Former Clare county minor gaelic football captain jailed for sexually assaulting woman
A former Clare county minor gaelic football captain has been jailed for two years and four months for the sexual assault of a woman.
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Belfast Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
FD Technologies: the story of a Newry tech giant
The journey of FD Technologies, from a bedroom in Conlon's family home to become one of Northern Ireland's biggest technology companies – via an old converted corn warehouse next to the canal in Newry – is remarkable. The software specialist business – which provided products and consulting services to large global financial, technology and energy institutions – evolved from that bedroom to the stock markets of London and Amsterdam. Now another chapter in FD's 30-year journey has been written. In May, 2025, the company, which is headed by Seamus Keating, accepted a takeover bid from a private equity investor from Boston which valued the business at £550m. Donna Troy, chairwoman of FD, said the board unanimously thought the deal, based on an offer for £24.50 per share, 'delivers appropriate value to shareholders'. Over the last 30 years, FD (one of a handful of listed companies from Northern Ireland), grew from its Newry home across the Americas, Europe and Asia. And it has come a long way to get here. Brian Conlon was born in 1966 in Newry. He studied accountancy in Queen's University while playing gaelic football for his native Down. In 1987 he sustained a knee injury during a match for Queen's, forcing early retirement from the sport. He then turned his attention to the capital markets sector where he trained with a major accountancy firm. 'I spent the first year counting concrete and pick-up trucks and wanted something more challenging,' he told the Sunday Independent in an interview in 2008. Like many of his generation, Conlon migrated to London where he joined the risk management team in Morgan Stanley. From there he worked as a capital markets consultant in SunGard, a global derivatives software house. Rather than settle in England, he opted to return home and bring his experience with him. There was a gap in the market, he realised, for software consultancy. 'Most of the software firms were focused on selling the licences and not on services. There was an opening to help banks write financial models and help them with quantitative analysis,' Conlon said in 2008. He established First Derivatives in 1996 in the spare bedroom of his mother's home in Newry, using a £5,000 loan from the Newry Credit Union to help him get started. Years of organic growth followed. In the autumn of 1998, a few months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Brian Conlon took his fledgling team on a trade mission to California's Silicon Valley alongside a handful of other local software companies, including Kainos. California was receptive. The following year Kx Systems, a software company from Paolo Alto which specialsed in financial modelling and data analyses, sold its marketing rights to FD and the two businesses would prove a perfect couple over the following decades. By 2002, First Derivatives had just 26 employees and a £2m turnover, but Conlon decided to float his business on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the London Stock Exchange (LSE), initially offering four million shares at a price of 50p per share. 'FD at the start was small of scale but the vision attracted investors,' Ryan Preston, the company's chief financial officer, told Ulster Business in 2022. 'You have to follow up and deliver the vision. When we first floated on the LSE we attracted an investor base that was primarily driven by revenue growth and dividends. We delivered on that very successfully over many years.' Annual reports over the next decade reported consistent profit growth. The company steadily increased its stake in Kx Systems and added more strings to its bow, including the acquisition in 2008 of Market Resource Partners (MRP), a Philadelphia-based business which employed data analytics for software and technology firms. By now Conlon's operations spanned the globe – from Singapore to Sydney, Vienna to Vancouver, London to Los Angeles. The company even purchased residential for its staff. 'We have up to 60 people working in London and 25 in New York so we decided that rather than pay rents we would buy apartments,' Conlon said in 2008. 'It worked because we only bought in nice places like Mayfair and Kensington in London and around Chelsea or the Village in New York.' The world was its stage but Newry remained home for First Derivatives. 'Brian spotted global opportunity where no one else did,' said Justin McNulty, an SDLP MLA who worked at the business. 'But on top of that he combined pride in his home town of Newry with his knowledge that the people of the North have the education and drive to excel.' The business leader was keen to spread some of his knowledge and in 2012 established The First Derivatives Trading Room, NI's first financial trading facility, at Queen's. In June 2019, First Derivatives announced it had taken entire ownership of Kx Systems for $53.8m (£39.9m) in cash. This was an important milestone, Conlon said at the time: 'Since we acquired a controlling stake in Kx in October 2014 we have invested heavily to deliver the performance advantages of our combined solutions, branded as Kx technology, to a range of end-markets.' Sadly, this was his final deal. The following month, July 2019, Brian Conlon died in Newry not long after being diagnosed with cancer. But his baby First Derivatives – which changed its name in 2021 to FD Technologies (to incorporate its three operations, First Derivative, Kx and MRP) – had grown wings of its own. The company was by now a technology powerhouse, providing software and services to major banks and servicing marketing technology and the automotive industry. In 2020 the company 'recognised there was a huge opportunity in Kx, our software business, and we came back to market with an accelerated growth strategy,' said Ryan Preston. FD ultimately decided to restructure the business to focus on Kx, which uses an approach to data analysis that helps companies predict and respond to market conditions in real time. In early 2024, it merged MRP, its marketing technology division, with Contentgine, a US firm. FD retained 49% of this merged entity. Late in 2024 it sold its consulting wing First Derivative to EPAM Systems, a US software company for a reported £205m. Since then, the company has focused on growing subscription sales of Kx products. Following its sale to TA Associates, an investment firm with reported assets under management of over $60bn, will FD have to part ways with Newry? Not necessarily. TA Associates said it intends to keep headquarters in Newry. Some jobs could be subject to 'reorganisation, reduction or redeployment but the deal will 'create greater employment opportunities for existing and future employees over the long term'. FD has come a long way to get here – and it looks as though the journey is not over yet.
Irish Independent
30-05-2025
- Irish Independent
Former Clare county minor gaelic football captain jailed for sexually assaulting woman
A former Clare county minor gaelic football captain has been jailed for two years and four months for the sexual assault of a woman.
Belfast Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Belfast Telegraph
DUP minister vows commitment to all sports as he attends first senior GAA game
The DUP Sports Minister was welcomed to the Athletic Grounds in Armagh on Saturday afternoon for the gaelic football match between All-Ireland champions Armagh and Derry. Mr Lyons did not take his seat in the main stand until after the traditional pre-match singing of the Irish national anthem, Amhran na bhFiann. Arriving at the venue around 40 minutes before throw-in, he was greeted by senior Ulster GAA representatives, president Michael Geoghegan and chief executive officer Brian McAvoy. Mr Geoghegan and Mr McAvoy sat either side of the minister during the game. The DUP minister had faced criticism for not having attending a senior-level GAA match in his first 15 months as Communities Minister – a portfolio that includes responsibilities for sports in Northern Ireland. Speaking to reporters as he arrived at the ground, Mr Lyons said he wanted the focus of his visit to remain on the sporting action. 'Last week, I received an invite from Ulster GAA to come to the match here in Armagh today and I'm pleased to have been able to have accepted that invitation,' he said. 'As minister for sports in Northern Ireland I want to see more people get more active, more often, and I recognise the role that the GAA has to play in us achieving that ambition. 'I'm looking forward to engaging with officials, with players and with staff today, and I hope I am once more demonstrating my commitment to all sport in all areas, at all levels in Northern Ireland, and that's where the focus should be on today – on the sport.' Mr Geoghegan said it was a 'great day' for both the GAA and the minister. 'It's a great day for us, it's a great day for the minister,' he said. 'I believe he's going to see a full house here and going to see a very exciting game in the all-Ireland series. So we're delighted to have him as our guest here today.' Mr McAvoy said while it would have made it 'easier' if Mr Lyons had attended a game earlier in his time as minister, he acknowledged the issues he had coming to events on a Sunday. 'It probably would have been easier for both parties had it happened sooner,' he said. 'But we do understand the minister, that we play a lot of our games on a Sunday, and obviously due to his beliefs he doesn't attend any sporting events on a Sunday, and we respect that. 'So, it's good that we finally managed to synchronise diaries.' Mr Lyons' attendance comes ahead of an expected funding decision on the troubled redevelopment of the derelict GAA ground at Casement Park in west Belfast. Plans for a 34,000-capacity venue at Casement Park remain in limbo due to a major funding gap of around £150 million. The £270 million project has faced years of delay due to disputes over planning and funding. Last September, the UK Government ended hopes that the Belfast venue would host Euro 2028 soccer games when it said it would not bridge the funding gap to deliver the reconstruction in time. The Stormont Executive has committed £62.5 million to the redevelopment, the Irish Government has offered roughly £42 million while the GAA has pledged to contribute at least £15 million. The UK Government has said it will decide if it will make a contribution to the build costs as part of next month's UK-wide Spending Review. However, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has made clear that even if the Government does divert money to the project, the sum will not alone bridge the current funding gap. Mr Lyons, who has oversight for the project, has rejected claims he is not prioritising the rebuild, while Mr Benn has also pushed back at suggestions the impasse is the fault of the UK Government. The minister did not comment on the Casement issues as he spoke to the media on Saturday. Mr Geoghegan expressed hope that the UK Government would deliver a funding boost for the Casement rebuild. 'We're hopeful, the GAA public at large are very hopeful that something will be coming our way,' he said. 'Because, as you can see, we have a full stadium here today. We had a full stadium there a fortnight ago in Clones (for the Ulster Senior Football Championship final). 'The crowds are coming and we need better facilities to host our games.' Mr Lyons was not the first DUP politician to go to a GAA match. Former party leaders Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster attended games, and current DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and former communities minister and current Education minister Paul Givan have tried their hands at Gaelic games during visits to GAA clubs. Mr Lyons was also not the only Stormont minister at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday. Sinn Fein Infrastructure minister and Armagh fan Liz Kimmins was at the game, as were several other politicians, including Sinn Fein senator Conor Murphy and party MLA Cathal Boylan. SDLP MLA and former Armagh player Justin McNulty was also in the stands.
