Irish Daily Mail

TV’s Pamela and husband could lose family home

Vulture fund brings couple to court seeking repossessi­on

- Irish Daily Mail Reporter news@dailymail.ie

TELEVISION star Pamela Flood and her restaurate­ur husband face losing their family home after a so-called vulture fund took steps to gain possession of the property yesterday.

Lawyers for American firm Tanager appeared in Dublin Circuit Court yesterday seeking to repossess No.136 Mount Prospect Avenue in Clontarf, north Dublin, from Pamela Flood and Ronan Ryan.

Ms Flood, a former Miss Ireland who went on to present RTÉ fashion show Off The Rails, confirmed last night that the court hearing had taken place but declined to comment when contacted by the Irish Daily Mail.

Mr Ryan was one of Ireland’s most successful Celtic Tiger chefs when he was copropriet­or of three popular Dublin restaurant­s – Town Bar and Grill in Kildare Street, South Bar & Restaurant in Sandyford and Bridge Bar & Grill in the Docklands – before falling victim to the crash.

He now runs popular restaurant and delivery service CounterCul­ture in Dublin city centre with Ms Flood.

The couple have four children, aged between three and 17.

In a 2017 interview, Tipperary-born Mr Ryan revealed how much he enjoyed living in the north Dublin home.

‘We live in Clontarf. I love it. It’s only ten minutes from town at off-peak time,’ he said.

During the interview, he outlined how his restaurant­s had been performing extremely well until the financial crash. ‘Our restaurant south in the suburbs closed, and it was the losses from there that pulled down Town Bar and Grill,’ he said. ‘There was no growth, and people were circling the wagons and not spending. But it’s back on again. People thought that it was the last night on Earth or something, but it’s the exact same now.’

He said he had no option but to brush himself down and relaunch himself in the restaurant business.

‘It’s just life. People say, “Well done”, and I’m like, “What are you going to do? Starve?” No, you’re going to feed your family, and it’s cyclical. Standing back, you can see this.

‘You have no experience of it, so you just ride it out.’

Ms Flood, who was crowned Miss Ireland in 1993, talked last year about how she had been vilified by some online after finding out that she was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child at the age of 45. ‘The sheer volume of nasty comments on social media was unreal,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail at the time.

Instead of ignoring what was being said about her, she said she couldn’t help but read what was being written by some. ‘I read every one of them,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t help myself.

But she went on, ‘I don’t think it was a bad thing to stand up and say that you can be healthy and happy and able to have a child at my stage in life. I was shocked at the negative reaction. A generation ago women were having babies right into their 40s and nobody thought twice about it.

‘People have this strange idea that everything has to be boxed off at a certain age now: finish college; go to work; get married; buy a house and have babies. Have it all done by 35. Life isn’t like that.’

However, she added that other women had proved supportive.

‘What are you going to do? Starve?’

 ??  ?? Court action: Restaurate­ur Ronan Ryan with wife Pamela Flood
Court action: Restaurate­ur Ronan Ryan with wife Pamela Flood
 ??  ?? Home: Pamela Flood and Ronan Ryan
Home: Pamela Flood and Ronan Ryan

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