Tom McFeely

Tom McFeely (born 1949) is an Irish property developer and former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Originally from Dungiven area in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, McFeely was drawn into the violence that signalled the beginning of the Troubles in 1969 and would soon become a member of the Provisional IRA. Following a period of living life on the run, McFeely was captured and imprisoned after he and an accomplice robbed a post office in the mid-1970s. McFeely was sent to HM Prison Maze where he took on a leadership role amongst other imprisoned IRA men. In 1980 McFeely led seven IRA men on a hunger strike in protest against the revoking of special status for political prisoners, ultimately surviving for 53 days without food until the strike was called off by IRA leadership. In 1986 McFeely was amongst a number of Irish republicans who split from the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin over their recognition of the legitimacy of Dáil Éireann. He subsequently founded the League of Communist Republicans alongside fellow inmate Tommy McKearney.

In 1989 McFeely successfully appealed his case and was released from prison. He thereafter moved to Dublin and entered the construction industry, just as a building boom began as part of Ireland's Celtic Tiger era. Accumulating significant wealth in the 1990s, by the 2000s McFeely was the subject of several criminal investigations. Those investigations found that McFeely had avoided paying millions of euros in taxes and that his property companies had built substandard housing across Ireland. By the early 2010s, McFeely had been declared bankrupt in multiple countries. , McFeely continues to work in the construction sector in Ireland and Northern Ireland. A 2022 article in the Irish Times described McFeely as "arguably the most disastrous developer to have operated in Ireland over recent decades". He was one of 13 siblings to Catholic parents. His grandfather served in the British army during World War I while his uncle was a British marine who was killed in action. McFeely has described his grandmother and mother as militantly anti-British following the death of his uncle. McFeely's father was a cattle trader with Irish nationalist views.

Imprisonment In the mid-1970s McFeely was involved in the robbery of a post office in Northern Ireland; following the robbery McFeely and his accomplice, another member of the IRA, were pursued to a rural house by the RUC. The authorities lay siege to the house and during the course of events, McFeely shot (but did not kill) a member of the RUC. Eventually, McFeely and the other man surrendered and were arrested. McFeely was charged and found guilty of attempted murder, possession of weapons and the robbery of the post office, and sentenced to 26 years in prison in 1977. The presiding judge described McFeely as "an extremely dangerous, intelligent and vicious young man".

The following year, in 2007, McFeely's construction company, Coalport, was involved in eight major cases brought before the High Court. McFeely took out a €10,000,000 loan with his primary home as collateral in order to fight all the cases but soon thereafter stopped paying the mortgage. In 2009 McFeely was ordered to repay $6,200,000 in outstanding loans he owed to a bank and €580,000 that he owed to the Irish state. It was also in 2009 that 28 tenants in an apartment building in Dundalk, County Louth were told to leave as Louth County Council closed the building due to fire safety concerns. McFeely's Dublin home, which had once served as the German embassy in Ireland, had at one point been worth €15,000,000 but was sold for €3,000,000 later that same year.

In October 2013, a plumber working at the Dublin home of McFeely discovered €140,000 in cash hidden underneath a bath and reported this to the authorities. Once notified, the Criminal Assets Bureau raided the home and found an additional €60,000 in cash kept at the location. McFeely initially denied any knowledge of the cash and suggested that it had been planted there as part of a conspiracy. Following the incident, Taoiseach Enda Kenny derided McFeely as exhibiting the negative excesses of the Celtic Tiger era.

In the early 2020s, Sinn Féin's spokesperson on housing Eoin O'Broin repeatedly criticised McFeely. O'Broin's 2021 book Defects: Living with the Legacy of the Celtic Tiger was highly critical of McFeely's role in the Priory Hall development. O'Broin continued to criticise McFeely in newspaper articles in 2022 and 2023.

Politics McFeely identifies as a "Socialist Republican". In a 2009 interview McFeely stated that "[In the 1980s] I argued with other prisoners who were pleased at Sinn Féin taking votes off the SDLP. I told them Sinn Féin, not the SDLP, would destroy the IRA, and I was right. The leadership were intent on a deal far short of a British withdrawal and a united Ireland. It was immoral to continue armed struggle in such circumstances.". In the same 2009 interview McFeely was described as hating Fianna Fáil, with his feelings about Bertie Ahern being called "unprintable" by the interviewing journalist.

McFeely is a reader of the works of Vladimir Lenin and keeps large collections of Lenin's books in his home.

In October 2011 Enda Kenny, during a session of the Dáil discussing Priory Hall, accused Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams of being an "acquaintance" of McFeely's, something Adams immediately denied and stated that Kenny was engaging in defamation by making such a claim.