By 1995 passenger numbers reached half a million, and Mowlem sold the airport to Irish businessman Dermot Desmond.

Desmond sold London City Airport in October 2006 for a reported £ 750 million to a consortium consisting of insurer AIG, GE Capital and Credit Suisse.

In 2000, it sold the Daily Express to Richard Desmond and adopted the name of United Business Media.

In 1999, McCann sold his shares, leaving Irish entrepreneur Dermot Desmond as the largest shareholder, with a 19. 8 % holding.

But in the wake of the Desmond Rebellions, large swathes of land in Munster were repopulated with the English in the Munster Plantation ; the largest grant of lands was made to Sir Walter Raleigh, but he never really made a go of it and sold out to Sir Richard Boyle, who later became Earl of Cork and the wealthiest subject of the early Stuart monarchs.

The estate was sold on in parts, with held as curtilage around the house, some small quantities retained privately by Desmond Guinness, the forested Crodaun Woods part sold to what became Coillte and around acquired over time by Kildare County Council.

His CDs have sold millions all over the globe. Desmond was touched to hear about the plight of 38, 000 autistic children in Sri Lanka-only a handful are being helped in schools and parents, carers and autists have to struggle to access public services in health, education specialist speech therapy and respite care on the island.

The company was founded in 2000 by Dermot Desmond and started trading in September 2001.

Desmond was a major shareholder in Irish food company Greencore for a number of years.

Desmond owns a stake in Toronto mining company Mountain Province Diamonds that is valued at £ 25 million.

In 1991, a company law inspector, solicitor John Glackin, was appointed by the then Government to investigate complicated dealings involving Mr Desmond and the purchase and sale of the former Johnston Mooney and O ’ Brien site in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

The Tribunal noted that the payments were made via the Swiss bank account of a company called Anesia Etablissement, Banque Scandinave en Suisse, Case Postale 901, 1211 Geneva 3, of which Mr Desmond was the beneficial owner, via an account at Henry Ansbacher & Company to

In August 1991, Desmond loaned the company £ 55, 000, made up of £ 40, 000 loaned on August 12, 1991 and £ 15, 000 on August 28, 1991.

Conor Haughey told the Tribunal that the company was in danger of being liquidated and he approached Desmond for the money.

Mr Desmond was an investor in Esat Digifone through his International Investment Underwriters ( IIU ) vehicle, ultimately owning 20 % of the company.

Tyler and Perry renewed their songwriting partnership but were now also working with outside songwriting collaborators brought in by the record company, like Desmond Child and Jim Vallance.

The company is owned by Richard Desmond and along with several newspapers and magazines it also operates channel 5 and several porn TV channels.

By 1961, James Craib was elderly and infirm and the management of the company was increasingly being taken over by his son Desmond.

Willers ’ s term coincided with the succession of a third Craib to the chairmanship of the newly created holding company, The Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company, in the form of Stuart Craib, Desmond ’ s son.

Two of these were David Blakely, a racing-driver already engaged to another woman, and Desmond Cussen, a retail company director, who gave her a gun, apparently to attack the violent Blakely.

During the Second Desmond Rebellion in Munster, he fought in 1580 with the English forces against Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, and assisted Sir John Perrot against the Scots of Ulster in 1584.

Desmond Woods, an officer of the Royal Ulster Rifles, described the massacre at al-Bassa:

* Sir Desmond Lorimer KBE FCA DSc, Former head of the Northern Bank, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Northern Ireland Electricity and Ulster Garden Villages Limited resides in Holywood

* John O ' Donovan, " The Descendants of the Last Earls of Desmond ", Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Volume 6, 1858.

* Sir T. Desmond Lorimer KBE FCA DSc Former head of Northern Bank, Northern Ireland Electricity, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Lamont Holdings Plc and Ulster Garden Villages Limited

He travelled to see Shane O ' Neill in Ulster, and was later directy involved in a doomed conspiracy with Lord Fitzmaurice and the 15th Earl of Desmond to land Spanish troops in County Kerry, resulting in terrible slaughter at Smerwick Harbour, Co. Kerry.

However in 1567 the government gained an upper hand over the restive Lordships of Ulster and Munster and O ' Neill was killed and Lord Desmond imprisoned.

Some of the more important septs to achieve this power were Ó Conor in Connacht, MacCarthy of Desmond and Ó Brien of Thomond in Munster, Ó Neill of Clandeboy in Ulster and MacMorrough Kavanagh in Leinster.

* Sir Humphrey also had an old acquaintance: Sir Desmond Glazebrook ( played by Richard Vernon ), who was Board member, then Chairman, of Bartlett's Bank.

The program covered a wide range of topics: nuclear war, UFOs, Holocaust survivors, sexual abuse, Third World development, family relationships, people with disabilities, the Vatican Bank scandal and profiles of religious figures such as Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.

The island is mentioned in the novels The Enemy by Desmond Bagley ( 1977 ), Sea of Death by Richard P. Henrick ( 1992 ), The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth ( 1994 ), Quantico by Greg Bear ( 2005 ), The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde ( 2005 ), Forbidden Island by Malcolm Rose ( 2009 ), And then you die by Iris Johansen ( 1998 ), The Island by R J Price ( better-known as the poet Richard Price ) ( 2010 ) and The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin ( 2011 ).

One of her most notable roles on stage was Norma Desmond in the Andrew Lloyd Webber production of Sunset Boulevard, for which Close won a Tony Award, playing the role on Broadway in 1994.

* Sunset Boulevard ( Norma Desmond, Broadway, November 1994 ), Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the classic 1950 motion picture Sunset Boulevard

* Desmond Mpilo Tutu, South Africa ( 1994 )

In September 1994 Mr Desmond made a payment of £ 100, 000. 00 sterling to Mr Haughey and in October 1996 he made a payment of £ 25, 000 sterling.

Paige stepped briefly into the role of Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's West End production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994, when Betty Buckley was taken ill due to her undergoing an emergency appendectomy.

* Desmond Dekker in Comanche Park video Sony Records ( 1994 )

* Desmond, Ray 1994.

Elaine Paige, who had filled in when Buckley was ill in 1994, took over as Norma Desmond in the West End in May 1995 before joining the Broadway production for the end of its run between 1996 and 1997.

The 14th Dalai Lama ( recipient general Freedom Medal 1994 ) & Archbishop Desmond Tutu ( recipient Freedom of Worship Medal 1998 )

* " Desmond " 7-The Bus Stop Label, USA ( 1994 ) ( 7 ")

As a junior in 1994, he became only the third player in school history, after Jack Clancy and Desmond Howard, to post 1, 000 receiving yards in a season, finishing with 54 receptions for 1, 096 yards and six touchdowns ; he was named to the All-Big Ten Conference First Team.

attitude started publication in 1994 as part of the Northern and Shell Group owned by Richard Desmond.

* Dinan, Desmond ( 1994 ).

Archbishop Desmond Tutu delivered an address and attended the annual prizegiving in 1994.

She is however best known for her role as Shirley, the wife of eponymous barber Desmond Ambrose, played by Norman Beaton, in the British TV sitcom Desmond's ( 1989 to 1994 ), written by Trix Worrell.

* Ray Desmond, Desmond Desmond, Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists, Taylor & Francis, 1994.