Profile: Entrepreneur Dr George G. Moore
By Margaret E. Ward

When Louth business tycoon George Moore was just a boy in Pearse Park, Dundalk a local priest was inspired by a Cooley legend to launch a hurling competition. In the epic Táin Bó Cuailgne the Irish warrior Cúchulainn, who was then a boy called Setanta, set out from his home by hitting his sliotar before him and then running ahead at great speed to catch it.

In 1961, the first Poc Fada distance hurling competition took place over a 5 km course in the Cooley Mountains. Contestants then, as now, must hit the sliotar as far as possible and the person who finishes the course in the fewest pucks wins.

Growing up with legendary competitions like that, perhaps it’s no surprise that Dr. George G. Moore’s life has gone further, faster, than anyone in Dundalk might reasonably have expected.

Although the 60-year old entrepreneur now spends most of his days working as Chairman and Chief Executive of his Washington-DC based marketing software company TargusInfo, overseeing his investment in The Belleek Group and dabbling in a few angel investments, his wee county origins are still important to him.

The scholarship kid
Dr Moore came from humble beginnings. “We owned nothing and had nothing so we had only one way to go,” he says.

As a young man, he worked hard at school and says academic scholarships played a key part in shaping his future. “If I did not have that I’d probably be a bank teller in Dundalk. It was significant. I was a scholarship kid all growing up. I was in a grammar school and won a scholarship to UCD.”

At University College Dublin, he studied economics and commerce and he was mentored by Professor Tony Cunningham and John Teeling [Cooley Distillery]. Thanks to another scholarship, this time to George Washington University, Moore found himself in America’s political power centre, Washington, DC. Although the 1970s were one of the most turbulent times in American history, the newly married young Irishman kept his head down and quickly completed a PhD.

After graduation, he and his wife Angela sought their fortune on the west coast. He worked for California Analysis Centers Inc (CACI) International, a good training ground for entrepreneurs.

In 1983, he started at National Decision Systems (NDS) in San Diego, a marketing software company. The innovative company did extremely well and seven years later Dr. Moore sold it to Equifax for more than $100m.

Shaping an empire: from software to pottery
Twenty-one years on, Dr. Moore’s business interests range from high-tech software to traditional pottery reflecting both the new and old images of Ireland abroad.

How did it all come about? The proceeds of the sale of NDS became Dr Moore’s springboard into a number of businesses. It was also fortuitous for struggling County Fermanagh-based Belleek Pottery Limited. Moore was already running a new software company but he was never one to shy away from a challenge. Besides, he thought he could turn Belleek around quickly and flip it for a profit. He bought the legendary pottery producer for an estimated $6.1 million.

Since then, Belleek has rebranded from the ornamental porcelain with shamrocks displayed by your granny to everyday pottery through its Belleek Living range. The company, which is overseen by a Fermanagh-based executive team, has also expanded to more than 10 times its original size.

Things are ramping up at Belleek in 2011 with a new US-based sales and distribution operation just outside Washington DC in northern Virginia. The Belleek Group, which comprises Belleek Pottery, Galway Crystal and Aynsley China, has estimated sales turnover of $5 million a year. The company is projecting a15 per cent growth in sales over the next three years.

TargusInfo is also once again expanding its headquarters and offerings in Vienna, Virginia. Although Moore sold a percentage of Targus to a private equity firm a few years ago he remains in charge and seems to have little taste for selling it and running it as a public company. “I’m gonna run it the way I think it should be run. If shareholders want to run it they should choose a different CEO.”

Looking for the next big idea
His advice for anyone looking to start their own company? “When I started my own companies, I never took on debt. I always used customer money. Before you go, find customers who will buy your product or service. Do not rely on ‘build it and they will come’. Too many times people have an idea, go to VC, built the company then try to find the customer. I would say idea and customer first.”

Meanwhile, the self-confessed explorer keeps looking for new things to play with or fix. “For me, there are shades of grey between working and relaxing. I have a number of investments that I really enjoy.”
His latest business baby, called Eades, is a single malt whiskey producer based in Charlottesville, Virginia. “We’re producing a scotch style boutique whisky in the US. It will mirror the styles of Scotland and Ireland,” says Moore.

There’s no place like home
Dr Moore had a few landmark events earlier this year: he turned 60 and became a grandfather. His two daughters and one son have all completed their education; the youngest just graduated with a degree in medicine from UCD.

The family has been in the US for the last four decades but Carlingford, where they have a second home, remains the place they choose when they want a break.

“For the last 30 years, we’ve always come back to Ireland. We come five or six times a year for a couple of weeks. The US is home ─ it’s where our kids live ─ but when we come home to Ireland I’m not sure we ever left,” he said.

Cúchulainn would be proud.

***
[Sidebar 1]
A day in the life
Rising time:
Moore is both an early bird and a night owl. “I’m up at 6.15am. I like to get up and get going. I’m in the office by 8am.

Turning off the lights:
“On average, I like to go to bed at 11pm…I sleep seven to eight hours if I can get them.”

On the way to work:
He might use his iPad to read the newspapers

Relaxation:
Swimming in a pool or walking in the mountains

Reading material:
Moore likes popular novels by detail-oriented authors such as Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Bill Flynn.

Something you might expect:
He has a knack for anything mechanical and likes to figure out how it all works.

Something that might surprise you:
Moore is developing a single malt scotch whiskey business in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Favourite quote…
“Do what you love and love what you do” If you don’t like what you’re doing, do something else.

Advice for students:
Study the hard sciences if you can. “In all developed economies we’ve seen a trend of graduates going into business and law. We need to make sure there is a balance between hard science and business. The cross-over between those two disciplines is where all economies have grown.”

[Sidebar 2]
By the numbers…
TargusInfo, a privately held company, had an estimated value of €200 million in 2005. The company employs close to 500 people in 13 offices.

Belleek was purchased for around $6.1 million in 1990. Today the combined Belleek Group has estimated sales of $5 million a year.

Personal net worth. According to The Sunday Independent Rich List 2011, Dr George Moore has estimated wealth of €153 million – up €5 million on last year, placing him at number 60 on the list.

Awards
In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary CBE in recognition of his contribution to Northern Ireland’s economy and his international work supporting Ireland.

He has also been awarded the influential Irish America magazine’s “US Top 100 in Business: 1991-2006″ and University College Dublin’s “Outstanding Alumnus 1991 Award”.

Scholarship funds

In 2009, Moore announced a €100,000 third-level scholarship fund over five years for qualifying students at his alma mater, De la Salle secondary school in Dundalk.

“Do you have an iPhone?” and “Have you seen this cool new app?” are phrases that have the relentless pester power of the childhood mantra “Are we there yet?” That kind of ongoing consumer validation is a marketer’s dream, but it comes at a price. A product that has as much power for a love-in, also has that same opportunity to become a target of downright hatred.

Many iPhone users are positively evangelical in their praise of the phone. Haven’t you heard through the grapevine and news reports that this brand of mobile phone can save your life, help when you’re lost, make you laugh and communicate all of life’s most important events?

When a happy slappy iPhone user takes out their iPhone to show their latest app I roll my eyes, sigh and watch the parental glee in their eyes. I feel like screaming but I’m also tempted to go buy one because apparently, iPhone-a-phobes like me are really bad people.

Saving lives one app at a time
American filmmaker Dan Woolley claims that an iPhone medical app saved his life after the Haitian earthquake disaster. He was in the country shooting a documentary about Haitian poverty. When the quake struck, he was buried in rubble. Luckily, the iPhone first-aid app he’d downloaded showed him how to make a tourniquet for this leg and stop the bleeding from his head. It also led him to a safe place and allowed rescuers find him.

For some, it’s love at first sight. There’s a guy on twitter who uses the @iphone moniker and says he’s just “a dude with an iPhone who likes stuff from Apple”. What have they put into this phone that makes people become slaves to its charms?

Some people can’t stand touchscreen functionality. My non-touchscreen business phone and I are really quite happy together. It’s easy to use for phone calls, email and internet access. It doesn’t demand that I caress its screen or zoom in to view photos of other people’s babies. I never use the music or camera functions and I’m quite happy with my uncomplicated relationship.

But now that iPhone app save lives my stance is a bit like despising Lassie and Florence Nightingale. In word of mouth marketing though there’s always a place for the haters and, on the flipside, you can read Twitter postings from @ihateiphone.

This seminal phone from Apple has also been targeted for satire. American comedy site landlinetv.com has a spoof ad claiming Google released a new f*** you iPhone app that drives iPhone users crazy.

No matter where you fall in this debate, the recently-released Vitrue Social Media Index 2009, the iPhone was the most talked-about brand on the social web last year.

The internet has revolutionised word of mouth. Not only can brands benefit from positive buzz online – Daft.ie became one of the most visited sites in Ireland despite spending almost nothing on advertising and marketing – but they can also produce viral media, such as videos or Flash games, that is specifically designed to get people talking on email, Facebook, Twitter and so on.

But it can take a brave brand to push word-of-mouth marketing. Viral campaigns and customer-generated reviews can work wonders for a brand, but they’re risky. Recent research by information management firm Convergys found that a negative review or comment on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube can lose companies as many as 30 other customers.

And that could be an under-estimate. When Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Bruno opened in July 2009, it made $14.2m on its first night, but ticket sales fell drastically the following day, leaving overall sales for its first weekend as much as $20m down on expectations. What happened? Negative word of mouth. Time magazine said the following week, “Bruno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect”.

Be credible, not clumsy
So you want to use social media to generate word-of-mouth marketing? Use social media first. Understand it. Do your research. It’s not enough to jump in, pushing a company’s product or services. That’s just annoying and intrusive to other users.

You have to be properly involved, discussing relevant issues, making special offers and helping customers. The tone must also be right. It must be honest and credible, not patronising or “sales-y”.

Notoriously, Habitat got Twitter very wrong. It began to tweet last year, but instead of using relevant hashtags (words preceded by a ‘#’ to help users track topics on Twitter) such as #furnituresale or #homefurnishings , it used popular hashtags, such as #iranelection and #iphone. Twitter users were outraged and much negative press followed, leaving the company to apologise profusely and reassess its social media use.

Using social media is a high-risk strategy. If you get it wrong, the online world can quickly turn on your brand, heaping scorn upon it and ripping it to shreds. Almost worse, it might just ignore you.

Success comes from engagement
You can encourage it and facilitate positive word of mouth. Give customers something good to talk about , listen to what they have to say and engage with them. In the US, blue-chip companies like Ford and Coca-Cola have teams that monitor what is being said about them online and, crucially, respond personally to that feedback. As Andy Sernowitz, recognised as the leading American word-of-mouth guru , says:  “People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation.”

Haiti survivor praises iPhone app:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/haiti-survivor-iphone/

“Google” releases new f u iPhone app: http://landlinetv.com/?p=189

Please feel free to add your comments/ suggestions, concerns and correct me if I have anything wrong. However, no jargon is allowed.

The government is spending your money –  and gambling with your children’s future – so you have a right to have your voice heard. Please comment.

The questions:
1. Form: Why is NAMA a commercial entity? This lacks transparency and accountability…not open to scrutiny by public or journalists.

SPVs are dodgy accountancy vehicles used by Enron and Worldcom to hide funds. At their most basic, they just move numbers from a public spreadsheet to one that’s encrypted with a password. Has a Wizard of Oz feel to it: “Don’t look behind that curtain, there’s nothing there”. This does not really give you confidence in their overall purpose does it? International investors will not be fooled.

The shares in these SPVs will be held by 49% by NAMA and 51% private investors. So, who will own the majority shareholding of the SPVs – banks, pension funds, developers – and will their interests be in the public interest? Doubtful. A potential conflict of interest? Most certainly.

2. Valuations: prices to be paid by government for bad bank loans is out of whack with reality and it increases the risk of reinflating the property bubble. As a commercial entity, it seems strange that NAMA would buy property at more than it’s worth. It’s a bit like a business owner going into an auto showroom, looking at price tag and saying: “I’ll pay you 30% over the sales price” for that transit van. It does not make commercial sense.

3. Risk sharing: this is the really scary thing. The risk is still on us, the taxpayers – not on the risk aware shareholders who bought the stocks or the experienced bondholders – who were unaware of the gamble they were taking by electing a government who “looked the other way” when developers, business people and bankers were gambling BIG MONEY using risky derivatives called CFDs. Our regulator was like Homer Simpson at the controls of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.. snoring away. (See Lessons from the D’Oh School of Economics” on this blog)

4. Cost: a huge burden is being placed on every taxpayer to fund this open-ended money pit. Our services will be cut and our children forced to emigrate – once again – to find work. Is it really worth the price? There ARE other, quicker, ways to get the economy moving.

5. Transparency: Where is it? Nama is getting muddier, and more complex, by the day. If you can’t explain something clearly then it’s possible you’re either trying to hide something or do not understand it yourself. Either way, it’s not a good governance strategy.

6. Time: will it take a generation to unwind? What does that mean for our health as a nation?

7. Teeth/ Consequences:  will Nama take a tough enough line on valuations and developers? This is crucial. Will any property developer, banker go to jail, go broke, etc. as a result of NAMA actions.

8. Money, money, money: the banks do not have enough money in the coffers, or capital. What capital ratios are banks are obliged to have now and in the future? (The capital ratio is the percentage of a bank’s cash on hand to its risk-weighted assets, or the stuff they have that can be converted into cash.)

9. Future funding: Will Nama lead to a large shareholding in the main banks if they can’t raise private equity? They have no cash.

10. Cash flow: The biggest question of all – since it’s the purpose of Nama – how EXACTLY will it lead to more money flowing to businesses?

11. Supervision: Who will set and monitor the costs for running NAMA – including consultants’ professional fees – to ensure value for money, transparency, accountability? Will it be the Comptroller & Auditor General, Irish accountancy firms or independent international audit companies?

12. Stability: will NAMA force banks to split in two – commercial and investment – to ensure no bank is “too big to fail” ever again? A purely commercial bank focuses on consumers’ needs and ensures good lending practices. Investment banks can take all risks – and the consequences good and bad – without jeopardising the economy.

Paul A. Volker, former Federal Reserve chairman who is also one of the architects of Obama’s economic strategies thinks this is essential for the recovery and stability of the US financial system.

13. Control: Will NAMA give the government more, or less, control? The government is seems currently unable to force bankers, developers to pay back funds, face criminal charges, hand back bonuses… so will NAMA give them more control over those issues than partial, short-term nationalisation?

14. Future stability: In future, will banks be forced to save a certain percentage of all deposits/ funds in their coffers (“fractional reasoning” – usually 13%) before they invest/loan the rest? Usually, when they take in €100 they keep €13 rainy day money and loan out of invest the €87. At height of boom they lent/ invested ALL of it, leaving the vaults empty. Now they are borrowing money so they have something in the vaults when the government, and international observers, comes for a look-see.

15. Regulation: Will NAMA suggest new regulations to ensure this mess cannot happen again? Is this in its remit or will lessons be lost due to “gagging” clause?

US regulators may be given power to take over failing firms that pose a risk to the entire financial system and unwind the firm’s derivatives contracts, pay the parties less than what they’re owed, or transfer the contracts to another, healthy financial firm.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/03/new-too-big-to-fail-bill_n_343818.html

16. Accountability: why aren’t the boards of the banks gone? Will NAMA have any power to force out those who were on boards at time of reckless lending? Why are we still funding Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide? They are not of systemic importance to the economy.

17. Conflicts of interest: the people needed to do the NAMA job are property, banking and legal experts yet they have the most to gain. How can conflicts of interest be avoided?

Interesting issues raised by others:
Complexity: Hugely complex project management/ organisation challenge faces Nama valuers: http://www.garrymiley.com/2009/07/31/WhatIsTheStars.aspx

Secrecy/ Gagging clause: “hope you cover the clause forbidding NAMA from criticising govt. A corollary of blasphemy prohibition?!” From a tweet to @marklittlenews.

Please add your views here….

 “Mouse, I can’t take it anymore,” she said in a ragged whisper. “Please kill me. PLEASE.”

 “You’re crazy. What are you talking about mum? It must be the morphine making you talk like that,” she said.

 It was a terrible situation for anyone to be in. A nightmare of the worst imagining. That teenage girl was me.

Versions of this story are more common than you might think. The only variables are age, illness and relationship. Many of our friends and neighbours are caring for terminally ill – pain ridden –  husbands, wives, parents and children with little support from the state or others. For some, the agony is too much to bear.

Choosing to die
In July 2009, the British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan ended their lives at a Swiss assisted suicide clinic in July. Lady Downes, 74, had terminal cancer and the 85-year-old conductor was nearly blind and increasingly deaf. He had been forced to give up conducting and relied heavily on his wife’s assistance but he was not in any pain.

Announcing their death, the family released a statement that read, “After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems. They died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing, with the help of the Swiss organisation, Dignitas, in Zurich.”

Although the case conjures images of Romeo and Juliet it raises many issues not just because it was assisted suicide – which is illegal and many feel is morally wrong – but because Sir Downes was not terminally ill. Did both of them have the right to choose death? Should it only have been an option for her because of her terminal illness?

 Suicide support groups say people generally think about ending their life because they see no way out. It is important to show those who feel suicidal that they have choices. Surely, Sir Downes had the option of a live-in carer or others way to get through his remaining years without his wife?

 These difficult questions need public debate. If, for example, you legally take away a person’s right to die then, as a society, shouldn’t you take responsibility for the dignity of their natural death?

Dignity in dying
How do we wish to die? In 2004, the first Irish survey on death and dying found that 67 per cent of those interviewed wanted to die at home, pain-free, conscious and surrounded by their loved ones. Of the 30,000 people who pass away in Ireland annually only one-third get their wish. The rest – 20,000 – die in hospitals.

Would you like to pass away alone on a trolley in A&E while a drunk vomits nearby? This is an extreme example but many dying people occupy hospital beds on busy wards and do not receive the care and respect they deserve in their final moments.

Do we have a right to choose dignity in our dying? The hospice movement, and society, seem to believe that we do but our government’s policies do little to respect that notion. 

 Hospice care, a health service focusing on dignity in dying, is generally only available to those who have cancer and it is largely funded by voluntary contributions, not government funding. Why?

 End of life care
According to an article in the Irish Times “the average Irish person’s lifetime expenditure on health services is about €300,000 and almost 25 per cent of that sum, €70,000, is spent in the last year of life. More than 40 per cent of that is spent in the final month. Spending on patients in that last year is estimated at 10-15 per cent of a country’s total health budget. In Ireland this would amount to €1.6-€2.4 billion of the total health budget of €16 billion. And yet the current budget for hospice care is only €75 million, less than 5 per cent of the entire budget.”

End of life care (palliative care) depends on your diagnosis and where you live, according to Eugene Murray, chief executive of the Irish Hospice Foundation. The group is working to change this situation by offering palliative care to patients with conditions other than cancer and to expand their network but, of course, this will take time and funding.

Back to reality
The reality is that there are thousands of people in Ireland who do not experience a dignified death because the resources, and will, are not there to provide it. Thousands more families are struggling to care for and support dying relatives and friends. They lack proper supports from government, the community and society. Under that kind of mental, physical and emotional strain it’s likely that – in their rare quiet moments – they ask themselves if anyone cares about their loved one’s dignity in dying and what lies ahead for them at the end of their days?

Useful links
Living with dying and dignity, Irish Times
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1213/1229035646035.html

Dying for guidance, the Guardian
http://www.cardi.ie/node/2390

Suicide prevention groups
Samaritans jo@samaritans.org, www.samaritans.org, 1850 609090 (Republic of Ireland) or 08457 909090 (UK including Northern Ireland)

Aware Defeat Depression, www.aware.ie, info@aware.ie, 01 6617211
1890 303 302

Your local doctor, listed under ‘General Practitioners’ in the Golden Pages or visit www.icgp.ie. Go to, or contact, the Accident and Emergency Department of your nearest general hospital.

International care perspectives
UK green paper on funding care for older people, Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/14/green-paper-care-system-elderly

Holland’s care budget offered to older people instead of a place in a care home. Nearly 100,000 people have taken this option. Daily Mail report: http://www.seniorsworldchronicle.com/2009/07/uk-care-for-elderly-should-allow-us-all.html

 Today, family-sized and snack-size packaging and health benefit claims are the cornerstones of international food marketing. Harmless, right? Well, maybe not.  A growing body of international research says that food marketing to kids may actually contribute to obesity and illness.

Expanding waistlines
It used to be fun to laugh at the tubby Americans and their kids who visited these shore on their vacations but now our waistlines – and packaging sizes – are catching up with theirs.

Why? In the last 30 years we’ve morphed from a nation raised on the limited food we (or our neighbours) grew ourselves  – vegetables, milk, eggs, meats – to convenience food reliant, supermarket-loving consumers.

Sugary treats are now a birthright for many children and their size is growing. Recently, new “family-sized” bigger packs of M&Ms, Revels and Malteasers were launched here.

It’s no surprise that one out of every five Irish kids is overweight or obese. If those 20% of kids maintain their current eating and low activity patterns they’re possibly heading for a fat adulthood, a good chance at type two diabetes and lifelong behavioural problems.

Big business
Food marketing to children and youth is big business. International spending estimates range from $1.2 to $2 billion a year. In 2007, Kellogg’s spent a staggering $32.8 million on marketing Cheezits, a mini cheese cracker, according to the author of Food Politics, Professor of Nutrition and Food Policy at New York University, Marion Nestle.

In Ireland, around €130 million is spent on food and drink advertising. The vast majority of these products – 88 percent – are high in fat, sugar, salt, or all of the above. Obviously, food producers are not spending their cash on marketing fruit and vegetables but that may be changing as more ethical marketing practices are being forced upon them.

Health claims
Consumers are confused by nutritional labelling but strongly influenced by health claims. In 2004, sales of probiotic yoghurts and drinks alone were worth about €46 million in the Republic. Figures have risen steadily since then.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has doubts about some foods claims and is now clamping down on unproven health benefit claims by marketers. The body is targeting nutritionals, or “better for you products” whose supposed benefits are determined by the company itself and not independent researchers. For example, Sugar Puffs are promoted as a source of fibre, vitamins and iron but contain 35% sugar.

The EFSA recently studied almost 50 of the most common nutritionals – from cranberry juice and black tea to fish oil supplements and probiotic drinks – and rejected most of the claimed health benefits. For example, fish oil supplements were not found to improve brain growth and probiotic yogurt drinks did not help gut health.

Parents want to do right by their kids and many look for health claims on packaging – rather than the nutritional labels – before placing it in the trolley.  Even the most health conscious parent may be disappointed to find what’s really in their child’s lunchbox. SafeFood Ireland research found that smoothies are worth only one fruit a day, not the two claimed by the company.  Cheese Strings, clearly marketed at kids, have 24g of fat per 100g and far more salt than recommended for children. Bord Bia’s nutrition literature does not recommend the sweetened fruit drinks popular with kids but milk or water.

Ethical marketing
Do we have a responsibility to children when we market to them? Currently, food marketing to children relies on three basic rules – get them young, rely on pester power and differentiate kids’ food from adult food says Professor Marion Nestle. 

The Institute of Medicine (IOM), in the US, says children are targeted too young and they believe its “worth considering restrictions or bans on the use of cartoon characters, celebrity endorsements, health claims on food packages, stealth marketing, and marketing in schools, along with federal actions that promote media literacy, better school meals, and consumption of fruits and vegetables.”

 That message seems unlikely to filter through here any time soon. Over one-fifth of the population in Ireland is under 14 and their buying power is significant.  According to Shelflife, the retail industry website: “A 2008 report by Mintel states that the increasing influence these children and teenagers have over home mealtimes makes them a demographic worth pursuing. At the same time, due to the alarming increase in obesity among young people in recent years, pressures from the government and other groups has made many food and snack manufacturers wary of how they market their products. In spite of this, new products aimed at teens and kids abound in the snack and food aisles, and all evidence shows that this will continue to be the case.”

 Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director, Clear Ink.

Oct 6, 2001
By Margaret E Ward

Sculptor Michael Richards spent his last evening on top of the world. After watching Monday night football in his studio on the 92nd floor of One World Trade Center with fellow artist Jeff Konigsberg, he knuckled down to the work at hand.

Richards’ two new sculptures, which revisited his favourite themes of flight and injustice, were nearing completion and he was determined to continue through the night.

The 38-year-old artist had previously cast life-size African-American figures from his own face and body, sometimes with aeroplanes jutting out from their abdomens. Now they took form as World War II pilots falling from the sky, tumbling into debris or riding flame-tailed meteors. As Richards worked, an autumn storm illuminated the distant Statue of Liberty and streaked the large studio windows with rain.

The next morning, Richards vanished along with his installations and thousands of other human beings. He was one of dozens of well-known modern artists whose masterpieces were destroyed in the September 11 terrorist attack, but the only one to forfeit his life.

Somewhere among the rubble and lost lives lay works by Auguste Rodin, Joan Miro, Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson, their combined value in the region of US$100 million. They were part of New York City’s proud public and private art heritage. The twin towers served as a huge art gallery as its walls and plazas were lined with works commissioned or purchased by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

When the buildings were under construction in the 1960s, the organisation set aside 1 per cent of the cost for public art and later produced photographs of the collection in the book, Art for the Public.

Many visitors and locals enjoyed, or were puzzled by, some of these modern pieces. Anyone traipsing across the expanse outside to buy half-price theatre tickets at TKTS in the lobby or to catch a subway saw installations such as Red Stabile, a 25-foot work by Alexander Calder at Seven World Trade Center or Fritz Koenig’s outdoor revolving globe.

Inside, on the mezzanine of Two WTC, Joan Miro’s 1974 World Trade Center Tapestry was on display. Elsewhere, paintings by David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein and sculptures by Masayuki Nagare and James Rosati intrigued and tantalised viewers. All are gone.

Many Wall Street companies and law firms located in the twin towers and nearby adorned their spaces with original and rare pieces of art. The best known was the ‘museum in the sky’ in the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm on the top floor which lost almost 700 of its 1,000 employees.

The company’s founder, B Gerald Cantor, was famously “touched” by the Hand of God, a marble sculpture by Rodin, during a 1945 visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. A year and a half later he owned a bronze version, and went on to add almost 750 more sculptures, drawings and memorabilia to the Iris and B Gerald Cantor Collection. This was the largest and most comprehensive private collection of works by Auguste Rodin in the world. Most were given away to museums, but more than 350 that were in the WTC are missing.

AXA Nordstern Art Insurance, the world’s largest art insurer, has said losses will top $100 million. AXA, which insured the Rodin sculptures, has set aside $20 million for its share of the claims. One art expert has placed the value of Red Stabile alone at $25 million.

Some pieces have managed to survive. Roy Lichtenstein’s Modern Head, a 30-foot sculpture is covered in dust and debris but largely intact. An art restorer has said she saw one of Nevelson’s works as well as a piece by Dubuffet in the rubble. Louise Nevelson was one of America’s most renowned Jewish female sculptors, but it is not clear if the piece is Sky Gate, an interpretation of the Manhattan skyline at night made with painted wood chair slats and barrel staves. It was her largest work in wood.

One hugely popular outdoor sculpture has been visible in newspaper photographs and TV reports. Double Check, a bronze sculpture of a middle-aged businessman peering inside his briefcase by J Seward Johnson Jr, was a favourite repository for notes and sandwiches before the disaster.

Now the Merrill Lynch-commissioned figure looks like an old man, his hair and suit powdered an ash grey. Flowers sit in his lap and candles at his feet — an unofficial memorial to the dead office workers and rescuers. A note taped to the top of the briefcase reads: “In memory of those who gave their lives to try and save so many.”

The names of individual fire-fighters, police and emergency medical service workers have been added to the single sheet of paper.

The loss of these artworks is incomparable to the suffering of the thousands who died and those who unwittingly bore witness to it. This has been acknowledged by the artists who worked alongside Michael Richards in the space provided by the World View programme, a joint project between the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and the Port Authority of NY and NJ.

Only two of the 25 artists with studios in Tower One were there that morning. Vanessa Lawrence had gone in at 6am to paint the city below in the early light but went to the lobby to phone a friend before the first plane hit. All the World View artists, including Lawrence, have lost their work but more importantly they are missing a friend. The artists told the online publication, Artswire that such devastation puts everything in perspective. Some felt their work was frivolous. Monika Bravo was initially unable to go back to work, and wondered if she really wanted to be an artist any more.

Bravo, who uses video recordings, reviewed images of the city she recorded from her WTC space over several hours on the evening of September 10, a record of its last night standing. “These images depicted a thunderstorm in progress; the raindrops falling on the windows allude to the trillions of tears as if the buildings felt that it was imminent,” she told Artwire. But she is one of the lucky ones. Although many of the artists in residence lost all of their life’s work, Richards lost his life and the opportunity to create anew.

Days after the attack, many creative people started working again with a determined focus. Museum curators saw a shift from artists’ hopelessness to a desperate need to contribute something to society. Directors at the Whitney Museum and the New Museum of Contemporary Art fielded many calls from those who wanted to create memorials. The art community felt a new sense of purpose and acknowledged that art is the best way for them to express their feelings about the world, both good and bad.

New York City is looking for inner peace following the tragedy — and many people believe the arts are the best way to pull the nation together to heal its collective soul. The city carefully dismantled the remaining metal arches of Tower Two for possible use in a memorial.

For many, Jamaican-American Michael Richards’ work on the Tuskegee Airmen gives form to these losses and would be a fitting tribute to those who died. These airmen were a segregated unit of African-American pilots, which was awarded more than 150 Flying Crosses for valour during World War II. They suffered great injustice and discrimination at the hands of their colleagues and members of the public.

Like Richards’s two lost works, previous airmen sculptures were bronze or steel cast from his own body. Tar Baby vs St Sebastian depicts a fully uniformed airman with hands at his sides, chin titled skywards, palms helplessly turned out as small planes impale his body. His feet are several inches from the ground, as if he were levitating like a saint or martyr ascending to heaven. In the context of September 11, it looks hopelessly poignant.

A Richards sculpture at the Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota Are You Down? portrays three seated black men slumped over with their backs to a bull’s-eye target.

The Village Voice newspaper reported that Richards composed an artistic statement on his computer and passed it along to a friend. He said the Tuskegee Airmen fought for democracy in the sky, but faced discrimination on the ground. “They serve as symbols of failed transcendence and loss of faith escaping the pull of gravity, but always forced back to the ground, lost navigators always seeking home,” he wrote.

Experts say art can speak of tragedy and loss as effectively as it can of beauty, but it rarely predicts the future. One of the most famous horror-based works is Picasso’s Guernica which was inspired by the destruction of this town in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

Declan McGonagle, the Irish curator and writer says: “It’s very rare in the modern era for artists to pick up a subject and attempt to describe the horror of conflict or pain and suffering.” Violent imagery might be a curious way to offset the potential reality of what could happen in the world.

McGonagle said Francis Bacon, whose work deals with the edges of experience and reality, once commented that life always leaves art behind when it comes to horror. Artists find it very difficult to deal with the enormity of incidents such as war, the holocaust or the attack on the twin towers.

John Hock, curator of Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, who met Richards when he was an artist-in-residence, says great art can predict the future and expose the truth. “I hate to think Michael’s art became this absurd reality, but the work we have, and his others, show how artists tap into the collective consciousness.”

Some political artists tend to raise the flag and show the warning signs of things to come — so perhaps he was seeing something we couldn’t, said Hock.

Originally published in The Sunday Business Post, Ireland
Sunday, September 16, 2001

Freckle-faced, red haired Shannon Koch sat in her ambulance outside the centre waiting for the call that never came. Her Princeton, New Jersey, first aid and rescue squad truck was one of about 40 emergency vehicles which had come from as far as Boston, Philadelphia and the far end of Long Island. Each was marked with white tape as “BLS” or “ALS.”

Koch and her team, who had been there since the previous day, explained that dispatchers used the letters to determine which teams could perform basic life support or advanced life support functions. Following a medical assessment, any victims brought here would be tagged: black tags marking those who were beyond saving, red for critical and yellow and green for the walking wounded. The system was ready-to-go but was being closed down due to inactivity.

“Thousands and thousands are already dead,” said Koch. She thought Ellis Island was being used as a morgue, with barges transporting the bodies across the water.

At the firemen’s assembly area around the corner, a member of the New Haven, Connecticut, fire department said: “There is nothing for us to do.”

One woman handed out pamphlets to the hundreds of walking, cycling, roller-blading New Yorkers who had migrated lemming-like to the apocalyptic site. It said: “Unite tonight 7pm. Come outside. Wherever you are tonight at 7pm, stop and step outside or pick a place to gather with others for a citywide moment of silent prayer and hope.”

The people milling about were largely silent, few exhibiting New Yorkers’ naturally loud, gregarious ways. There were no opinions, judgments or demands. Animation returned only when cheers and applause erupted as fire trucks, police cars and ambulances approached. “You saved us. You are our heroes.”

Along the police demarcation line at 14th Street, people did their best to get closer to the scene. Down here, the air was acrid and caught in the back of the throat and nostrils. No mask, water or sweets could soothe the discomfort or wash away the charred smell.

Some individuals wearing masks and stethoscopes produced medical identification cards but Brooklyn detective Paul Carpentieri, covered in dust, told them to turn back, their help was not needed now.

Carpentieri was one of the first on the scene the previous morning. He told of seeing blood staining the sidewalks and body parts, decapitations too awful to describe. When the towers collapsed soon after, the recognisably human elements were covered with dust, thick as a blanket of snow, comprising the ashes of hundreds if not thousands of New Yorkers. He was breathing them in.

At the hospital closest to the scene, St Vincent’s, relatives gathered with photographs of their loved ones. They milled between hospital officials and a cordoned-off press area.

“Have you seen my husband … daughter … colleague? I last saw them on their way to the stairs … at breakfast … on the train … at home. They were wearing …”

The same conversations were taking place over New York’s phone lines as the closely-knit financial community rallied around neighbours, school friends and golf partners. As suburban churches’ missing lists grew, tragic stories began to circulate, particularly about the guys from Cantor Fitzgerald.

“They called their wives and fathers from the roof, they couldn’t get down. It was one man’s first wedding anniversary that day.”

 Uptown, the New York Blood Centre was on high alert as the community tried to help its own. Linda Levi, director of communications at NYBC, said some people waited for up to eight hours.

“There were no complaints and that’s unusual for New Yorkers.

“People were shocked and exhibited great spirit and generosity. They felt it was something tangible they could do.”

In two days, more than 10,000 pints of blood were collected, triple the normal supply. An additional 3,000 pints arrived from other areas of the United States.

Shop windows were adorned with the Stars and Stripes, while cafe chalkboards said “Give blood, save a neighbor” or “God bless America” above the list of daily specials.

On the upper east side, a shop assistant in a small candle shop refuses to play CDs over the sound system. “Silence is the greatest respect we can offer them,” she said.

Margaret E Ward is a New Yorker

It’s a multi-billion euro business with properties and offices throughout the world. The company’s services are used by a huge percentage of the global population and many proudly display – and even promote – its logo. This secretive, privately held organisation has been in business for eons. It has a strong brand and a much-loved image.

Yes, the Catholic Church is perhaps the world’s biggest business. It has a corporate logo, brand values, a service offering, customer promises and a skilled workforce.

The Logo. The crucifix is one of the planet’s most instantly recognisable symbols. The brand doesn’t need product placement opportunities since its logo continues to adorn the neck – and bodies – of some of the world’s biggest celebrities. Mel Gibson, Madonna, David Beckham and many others are closely associated with the logo.

The Brand. The Catholic brand is known for goodness, purity and the highest moral and ethical standards. Jesus Christ founded the company with his entrepreneurial colleagues a couple thousand years ago. Their brand messages and marketing materials – the Bible  – have stood the test of time and gained them many loyal followers.

The Promise. Strict terms and conditions apply to the Church’s spiritual services. Catholics who live a good life by adhering to the rules of the religion – don’t kill, lie, steal, commit adultery or want other people’s stuff but do obey your parents, honour God and make your sacraments – are promised an express trip to heaven when they die. There will be no stopover in Purgatory or extended layover in Hell for loyal customers.

On arrival, clients will be greeted at the Pearly Gates by their guide, St. Peter, and granted entrance to a place of eternal happiness. Newcomers will be serenaded by angels of the heavenly choir and surrounded by all that is good and right. They will meet the people who have died before them and, most importantly, they will have an audience with the Almighty.

The Offering. Before customers can enter heaven they must study and pledge loyalty to the religion through the sacraments. In return, they become part of an international community that strives to do unto others as they would do unto you. The club is highly regarded for its work among the poor and for providing education in many needy nations. Members pay to assist with these good works and to help with spiritual and material needs within their own local communities.

The Reality. Like many large companies that have fallen into disrepute, the brand’s promises are very different from the customers’ experience. As we learned from the Ryan report, also known as the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the business has been badly broken for a long time. The brand has betrayed its customers and shareholders.

The Catholic Church has been a market leader, and even an innovator, when it comes to the wide-scale abuse of children for business purposes.Our church developed and perfected many modern business and political techniques.

Children’s sweatshops. Children were captive workers who paid for the orders’ holiday homes and lavish meals with blood, sweat and tears plus a good lashing of rape, degradation and dehumanisation.

Creative accounting. Funds given by the government to feed, clothe and house orphans and industrial school detainees were not entirely used for this purpose, a percentage was funnelled into many of the religious orders’ more mainstream schools.

Innovative imprisonment. Children were held against their will on questionable charges such as “wandering”. Thankfully they were not asked to wear orange jumpsuits, just rags.

Generational mind control. Many of our industrial schools, orphanages and mother and baby homes were run under brutal totalitarian regimes. Romania’s orphanages, created by the notorious Nicolae Ceausescu, bear a striking resemblance to the Irish system. Pierre Poupard, the head of Unicef in Romania, told the BBC that the orphans were a “lost generation” – closeted away from society, often malnourished and subjected to physical and even sexual abuse.

Would Jesus Christ be happy to wear the church’s logo now?

The shareholders of this failed corporation – its parishioners – should call an annual general meeting and demand that the executives explain themselves and atone for their actions in words, deeds and cash.

Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director Clear Ink.

The reason you should take note is that the number of advertisements are dwindling. When this happens, it has the potential to weaken our democracy and to further diminish our standing in the international business community. This is not as far-fetched as it might sound.

Media outlets traditionally obtain the bulk of their income from advertising. The retail price, subscription or licence fee only goes a small way to covering expenses. When a sharp decline in advertising occurs, as it has over the past couple of years, media companies need to cut costs and, ultimately, staffing levels.

Many Irish newspapers and radio stations have announced voluntary redundancies for journalists and, in the last week, a dozen or so staff members from TV3 were laid off. Big deal, right? Lots of people are losing their jobs.In a healthy democracy, journalists should act as a check and balance on the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. In addition to reporting the events of the day, they have a duty to investigate potential wrongdoing by those in power – in business, government and society.

Good investigative journalists are moral watchdogs with a sensitive nose for corruption, graft, cronyism, abuse of influence and power and much more.

Even so, investigations take time and lots of money. Traditionally, newspapers broke many of the big stories and radio and TV stations followed up on them. Recently – as newspapers’ advertising revenue dried up – the appetite for expensive investigative series (and potential legal actions) has diminished.

Over the past few years, television programmes like Prime Time and special RTÉ news reports by Charlie Bird and George Lee have filled some of the void. These TV investigations are no longer a certainty now that the editorial independence of the national broadcaster has been called in to question.

RTÉ’s strange apology for running a news item on the satirical painting of King Brian (sorry, the Taoiseach) in the National Gallery raises a very big issue. If RTÉ caved in on a simple thing like a painting then what other news items, or investigations, will they axe?

Print, broadcast and online media face several other problems when trying to meet their watchdog brief. Redundancies and layoffs mean many of their senior staff will leave – taking their long memories and years of experience with them.

Journalism is now a freelance world. Staff journalists are the exception rather than the rule at many newspapers and radio stations. This is the biggest threat of all to an independent, effective media. The rise in freelance journalism directly impacts on investigative reports. The Huffington Post, America’s famous blog turned internet newspaper, is so concerned about it that it launched an investigative report fund on Monday. The €1.75 million initiative, designed to fund freelance and staff journalists’ investigative reports, is asking for ideas and CVs.

Founder Arianna Huffington said layoffs at newspapers were hurting investigative journalism at a time the nation’s institutions need to be watched closely.

The same applies in Ireland. Print freelancers can only make a living if they crank out a high volume of well written articles. The rate for freelance work has not improved much in the last 10 years, so it’s really a numbers game. If you were a freelance journalist, would you take the risk of investigating and reporting a scandal?

Staff positions for talented freelance journalists are as rare as hen’s teeth so freelancers would be fools not to ask themselves a few questions: will I be paid for all the time I spend on this investigation? What happens if the scandal leads to a lawsuit in which I am named? Will this potential outcome impact on my ability to earn a living as a journalist?

Freelancers have less protection from legal action, or loss of income, than staffers if they publish a story that someone finds unfavourable.

Ireland’s international reputation is in tatters thanks to strange goings on in business, government and regulatory circles. Now, more than ever, we need a strong investigative media committed to shining a light in all those dark places. Who dares to fund it?