Don O’Neill doesn’t speak in slogans. He speaks in stories — slow-burning, salt-air-soaked, stitched through with a kind of quiet resolve. Raised in the small seaside town of Ballyheigue, County Kerry, O’Neill grew up sketching gowns in secret, dreaming of runways far from the Atlantic’s reach. But even as he dressed icons like Oprah and Michelle Obama, the pulse of home never left his designs.
His journey wasn’t a straight line. It zigzagged through kitchens and catwalks, through heartbreak and hard-earned success. O’Neill trained in design in Paris while working restaurant shifts at night. He spent years as Creative Director at THEIA, only to see the brand shutter suddenly — a moment that cracked open his identity but didn’t break his belief. In this episode of Arts Matters, he speaks with Alison Cowzer. Arts Matters is sponsored by HLB Ireland.
To understand how Carlos Ghosn rose so meteorically to the top of the global automotive industry, Wall Street Journal reporters Nick Kostov and Sean McLain begin their book 'Boundless' on the banks of the Amazon in Brazil.
It was from those humble beginnings that Ghosn, armed with a deep intellect and a brilliance for seeing the future, emerged with a determination to succeed. In this episode of The Context, McLain talks to Sinead O’Sullivan about the extraordinary rise, fall and escape of the former Nissan boss. It is a story of unfettered ambition, of shadowy financial manoeuvrings, of a daring escape, and of the seedy underbelly of international wealth.
Family businesses are run on a special sauce of commitment but all too often the intensity means isolation. In this episode of the Family Matters series, sponsored by Whitney Moore, Alison Cowzer speaks to John McGrane, director general of the Family Business Network about confronting the big problems head on with the help of those who have walked the path before.
Many of Ireland's oldest family businesses were established alongside the foundation of the state and have been forced to evolve to stay alive. Maxol is a prime example of this and is now in a period of dramatic change. Chief executive Brian Donaldson speaks to Alison Cowzer on this episode of the Family Matters podcast about working with a fourth generation family business, the future of fuel, and inherited appetite for risk. The Family Matters podcast series is sponsored by Whitney Moore.
Rachel Doyle built the Arboretum from an idea into Ireland's most acclaimed independent garden centre. The entrepreneur talks to Alison Cowzer about growing the business into a global award winner, the importance of reinvesting, and planning a diplomatic succession. The Family Matters podcast series is sponsored by Whitney Moore.
Danny McCoy has spent 13 years at the helm of Ibec. He has been critical of government in the past, but believes the current government is doing the best in extraordinary circumstances. He talks to Ian Kehoe about why a sovereign wealth fund is a bad idea, why the state needs to grow, and how Ireland can reap the bounty of multinational growth.
McCambridge Bread has been on the Irish grocery shopping list for more than 75 years and Michael McCambridge has led the family business through its third generation. In the first episode of the Family Matters series, sponsored by Whitney Moore, McCambridge talks to Alison Cowzer about branding, leveraging heritage, and lean management Tuesdays.
At an age when he could be retiring, tax expert Alan Moore has reinvented himself as a technology entrepreneur, rolling out a new AI-powered product that he believes can revolutionise the tax system. He has secured funding from SOSV and is raising additional capital. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he talks about the business model, the world of tax, and his career – from tax official to tax adviser to tax entrepreneur.
As a former government minister who had been admired as a schoolteacher for 30 years, Pat Carey’s distinguished career in public life could have been indelibly tainted by shocking and squalid lies. But he fought to clear his name, securing an apology from the Garda Commissioner and a settlement. He talks openly about the controversy, his sexuality, and his life.
Dr Tom Gernon is an Irish scientist who has dedicated his career to diamonds, figuring out where on the planet they are and how did they get there? He talks to Rosanna Cooney about his latest research which breaks down one of the great mysteries of the hardest crystals.
UCD war historian Edward Burke's next book, Ulster's Lost Counties, is a study of a forgotten aspect of Irish history: loyalism in the three Ulster counties that weren’t partitioned and where that population felt left behind. In conversation with Dion Fanning, he discusses the memory and mythology accumulated in Ireland's borderlands and in similar frontier regions elsewhere in Europe. They also talk about Burke's participation in the recent forum on international security policy, the threats facing Ireland and the gap between the protests that targeted the forum and how he thinks citizens perceive those issues.
