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.
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.
Sam Smyth meets the pop svengali from Kiltimagh whose fame has long since eclipsed the boybands he represented. "I started at the bottom," Walsh says of his early years booking warm-up talent for showbands in the west of Ireland. Now he is a multi-millionaire with property investments in Ireland and Miami, and an enviable art collection. He talks to Smyth about his breakout years with Eurovision winner Johnny Logan and why Simon Cowell changed his life.
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.
Ted Cunningham is the only person who went to jail in relation to the Northern Bank heist. Fifteen years later, he maintains his innocence and wants to clear his name. So why did he plead guilty and how did £3m in cash end up in his house? This is his story.
Declan Taite, the managing partner and joint country lead of Duff & Phelps, has been at the coalface of Irish restructuring and insolvency for more than two decades. In a wide-ranging discussion with Ian Kehoe, Taite talks about the cases he has worked on throughout his career, and shares his thoughts on the sectors that he believes will struggle in the future. He also discusses the sale of FGS to Duff & Phelps, and the firm’s ambitious growth plans for Ireland.
For 20 years, Marian O'Gorman has been Chief Executive of the iconic, family-run, Kilkenny Group. In this podcast, she talks to Alison Cowzer about succession, acrimony, the importance of championing Irish designers and the future of the retail brand. She also explains why she wants Irish businesses to rally behind Green Friday
Brid Horan broke the mould by becoming Ireland's first female actuary. Not that she planned it that way. In this interview, the former deputy chief executive of the ESB and cofounder of the 30% club talks to Alison Cowzer about her impressive career, leadership, pensions, and why gender balance matters
From Eircom to Quinn Insurance, he was the go to insolvency expert during the economic crash, handling some of the biggest corporate failures of the era. Ian Kehoe talks business with Grant Thornton Managing Partner Michael McAteer.
Sam Smyth meets Tony Boyle, who continues to seek justice over the awarding of the state’s second mobile phone licence to Denis O’Brien’s Esat. It has been an exhausting and costly battle, but, steeled by the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal, he is not giving up.
