Every March, St Patrick’s Day transforms Dublin — but few people know the man helping to turn a single parade into one of Ireland’s biggest cultural and economic events.
Richard Tierney is the CEO of St Patrick’s Festival, the organisation behind Ireland’s national celebration. In thispodcast with Ian Kehoe, Tierney explains how the festival has evolved into a multi-day, citywide programme — with free daytime events, night-time culture and thousands of participants — while still carrying the weight of national identity at home and abroad.
Coming from a background in live entertainment and major commercial deals, Tierney was brought in with a clear brief: make the festival financially sustainable without losing its cultural soul.
Co Limerick-based Nick Cotter is the winner of this year's Global Student Entrepreneur Awards for the solution developed to reduce chemical use in livestock by Cotter Agritech, the latest strand in a farm-based business sustaining two generations of his family and several employees. From running a marketing survey in his primary school for his first firewood business to selling organic lamb to Adare Manor and keeping a cool head when approached by venture capitalists, he tells Thomas Hubert what drives him to juggle business, college and life – and why it could only have happened on a farm.
The car bomb that killed Darya Dugina may have been intended for her father Aleksandr Dugin, a figure who may or may not have Vladimir Putin's ear but who has articulated a vision of the Russian nation which justifies the invasion of Ukraine. Journalist and documentary-maker Johnny O'Reilly talks to Dion Fanning from Kyiv about Dugin's importance if any and how the war is now playing out on the frontline in Ukraine.
Two years ago, Mike McGrath and Martin Fitzgerald put their money in their own pockets and developed a minimum viable product, before launching it to the market last year. Today, their Cork-based company, Kwayga, has 50,000 suppliers listed on its platform and is operating in 50 countries.
The business, an online platform that matches buyers and sellers in the food and beverage sector, initially targeted the European market but it is now gaining momentum in the US and Canada. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, McGrath talks about the genesis of the business, the growing problem of supply chain disruption, and raising funds to scale internationally.
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.
