Widow of Charlie Haughey’s ‘bagman’ left €10m in will
Liam Collins
MARY Traynor, the wealthy widow of one of the most controversial financiers in recent history, has left more than €10m in her will.
Her husband, Des Traynor, was known as “Charlie Haughey’s bagman” and was the mastermind behind the former Taoiseach’s finances and the elaborate Ansbacher Cayman scheme which held close to €100m belonging to prominent Irish citizens in secret offshore bank accounts on the Caribbean islands.
Mr Traynor was also chairman of Guinness & Mahon Bank and Ireland’s biggest company CRH.
He was a director of New Ireland Assurance and a government-appointed director of Aer Lingus as well as a “close and personal friend” of Mr Haughey for many years until his sudden death in May 1994 at the age of 62.
Despite his complex offshore dealing and tax schemes for some of Ireland’s wealthiest businessmen and their families, he kept much of his own £1.7m fortune in the ICS Building Society, according to probate documents lodged in the year 2000.
However in 2007, 13 years after his death, his estate made a settlement of €4m with the Revenue Commissioners — at least some of which suggested that perhaps he had availed of his own advice and had a stash of money hidden away in some secret location.
The settlement comprised of €1.25m in undeclared taxes and €2.8m in penalties.
His widow, Mary Josephine Traynor, who lived in a large detached house on the fashionable Howth Road, Dublin, and later in Malahide, said she was unaware that she was a director of Amiens Investments, the company used to settle bank loans running into millions for Mr Haughey.
Des Traynor was born in Dublin where his father had a motor garage in Kingham Lane off Fitzwilliam Street.
Educated at the Westland Row CBS he became an articled clerk in Haughey Boland, where Charlie Haughey, who was six years older, was a partner. They became close personal friends.
When Haughey went into politics Mr Traynor took over his often chaotic financial affairs.
“Throughout my public life, the late Des Traynor was my trusted friend and financial adviser,” the former Taoiseach told the McCracken Inquiry.
“He was held in very high esteem in business circles and was widely regarded as a financial expert of exceptional ability. I never had to concern myself about my personal finances.”
Through his friendship at Howth Yacht Club with John Guinness, Traynor, a heavy smoker but a non-drinker, became a director of Guinness
& Mahon Bank and was chairman of the private bank from 1969 until 1986 when it was taken over by a Japanese finance company.
In 1976 he established the Guinness Mahon Trust in the Cayman Islands where many of Ireland’s wealthy elite opened offshore accounts.
He negotiated the settlement of Mr Haughey’s £1.4m overdraft with AIB for £500,000.
Haughey didn’t have the cash, so his friend organised for him to get a loan for the same amount from Guinness & Mahon which was routed through Amiens Investments of which Mr and Mrs Traynor were directors.
A £110,000 “debt of honour” with the bank was never settled.
Mr Traynor was also organising a syndicate of six wealthy individuals to bail out the Fianna Fail leader — but when he was approached, Ben Dunne Jnr famously told Traynor that Christ had 12 apostles and one of them had betrayed him — so he would put up all the money.
Eventually £1.3m was routed through Amiens Investments, now based in Jersey, through a myriad Irish and international banks to Mr Haughey’s accounts.
Mr Dunne later taunted his sister Margaret, who wrested control from the Dunnes Stores retail empire from him: “You can look all you like but you’ll never find them” (speaking of the three cheques to Haughey).
Mr Haughey said he only became aware of the Ben Dunne payments in 1993, years after they were made.
Mr Traynor kept the secret files in his office but always carried with him a ‘black book’ which held the codes for his personal clients.
Mr Haughey’s secret accounts were later identified as S8 and S9.
Mr Traynor’s clients included many other wealthy and influential people in Ireland.
He used the foyer of the old
Burlington Hotel in Dublin as his office before becoming chairman of CRH in Fitzwilliam Square.
In 2003 it was reported that Mrs Traynor, who inherited 310,000 shares in the building materials firm CRH from her husband, cashed them in making a €3.5m profit.
According to documents lodged in the Probate Office in Dublin recently, Mary Traynor, of Back Road, Malahide Road, Co Dublin, and formerly of Howth Road, who died on February 18, 2019, left estate valued at €10,179,923.
Two of her sons, Anthony and Mark (an accountant and a solicitor) were her executors.
In her will, which was drawn up in 2002, she left €25,000 to Fr Eamon Byrne and €10,000 to the Columban Fathers, as well as bequests to her two sisters and sisterin-law.
The residue of her estate was left in trust for her family.