Glen Of The Downs Golf Club Shuts Its Doors

Happier days…

local landmark, set up in the shadow of The Little Sugar Loaf back in 1995, the Glen Of The Downs Golf Club looks set to go into liquidation…

Staff at the 107-acre golf course – regarded as one of Wicklow’s finest – have all been let go, with a creditors meeting having been called in Dublin for Friday, January 27th.

With the latest set of accounts with the Companies Registration Office revealing that the club posted a €157,476 loss for 2013, liquidation had become an increasing worry as profits continued to fall in recent years.

Having never fully recovered from Ireland’s recent recession, both fees and bar sales have been increasingly poor at Glen Of The Downs, with the net current liabilities of the club ending 2013 sitting at €2 million, which exceeded the club’s total assets at that time of €640,10.

Signed off in March 2016, the accounts revealed that the club had not been in a position to fund loan repayments in 2014 and 2015, and that €1.65 million of bank loans were formally placed on demand in October 2015.

According to the directors, they believed that the club would have enough cash flow in 2017 to form the basis for a debt restructuring. One of the directors, Michael Doyle, owns the club land, which had been the subject of receivership and put up for sale last year. The club’s bankers are AIB and Permanent TSB. Putting a positive spin on events, the captains went on to stress that one of the ‘aspirations’ of a sub-group of members ‘is the establishment of a new Glen Of The Downs Golf Club run by the members. We realise this may come as a shock to you, but we want to emphasise that this could lead to a very positive outcome for the future of the men’s and ladies’ clubs’.

In a note issued by the club’s lady captain, Maggie Cunniffe, and captain Fiachra O’Donnell, members were told that access to the club ended last Monday and that they intended to engage with the liquidator, when appointed. Members and preferential shareholders of the club include technology millionaire Cyril Maguire, Tom and Donal Roche of the NTR dynasty, Bernardo’s chief executive Fergus Finlay and hotel magnates John and Bernie Gallagher.

Conor O’Boyle of O’Boyle & Associates in Galway is the proposed liquidator ahead of the creditors’ meeting in Leopardstown’s Clayton Hotel next Friday.