Top Stories

At the edge of collapse: Inside the race to save Ireland’s small businesses from failure

From music festivals to tech start-ups, the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process has become a powerful lifeline for struggling SMEs. Yet experts warn it is not a silver bullet but a race against time that rewards early intervention.

The hotel that became one of the State’s key accommodation providers

New 2024 filings for Guestford Ltd show the hotel operator continues to benefit from a multi-million international protection contract, with profit tempered by an exceptional tax bill of half a million euro.

“You can’t buy advertising of that quality”: The accidental climate lawyer taking on the State

From semiconductor physics to the courtroom, Fred Logue has emerged as the architect of Ireland’s most significant strategic climate litigation. In an in-depth interview, he reflects on his accidental path to the law, the high-profile detour into planning judicial reviews, and his renewed focus on putting his clients on the State's climate agenda.

HaloSOS set out to protect hotel staff. Now it fights for its own survival

The company behind wearable panic buttons for workers once set out to expand in the US. Now, after years of losses despite winning major hotel brands as customers, it seeks to save the business through Scarp.

How $9.99 became the most compelling price in retail

Companies are redesigning packaging and slashing marketing budgets to maintain the psychologically important threshold, writes Natasha Khan, The Wall Street Journal.

From Dublin to Italy: The long-running fight over two aircraft engines

Lessor Aeolus will take its legal action from Ireland to Italy in a bid to get its two aircraft engines back from Express Air Cargo, a Tunisian freight carrier.

From start-up to liquidation: How WhiteSwell’s decade-long journey came to an end

The Galway company’s attempts to raise a $50m Series C round fell through and a liquidator has been called in just weeks after it published the results of its latest clinical trial.

A winding-up petition, a stalled IPO and claims of defective homes

GDL Management Group is suing Bert’s Properties Ltd for allegedly defective work on eight properties intended for the mortgage to rent scheme. It claims material losses into the millions and reputational damage.

Top Voices

Jonathan Keane: The digital euro finally starts to take shape

The Central Bank of Ireland will take part in the ECB’s pilot programme for the digital currency while the Irish-led presidency is kicking off negotiations for the legislation underpinning it.

Affordable by name, not by design: Ireland’s cost-rental model is built to fail outside Dublin

Cost-rental should be anchored to the cost of providing homes, not an arbitrary discount from market rents. Until that changes, Ireland's flagship social-rental model will work only where market rents are high enough to make the numbers add up.

How to fill the €100m funding-round gap

Europe is building world-class technology companies: A new €5bn EU fund will help them scale – and do so from home, write European Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva and investor Kasim Kutay.

Finance by design and the consequences of success: Rewinding the week that was

From property funds to securitisation vehicles, Ireland's financial architecture now has extraordinary scale. Understanding it may be the next challenge.

Paul Flynn: When it comes to Dublin and Kerry, history is always present

As an emerging Dublin footballer, you didn't need to be told about the game's greatest rivalry – there was just an assumption you already knew how deep it ran and what it meant to everyone.

England, the World Cup and Ireland’s identity crisis

Huge numbers in Ireland will watch England try to get past Norway in tonight's World Cup quarter-final. The majority will be fervently hoping they don't, but some of us have always felt differently about English football.

Leadership without ego: A tribute to Martin Naughton

Glen Dimplex founder Martin Naughton died last Friday aged 87 and his funeral took place on Thursday. His legacy extends far beyond the multinational he built out of Ireland when no one thought it possible.

The Ortega story by Joe Haslam – Part 2: How “Celtic management” runs the show at Zara

The Inditex group’s flagship brand has surpassed Nike in global rankings by remaining rooted in its founder Amancio Ortega’s Galician heartland.