A company that previously formed part of the hospitality group Press Up had €8.6 million of liabilities owed to the Revenue written down as part of an examinership process last year, newly filed accounts show.
The Workman’s Club Limited, which entered examinership in May 2025, was part of the former Press Up hospitality group founded by Paddy McKillen jnr and Matt Ryan.
Cheyne Capital, a long-standing finance partner of Press Up, took control of the group as part of a debt-for-equity swap in 2024 and has since rebranded the chain as Eclective.
Examiners were appointed to The Workman’s Club Limited, previously one of the largest entities in the Press Up group, in May last year. The process began a month after McKillen jnr resigned as a director of the company.
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At the time, it operated 12 venues in Dublin, including Peruke and Periwig on Dawson Street, Doolally on Richmond Street, and The Workman’s Club on Wellington Quay.
New accounts for the firm, which cover the financial year to the end of May 2025, said it exited the examinership process in August 2025 after the High Court approved arrangements with creditors and a restructuring of its liabilities.
The filing said the terms of the scheme involved unsecured creditors and contingent unsecured creditors receiving a dividend of 5 per cent of their agreed balances, which resulted in a write-down of liabilities of €13.5 million.
It added that amounts due to Revenue were agreed, with the scheme resulting in a write-down of €8.6 million in respect of these liabilities.
As part of the takeover by Cheyne Capital, it installed Patrick Sheehan as chief restructuring officer of the hospitality group. Ronnie Delany, a long-time business associate of the McKillen family, was left in place as a director of firms that controlled Press Up venues.
Prior to the deal, many firms that were part of the former Press Up group had not published financial accounts for several years.
In the past two years, directors Sheehan and Delany have signed off on accounts for several companies linked to the group, including three sets of accounts for The Workman’s Club Limited that date back to 2023.
The latest accounts for The Workman’s Club Limited, approved at the end of October, show that its turnover fell 13.6 per cent from €29.4 million to €25.4 million in the year that ended May 2025, with the decline linked to closure and scaling back of loss-making activities.
Pretax losses widened from about €1.7 million to about €4.6 million, including a €1.1 million exceptional charge related to the reconciliation of historic creditor and intercompany balances.
During the year, staff levels fell from 492 to 401, while payroll costs declined from €12.4 million to €10.4 million.
A spokeswoman for Eclective said The Workman’s Club Limited accounts for about 40 per cent of the overall business, which has about 1,000 full- and part-time staff.
Cheyne Capital formally completed its takeover of Press Up in September 2024 in a deal that valued its controlling stake at €25 million. Following the deal, McKillen jnr and Ryan stepped down from the management of the business.
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McKillen jnr has remained a minority shareholder and remained a director of The Workman’s Club Limited until April 2025.
Earlier this year, McKillen jnr bought back the businesses that trade as The Workman’s Club and Bison Bar for an undisclosed fee from Eclective, but The Workman’s Club Limited is still controlled by Cheyne Capital.
The firm now runs Angelina’s restaurant, Mama Yo, Doolally, Isabelle’s, Peruke and Periwig, Mary’s Bar and Hardware and the Vintage Cocktail Club.
McKillen jnr’s deal for The Workman’s Club came as he faced a bankruptcy summons, the first step in bankruptcy proceedings, over an alleged €2.1 million debt.
In September, McKillen jnr applied for a personal insolvency arrangement and the High Court granted the businessman a certificate that would protect him from his creditors for 70 days.
