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.
Gary McGann is one of the most experienced businessmen in Ireland. He led international paper and packaging giant Smurfit Kappa for 17 years. He was chairman of Paddy Power Betfair when it merged with the Star Group to create the world’s biggest online betting giant Flutter. It has not all been easy. He was a non-executive director of Anglo Irish Bank during the final years of Ireland’s property bubble. He is also chairman of baking group Aryzta which has endured its own travails but has now turned a corner.
Lucinda Creighton is a former Minister of State for European Affairs and she was one of the youngest ever members of the Dáil when she was first elected at just 27. A trained barrister she later left Fine Gael and founded the political party Renua. She talks to Sam Smyth about the highs and lows of her political career and her reaction to the recent election. She also talks about setting up her own business Vulcan Consulting, her views on Brexit and who she believes will ultimately emerge as Taoiseach in the coming weeks.
A former FBI officer, Jason Smolanoff is now a senior managing director and Global Cyber Risk Practice Leader with Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps. In this sponsored podcast, Smolanoff talks to Francesca Comyn about the world of cyber-attacks, computer hacking, market manipulation and asset tracing.
With Offr, Robert Hoban intends to streamline the arcane and often stressful business of buying and selling property for the 21st century. Ian Kehoe takes a deep dive with the proptech innovator promising to revolutionise real estate.
Larry Bass is a Board Member of Screen Ireland and producer of some of the biggest shows in Ireland - think Dragon’s Den and Dancing with the Stars. But television is not his only passion. He is also the Chairman of Cabinteely FC and involved with the new look FAI. In this podcast, Bass talks about the need to reflect who we are on our television screens and argues that the “League of Ireland football is the beating heart of Irish football".
On the doorsteps, voters ask politicians “what are you gonna do for me?” Politicians get the message. They (usually) shower voters with tax cuts, spending promises and other goodies. In this podcast, Sean Keyes sits down with Stephen Kinsella to talk about the economics of electoral politics. Stephen covers Ireland’s long history of auction politics, the options for reform, and the problem with too much democracy.
A slayer of dragons before judges and a white knight before parliament, Sam Smyth meets barrister and Senator Michael McDowell to talk politics, policing, power, bravery and freedom of the press. On the Progressive Democrats, he said: "We weren’t neoliberals. We just wanted to liberate Ireland from the dead hand of a half-century of State control of the economy." Having ruled himself out of contention for the next Dåil, might he run as Dublin’s first directly elected mayor?
Brian Lee is co-founder of Chopped, the health conscious salad chain that keeps on growing. A fitness entrepreneur and self-proclaimed wheeler-dealer, Lee knew setting up the first store on Baggot Street that he wanted to sell the kind of food he enjoyed eating. "Our ambition was to be everywhere in Ireland. We’d no appetite to just be one store," he tells Alison. His is a story of a personal vision realised, and a booming franchise.
The 15th of August 1971 was a turning point in modern history – the day the Nixon Administration severed the link between the dollar and a specific quantity of gold. In this conversation with Sean Keyes, John Looby draws a line from 1971 to the global financial crisis, the rise of China and our boom-bubble-bust financial system. He explains why Nixon was forced to abandon gold, how the decision affects ordinary people, and how the system might be fixed.
After a career spanning 25 years, the former minister of state and MEP Brian Hayes bowed out of politics, preferring a new challenge as Chief Executive of the Irish Banking and Payments Federation. In an in-depth interview with Ian Kehoe, he talks about his transition to the private sector, Fintech's role in the future of Irish banking and the long shadows still cast by the recession. "It's important we get this industry back up and working again," he tells Kehoe.
