Murray O'Laoire

[Global Citizen]

Its just been announced that Murray O'Laoire have gone into liquidation.
A sad day.

[teak]

This is just a financial reorganisation with personnel implications.

Sad for the associates, sure.
But one expects to see the principals - plus their chosen few - back under a new harness à la Douglas Wallace in the very near future.

[Paul Clerkin]

http://www.rte.ie/business/2010/0326/murray.html

[Paul Clerkin]

STATEMENT FROM THE DIRECTORS OF MURRAY Ó LAOIRE ARCHITECTS LTD
The Directors of Murray Ó Laoire Architects Limited (MOLA) have today (Friday, 26 March) announced that, with regret, the company is going into liquidation.
The firm is unable to meet its current financial obligations as a result of cumulative bad debts and the ongoing difficulty of securing profitable work as well as the increasing difficulties in getting paid on time, or at all.
The MOLA Directors want to acknowledge the enormous contribution of so many wonderful, talented and tremendously loyal staff and want to thank them for their professionalism and support over the years.
We also thank the many colleagues, advisers, collaborators, contractors and suppliers for their invaluable contributions.
Our clients, from all sectors of society and the economy, also merit our great thanks for the faith they placed in us and the opportunities they gave us to contribute.
We will do all we possibly can within the constraints of the liquidation process to minimise the impact of this event on our creditors, our clients and our staff.
The company is committed to an orderly winding down of its affairs and will hold a creditors’ meeting within the coming days.
The company does not propose to make any further comment on issues beyond the detail of this statement.
Note for Editors:
Murray Ó Laoire Architects was formed in 1979 by Hugh Murray and Seán Ó Laoire.
The company currently employs 127 staff with offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Bratislava (Slovakia), Moscow (Russia), Aachen (Germany), Tripoli (Libya), Barbados and Abu Dhabi and has worked on projects such as Thomond Park Stadium and Tailteann Sports Hall, Mary Immaculate College (both in Limerick), the CIT Cork School of Music, GMIT in Galway, Athlone Town Centre, the Green Building in Temple Bar, Dublin and the Irish Pavillion at the Hannover Expo 2000.

[Cliff Barnes]

Its just been announced that Murray O'Laoire have gone into liquidation.
A sad day.

I know of at least 2 other "zombie" practices in Cork who are at the mercy of the banks at the moment. Both part of management buyouts in the heady days of 2007.Bad timing except for the sellers of course.
Very bleak picture of the profession at the moment and not prospects of a pick up in the short term.
Hope that they bounce back in some format in the future.

[tommyt]

This is just a financial reorganisation with personnel implications.

Sad for the associates, sure.
But one expects to see the principals - plus their chosen few - back under a new harness à la Douglas Wallace in the very near future.

Would have to agree with this. Quick search on courts.ie reveals no creditors pursuing them and a practice that size must still have a lot of ongoing projects. Distinctly recall them winning at least two multi- million euro tenders in the past few months

Feel very sorry for the staff:(

[wearnicehats]

must be about time for Mary F Coughlan to come out and call us all a bunch of wasters again

[Tayto]

must be about time for Mary F Coughlan to come out and call us all a bunch of wasters again

Yes, there hasn't been a sniff of Coughlan's cold wind in a while now. She must have been told to put a cork in it.

[missarchi]

Hmm such a nice court yard...
I wonder what happened to that special bolo.
Anyway not back they will come back as murray o'laire sphered or something.

Can anyone bat off a list an indicative head count of the top practices and there ruff staff numbers???

Are there any projects to look forward to?

Construction output still expected to drop 20% this year? housing shortage what would santa know

[parka]

Feel very sorry for the staff:(

I have to agree.

Seen too many companies go under and then re-appear (less the staff)

[Cliff Barnes]

THE TÁNAISTE has warned a number of professions that the Government will not back down in its drive to increase competition and get better value as it tackles the economic crisis.

Specifying “engineers, architects, the legal profession, dentists and others”, Mary Coughlan told the MacGill Summer School at Glenties, Co Donegal, last night she would be submitting a report to Government on the issue before the end of the year.

Observing that there were sectors which had yet to feel the “chill winds of economic reality”, the Tánaiste said “certain professions” had yet to reveal how they intended to reduce fees and charges and she went on to accuse them of “economic conceit”.

[reddy]

Sad day. Pretty shocking news for one of the stars of the Celtic Tiger. They were an example in how to export all the knowledge/experience gained here over the last 10-15 years. Real shame.

[publicrealm]

Sad day. Pretty shocking news for one of the stars of the Celtic Tiger. They were an example in how to export all the knowledge/experience gained here over the last 10-15 years. Real shame.

Absolutely.

I'm involved with them on a couple of projects and they are/were just about the best, in terms of dedication to the project, in terms of quality of people and in terms of quality of product.

Hopefully they will re-emerge in a different form. So depressing.

[onq]

They were a gargantuan figure on the Irish landscape for two decades and to see them gone is a real blow to me.

I knew one of the guys who helped start up their Moscow office, using local staff and Irish minders.

They should name and shame the c***s who owe them money and wouldn't pay.

Wouldn't as opposed to couldn't

And string them up.

Sad day indeed.

ONQ.

[Paul Clerkin]

There's going to be a piece on the RTE 9 news

[tommyt]

They should name and shame the c***s who owe them money and wouldn't pay.

Wouldn't as opposed to couldn't

And string them up.

Sad day indeed.

ONQ.

Don't be so naive. They are in turn shafting others, no doubt their day-to-day trade creditors and middle ranking and newer staff they presumably kept in the dark about choosing such a radical course of action. I would bet you any money, out of 120 odd staff there were still people working their bollox off -thinking their team/area was viable and feeling positive before this bombshell. Anything else is really irrelevant right now.

[teak]

Yes.
I think Murray and Ó Laoire themselves have had excellent innings.
It is not as if they were like 2 guys in a small studio being told the state of things last night by their book-keeper.
Much smaller practices have an in-house ICA as financial controller.

The communiqué today - moreover the self-important refusal to comment further or answer press enquiries - shows a darker undercurrent.

The suggestion in the 9 o'clock news that the state was a principal bad debtor will put a cold chill down everyone whose hopes depend on government work.
This is something the press will certainly latch on to.

But let's be positive.
The uncredited associates of the old MÓLA will now be regrouping themselves to find a way to pay their mortgages.
Work from these new groupings - surely in different aesthetic directions than those of the old firm - may soon pleasantly surprise us.

[missarchi]

the other two?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0327/1224267175618.html

[xeex]

the other two?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0327/1224267175618.html

Douglas Wallace was the first one to go, dont know the second one.

[xeex]

Don't be so naive. They are in turn shafting others, no doubt their day-to-day trade creditors and middle ranking and newer staff they presumably kept in the dark about choosing such a radical course of action. I would bet you any money, out of 120 odd staff there were still people working their bollox off -thinking their team/area was viable and feeling positive before this bombshell. Anything else is really irrelevant right now.

Absolutely, brings to mind a tale from a friend that worked in one of those doomed offices, saying that the directors wouldn't even consider salary reduction, while slashing salaries, pension and hours left and right, whilst still shared their profits from whatever jobs where coming in between them and all for the sake of the company. Yeah, Right!:mad:

[DOC]

Douglas Wallace was the first one to go, dont know the second one.

Possibly Traynor O'Toole?

[missarchi]

DW not in the last month...
One more?

[xeex]

Bkd ?

[onq]

Don't be so naive.

I'm not naive tommt.
I run my own sole tradership, although for how long is anyone's guess.
Previously I reported directly to the principal of a practice similar to the size of Murray O'Laoire.
I faced people not paying their bills every day, and having to keep staff morale up while ensuring compliant work was done.
Non-paying thievery doesn't just occur in recessions - it goes on all the time, but in the boom times you just write it off to bad debts.

They are in turn shafting others, no doubt their day-to-day trade creditors and middle ranking and newer staff they presumably kept in the dark about choosing such a radical course of action.

By all accounts Murray O'Laoire, particularly Sean O'Laoire, were pretty staff focussed, as are most successful practices.

I would bet you any money, out of 120 odd staff there were still people working their bollox off -thinking their team/area was viable and feeling positive before this bombshell. Anything else is really irrelevant right now.

Advertising massive redundancies is the last thing people in management do, regardless of the reason.
Anyone in in the profession feeling warm about their position in 2009 defines the term "naive".

ONQ.

[onq]

Absolutely, brings to mind a tale from a friend that worked in one of those doomed offices, saying that the directors wouldn't even consider salary reduction, while slashing salaries, pension and hours left and right, whilst still shared their profits from whatever jobs where coming in between them and all for the sake of the company. Yeah, Right!:mad:

Are you dissing the directors of MOL for doing their job and drawing a salary - they are all gone how, together with the rest of the staff, so your comments seem unfair.

Or are you suggesting that they should some how have foreseen the extent and depth of this recession, which caught all the financial houses on the hop?

Or are you saying they should have paid the staff something they were entitled to - Directors salaries?

I dunno what you mean by dividing the profits BTW - its all salaries for most directors.

ONQ.