Daddy’s home!
Businessman Richard O’Halloran returns as his friend reveals nightmare he endured while detained in China for three years
AS BUSINESSMAN Richard O’Halloran and his family were reunited this weekend, a close friend has revealed the nightmare the father of four endured while being detained by the Chinese authorities for three years.
The Dubliner was prevented from returning home after he travelled to Shanghai to help resolve an on-going business dispute.
As the winter Olympics got under way in China, Mr O’Halloran was released and allowed to return to Ireland yesterday. There were joyful scenes at Dublin Airport where he was finally reunited with wife Tara and the couple’s four children Ben, 15, Amber, 12, Bella, 10, and eight-year-old Scarlett.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Anton Savage radio programme, family friend Michael Kingston revealed, ‘Richard himself went through great difficulty in China – very, very pressurising stress with a never-ending nightmare. The way he himself handled this, in the heel of the hunt, and turned things around and is coming home with such strength of mind and physically well is a testament to him as a fantastic individual’.
‘He is an extremely decent person and I cannot think of anyone less deserving to have been detained in the manner he was.
‘I take my hat off to him for the manner he, as a human being, has come through this.’
At the time the Dubliner was detained, he was working for the Irish subsidiary of a Chinese firm and had travelled to Shanghai following a dispute over how the Irish firm’s parent company had raised funding to purchase aircraft. This happened before Mr O’Halloran joined the company.
Mr O’Halloran yesterday issued a statement thanking those involved in securing his return. He also thanked the media for highlighting his case, ‘and most importantly, my own family: Ben, Amber, Isabella, Scarlett and especially my wife Tara’. He said his family ‘were always a beacon of light and hope for me and the hundreds of Messenger calls we had helped me to remain positive. Tara was an incredible tower of strength and kept the show on the road.
‘I am home with them now and we are all looking forward to getting to know each other again and doing normal everyday family things.’
Meanwhile, though the freed businessman has paid tribute to those including Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney who helped secure his release, Mr O’Halloran’s friend accused the Government of a tardy response.
Mr Kingston said: ‘He joined the company after issues had taken place in relation to the parent company’s manner in which it raised assets for the purchase of planes in China, and the Chinese authorities investigated that crowdfunding was used by the parent company and they decided to take action. Richard, as a good citizen, flew to Shanghai to assist in that process and he was detained and the Chinese held him hostage requesting full repayment of the capital money that had been used, and he was not in a position under Irish law to make those repayments.
‘Basically he was held as a hostage for an unreasonable payment for the last three years. Not enough action was taken by the Irish Government at that point in time which has now been done latterly.
‘I know the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has thanked the Chinese for their assistance but the whole action of the Chinese has been counterproductive to their own interests and our nation did not stand up and push significantly for the rights of a citizen and prioritised corporate interests over the interest of Irish citizens.’
Dublin MEP Barry Andrews was also critical of how the Department of Foreign Affairs thanked China.
‘The implications that somehow or other the Chinese authorities are blameless in unnecessarily prolonging this episode is not a very welcome implication,’ he said.
‘We can’t decouple our commercial relations with China because, of course, we’re very connected in terms of supply chains, but we have to reflect on the extent to which we don’t speak up on issues because it might jeopardise our commercial relations.’
‘Not enough action was taken by Government’