When Muhammad Ali visited Dublin to fight Al Blue Lewis he famously asked where do all the black people hang out? He was told there weren’t any. Dave Hannigan has written a marvelous book about that week in Ireland. He talks to Dion Fanning about Ali’s time in Dublin and the people who made it happen.
Bernie Madoff's death this week brought back memories of one of the most far-reaching Ponzi schemes in financial history. Diana Henriques's book The Wizard of Lies told his story. She interviewed Madoff and, even in securing that interview, she experienced in a small way what it was like to trust Madoff and for him to betray that trust. In this podcast, she talked about how Madoff did that and how his Ponzi scheme appealed to people's anxiety rather than their greed.
Sean Keyes asks The Currency’s senior correspondent Thomas Hubert and chief economics writer Stephen Kinsella to unpick Joe Biden’s proposal for corporation tax reform: Why does US tax law matter so much to Ireland? How do American multinationals react to changes in the tax code? How likely is the new US president’s plan to be implemented, and how would its combined impact with ongoing international talks at the OECD affect the Irish economy? The answers are less clear-cut than you might think.
Warren Deutrom is CEO of Cricket Ireland. The past 15 years have contained many glorious moments for Irish cricket but now the game's ruling body in Ireland is looking to appeal to those who understand cricket, those who don't and those who may know that its history in Ireland is a long one. But first, like every sport, they have to try to get back playing in Covid times
One year ago, Suzanne Rigby and Mark Hooper’s business, which focused on display advertising in pubs, evaporated overnight. Within one month, they turned around and launched Clickandcollection.com, a service allowing restaurants to manage online orders for meal kits and takeaway menus. Now joined by John O’Connor, they want to expand beyond their customer base of 250 businesses – including internationally. The three entrepreneurs join Thomas Hubert to discuss their experience and their plans.
Having risen the ranks at JP Morgan and HSBC, Sligo native Deirdre McGettrick assumed she would eventually take a job with one of the companies that she advised. Instead, based on her experience of furnishing her own house, she became an unlikely entrepreneur in 2019. Today, Ufurnish.com is the UK’s largest home furnishing and comparison website. The company has just appointed Pat McCann, the founder of hotel group Dalata, as chair, and is currently in the process of raising up to £10 million to fuel expansion. In this podcast with Cait Caden, McGettrick talks about her journey from investment banking to running a start-up and outlines the company’s ambitious plans for the future.
Lisa Fallon just wants to do her job. As a female head coach in men's football that hasn't always been as easy as it should have been. She is now first team head coach at Galway United but as a child, she didn't know what opportunities were available to her. But her talent and coaching ability ensured that she would take them.
Longford native Anne-Marie Tomchak has worked for Mashable and was digital director of British Vogue. Now, she has launched the sustainable fashion business ShareJoy. The venture was founded to nurture and support young people during the pandemic following the loss of 23-year-old Irish woman Arwen Sullivan. It launched on ‘Blue Monday’ in January 2021 to highlight ShareJoy’s core value of promoting mental health awareness. In this podcast, she talks about the phone call she will never forget that inspired her to create ShareJoy, her career in the media and why what she is doing now is not so different from journalism.
Liam Cunningham gave up his career as an electrician with the ESB to become an actor in his twenties. It was in recent years, however, that he rose to worldwide fame for his role as Ser Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones. Cunningham’s take on the impact the pandemic has had on the film and television industry is worth listening to but he is not shy about discussing politics, gender pay gap and lockdown, as well as turning down a role in Titanic.
Four years ago, Ken Cahill, the co-founder and CEO of SilverCloud asked his board for permission to move to Boston. The company, which provides online mental health programmes to health services, insurers and corporates, had expanded rapidly in Ireland and the UK, but to break into the US, Cahill felt he needed to be on the ground. The move has paid off, with the company securing new clients and, last year, some $16m in new investment from blue-chip backers. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, Cahill, talks about the SilverCloud journey, and outlines its ambitious expansion plans, which includes entering the Australian and German markets. He talks about the key milestones since co-founding the business in 2012, including its first contract with the NHS and growing headcount from four to 90. Cahill talks about the company’s B2B business model, the importance of sales and gives his take on entrepreneurship, management and success. He also talks about his own entrepreneurial journey, including what he learned from a previous business failure.
Two years ago, Goodbody Stockbrokers launched Best 8, an equal-weighted stock list that represented the firm’s top global equity ideas. The idea was to introduce investors to a select number of blue-chip international stocks that were liquid. And, every day, the team at the Active Trading Desk at Goodbody sit down and assess the composition of the list. In this sponsored podcast, Padraig Rourke, head of the Active Trading Desk, talks about the strategy and tactics of the Best 8 – how investors can buy-in, the anticipated return, and the decision-making process behind the stocks that are picked. Rourke also talks through a range of stocks that have been included in the Best 8, including its successful investment in Southwest Airlines and its less successful holding in Walmart. He also talks about Allianz, Disney, and Visa, and explains why his team is always looking for a theme behind each investment.
