Sligo developer Cathal O’Connor has started a prison sentence for assault but remains a director or secretary of 21 separate companies linked to his property empire.
O’Connor, of Beldare Homes, a big landowner, pleaded guilty in April to beating three 13-year-old boys in 2024 after finding them in a property he owned in a business park.
Sligo Circuit Criminal Court imposed a five-year sentence on him in May with the final three years suspended for six years. The start of the sentence was deferred for two months until July 1st to allow him settle business affairs.
He began the sentence on Wednesday in Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon, but no information was provided on his committal. “The Irish Prison Service does not comment on individual prisoner cases,” the service said in reply to questions.
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The ruling handed down by Judge Keenan Johnson said one of the teenage victims recalled O’Connor saying “his family owned Collooney and Ballisodare”.
O’Connor told court that banks had withdrawn funding for three Beldare projects as a result of the incident and indicated the case had “catastrophic consequences” for his company. He employed 100 people.
Commenting last month on a separate planning matter, Beldare chief executive Barry White said the company’s “existing and pipeline” housing projects would continue.
Beldare, based in Sligo town, did not reply to questions about O’Connor directorships that were emailed on Wednesday morning to the business. Phone calls to the office were not answered.
O’Connor received a character testimonial in the assault case from former Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry, a lobbyist for Beldare.
MacSharry has said he was “not aware” O’Connor was facing prosecution for assault when taking on Beldare as one of the first clients in his new consulting firm, Pontis Advisory.
Beldare, which operates as a group of companies, claims to have built 427 homes since 2015, with 356 housing units under construction and another 633 in planning.
Although Companies Office filings show O’Connor resigned eight posts as secretary and/or director of six companies in June, public records suggest he remains involved with 21 companies as a director or secretary.
One of the companies from which he resigned was Goldcross Developments, which had work in progress valued at €8.24 million in March 2025.
The companies in which he remains director or secretary are: Brownstone Construction Ltd, Usselwood Ltd, Altitude Distribution Ltd, PMC Distribution Ltd, Pathway Homes Ltd, Knoxpark Developments Ltd, CCMD Developments Ltd, Farmhill Management Company, Stonehall Developments Ltd, Jubsol Ltd, Caltragh Construction Ltd, Coldcut Construction Ltd, Newtownmountkennedy Developments Ltd, Spencer Homes Ltd, Beldare (Ballisodare) Ltd, Beldare (Caltragh) Ltd, Beldare (Glenamuck) Ltd, Spencer Homes (Lakelands) Ltd, Ard Cuan Management Company, Beldare (Hotel) Ltd and Beldare (Veha) Ltd.
Beldare has sites in Sligo locations such as Ballisodare, Strandhill, Caltragh, Hazelwood, Gibraltar Point and the Dartry mountains. The company has Dublin projects in Knocklyon, Usher’s Island, Blackhorse Avenue and Inchicore, and another in the former Veha factory site in Wicklow town.
Arthur Beesley
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