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Olive Press A Education goes back to school with our 12-page special pull BLACKBOARD JUNGLE out inside “ ll about
A 12-page Olive Press special pull out supplement
February 2022
expat
voice in Spain
MASKING THE CHALLENGES: While masks are pupils at Laude school, here to stay for a in Marbella, are making few more months the most of it (see at least, page 6)
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XPAT children have faced with a significantlong been challenge when taking the leap Spanish Baccalaureate from the to the UK university system. Or that of most northern European countries. Bombarded with reams terial to learn verbatimof stodgy ma- from their schooling for the final reel with the ability to school exams, 18-year-olds off every date in Spanish emerge WITHOUT mostly questioning history why any I was
Vol. 15 Issue 387 www.theolivepress.es February 9th - February 22nd 2022
After years of being Spain makes a bid criticised for its antiquated curriculum , world. But will it to prepare its students for the succeed, asks expat modern mum Heather Galloway of it happened.
never taught at school so I was to think or reason at a complete loss when I got to university.
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OLIVE PRESS
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ANDALUCÍA
Meanwhile 17-year-old while in Maths, formulas language students are asked not so the explanations abound, but to of their potenmatical use of every identify the gram- tial application. ce, but are never word in a senten- According to Maia Taylor-Firth, taught how to link information or build a marketing graduate from Edinburgh’s NaLiterature students an argument. pier University the actual reading paradoxically miss “I was never who grew up in Spain: taught of classic novels at school so I was to think or reason at a complete loss as
to how to write an essay when I got university.” to The student, who passed reate in Madrid, adds: her Baccalaubadgering my tutors, “I had to keep but there wasn’t much help. “I simply learned from we got and a processwhat feedback of trial and error”. As a mother, who has brought up two children in Madrid, Spanish education I railed against the system during my Continues on Page
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Today more than ever, we believe in providing a safe for our students to and happy learning achieve more than environment they dreamed possible. Contact our admissions team for more information curriculum from 3 on our unique international to 18 years. Avda. La Coruña 2 San Pedro Alcántara
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TO LILIBET WITH LOVE IT was a very special day for Queen Elizabeth, and her distant cousin King Felipe was not about to be left out. He and wife Letizia sent their congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II as she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee. It was a warm and affectionate message commemorating the seven decades since Elizabeth’s coronation. “With this message, we would like to join you in celebrating this remarkable anniversary and wish you all the best for the years to come. With much affection,” it read. The Spanish royals are known to have a warm relationship with the British Royal family, calling Queen Elizabeth ‘aunt’ and her late husband Philip ‘uncle’. The two royal families have close blood links. Queen Elizabeth is the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, while King Felipe VI is her great-great-great grandson. Romantic ties began when Spain’s King Alfonso made a state
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visit to Britain in 1905 and met Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria Eugenie. The pair married, the princess becoming Queen Ena of Spain, and their grandson no other than Spain’s former King Juan Carlos I. Juan Carlos I abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son, King Felipe VI. Felipe’s maternal great-grandfather (King Constantine I of Greece) was also Prince Philip’s uncle. Blood ties were strengthened during King Felipe VI’s state visit to the United Kingdom in 2017, when the Queen gifted him love letters sent from Princess Victoria Eugenie to King Alfonso. Following Prince Philip’s death in 2021 the Spanish king wrote of his sorrow at the passing of his ‘dear Uncle Philip’. He also referred to the British Queen as his ‘Aunt Lilibet’, revealing a previously unknown affection between these royal households.
NO TIERS Expat wedding planner who shattered dozens of couples’ dreams led down the aisle… to prison Dream Weddings, went bust. But rather than coming clean and telling clients about her financial problems she carried on trading and failed to return deposits. The 48-year-old and husband Howard Danker had previously featured in an Irish TV documentary in 2007 called The Great Escape, about their move from Dublin to Marbella to set up their wedding business.
By Kirsty McKenzie
She later appeared in the reality TV show Clubland, The Wright Venue, in 2015, after she fled from Spain amid the financial scandal. We first reported that Danker had run into financial difficulties in October 2012, after a string of expats revealed they had lost their dream weddings thanks to the planning scam. Danker admitted in a Dublin court that she continued to trade until September 2012 when she no longer had enough money to pay contractors. She pleaded guilty to three
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January 22nd
- February 4th
2015
Cop killer ‘on the run’ in Spa in
A RUNAWAY murder suspect is being hunted in Spain. Merseyside police has issued an appeal for help to track down Timmy Donovan,30-year-old connection to the wanted in murder of a policeman. A European Arrest has been issued Warrant for Donovan - also known O’Sullivan - who as Timmy to have killed PC is believed 36, on a night outNeil Doyle, in December. FUGITIVE: Donovam He attacked the who was out onpoliceman, Donovan is described force Christmas a police as 5ft 8in tall, broad Liverpool. He laterbash in build, died of with dark brown massive head injuries. blue eyes and hashair and Detectives believe a Liverpool accent. Donovan could be in Please contact leaving EnglandSpain, after the Olive at about Press at newsdesk@ 8:30pm on December theolivepress.es and through the Eurotunnel 19 the Matrix Serious Organised . He is believed to Crime Major Crime driving a grey have been Unit on 0800 230 0600, A180, with the Mercedes or registration Crimestoppers, YE62 NWG. mously, on 0800 anony555 111
counts of deception, and three of theft on dates between September 7 and 10, 2012. Her victims included Sarah Foran and Colm Moriarty who paid her €10,000 to organise their nuptials. Detective Garda James Codd told the court that Foran discovered that none of the contractors had been paid a week before the big day.
CRIME NEWS
Wedding runner returns
A wedding scammer who left various couples out of pocket for their nuptials is set to appear in a reality TV show
IN THE SPOTLIGH T: Danker with husbandSue Howard and (below) posing for promo photos
EXCLUSIVE By Rob Horgan A WEDDING planner who left a trail of debts has grabbed a starringin Spain role on an Irish reality TV Sue Danker (who show. the name Suzannenow uses Mulvey) ‘vanished’ from the Costa del Sol in 2012, leaving couples high and countless dry on the day of their nuptials. After fleeing to Dublin thousands in debts, leaving Danker apparently disappeared . But now the Olive reveal that Danker Press can herself a plum job has landed to a multi-millio as the PA naire in Ireland. And to add insult she is starring this to injury, brand new TV showweek in a Michael Wright’s based on in Spain lined up on the celebrated Press’s Olive nightclub, The Wright website and a FaceVenue. book page, In what will comes as a major propriate’ to slam the ‘innapembarrassment decision to feature for Ireland’s her. national broadcaster RTE, “It is a the high profile programme on the total shock to see her Clubland features show after what she Danker has done. among the raft of his key staff. or have She must be stupid Launching tonight, a she is al- Danker’s short memory,” said ready seen in former employee promotional and wedding material and sources singer Arran told the Harding. Olive Press, she is expected to “My hope is that be ‘one of the key to drop her from RTE have Last night, victimscharacters’. the show. It of Danker would be nice if she lost her
Smack-down
THE leader of a drug gang, which included who hid heroin in a Cornish Stephen Blundell, her pasties, has been arrested in granny after pleading guiltyoriginally from Liverpool, fled Spain. 2013, before he couldto conspiracy to supply herointo Spain in April be sentenced. The 36-year-old is now being held Warrant, after handing on a European Arrest himself into authorities He will serve nine in Tenerife. Blundell is the 64thyears in jail. through Crimestoppfugitive to be caught out of 76 publicised ers Operation Captura.
Church
The list included a florist, a DJ, a videographer, a singer and a flamenco dance troupe. In addition, church fees had not been paid. “We are both reasonable people and would have worked with Suzanne,” said bride Sarah, adding that because Danker had cut off communication, they were left feeling powerless at an important moment in their lives. Danker had continued to seek payments from the couple and the court heard that she was ‘scrambling and floundering,
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A WEDDING planner the Olive Press exposed as a conwoman in Spain a decade ago has been jailed in Ireland. Expat Sue Danker has been found guilty of deception and theft over a series of weddings in Andalucia. The Irishwoman pleaded guilty of fleeing Spain, leaving a trail of debts in 2012, before reappearing on a reality TV show in Ireland. We revealed how Danker had left countless couples high and dry on their big day when she ‘vanished’ from the Costa del Sol after her company, Spanish
Opinion Page 6
trying to offset deposits and commissions from one wedding to fulfil obligations to another wedding’. Her defence insisted that she had successfully organised about 200 weddings but had been let down by an investment of €12,000 promised earlier that summer. While admitting she ran the business ‘in a chaotic and haphazard way’ she was let down
See page 32
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UNDER FIRE: Christy Kinahan
Blow for drug empire
THE Costa del Sol’s torious drug empire most nocould be about to come crashing It comes after police down. cracked down heavily on the Irish Kinahan clan, based in Estepona, freezing their bank accounts and grilling key accomplices. Kinahan brothers and Christopher Daniel, 36, reportedly had , 33, have to return to Ireland in a desperate bid to raise cash, after around €500 million was frozen in both Spain and Brazil. “The Kinahans have a cashflow problem at the a source told the moment,” Irish Sun. “They haven’t got access to their the same wealth in Spain because operations againstof ongoing them and they’re getting increasingly desperate.
Murder
“The gang isn’t as strong as it once was because and English mobs Russian vying for supremacy. are now ” A further problem has emerged after a key enforcer Paul Rice, 44, left the gang to return to the UK to forge linkes with Scottish and English gangsters. Rice split from the gang following the murder close friend Gerard of his ‘hatchet’ Kavanagh in September, in Marbella, possibly because he believes the Kinahans were responsible. Kavanagh was shot in broad daylight nine times in Elviria, when he was summoned to a bogus meeting.
job altogether.” The Olive Press first reported on Danker and her business partner husband/ Danker in October Howard many expats lost 2012, after out to their company Spanish Dream Weddings. AN illegal factory One Irish couple producing scammed out of who were 65,000 packets of cigarettes 2012, last night €15,000 in a day has been smashed by they are still takingconfirmed cops near Sevilla. legal ac- The plant tion against the former wed- uncovered is the largest ever ding planner. in Spain and 10 people The bride, who wishes to re- nection were arrested in conmain anonymous to it. don’t know of any , said: “I More than 30 tonnes of procases that cessed tobacco have been resolved. was confiscatI am aware nobody As far as ed along with four vehicles, their money returned.has seen firearms and €60,000 cash. The tobacco confiscated “This company at and dry on theleft me high the farm in the village El Casday of my tillo de wedding and should las be made edge of the Guardas, on the to pay.” Aracena Natural Park, is estimated RTE - who previously to be worth fol- more than €6 million. lowed Dankers’ Spain on their move to Most cigarette packets bear Great Escape in show The the brand ‘American Legend’. 2009 - said The organisation they will not comment on edly made up of – report‘personal circumstanc a number of es’ that European nationals are ‘not directly – relevant used a to te farm as a front documentary’. for the illegal production.
Stubbed out
FLASHBACK: our previous stories on Danker
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by a partner in Gibraltar who did ‘a runner with the money’. We later revealed how Danker had landed herself a plum job as the PA to Irish multi-millionaire Michael Wright in 2015 and went on to appear on Irish TV. “Suzanne has committed to resolve all issues with parties involved,” said The Wright Venue’s press officer Tatum Rooney at the time. In Clubland’s first episode, Rooney ironically admitted that she wanted ‘the most press coverage possible’. Danker had her three-year prison term suspended on condition that a sum of €9,500, was paid into court. She must pay another €5,000 over the next two years.