‘We had to go bankrupt, Mick and myself – they took everything – cars, house, the whole works’

IRISH MUSIC LEGEND TONY ALLEN TELLS HOW HE AND HIS FOSTER & ALLEN PARTNER WERE LEFT PENNILESS BY RUTHLESS CONMAN

IRISH singing star Tony Allen tells how he lost everything and was declared bankrupt after falling victim to one of Ireland’s most notorious conmen, Patrick Russell.

The Foster & Allen star and his partner Mick Foster, who also went bankrupt, were left with a staggering Revenue bill of €6 MILLION after Russell, then a barrister and tax consultant, embezzled money they had given him to settle their tax affairs.

He gave the duo fake Revenue receipts, reassuring them that their income tax was in order.

A former Sinn Fein activist and one-time business partner of the late Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, Russell was later struck off as a barrister.

STEALING

He was sentenced to three years in jail in November 2020 after being convicted of stealing €235,000 from a businessman.

Russell, who had also been a financial adviser to the ‘Black Widow’ Catherine Nevin and was a witness in her trial for the murder of her husband Tom, has since died.

Gardai believe he defrauded clients out of around €12 million in total.

His victims, including Foster & Allen, were left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives after losing their cash and property.

In an interview with Brendan Courtney for tonight’s Keys To My Life programme on RTE, Tony Allen goes back to the modern five-bed family home in his native Westmeath that he lost amid bankruptcy as a result of being ripped off by Russell, who was originally from Finglas in Dublin.

It was the one home in the life of the singing star that Courtney had no keys to, and 12 years later it still remains unoccupied. “Why is it still empty all these years later?” Brendan asks.

“You’ll have to ask somebody else that,” Tony replies.

Looking back on their court battle with Revenue as a result of the debacle, Tony, who reveals that at one point he was hit with a personal tax bill of €4.5 million, says: “We had to go bankrupt, Mick and myself… they took everything… cars, house, the whole works.”

Today the entertainer is philosophical about that dark period in his life.

“In our business there’s ups and downs all the time,” Tony says.

WORKING

“We still kept working, we’re still working 48 years since we started. It could be worse.”

“Is it in the past now?” Brendan asks him.

“It was in the past the following day [after the bankruptcy] as far as I was concerned,” Tony responds.

“When it’s gone it’s gone. Going around whingeing to people is not going to bring it back.”

Twelve years on from Foster and Allen’s financial meltdown, and having thrown themselves into relentless touring, the duo are back on their feet.

Taking a trip through his early life in tonight’s show, Tony returns to the Allen rural family home in Mount Temple near Moate, Co. Westmeath.

Born in 1952, Tony grew up in a family of nine children in the modest one-bed council cottage.

His father, Patrick, was a county council labourer and farmer, while his mother, Rose, stayed at home with the children.

‘Going around whingeing is not going to bring it back’

His granny also lived in the house, which had an open fire with food cooked in pots over hot coals. Water was fetched from a well in a field.

Despite the size of the cottage, there was a parlour or “good room” that was only used on special occasions, such as when the local priest paid a visit, Tony reveals.

However, Tony has fond memories of his childhood and early life in the house, where locals would often gather to socialise and listen to the Céilí House music programme on Radio Éireann.

CANCER

Tony reveals that his musical heritage comes from both his parents. His mother, Rose, was “a beautiful singer. Her party piece was The Rose of Allendale.”

Rose, who never drank nor smoked, died from cancer at the age of 62. “The one thing we regretted afterwards is that we didn’t record her,” Tony says.

His father, Patrick, played the fiddle at house dances in the locality. “We were all singers, even the sewing machine,” Tony laughs.

In an archive interview with the late Shay Healy, Tony’s father says he gave up playing music after his wife died.

Tony’s brother, Tom, aka TR Dallas, says their mother’s death “was a terrible time for us, a very sad time”.

TR adds: “As my dad said, things were never the same after that. He missed her terribly.”

Tony reveals that his father, who died at the age of 84, never owned a car but would drive his tractor up to the village “to collect the pension”.

Patrick lived to see his sons, Tony and TR, go on to achieve huge success in the music business.

As a member of Foster & Allen, Tony enjoyed number one hits in Australia and New Zealand as well as in the UK with songs such as Bunch Of Thyme and Maggie.

Keys To My Life is on RTE 1 tonight at 7.30pm.