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.
Conor Murphy’s decision to leave Northern Ireland politics where he was economy minister to run for the Seanad raised eyebrows. Why was the move necessary? Why would a senior politician give up a ministerial position for life in the Seanad? Murphy’s long career in republicanism and his comments concerning the murder of Paul Quinn in 2007 provided further complications. In a wide ranging podcast he discusses all these matters with Dion Fanning.
Podcast description: Who killed Jean McConville? It is impossible to say, Martin Dillon believes, but it is one the darkest secrets of the Troubles, a conflict with many dark secrets. Dillon has made a career of exposing them to the light. He talks to Dion Fanning about his new book, his time as a journalist in the north when his life was in danger as he exposed the world of informants and double agents. He also tells the extraordinary story of bringing John Hume and Gerry Adams together for a debate on the BBC in 1985.
Who was Edna O’Brien? Was she the fearless slayer of convention as depicted by the tributes after she died or was she the frivolous, insubstantial figure long depicted in Ireland? A new documentary reveals a compelling vulnerable genius, whose courage was not a hollow statement but one that was not without fear, loneliness and misery. In this podcast with Dion Fanning, Sinead O’Shea talks about making the documentary.
How do you reinvent your business model to remain relevant and to protect your company for the future?
It is a question that many CEOs are trying to answer. And they are trying to answer it at a time of major change, disruption and transformation - from technological advancements to shifting geopolitical sands to heightened economic uncertainty. In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Amy Ball, Transformation Leader, PwC Ireland, talks to Ian Kehoe about the business of business reinvention. Ball also talks about the results of PwC’s 2025 CEO survey, discusses how businesses can prepare for disruption, and gives her assessment on emerging issues such as climate investment and GenAI. The Tech Agenda podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
We now have full sight of the returns achieved by Cerberus on the first wave of distressed debt it acquired in Ireland following the financial crisis. Thomas Hubert joins Ian Kehoe to discuss the US vulture fund's performance and how it compares between deals with major Irish providers of bad loans, such as Nama and Ulster Bank, and other European countries covered by Cerberus's growing Irish office. A major series of articles to be published this week covers the figures in detail.
The numbers tell their own story. More than 120,000 people are employed in the financial services industry in Ireland across 8,800 companies, with the sector generating €6.8 billion annually in tax revenues.
However, a new report from the consultancy firm EY suggests that it can grow further. If key competitive advantages and opportunities are harnessed, the report argues that Ireland’s financial services industry could grow by 26 per cent by 2028. The report, “Building a Better Financial Services Ireland: Accelerate to Elevate”, also states that employment in the sector can increase by 34 per cent, or 30,000 jobs over the baseline, ‘business as usual’ projection in that same period.
In this podcast, Colin Ryan, Financial Services Managing Partner, EY Ireland, talks to Ian Kehoe about how that vision can become a reality and the policy choices Ireland needs to take to elevate the financial services industry in the years ahead.
Ryan examines the five core strategic areas for the future of the sector -Technological Infrastructure, Talent, International Trade, Regulatory and Legal Framework, and Macroeconomic fundamentals - and explains how Ireland can develop its offering in each area by taking bold and decisive actions.
Ryan talks to Kehoe about the wider international environment and the steps being taken by other jurisdictions to develop compelling financial services offerings.
Ryan also delves into the future of financial services, the rise of green finance, and the key issues raised by the 140 senior financial services leaders across Ireland who were interviewed for the report
This podcast has been produced in association with EY.
As the Irish Ambassador to Malaysia, it fell to Dan Mulhall to find and repatriate Irish citizens impacted by the horrific 2004 Tsunami. He arrived at his next posting, in Berlin, when “Ireland was in the dog house” after its economy collapsed. Mulhall toured the country extensively, with a simple message: “Ireland has its troubles. We need help from you but don't worry, we have strength, and we will come back and we will repay every single penny of the money that we borrow from the European Union.”
From Berlin, he moved to London, at a time when Ireland’s nearest neighbour was preparing for the Brexit ballot, and Mulhall was there after the vote as relations between Ireland and the UK deteriorated. And, for his final posting, he was dispatched to Washington in the middle of Donald Trump’s first term.
Now retired from the diplomatic corps, he holds a number of consultancy positions in business and academia and is working on a project to develop an animated children's brand based on leprechauns from Carlingford.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, Mulhall talks about his career, diplomacy, Brexit, and the decision by Israel to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
George Hamilton was the voice of many of Irish sports greatest moments. From Italia '90 to Giants Stadium, Hamilton called the games that shaped a nation. He talks to Dion Fanning about being part of the Lost Age of broadcasting coverage, the vision of the former Head of Sport at RTÉ, the late Tim O’Connor, and why he had to leave.
Trevor Birney’s career has been defined by curiosity. As the producer of the Kneecap Movie, he might be heading to the Oscars next year, but he has written a book which tells the story of the Loughinisland Massacre and the day he was arrested for making a film about it. He talks to Dion Fanning about creativity in Northern Ireland, Say Nothing and the film he has produced about Saipan.
Pat Rabbitte is well-schooled in the art of government formation. He was there in 1994 when the Rainbow coalition came together, and he was there too in 2011 when the Labour Party coalesced with Fine Gael after the collapse of both the economy and Fianna Fail. In the former government, he was a member of Democratic Left, while in the latter, he was a Labour cabinet minister. In between, he helped negotiate a merger of the two left-wing parties, while also serving a stint as the leader of the Labour Party.
As the thorny issue of government formation continues, Rabbitte joins Ian Kehoe to discuss why Labour should not enter government, if it should merge with the Social Democrats, and whether Sinn Fein can ever offer a true path to power.
