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.
Kevin O'Brien is one of the great figures from the golden age of Irish cricket. A 50-ball century against England in 2011 catapulted him to the forefront of people's minds but he was there on all the great days. After announcing his retirement, he spoke to Dion Fanning about his disappointment in how it ended.
Deciphex, the virtual diagnostics company led by academic turned entrepreneur Donal O'Shea, is applying Artificial Intelligence algorithms to pathology, a discipline that hasn't changed much in its physicality over the last century. In this podcast, he talks to Rosanna Cooney about speeding up the diagnostic process and presenting pathologists with an alternate career path.
In this podcast Jonathan Wilson talks to Dion Fanning about his new book on Jack and Bobby Charlton. In his post playing career Jack became a huge figure, while Bobby became an emblem of the glory and tragedy of Manchester United. He was an old fashioned figure, to whom, as Wilson says in this podcast, the career of George Best could almost seem like a personal rebuke. But he also became a wealthy man.
WeHaveChefs is constructing a fast-track corridor between the kitchens of south-east Asia and the restaurants of Ireland to plug the gaping hole that Covid-19 left in the hospitality industry. In this podcast, Paddy Lynn, the business's co-founder, talks to Rosanna Cooney about streamlining the process and what the government can do to help the industry survive.
Sean O'Driscoll has written an extraordinarily detailed book on the life of Rose Dugdale. Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber is centred around the many interviews Dugdale did with the author, who speaks to Dion Fanning about her contradictions, earning her trust and being savaged on Liveline for the book.
Adriaan Palm, the ambassador of the Netherlands to Ireland, says that almost every meeting he has with Irish officials and citizens throws up questions on his country’s ability to adopt cycling and other sustainable transport options. In this far-reaching interview on Dutch-Irish economic relations, he reveals that environmental issues have taken over from corporation tax and Brexit at the top of the diplomatic agenda and discusses investment from the Netherlands in Ireland, including the new €200 million cheese joint venture between Glanbia Co-op and Royal A-Ware in Co Kilkenny.
Thomas Hubert and Stephen Kinsella talk to Dion Fanning about the deal reached within the government about reduction in emissions from the agriculture sector and why without leadership the same problems will return.
Cork company Valid8Me has developed reusable identity software that it claims allows financial institutions and professional services firms to onboard new customers in a cheaper and quicker way than anyone else in the market. Grant Thornton believes in the product, and the accountancy firm has just taken a majority stake in the company for €12.5 million. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, co-founder and CEO Patrick Horgan explains how the deal came about and outlines his plan to expand in the UK and the US. He also talks about the business of compliance, know-your-customer regulations and the company’s “atypical” journey.
In his book Chums, Simon Kuper explored the link between Oxford University and the elite that has ruled in the UK, primarily in the Conservative Party. That elite, through Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and other, also created Brexit. In this podcast, Kuper talks to Dion Fanning about the contenders for the leadership, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, two products of Oxford and two nostalgists for the glory days of Margaret Thatcher.
Prosperity is a devil's bargain. You get higher wages. But your rent goes up, your commute gets longer, and your traditional culture gets replaced by an insipid global one.
According to Joe McReynolds, this is why Tokyo deserves our attention. In a podcast with Sean Keyes, the urban studies expert and author of Emergent Tokyo explains how it is a rich, growing city with high wages and low unemployment, and seemingly immune from many of prosperity's unpleasant side effects - rents in Tokyo are about 40 per cent lower than in Dublin. McReynolds also explains how the city has managed to preserve its culture and old ways of life.
