Businessman challenged the State’s award of a mobile phone licence to Denis O’Brien’s consortium
Mr Boyle was the co-owner of Persona, the company that came second to Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone consortium in the competition for the licence in 1995.
The award was subsequently examined by the Moriarty Tribunal, which concluded in its report in 2011 that Michael Lowry, as minister for communications in 1995, “secured the winning” of the licence for Mr O’Brien. It also said payments to the then Fine Gael minister had been made or facilitated by the businessman.
The tribunal findings were disputed by both men.
Persona subsequently launched a legal action against the State, claiming a minimum €500m in damages. It alleged that, because of the “misfeasance in public office” of Mr Lowry, it had lost out on the licence. The State defended the case and Mr O’Brien joined as a defendant.
Mr Boyle’s consortium had included the ESB and Motorola, then a significant presence in Ireland, along with Telia, a Swedish telecommunications firm. It also included Sigma Wireless, of which Mr Boyle was chairman and majority shareholder, alongside his business partner Michael McGinley, the father of former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley.
Mr Boyle said that at one point Persona had invested well over €10m in the case. It sought permission from the Supreme Court to raise UK finance, but was refused on the basis of a feudal law known as ‘champerty’.
Ultimately, Mr Boyle did not live to see the outcome of the case, which is still in train over 20 years later. “The bottom line here is that a government-commissioned inquiry found fundamentally major flaws in the process – effectively that payments were made which influenced the process,” the businessman told the Sunday Independent in 2023.
“The Government accepted that report in the Dáil. It never challenged it.”
Explaining his reasons for seeking outside finance, Mr Boyle described himself and Mr McGinley as “just two normal Joes”, who didn’t have the time or resources to take on the State.
“I think a nominal settlement would be very acceptable. This is not necessarily a matter of jeopardising the finances of the State. That wouldn’t be my objective, or my goal ever. We have obviously spent a lot of money. And we’ve had a lot of trauma as a result of it. We would start with them accepting the Moriarty report.”
Another failed bidder in the competition recently dropped a separate lawsuit against the State. Comcast International Holdings, a US-registered media company, asked the High Court in May to discontinue proceedings which had been ongoing since 2001.
Born in Dublin’s inner city in 1951, Mr Boyle was educated at O’Connell’s School on North Richmond Street, and after his Leaving Cert went to work for Telecommunications, a radio company based in Finglas, at the age of 17.
He went on to launch the Motorola business in Ireland, and subsequently ran first the UK and then the European business for the company. In 1991 he formed Sigma Wireless with Mr McGinley, building radio networks for clients which included An Garda Síochána, the ambulance services, the Irish Coastguard, and the Irish Aviation Authority.
Sigma also got international contracts from the United Nations to build communications networks for peacekeeping missions overseas.
In more recent years, Mr Boyle created the Ireland Portugal Business Network, and from his home in Cascais became its president and chairman. He also worked with Dense Air, a 5G network in Portugal.
He was on the executive board of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce for over 20 years, and a director of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd.
Mr Boyle is survived by his wife Aoife, son Sé, and daughters Aisling, Jeanne and Anne-Marie.
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