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Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
How AIB, once worth less than its art collection, came back from the brink
In early March 2012, AIB's chief executive of three months, David Duffy , unveiled a swingeing plan to cut one in five jobs – 2,500 in total – to restore the ailing lender to profitability and make a start on paying back its €20.8 billion taxpayer rescue. 'If you were leaving, someone would bring out a Swiss roll and a packet of biscuits and people would gather around your desk. There was no talk of going out for a nice lunch,' recalls a former AIB staffer who went through their fair share of goodbyes at the time in the group's then headquarters in Ballsbridge . 'The contrast between the relief on the faces of those leaving and the anguish of those who were staying was often stark. It was a very difficult time to say you worked in one of the banks. If you got into a taxi at the time and were asked where you worked, you'd say something like Arnotts, given the level of public hostility towards bankers at the time. Others working in branches got the brunt of it, sometimes being spat at. The atmosphere was febrile.' Almost 13 years later – and 16 years after its initial rescue – AIB returned this week to full private ownership as the Government sold its final 2 per cent stake to market investors, at a share price almost 60 per cent above what it was when it carried out an initial public offering (IPO) of shares on the stock market eight years ago. READ MORE The Government is not alone in seeking to draw a line under crisis-era bailouts. The past month has seen Keir Starmer's administration in the UK sell its remaining shares in NatWest and the Dutch government reduce its holding in ABN Amro below 30 per cent. Elsewhere, Greece concluded the reprivatisation of its lenders late last year with the sale of a stake in National Bank of Greece. [ AIB share sale brings banker pay back into focus Opens in new window ] The sale of the final tranche of AIB shares leaves the State on track to fall about €700 million short of recovering its full rescue bill on a cash-in, cash-out basis, even after it goes about selling stock warrants held in the bank, estimated to be worth about €300 million. Still, it wasn't always a given that taxpayers would recover this much from the most expensive bailout of a surviving Irish lender – especially when AIB shares were trading below €1 apiece, a seventh of their current price, during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. 'It did look bleak at various points in terms of getting to this point,' said Des Carville, head of the Department of Finance's shareholding and financial advisory division, which managed the relationship with the bank. Des Carville, head of the Department of Finance's shareholding and financial advisory division 'These were risky investments. Owning equities is risky at the best of times. Owning shares in banks, as we've found out, is particularly so.' Three key factors have turned around AIB's fortunes in the past four years: a spike in interest rates globally as central banks fought inflation; the bank's return to loan-book growth after a decade and a half of contraction; and the shrinking of competition as Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland exited the Republic. The biggest boost from higher interest rates has been thanks to inertia across Irish households as they continue to keep 85 per cent of their €166 billion of cash savings in on-demand and current accounts, earning little or nothing, rather than availing of rates of up to 3 per cent for certain accounts among domestic banks, including AIB. The fact that AIB's deposit base is much larger than its loan book also means that it has earned billions of euro in recent years from storing excess cash with the Central Bank of Ireland. AIB had €31.5 billion lying idle with the regulator at the end of last year. The going deposit rate across euro-zone central banks was as high as 4 per cent in 2024. Christ Cant of Autonomous Research in London, said in a report earlier this year that AIB is what Germans would call a 'eierlegende Wollmilchsau', or egg-laying woolly milk sow – a mythical jack-of-all-trades for investors. 'Amongst European banks, AIB provides an unusual combination of both exceptional capital return prospects [for investors] and strong balance sheet growth prospects, in a great zip-code,' he said, noting that the Republic was a 'structurally attractive market' and 'fiscally responsible sovereign'. Taxpayers felt over the years that bank bailouts left them holding eggs of a more sulphuric kind. AIB would lose more than €34 billion on soured loans – more than any other Irish lender – in the decade after Brian Cowen's government guaranteed the banks in September 2008, including bad-loan charges and losses on portfolio sales to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and overseas investment firms. The stench still lingers. Even though the Irish economy is now almost three times its Celtic Tiger peak of €197 billion in 2007, the banking crisis continues to be felt, with Irish households and businesses paying higher interest rates on loans than the EU average, creaking infrastructure and, most profoundly, a post-crash shortage of capital for residential development that has given rise to today's housing crisis. 'A real arrogance' Stephen Bell was part of a team of PwC consultants brought in to help AIB management in late 2010 as it headed into State control. 'One clear memory from my first days was sitting in an office with artwork on the walls and thinking to myself, each one of these pieces is probably worth more than the bank right now,' said Bell, who would serve as AIB's chief risk officer on secondment during 2011. AIB had an impressive collection of Irish art spanning the 1880s through the 21st century, including works from Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry, Sir John Lavery, and Roderic O'Conor. A few dozen of its best pieces would be handed over to the State after the bank succumbed to taxpayer ownership, ending up at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. 'There was a real arrogance about AIB ahead of the crisis. It saw itself as a multinational organisation, with its banking unit in Poland, interests in the Baltics and Bulgaria, a large stake in M&T Bank in the US, and a UK division,' said a former senior Central Bank official who dealt with the banks during the financial crisis, but who declined to be named. In the early days of the global crisis in 2007, the regulatory focus was more on Bank of Ireland because of its large mortgage book in the UK, a market where Northern Rock collapsed that September. 'Bank of Ireland had to circle the wagons earlier than AIB,' the former central banker said. It moved sooner to book large loan loss charges, setting aside €230 million for its then financial year to March 2008. [ How AIB went from boom to bust and back again Opens in new window ] AIB's hubris at the time was best captured in its decision to pay €270 million of interim dividends to shareholders that August as banks globally were hoarding capital. Two months later, then chief executive Eugene Sheehy said the bank 'would rather die than raise equity'. The bank's greater exposure than Bank of Ireland to commercial-property lending – which accounted for 36 per cent of its loan book in 2008, compared to 26 per cent at its rival – would ultimately result in it being effectively nationalised. Property and construction accounted for as little as 12 per cent of the bank's loan book in 1998. However, in 2004, AIB's then chief executive Michael Buckley set up a 'win-back team' to work out why it was losing business to Anglo Irish Bank. It subsequently ramped up lending, bankrolling big developers from Liam Carroll to Ray Grehan, whose property empires imploded during the crash. While AIB was known to have better IT systems than its main rival by the time of the crash, its decentralised commercial lending model – with local branches given significant autonomy to dole out loans – and weaker data and loan paperwork left it facing much deeper discounts from Nama when it took over risky real-estate loans. AIB transferred €20.4 billion of loans to Nama at a 56 per cent discount, while Bank of Ireland sent over half that amount, at a 43 per cent discount. 'Also, because the original management team at AIB was cleared out after the crash, it was on the back foot when it came to arguing about Nama discounts or stress tests,' the former central banker says. 'Bank of Ireland, which kept senior management and avoided State control, fought tooth and nail over everything. As it went through a number of leadership changes in the early years, AIB lost all continuity, strategic direction and became more risk averse for an extended period.' Bernard Byrne, who joined the bank in May 2010, initially as chief financial officer, would preside over a bank facing up to massive loan losses and booking a record €10.3 billion net loss that year. Bernard Byrne, former AIB chief executive. Photograph: Eric Luke 'The worst period was definitely 2010, trying to get close to the bottom of AIB's problems,' says Byrne. 'The deepening haircuts that it had to take on loans being transferred to Nama meant that any thought of the bank remaining mainly in private ownership evaporated.' It slunk into 99.6 per cent State ownership two days before Christmas – capping a tumultuous month that saw the State succumb to a €67.5 billion EU-International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. Litany of controversies Michael Somers, who launched the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in 1990, was resistant when the then finance minister, Brian Lenihan, started badgering him to join the board of AIB as he prepared to retire at the end of 2009. He had his reasons. Somers had previously found himself in the trenches on AIB when Garret FitzGerald's government was forced to take over the bank's Insurance Corporation of Ireland subsidiary and bail out the bank after the insurer suffered large losses on high-risk insurance policies. Somers was deputy secretary general with the Department of the Finance at the time. 'The fear at the time was that international banks would pull credit lines from AIB and other Irish banks,' recalls Somers. He – as many others – would look on aghast as a litany of other skirmishes with controversy followed. Michael Somers, former chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency and former vice-chairman of AIB. Photograph: Eric Luke AIB reached a €90 million settlement at the turn of the millennium with Revenue in relation to evasion of Deposit Interest Retention Tax in 2000. In 2002, the bank revealed that a rogue currency trader at its then Allfirst unit in the US, John Rusnak, had racked up a $691 million trading loss. In 2004, it was revealed that the bank had been overcharging customers on foreign exchange transactions for up to a decade, and two years' later, four former AIB executives reached a €206,000 tax settlement resulting from their involvement in a secret offshore investment company, called Faldor. Lenihan made a final effort in mid-November 2009 to change Somers's mind. 'He managed to get hold of me one evening at about a quarter to 12, after I'd gotten home from a nice dinner at the Dutch embassy. He said he needed to announce a number of positions the next morning and asked me again would I join AIB's board as deputy chairman,' he says. 'I relented.' Remedial work The outlook for AIB began to change when Duffy – an Irish banker who had spent his career overseas working for the likes of Goldman Sachs, ING and Standard Bank, leaving him untainted by goings on during the domestic property bubble – took charge in late 2011. By then, AIB was a shadow of its former self, having been forced to sell its 70 per cent stake in Poland's Bank Zachodni, a 24 per cent stake in Buffalo-based M&T Bank, and its holding in Goodbody Stockbrokers, as it raced to raise capital to fill a growing hole in its balance sheet from bad loans – and appease competition authorities in Brussels after receiving state aid. The bank had also inflicted €5 billion of losses on holders of its riskiest, subordinated bonds. 'It's easy to underestimate how much remedial work was done between 2010 and 2011 just to get to a place of some stability. But David coming in as CEO was hugely important,' says Byrne. 'The strength of his personality saw him take a huge amount of pressure off AIB – both politically and generally – and allowed people to work on what needed to be done to chart a way forward.' Return to profit Duffy's cost-cutting plan would involve the shuttering of 67 branches, salary cuts across layers of management, and the closure of the bank's legacy defined benefit pension scheme, where retirement benefits were linked to final salaries. It saw the bank return to profit in 2014, helped as a recovering economy allowed it to release some provisions previously set aside to cover bad loans. The bank also started moving at pace that year to resolve a mountain of bad debt on its balance sheet – which peaked at €31 billion, or more than a third of total loans in 2013. Irish banks also began that year, under pressure from regulators, to finally start to grasp the nettle on a mortgage arrears crisis that had been allowed to fester following the crash. Duffy – who was widely expected to lead AIB through an initial public offering (IPO) – quit unexpectedly in early 2015 to take over as CEO of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank in the UK, where he immediately enjoyed a basic salary double the €500,000 allowed at bailed-out AIB – and a generous bonus plan. Mark Bourke, former AIB chief financial officer. Photograph: Eric Luke It would fall to Byrne, Duffy's successor, and his chief financial officer Mark Bourke to get AIB ready for an IPO. Two years in the planning, Project Viking, as it was dubbed, culminated in June 2017 when Paschal Donohoe, only days into the job as Minister for Finance, pressed the button on a sale of a 28.8 per cent stake in the bank to stock market investors, raising €3.4 billion. 'US investors, particularly the big hedge funds, were all talking about the 'reflation trade' at the time,' recalled Bourke, referring to an investment strategy of piling into certain sectors that tend to perform well immediately after a recession. Irish gross domestic product (GDP) soared almost 8 per cent in 2017, making it the EU's fastest-growing economy for the fourth straight year, even if the figures were flattered by the State's large multinational sector. 'It was clear that markets were open and US funds, who were crucial to the ultimate success of the transaction, were prepared to invest in Europe again,' added Bourke, who is currently CEO of Portuguese lender Novo Banco, which French banking group BPCE agreed to buy last week. On the IPO roadshow, AIB teams held hundreds of meetings with potential investors over a number of weeks in Europe, North America and Asia. 'Because we spent so much time answering questions from international investors on the macro Irish story, it created something of a 'halo effect' for other Irish companies and the sovereign,' says Byrne. Contraction to growth Byrne used an Oireachtas finance committee appearance in December 2017 to urge the government to sell down more shares, as the stock was riding high. A global stock market slump in the second half of 2018 killed off any such ambition. The market appetite for Irish banks was dented further in quick succession by the threat of a hard Brexit; low demand for loans amid weak housing starts and cautious businesses; an ultra-low interest rates environment as Europe grappled with an era of subpar inflation, and the Covid-19 pandemic. 'The investor demand certainly was there after the IPO and there was an opportunity to move quickly to sell more shares,' Byrne says. 'There is always a risk of being caught out by unfavourable markets if you don't go when the stars are aligned.' AIB's return to full private ownership took longer than Byrne expected back in 2017. [ The Irish Times view on the State selling out of AIB: competition in banking is now the issue Opens in new window ] His successor, Colin Hunt, who took charge in March 2019, found the initial strategic plan that he and his CFO Donal Galvin had spent a year working on quickly made redundant as Covid-19 threw Ireland and much of the rest of the world into lockdown within weeks of it being unveiled. Loan payment breaks for businesses and households hit by the pandemic superseded loan growth for a period. But the bank has seen a surge in profits in recent years – with net income hitting a record €2.35 billion last year – driven by soaring interest rates as central bankers fought inflation triggered by effects of the pandemic and war in Ukraine. AIB and the other two remaining domestic banks, Bank of Ireland and PTSB, have also been helped as they carved up the loan books and deposit bases of Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland – before the interest rates cycle turned. AIB has also bought back Goodbody Stockbrokers and pushed back into the life and pensions business – which it exited in 2012 as it put Ark Life into winddown – by setting up a joint venture with Irish Life's Canadian parent, Great-West Lifeco, in an effort to catch up with rival Bank of Ireland in the wealth and life insurance market. Colin Hunt, AIB's current chief executive. Photograph: Shane O'Neill/Coalesce AIB saw its loan book contract by almost 60 per cent to €58.4 billion between 2008 and 2021, amid loan sales, and households and businesses, scarred by the crash, repaying debt faster than taking on new loans. However, it has posted underlying loan book growth over the past three years, even after stripping out acquired Ulster loans, following a series of false dawns. A big driver has been green and transition lending, spanning everything from domestic mortgages on energy-efficient homes to an international climate capital business that specialises in lending to large scale renewable and infrastructure projects across Ireland, Britain, Europe and North America. Hunt was asked by one of the overseas investment bankers who beat a track to his office on his appointment six years ago what he'd like to be remembered for 10 or 15 years later. Apparently, he was shocked by the answer: decarbonisation. 'The investment banker was concerned this might appear off-piste if uttered in public. No one was talking about green finance at the time,' says a person familiar with the meeting. 'That's clearly changed in recent years.' AIB's international climate capital unit – where gross loans grew by 34 per cent last year to €5.5 billion – has provided another growth angle for a bank that remains a shadow of its boom-era self. 'Don't expect us to go out and buy another eastern European or US regional bank any time soon,' a senior executive says. Era of normalisation The last government resumed share sales in AIB in early 2022, when its stake stood at 71 per cent. AIB's financial results since the crash have routinely included a lot of what analysts call 'noise' from exceptional charges and gains. Crisis-era loan losses would be followed by a drip-feeding of provisions – which totalled more than €600 billion – to deal with the group's role in the industry-wide tracker mortgage scandal, including almost €97 million for a Central Bank of Ireland fine. More recently, the bank has taken large provisions for customer compensation on speculative noughties UK commercial property investments, known as Belfry funds, that failed, and costs associated with acquiring Ulster Bank loans. Exceptional charges fell by more than half last year to €66 million – heralding, what Hunt told analysts in March, was an era of 'normalisation'. 'We don't expect any material exceptional costs in this year. And I certainly don't want to find ourselves in a position where we have to incur more exceptional costs going forward,' he said at the time. While AIB is not on track to repay all of its bailout, the Government estimates that it is currently about €600 million above water on a combined €29.4 billion pumped into AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB – thanks to a €2 billion cash surplus recouped from Bank of Ireland. [ AIB to sell its 49.9% stake in merchant services joint venture Opens in new window ] 'In overall terms this has to be seen as a very positive outcome for the exchequer – and effectively delivers on the Government's commitment many years ago to recoup all the monies invested, which seemed a very unlikely outcome for a long time,' says John Cronin, founder of SeaPoint Insights, an independent research and analysis firm specialising in banking. 'That being said, equity investors in banks usually expect a return of more than 10 per cent per annum – so looking at it through a return on investment lens tells a different story.' A recovery has been made up of bank guarantee fees, interest on bailout bonds, and dividends. It ignores interest paid on money borrowed to save the banks, the 'opportunity cost' to the State's former pension reserve fund (part of which is now part of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund) investing in ailing banks rather than putting cash to work elsewhere – or, indeed, what inflation has done to the time value of money. Carville insists that State's objective was always clear. 'We viewed the investments on a cash-in, cash-out basis,' he says. Not everyone agrees. 'If you went to a bank to borrow money and offered only to pay back the principal, you'd be laughed out of the place,' says former NTMA chief Somers. Societal scar If top executives were cheered by Donohoe's decision to lift the €500,000 pay cap at the bank on Tuesday after the sale of the remaining State shares, they were keeping it to themselves. Senior AIB officials were keen that there would be no form of celebration as the bank saw off the State as an investor, according to sources. 'We owe an immense debt of gratitude to the Irish taxpayer for the support during one of the bank's most challenging times,' Hunt wrote in an email to employees that morning. Staff leaving the group's Molesworth Street headquarters that evening could not have missed a ruckus down the road as hundreds protested outside the Dáil about the housing crisis – providing a reminder of the deepest societal scar left by the banking crash.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Lions might be missing players in their opener against Argentina, but Matías Moroni's focus is on fellow Pumas
The boy flying his blue toy aeroplane around the terrace at Old Belvedere RFC in Dublin looked like he belonged there, even though he was speaking Spanish to his mother on sunny Tuesday morning. On the pitch in Ballsbridge the Argentina backs were kicking and catching, finding touch, and on the back pitch the forwards were grunting, pushing and measuring the angles and pressure points of the scrum. Three days out from the first game of the Lions tour , at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, and the weather was kind to coach Felipe Contepomi and his side. His hat pulled down, the former Leinster outhalf and coach brought the session to a close and the boy who was flying around the terraces then flew through their air on the training pitch as he was hoisted up high by a player to catch a ball gently thrown to him lineout style. READ MORE It was a relaxed mood with Contepomi and his son larking around with the players at the end of the session, but there will certainly be less distraction and more than a little pride at stake when Argentina line out against the Lions on Friday night. Afterwards it was handshakes and hellos from Contepomi. He picks his team on Wednesday. There are more than a few in the Argentina squad that are familiar with the Lions players. Matías Moroni, previously of Leicester Tigers and Newcastle before he moved to Brive and ProD2, is one of them. Aged 34, he is one of Contepomi's most experienced centres. 'I know he has done really good things here for Leinster for our country,' Moroni says of Contepomi. 'He is in the Hall of Fame. I cannot say nothing more than you and everyone knows. And now he is our coach and we have to follow his orders.' The Lions won't be awarding caps for Friday's match, although in 2005 when Clive Woodward's Lions drew 25-25 with Argentina in Cardiff caps were awarded. Then in 2021 the Lions decided that caps would only be awarded in matches against the host union's national representative side, which will be the three Test matches in Australia . But it's not a thing that will keep Moroni awake this week. 'For us the most important thing is not who we play or where we play, but the jersey we put on, so it doesn't matter if it's a game in a park or a stadium with all the crowd,' he says. 'Every time we put on our jersey it is the most important thing because we represent all the players who have played for Argentina. We represent our country, our family, our amateur clubs, our coaches, so obviously it is going to be a really good atmosphere, but the most important thing is putting on the jersey.' Matías Moroni of Argentina is tackled by New Zealand's Anton Lienert-Brown in the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final in Paris. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/INPHO It wouldn't be a great leap of faith that if the players involved in last weekend's United Rugby Championship (URC) and Premiership finals in Dublin and London respectively are rested, then Irish centre Bundee Aki may get a run. For the optics of playing in Ireland and a home crowd, coach Andy Farrell knows it would be wise to have a sprinkling of Munster and Connacht players involved. Moroni is familiar with the Ireland and Connacht powerhouse Aki; in the 2020-2021 season Moroni scored his first try for Leicester against Connacht in a Challenge Cup round of 16 game. 'Obviously there are some players missing because they were playing in the final on Saturday in the Premiership and the URC, so they are not going to play,' Moroni says. 'But we know they are really good players, so we just focus on us and what we want to do, what we want to bring to the game. 'When you play against Bundee Aki, it's like Manu Tuilagi, a ball carrier. You put your head down and go really low, and if you go down everyone goes down.' Moroni wouldn't be drawn on whether Argentina have an advantage as Friday will be the Lions' first competitive match of the tour. Defeat for the Lions wouldn't be fatal, more like scratching the paintwork on a brand-new car. But for cohesion and familiarity Argentina might have an edge, although the quality of the Lions players and the national teams they play with brings a level that will challenge any Test side. 'In our team we have a lot of new guys,' Moroni says. 'We have some players who [are] still playing in France. 'I think I played with most of the players. Obviously my last season was in France, so maybe I missed to play [with] the new guys. 'But I have played in internationals and in the Premiership with most of them. They are really good players. I think they can adapt.'
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Chef Gráinne O'Keefe: Eighteen months without sugar - ‘everyone asks about chocolate, but yes, I can still eat it'
It has been 18 months since I cut refined sugar from my diet, and it still surprises me how often people bring it up. When I wrote about it for The Irish Times last November, I didn't expect much reaction. I figured it would be one of those personal pieces that quietly disappear into the food section archives, but then people started asking me about it. And not just online. At the restaurant (Mae in Dublin's Ballsbridge) at least once or twice a week, someone comes in and asks, 'How did you do it?' or more often, 'How can I try it?' And the honest answer is that it is simple – but like anything worthwhile, it takes some effort. Giving up sugar initially, I wasn't just ditching biscuits and desserts. It was a full elimination diet. The goal was to figure out what was causing some inflammation and to reset my immune system. Having cooked professionally for 17 years, food has always been a central part of my life. I have also done more allergy and intolerance tests than I care to remember. Skin patches, blood tests, the lot. Nothing conclusive. But by cutting out refined sugar, among other things, something shifted. My skin cleared up, that sluggish post-meal heaviness lifted, and I just felt better. Not supercharged or transformed. Just noticeably better. What shocked me, even as someone who works with food every day, was realising how much sugar is added to products that should not require it. Mayonnaise, spice mixes and sauces – so many shop-bought versions have it right there in the ingredients list. It is not there for preservation. It is just there to enhance flavour and make things more addictive. [ Summer 2025: 100 great restaurants, cafes and places to eat around Ireland Opens in new window ] How to ditch sugar and still enjoy food. This one is a Tarte Tatin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Quitting sugar was not a gradual process – it was cold turkey, and very deliberately so. I needed to commit properly to figure out what was affecting me. Sugar did not show up on any test results, but when I eliminated it in its refined form, I noticed my body reacted differently. Subtle things disappeared – mild rashes on my cheeks, a flushed feeling not unlike what some people get after a glass of red wine. I wanted to isolate the cause, so I cut out alcohol too, just to be sure. READ MORE What was most interesting and unexpected was how my palate changed. I have never had a sweet tooth. I would happily skip dessert and go straight for the cheeseboard. But when I stopped eating sugar, I began to crave sweetness. Not cake or sweets, but fruit. Natural sugars. Suddenly, dates tasted like toffee. Apples were satisfyingly sweet. My body had adjusted, and I started to enjoy the taste of natural sugar. I began creating recipes that were sweet but did not use refined sugar – things I enjoyed eating that did not upset my system. Date syrup became a favourite. I would soak Medjool dates in water, blitz them into a smooth syrup, and use that to sweeten everything from dressings to desserts. Apple syrup is brilliant too, especially for things like apple tarte tatin. I would cook the apples in orchard syrup with a bit of butter, cream, calvados and vanilla. There are plenty of alternatives to refined sugar – honey, maple syrup, chicory root syrup, coconut sugar, xylitol. Each one has its place and not all of them are created equal. Some are better suited to baking, others work well in sauces. But what they all have in common is that they are not as stripped of nutrients or as concentrated as white sugar. Plus, there are the natural sugars already present in a lot of food – lactose in milk, fructose in fruit. It is all sugar, technically, but when it is part of a whole food, your body processes it differently. For me, that made all the difference. Consider eating two tablespoons of sugar – your body can process it (although you would probably find it too sweet), but if you tried to eat the equivalent amount of sugar by eating only strawberries, you would feel full long before you took in the same amount of sugar. That's the food's natural way of telling us when we have had enough. Concentrating the sugar removes that natural regulator. Sugar-free treats: Medjool dates, stuffed with blitzed peanuts and sea salt, topped with a banana slice, dipped in homemade chocolate, then frozen. It is like a Snickers bar but better. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill One of the questions I get asked most is about chocolate – can I still have it? Can I make it? The answer is yes, and yes. Even as a chef, I will admit I used to think chocolate was more complicated to make than it is. The truth is, making chocolate is ridiculously simple. I am not talking about tempering couverture or sourcing Peruvian cacao beans. I mean, every day, eat-it-on-the-couch chocolate. You just need good quality cocoa powder, cocoa butter or coconut oil, a sweetener like date syrup or honey, maybe a pinch of salt and some vanilla, warm the lot and mix. That's it. It sets in the fridge in half an hour, and honestly, it is delicious. Add a splash of milk to make milk chocolate. There is something satisfying about making things from scratch, especially when you thought you could not – and a lot of the time, the idea of it is much harder than the actual process. We have been sold the idea that convenience is everything, but convenience often comes with compromise. That compromise for me was inflammation, fatigue and feeling out of sync with my body. Once I put a little effort into cooking most things myself, I realised how little I was missing out on. If you have 30 minutes and a blender, there is very little you cannot make yourself – date caramel, nut butters, syrups and chocolate; even home-made mayonnaise. Once you do it once, you stop wondering if it is possible. Lately, I have reintroduced some foods to my diet. I eat carbs again – pasta, rice, sourdough bread – usually the ones we make in Mae with just flour, water, and salt, but processed sugar is something I have stayed away from. Not because I am trying to be saintly, but because I just feel better without it. I don't crave it any more. And if I want something sweet, I can make it myself. One of my favourite snacks now is a Medjool date, stuffed with blitzed peanuts and sea salt, topped with a banana slice, dipped in home-made chocolate, and frozen. It is like a Snickers bar but better – really. Sticky, chewy, salty sweet, rich and satisfying and there is no crash afterwards. If you are thinking about cutting sugar, my advice is not to make it a huge deal. Don't overthink it. Start by reading labels. Pick one or two things you usually buy and look for versions without added sugar. Or swap in something home-made if you have the time. Do not aim for perfection – just be curious. Try a few alternatives. You do not need to rewire your entire life overnight, bake your own sourdough or sprout your own chickpeas. You just need to make one small decision at a time. What am I eating today? Is there sugar in it? Can I swap it for something else? That's it. Don't tell yourself you can't. Remind yourself of how many incredible things you have achieved and how small and achievable it will be to remove something from your life that may not be serving you well. What pushed me to commit if I was getting tempted was the idea that sugar is being sneaked into foods you wouldn't expect. If there's anything that's going to spur someone like me on, it's proving to myself that I can't be controlled, including what I consume. For me, removing processed sugar was never about deprivation – it was about feeling like myself again. And even though I am not telling anyone else to do it, I would recommend it, in particular if you have been feeling off and cannot quite work out why. And yes, in case you are wondering, I am still eating dates. Every day. And I still haven't got sick of them. Gráinne O'Keefe is chef-patron of Dublin 4 restaurant Mae Recipe: Apple and Calvados Tarte Tatin (refined sugar free) Serves 6 Ingredients 6 firm eating apples (Braeburn or Pink Lady work well) 3 tablespoons apple syrup (such as Highbank Orchard Syrup) 1 tablespoon Calvados 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped 25g unsalted butter 2 tablespoons cream 1 sheet all butter puff pastry Method Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Peel and halve the apples. Core them and set aside. In an ovenproof frying pan or tarte tatin tin, melt the apple syrup and butter gently until combined. Add the vanilla seeds and pod. Let it bubble slightly. Add the cream and Calvados and let it reduce for 2 to 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove the vanilla pod. Arrange the apples cut-side up in the pan. Cook on the hob over medium heat for 10 minutes until they begin to soften and caramelise slightly. Roll out the puff pastry and cut a circle just slightly larger than your pan. Lay it over the apples and tuck in the edges. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and puffed. Let it cool for five minutes before carefully inverting on to a plate. Serve warm with a little extra cream if you like. Recipe: Simple sugar-free chocolate using date syrup Makes one small bar Ingredients 60g cocoa butter 30g unsweetened cocoa powder 2 to 3 tablespoons date syrup (adjust to taste) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Pinch of sea salt Method Melt the cocoa butter gently in a saucepan over low heat. Once melted, whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Stir in the date syrup, vanilla, and salt. Taste and adjust the sweetness if needed. Pour into silicone moulds or a lined tin. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until set. Store in the fridge and enjoy within a week.
Irish Times
30-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Crampton-built home on secret street at Sydney Parade for €1.395m
Address : 4 Ailesbury Gardens, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Price : €1,395,000 Agent : DNG View this property on On the Sandymount side of the level crossing at Sydney Parade Dart station, this secret street runs parallel to the train line and links to the seafront at Sandymount's Strand Road via St Alban's Park. It is also within a couple of minutes' walk of the Merrion Centre. If you run out of milk, you could put the kettle on and probably be back home before it had boiled. This Dublin 4 road features 1930s Crampton-built homes that come with an unusual added extra: a small plot of land on the far side of the street that abuts the station's granite wall. Number 4 , tucked behind a privet hedge, is a well-maintained four-bedroom house whose entrance is to the side, giving you extra space inside and the full width at the front of this home to inhabit. READ MORE The front door opens into a decent-sized hallway with a nicely proportioned livingroom and a family room immediately on the left and facing out on to the front garden. Some neighbours have opened these two rooms up to create interconnecting spaces. [ Look inside: Superbly designed house and mews with unparalleled views over Killiney Bay for €7.25m Opens in new window ] Livingroom Kitchen and dining area Library Conservatory-diningroom There is a guest WC off the hall and the staircase winds around it. A signature style of homes of this vintage, it means the stairs are visually unobtrusive. The back of the house is where a new owner may look to make some changes. One could, for example, decide to merge the this home's office, conservatory-diningroom and kitchen to take better advantage of the morning sun that streams into the rear of the property. [ Rathmichael home offers rarified retreat in serene, sylvan setting for €3.25m Opens in new window ] The house's dining area opens out to a large garden that extends to about 30m (98ft) in length and is very private. There is scope to extend here subject to the conditions surrounding planning permission governing rear extensions. Bedroom Landing Hall Driveway Rear The detached garage, is set well the back from the house and can also be accessed from the garden. Upstairs there are four bedrooms with a separate WC and bathroom. While many would consider this to be somewhat old-fashioned, it's a practical layout that allows busy morning households to make use of both rooms simultaneously. The property has off-street parking for two cars parked end to end and has a well-planted front garden that gets gorgeous western sun. The semi-d, which extends to a generous 164sq m (1,765sq ft) and has an E2 Ber rating, is seeking €1.395 million through agent DNG. These houses rarely come to market. The last one listed on the property price register was in October 2012, when number 2 sold for €851,000. Now there are two up for sale simultaneously. Three doors up, number 7 Ailesbury Gardens, is on the market through agent Allen & Jacob. It also has four bedrooms, with three bathrooms, and 202sq m (2,174sq ft) of space, and the D2 Ber-rated property is seeking €1.495 million.
Irish Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Developer ‘flatly contradict' claims in row about overheating at €6m Ballsbridge penthouse, court hears
A development company at the centre of a dispute with a businesswoman over alleged overheating in her €6m Ballsbridge, Dublin, penthouse apartment 'flatly contradicts' her claims, the High Court heard. Aideen O'Byrne claims that due to a failure to maintain or repair the district heating system the temperatures in her Lansdowne Place apartment – thought to be the most expensive in Ireland at the time she bought it – have reached 'unbearable' highs of 33 degrees. Temperatures in lobby areas have been recorded to reach 29 degrees, she says. Ms O'Byrne was last week given an interim injunction preventing the developer from transferring its beneficial interest in the buildings and common areas to an owners' management company until problems are resolved. READ MORE The case is against the developer, Copper Bridge C 2015 ICAV, and O'Connor Sutton Cronin and Associates Ltd. That interim injunction application was made ex parte, with only the O'Byrne side represented. The case came back before Mr Justice Brian Cregan on Thursday when Hugh O'Keeffe SC, for Copper Bridge, said his client had a full defence to the merits of this case and had experts who 'flatly contradict' Ms Byrne's claims. 'We spent three years trying to address them without any progress', he said. He was seeking an early trial as his side wanted the matter determined as quickly as possible. Mr O'Keeffe said it was also their case in relation to the substance of the injunction preventing a transfer of interests that the transfer had already happened. It was in accordance with required standards upon the making of a statutory declaration of completion of the development under the Multi Unit Development (MUD) Act, the court heard. The legal interest had previously been transferred and the transfer in accordance with MUD takes place upon completion of the statutory declaration, he said. Gavin Mooney SC, for Ms O'Byrne, said it was curious that the statutory declaration took place on April 3 when his side had already been on inquiry into the matter. Mr Mooney said if he now has to seek to change his application to one of setting aside that transfer of beneficial interest 'then so be it'. He also said he was also seeking to join the Lansdowne Place Owners' Management Company (OMC) as a defendant in the proceedings. While the first application was only against the developer, after 'we did not get very far' his side approached the OMC to see if they would assist, he said. 'But it was not forthcoming and the OMC has now targeted us because we seem to have annoyed them,' he said. Siobhán Gaffney, for the OMC, said her clients first wanted to set out on affidavit their position in relation to Mr Mooney's application, but it was their case that the OMC was now 'being dragged into the proceedings' when it was only responsible for the common areas and the issue in relation to overheating was a structural and engineering matter. Deirdre Ní Fhloinn, for the co-defendant, said they supported the developer's request for an early trial. Mr Justice Cregan said that given the overheating also allegedly affected the common areas and that excess heat was alleged to be coming from pipes and fittings, he was satisfied to join the OMC to the case. Ms O'Byrne would have to amend her papers, he said. Mr Mooney asked he be allowed to do so after a forensic engineer's report was completed. The judge, who continued the terms of the interim injunction, gave directions for exchange of papers and adjourned the matter to next month.
