The Bostonian with the NBP ball in his court

David McCourt, whose consortium has been declared the preferred bidder for the National Broadband Plan, resents being dismissed as a venture capitalist and points to almost 40 years of telecoms and cable infrastructure ventures

David McCourt, whose firm Granahan McCourt is leading the broadband consortium that is to roll out the National Broadband Plan Picture: Claire Wood

He collects revolutionary art. He shares a tailor with Conor McGregor. He virtually lives in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin.

These are some of the less germane facts about David McCourt, the 62-year-old Bostonian aiming to bring broadband to over a million people in rural Ireland.

McCourt first came to Ireland in a business capacity on a two-week deal hunt back in 2012. Those were the halcyon bargaining days when the world’s distressed ...