Michael Eunan McLarnon Deeny (born 12 November 1944) MA (Oxon) FCA, is a concert promoter and prominent Name of Lloyd's of London.

After leaving university, Deeny trained as a chartered accountant and worked at Chalmers Impey in the City of London before moving to the Irish company Kennedy's Bakeries.

[3] The transition began when, somewhat whimsically, Deeny and his friend Paul McGuinness persuaded the Scottish singer Donovan to come out of semi-retirement (and self-imposed exile) to play at the Royal Dublin Society.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Deeny began to manage the English singer Murray Head, seeing him through the peak of his career with the album and musical Chess and the worldwide hit One Night in Bangkok.

Nick Stewart, the man who signed U2 to Island Records, even went so far as to describe Michael Deeny as, "the godfather of Irish music".

[6] Deeny's desire to break Horslips out of the Irish music scene and to a bigger audience had a strong influence on Paul McGuinness.

[3][8] Due to the turbulent nature of concert promotion –and the possibility of substantial financial losses– Deeny invested in becoming a member (a 'Name') of Lloyd's in 1985.

Due to the nature of Lloyd's business, it was often the case that a Name was liable to pay for claims made on policies established before they became members.

It quickly became apparent to many Lloyd's syndicates that their predecessors had dramatically underestimated future claims, causing them significant losses.

For example, an insurer might sell a policy for an oil rig offering cover for any level of disaster, but would then seek to buy reinsurance for any claims over £10 million.

And, since Lloyd's members had always operated with 'unlimited' liability (meaning all of their personal assets could be required to cover losses) some Names were forced into bankruptcy.

[1]Given his accountancy experience and that, "with concert promotion, you are effectively gambling on how many tickets an artiste sells," Deeny was one of the few non-working Names (members that did not actively participate in the business) who understood the nature of the failures within Lloyd's.

While many Names wished to sue Lloyd's itself, Deeny thought that "a much clearer route to securing compensation lay in suing the agents".

[9]: 106 Deeny's efforts culminated in 'Deeny and Others vs Gooda Walker LTD and Others', the first and largest case of Names taking action against their syndicate's managing agent.

On the contrary, the name would reasonably expect the underwriter to exercise due skill and care to prevent him from suffering losses.

Before the proceedings, the Gooda Walker Action Group were offered 23% of the £900 million proposed by Lloyd's as an out-of-court settlement to litigating Names.

Subsequently, -and in light of the Deeny vs. Gooda Walker ruling- the committee negotiated a settlement agreement with Lloyd's, providing £3.2billion to those Names who had litigated and who had suffered severe losses on various syndicates.

Deeny was elected chairman of this organisation in 1999 (a position he held for 11 years) and led a successful campaign to maintain the rights of Names to continue at Lloyd's.

Equitas was established to be responsible for paying the outstanding £5 billion of liabilities from insurance policies issued by syndicates to which the Names belonged in the past.

On 20 December 1969, with intent to delay the Sprinbok's match with England at Twickenham, Deeny hijacked the team's coach by pretending to be the driver.

[16]Peter Hain recalled some further details in a 2012 memoir: Michael Deeny, an STST activist who worked in the City, turned up in a smart suit, politely told the driver of the team's coach waiting outside their London hotel that he was wanted inside, slipped into his seat and chained himself to the steering wheel.

The team restlessly paced around the hotel foyer as a long delay ensued while police eventually found a metal cutter, Deeny meanwhile having been subjected to a mauling.

Purporting to detail the life of imaginary author Margaret Kildysart from Loughrea ("winner of the Irish Independent award for Tallest Lady Novelist of 1913"), Cathal O'Shannon presented a documentary for the regular programme 'Newsbeat'.