Money Owed To Mario Rosenstock Must Be Paid

Rag Lane Entertainment’s Daryl Downey faces jail time over €250,000 in 2012 gig fees that he owes to RTÉ and Today FM satirist Mario Rosenstock (pictured with radio colleague Ian Dempsey).

Described this week in Dublin District Court as a “failed promoter”, Downey was supposed to be paying Rosenstock’s Blue Elf Inc €1,500 a month, in order to clear the arrears – but it emerged in court yesterday that he has defaulted on a number of occasions.

The counsel for Blue Elf, Jane Linnane, told the judge that this year’s repayments to date total just €5,400. She also highlighted a trip Downey made in September to the US, which she claimed cost around €11,000. Downey says he travelled to the States in order to line-up new shows.

Downey courted controversy in June 2015 with the eleventh hour cancellation of the first Killarney Festival, having moved the event from its previous Westport base, where it had run for three years. Duran Duran had been booked to play the event.

Companies operated by Downey have had a series of judgments brought against them.

During more successful times, Rag Lane had promoted events from artists as diverse as Don McClean, Glen Campbell, Lucinda Williams, Kool & The Gang and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham.

Judge Michael Coghlan put the case back till February and instructed Downey to “get a job, any job.” And he added that if he heard that Downey was continuing to hope for the next big deal that he would run out of patience.