TOM Gilmartin — the man who famously exposed corruption in the Irish government — regretted his decision to return to Ireland, according to his son.
In an insightful interview with The Irish Post, Tom Gilmartin Jnr reflected on his father’s rise as an engineer and businessman in Luton in the 1970s and ’80s and his motivations to return home — a decision he ultimately regretted.
“Did he regret returning to Ireland? Yes he did,” Tom Jnr said. “If he had known then what he knew subsequently he would never have gone back.
“I think it was because of the culture of contempt for Irish emigrants shown in Ireland,” he added.
“People from that background looked down on them [returned emigrants] or patronised or dismissed them as Plastic Paddies or whatever.”
His comments follow the publication of Tom Gilmartin: The Man Who Brought Down a Taoiseach and Exposed the Greed and Corruption at the Heart of Irish Politics written by Frank Connolly. Gilmartin died in November 2013.
The biography charts his story of emigration and success before returning to Ireland to expose a culture of corruption which almost cost him everything.
Providing an insight into his father’s motivation to walk away from his successes in Britain, Tom Jr said: “Before the mid-1980s he was doing very well in Britain and in America and elsewhere and there was no particular mention of doing business in Ireland. We went ‘home’ as we would call it every year, or every couple of years, either to Sligo or Donegal and we kept in contact that way.
“But it was that period when there were huge numbers of young Irish looking for work where there was none — and he felt he had the power and the connections to be able to do something to make a contribution and stop the emigration that he had been a victim of. He would have done as well had he not been shaken down by corrupt politicians and officials.”
See tomorrow's Irish Post for a full interview with Tom Gilmartin Junior
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