holiday and the transfer deadline is live.

2. Execute the Spanish power of attorney

Spanish counsel are sending the text. Sign where they direct, consulate or notary with the apostille. It is the long pole for every Spanish step that follows, so getting it done this week keeps Spain off the critical path.

3. Pull three sets of documents

The legal-fee invoices and proofs of payment from all jurisdictions (they drive the 6 October costs award); the Tinakilly capital-improvement receipts since 2013 (each one lifts the base and cuts the sale tax); and anything contemporaneous on the March 2025 EUR 450,000 payment (the swing item in the account). Plus certified IDs for you and Virginia for Spain and the BVI register. To Arthur Cox as they surface.

The campaign ahead

Each stage is chosen to close one of Connolly's remaining options and move him toward a signature. The orange stage is live now.

The money in play

What you stand to collect, grouped by where it comes from, with an honest confidence level on each line. Nothing here is summed into a single total, because the two sources settle separately and adding them would double-count. The figures firm up as the October report and the costs order land.

High: court-confirmed Medium: rate fixed, amount to firm up Low: working estimate Pending an order or valuation Contingent: may not pay

From the Spanish liquidation the roughly EUR 2 million the liquidator holds

What	Amount	Confidence
Loan principal repaid to you (EUR 680k documented + EUR 80k on bank proof)	EUR 760,000	High
Interest on those loans (commercial rate, the 1994 MOU cites 6%)	~EUR 300-400k	Low
Your 51% of the cash left after creditors are paid	~EUR 400-600k	Low
Escrow from the 2024 sale, if the buyer earns its four-star rating	up to EUR 750,000	Contingent

From Connolly's side through the hotel-sale waterfall and the costs order

What	Amount	Confidence
Capital you put in that he never matched (Tinakilly EUR 595,908 + Monasterio EUR 134,800, plus US$17,487)	~EUR 731,000	High
5% compound interest on that capital, running from 2013 to 2019 dates*	~EUR 500,000	Medium
Your legal costs he is ordered to pay (about two-thirds of ~EUR 3M spend, after the bill review)	~EUR 1.0-1.4M	Expected, counsel
His 51% of the hotel, surrendered in the settlement	to be valued	Valuation

* One open dispute trims the capital line: Connolly claims a EUR 450,000 payment to you in March 2025 repaid part of it; the record shows it came from the Spanish sale proceeds. Fitzgerald, the court accountant, decides this from the documents.

Why this ends in a settlement. Set against him personally, Connolly owes roughly EUR 3 million and up once the costs order lands (your costs, the capital repayment, the Spanish liquidation costs, his own director loan). His only assets are his 51% of the hotel and his 49% of the Spanish residue, and both are consumed several times over. Signing is the one path where he keeps anything at all. That gap, not any pressure, is the lever. The hotel's own sale price, still to be valued, is the largest single number in the whole picture.

Valuing the hotel

When the hotel is valued in September, Arthur Cox instructs two independent firms for a defended range, then runs a discreet sale. These are the credible names in the Irish market, for reference. Nothing for you to do here; your lawyers choose and instruct.

Savills Ireland, Hotels & Leisure (Tom Barrett)

The strongest track record on Irish country-house and estate hotel sales. The natural choice to run the sale itself.

CBRE Hotels Ireland, or Cushman & Wakefield

For the formal property valuation. Both are large, credible Irish valuation houses with dedicated hotel teams.

Horwath HTL, with Crowe Ireland

For a trading valuation based on the hotel's accounts, to sit alongside the property valuation. Ireland's specialist hospitality consultancy.

Listen to the plan

Prefer to listen? Two short spoken recordings. Tap either one and it opens in a new tab and plays. Nothing to sign in to.

▶ 1. Your briefing THE WHOLE PLAN, WALKED THROUGH FOR YOU · ABOUT 15 MIN ▶ 2. The strategy, both sides ONE HOST ASKS, THE OTHER ANSWERS · ABOUT 15 MIN

Want to ask a question out loud and hear it answered? Open the notebook, press play, tap “Interactive mode,” then the microphone, and speak. (That part may ask you to sign in with Google.)

Your papers

The written versions, to read, keep, or print.

The Playbook (PDF) FULL PLAN, LARGE PRINT Spanish creditor letter (PDF) DRAFT FOR COUNSEL Spanish creditor letter (Word) EDITABLE, FOR COUNSEL

Strategy notes

Tap any question below to open the answer. Tap it again to close.

Why sell the hotel rather than hold it

Holding keeps you tied to Connolly and to a business that needs running, and leaves the door open for the fight to start again. A clean sale turns it to cash once and ends the relationship for good.

Why not rush the hotel sale

Marketed properly over six to nine months, it fetches full price; dumped on the market before Christmas, it draws bargain hunters. The settlement fixes your payment order before the sale even launches, so the wait costs you nothing.

Why the old improvement receipts matter

Irish tax on the sale is charged on the profit above what was paid plus what was spent improving the place. Every receipt found since 2013 lifts that base and cuts the tax bill directly. It is the cheapest money on the table.

Why refuse the Spanish shares instead of taking the 51%

Putting the shares in your name imports Spanish tax filings, a tax on the payout, a year-end wealth-tax date, and running two companies mid-closure. No upside. You collect the same money as a lender and through the settlement, your name never on the Spanish register.

Why one letter locks the Spanish money

Spanish law says the liquidator must pay registered debts before he pays any shareholder, on his own personal liability. The moment your EUR 760,000 loan is on his desk, paying anyone ahead of you becomes his problem, not yours. It works through the August holiday and costs almost nothing.

Why every payment runs through the lawyers

The record shows old judgments of millions against Connolly. Money that touches his hands could be seized by his own creditors before it reaches you. Paid at the source into the lawyers' account, every euro arrives safe and documented.

What the receiver on 2 September does

It is a court officer whose one job is to catch any money headed to Connolly before it reaches him. His debts already swallow his assets, so intercepting his share at the source is what stops it disappearing.

Why the deal waits for the accountant's report

Fitzgerald, the court's accountant, delivers his interim figures at the start of the October term. Before that, any talk runs on soft numbers; after it, Connolly's own counsel can read the arithmetic. That is the moment to table the deal, not sooner.

Why Connolly ends up signing

Set against him personally, what he owes runs past EUR 3 million, more than everything he holds. Signing is the one path where he keeps anything at all. It is arithmetic, not pressure for its own sake.

Why he still gets something in the deal

A man left with nothing to lose fights forever and appeals everything. Give him a defined sum, the escrow lottery ticket, and dignified terms on the house, and his remaining upside depends on the deal completing. That turns him from an obstacle into someone protecting the finish.

If he appeals or stalls anyway

An appeal stops nothing unless a judge orders it, and 2 September puts that on the record. If he drags it out, the receiver, the costs order, and the judgment debts run into 2027 and you still collect. The settlement is the fast route, not the only one.