Three interviews spanning fifteen years, each one rooted in its own time and its own place. Combined, they tell not just the story of a man, but the inverted economic arch of the country. I first interviewed Frankie Whelehan in August 2005 for The Sunday Business Post. We met in the lobby of the Clarion Hotel next to the River Liffey, one of 21 properties that his buccaneering Choice Hotel group was operating throughout Ireland at the time. Developers were keen to avail of tax breaks to build hotels. Whelehan, an ambitious hotelier, was keen to run them and take…

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