Drumaville Consortium

The Drumaville Consortium was a group of seven Irish businessmen and one English businessman led by former footballer Niall Quinn, who were involved in the 2006 takeover of English Premier League football club Sunderland A.F.C.. The consortium was named after the village of Drumaville in Donegal.

The consortium consisted of Niall Quinn and eight other businessmen:

While Sean Mulryan had been rumoured to have been part of the initial consortium, his name was absent from the list of consortium members revealed on 3 July 2006. However, an article on 13 May 2007 in the Irish Sunday Business Post newspaper claimed that "Markland, a company jointly owned by Mulryan and Paddy Kelly[...] owns 25 per cent of Drumaville", suggesting his silent involvement in the club. Mulryan is also reported to have attended at least one Sunderland match in the 2006–7 season.

The Drumaville Consortium, the vehicle for Sunderland's new owners, was registered in the tax haven of Jersey and comprised eight Irish businessmen, some of them prominent, including John Hays, a travel company owner based in Sunderland, and Quinn.

The latest filing at Jersey's Financial Services Commission shows that at 1 January this year, the consortium had paid just over £20m for investment in Sunderland. The Dublin-based Patrick Kelly, of the major house builder Kelland Homes, was then the largest investor, with 2,271 shares bought for £2,058.53 each — a total of £4.6m. The pub group owners Louis Fitzgerald and Charlie Chawke were the next-largest, each having paid £3m.

Hays and his wife Irene (the chief executive of South Tyneside Council) invested £1.6m combined, as did the builders Jack Tierney and Patsy Byrne. Then the developer and house builder Sean Mulryan bought almost £1.5m of shares, Patrick Beirne, managing director of the plastics company Mergon International, invested £1m, and the housing developer James McEvoy £740,000. A further £1.5m was held for unnamed beneficiaries by a Jersey-based trust company.

On 7 September 2008 it was reported in the Irish Sunday Business Post that new shares had been issued to raise additional funding of up to £50 million (€62 million) for new players. It was understood that a number of the original consortium members did not take part in the fund rising and therefore their percentage share holding reduced. Niall Quinn was quoted as saying that the Drumaville Consortium was still intact and the individuals behind it remained the driving force behind the club.

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