“I don’t think Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams had any appetite for violence at all”
In his book, Stakeknife’s Dirty War, the former H-Block prisoner, Richard O’Rawe, provides the inside story on Freddie Scappaticci. In an interview with Dion Fanning, he explores the many lives of Scappaticci, his own experience as a prisoner during the hunger strikes, and his views on Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams as they pursued peace, viewed as “treachery in a pristine sense” by many republicans.
“We had a terrible first few years, because the backlash was just so strong”
Cork-based Treemetrics is working with the European Space Agency to use satellite imagery and its own measurement technology to provide more accurate forest carbon credit estimates in a rapidly growing industry. In this podcast, chief executive, Enda Keane, talks to Rosanna Cooney about the eighteen-year journey to get to this point and the future regulation of carbon offsets.
“The advantage of debt is you’re not diluting your existing shareholders by issuing new equity.”
At the beginning of last year, NewsWhip began the process of securing additional capital to fund the new phase of its growth. Last week, the company disclosed that it had secured $13 million in debt from London-based AshGrove Capital. It will use the money to grow headcount to more than 120 people over the coming three years and fund the development of better products. In this podcast, CEO Paul Quigley talks about the new funds, the company’s journey, and the future of media.
“Step back from the doomsday rhetoric: The multinationals’ business models are still very strong”
Following the series of layoff announcements by US digital services firms, Chief Economics Writer Stephen Kinsella and Senior Correspondent Thomas Hubert join Editor Ian Keohe to place the recent tech slump in the context of the Irish economy. They also discuss the wider attitude towards foreign investment when it comes to land, a tentative government move to recognise that property is no longer the only form of lifelong savings for Ireland's population and the prospect of a trade war between the EU and the US.
“We are trying to help people keep their voices for as long as possible”
Clare Meskill, a speech and language therapist, saw a gap in how people with Parkinson's are being cared for in Ireland. In this podcast, she tells Rosanna Cooney about raising €700,000 to expand Teleatherapy, the MedTech app she founded that allows clinicians to monitor patients' speech therapy in-between appointments and is backed by Enterprise Ireland.
“The health system doesn’t have the funds or the resources to offer maternity health education”
Brian McGovern has been building businesses since college. Now, he has co-founded The Baby Academy to plug the gap in antenatal and postnatal health education globally. With one million registered users, he talks to Rosanna Cooney about the mercy of failing fast and his philosophy of ambitious frugality.
“Isn’t a government’s primary responsibility the socio-economic welfare of society? Or is it only the economic welfare?”
Through the Aura Holohan Group, Gar Holohan runs the largest health and fitness group in the country. After four decades in the business, he has seen the same mistakes be repeated over and over again. He talks to Rosanna Cooney about flipping the negative attitude to investing in social infrastructure in Ireland.
“A Russian government can’t turn off the wind while it might be able to turn off the tap, so the answer is renewables”
Ronan Doherty was a co-founder of ElectroRoute in 2011 and remains the chief executive of the Letterkenny-headquartered energy trading company following its full acquisition by Mitsubishi last year. The business boasts over 10 per cent of Ireland's electricity supply capacity under management, trading its mostly renewable production across Europe, and is now expanding into Japan. Doherty tells Thomas Hubert why he believes ElectroRoute is an essential cog in the system that will wean us off fossil fuels.
“The price of gas and therefore electricity is falling at the moment. However, it is still unclear as to whether we will have enough gas for next winter”
GridBeyond is an Irish company helping businesses around the world manage their energy input using a combination of consumption management, on-site equipment such as batteries and solar panels, and supplier contracts. Its chief executive Michael Phelan gives Thomas Hubert some tips on how to navigate the volatile electricity market and discusses the impact of the ongoing energy crisis on the much-needed transition to low-carbon power.
“To understand how to secure stable housing for as many people as possible, you want to talk to the providers of it and understand how they make their business decisions”
Meredith Greif is a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, USA. Her work focuses on the symbiotic relationship between tenants and landlords. "The point of my work," she told Sean Keyes in this week's podcast, "is to show that caring about landlords is important because it means caring about tenants. Landlords' behaviour is so consequential that if you want to help the renter, you have to think about what's happening to the landlord. And it's not condoning or looking away from bad landlord behaviour".
“Living in line with your values often means being self-employed”
Seven years ago, Sinead Doherty read the tea leaves and predicted that the future of work would be impermanent, flexible, and based on a contractor model. Her company Fenero, which offers tax and payroll solutions for contractors and freelancers, has since reaped the benefits. In this podcast, she talks to Rosanna Cooney about expanding into India and accountancy's digital transformation.