Michael Smith

Michael Smith was born in Dublin in 1965. He is an environmentalist, journalist and businessman, well known for his work protecting Ireland’s cultural and environmental heritage.

Smith became chair of environmental NGO An Taisce's Dublin City Association in 1994, and was unpaid chair and CEO of the organisation nationally from 1999-2003. He has restored several buildings in Ireland and France.

In 2008, he was unsuccessful in opposing the demolition of the Art Deco Clarence Hotel in Dublin's Temple Bar. Smith accused the owners of the property, U2 members Bono and The Edge and their property partner Paddy McKillen of bastardizing the Dublin landmark.

From 2008 until 2012, he was a board member of Transparency International, an NGO that tackles injustice and corruption at a global level.

In 1995 he and his friend Colm Mac Eochaidh put up a £10,000 reward for information leading to convictions for planning corruption. That triggered a sequence of events that led to the establishment of the Mahon tribunal which investigated corrupt payments to politicians regarding political decision making. Allegations aired in the process led to the resignation of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern in 2008.In a March 2008 blog post in which he reflected on his investment in Village Magazine, Smith was highly critical of the Irish media landscape, singling out a number of publications and highlighting what he felt were their failings. He went on to write “What unifies them is that they’re not interested in attracting bright, hungry people with painfully analytical and obsessively investigative instincts. None of them understands that news is something someone somewhere doesn’t want published. Add to it a bit of door-stepping or file-rifling investigation, a reasonable approach to privacy, promotion of the public interest and a pick of style – and you could have good journalism. The rest is AA Roadwatch.”

In that same blog post, which was published just eight months before Smith became the sole owner of Village magazine, Smith was critical of the how the publication in which he had invested was being run by founder and editor Vincent Browne, writing “There has never been a strategy so of course the point of the magazine has never been clear; and it has lost a lot of money – mostly Vincent’s but also I regret to say, roughly in proportion to my 25% stake (and neanderthal stupidity), mine. I don’t know how much money it has now lost as I’ve long since stopped funding it and Vincent has refused to furnish accounts despite a dozen letters, some of a legal nature. Indeed I had to resign as a Director as I was receiving contradictory reports from Vincent about the accounts and so had no idea if I could be deemed to be trading recklessly – a case of oppression of a minority shareholder by Vincent so blatant that if he does not furnish them soon I will seek the winding up of the Company for this reason – and the real story of Village will be told”