Steve Thatcher is a personal insolvency solicitor. Based in Leicester, he is best known in the Republic of Ireland where he is a controversial figure due to his work helping Irish people move to the UK in order to go bankrupt there, [1] [2] a trend known as bankruptcy tourism. In May 2012 it was reported in The Guardian newspaper that he had written off over €1 billion of Irish debt in the UK. [3] Though Thatcher dismisses the validity of the term 'bankruptcy tourism' and instead calls it 'bankruptcy emigration' as he says people have to emigrate to the UK in order to go bankrupt with the majority of his clients remaining in the UK once their bankruptcy is complete. [4]
Thatcher has been a fervent critic of the reform of Ireland's personal insolvency laws, outlining that they do not go far enough and that laws there should be brought into line with the UK. [5] [6] [4] [7]
Steve following his illustrious career in law opened a pub in Leicester called Broood @ Vin Quatre. It in its two year lifetime had over 1400 guest ales on. The pub sadly closed on 19 January 2019.
Oxegen was a music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festival, and, by 2009, it was being cited as the greenest festival, being a 100% carbon neutral event in Ireland. It was previously called Witnness, which ran from 2000 and was sponsored by Guinness. The event is promoted by MCD and is sponsored by Heineken. Oxegen was originally a three-day festival, but from 2008 onwards, it was expanded to four days.
Craig Doyle is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently BT Sport. Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One chat show Tonight with Craig Doyle and RTÉ Two's Craig Doyle Live. He is the main anchor on BT Sport Premiership and European Champions Cup rugby coverage. Craig is also a presenter on ITV's Rugby World Cup coverage. Worked in CTS Blantyre
Events from the year 2009 in Ireland.
Operation Transformation is a health and fitness programme airing on RTÉ One in Ireland. The show is a cross-media event broadcast via radio, web and television on RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ.ie and RTÉ One since 2008. Prior to this it had been limited to radio but has since expanded onto the web and television. It is comparable to US television show The Biggest Loser.
The post-2008 Irish banking crisis was the situation whereby, due to the Great Recession, a number of Irish financial institutions faced almost imminent collapse due to insolvency. In response, the Irish government instigated a €64 billion bank bailout. This then led to a number of unexpected revelations about the business affairs of some banks and business people. Ultimately, added onto the deepening recession in the country, the banks bailout was the primary reason for the Irish government requiring IMF assistance and a total restructuring of the Irish Government occurred as result of this.
The post-2008 Irish economic downturn in the Republic of Ireland, coincided with a series of banking scandals, followed the 1990s and 2000s Celtic Tiger period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment, a subsequent property bubble which rendered the real economy uncompetitive, and an expansion in bank lending in the early 2000s. An initial slowdown in economic growth amid the international financial crisis of 2007–08 greatly intensified in late 2008 and the country fell into recession for the first time since the 1980s. Emigration, as did unemployment, escalated to levels not seen since that decade.
This is a summary of 2010 in Ireland.
Love/Hate is an Irish dramatic television series broadcast on RTÉ Television. The show aired between 2010 and 2014 on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. The show depicts fictional characters in Dublin's criminal underworld.
Bankruptcy in Irish Law is a legal process, supervised by the High Court whereby the assets of a personal debtor are realised and distributed amongst his or her creditors in cases where the debtor is unable or unwilling to pay his debts.
The 2011–12 Leinster Rugby season was Leinster's eleventh season competing in the Pro12, they also competed in the Heineken Cup which they won for the second consecutive year. The Leinster 'A' team however were knocked out of the British and Irish Cup by Munster A in the semi-final.
Aoife Kavanagh is a former reporter and presenter for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and was at the centre of the Mission to Prey scandal that rocked the Irish national radio and television broadcaster in 2011. She resigned from RTÉ following the publication of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) statement of findings and the full report on the programme.
Occupy Dame Street or Occupy Dublin was a peaceful protest and demonstration against economic inequality, social injustice and corporate greed taking place outside the Central Bank of Ireland plaza on Dame Street in Dublin, beside the Temple Bar area of the city. Part of the global Occupy movement, it took its name from the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City's Wall Street financial district. Occupy Dame Street had four requests: the withdrawal of the EU/IMF from Ireland, an end to public ownership of private debt, the return to public ownership of Ireland's privatised oil and gas reserves, and the implementation of what the movement describes as "real participatory democracy". The national police force, Garda Síochána, dismantled their camp during a late-night raid on 8 March 2012. The protesters vowed to fight on. Some were never heard of again, while others found other channels of protest. The most detailed account and analysis of events was written by Helena Sheehan.
Tubridy was a talk radio show, presented by Ryan Tubridy each weekday morning on RTÉ 2fm, from September 2010 until July 2015. Along with The Colm Hayes Show, which succeeded it on the schedules until 2013, Tubridy was intended as a long-term replacement for its long-running predecessor The Gerry Ryan Show.
This is a summary of the year 2012 in the Irish music industry.
Events during the year 2012 in Ireland.
The Vita Cortex sit-in was a peaceful protest at the Vita Cortex plant on the Kinsale Road in Cork, Ireland, which began on 16 December 2011 after workers were made redundant without pay with immediate effect. The dispute led to nationwide protests, television appeals and debates in Dáil Éireann. According to the trade union UNITE, the dispute was part of a growing trend of workers being "left in the cold" after being made redundant.
The anti-austerity movement in Ireland saw major demonstrations from 2008 to 2015.
Events during the year 2013 in Ireland.
Bankruptcy tourism is the phenomenon whereby residents of one country move to another jurisdiction in order to declare a personal bankruptcy there, before returning to their original country of residence. This is done in order facilitate bankruptcy in a new jurisdiction where the insolvency laws are deemed to be more favourable. It is most prevalent in Europe where EU laws allow the free movement of residents to other Eurozone countries. Once in the new jurisdiction a person seeking bankruptcy must establish their Centre of Main Interests there in order to qualify as a resident and, therefore, petition for a successful bankruptcy.