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.
With O’Briens Irish Sandwich Bars, Brody Sweeney created a global brand with 340 outlets around the world. When he ceded control of the business during the financial crisis, he dusted himself down and started again. The fast-growing Thai restaurant and delivery business Camile Thai was born. In this episode of Franchise Matters with Alison Cowzer, he talks about his journey and the lessons he learned along the way. It is a journey, he admits, that has both successes and failures.
The world of work is changing. Some of these changes are obvious such as flexible working, hybrid offices and working from home. Others such as automation and GenAI are less clear. The relationship between the employer and the employee, for so long clearly defined, is changing, and those changes are having massive implications for businesses and their most important resources – their staff. In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Susanne Jeffery, director, workforce consulting with PwC, talks to Ian Kehoe about how technology is impacting workplace trends and offers advice on what companies can do to harness the power of their workforce. This podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
Franchising is a huge phenomenon globally. The sector currently has revenues of about one trillion dollars and it is forecast to triple by 2032. It brings global and sometimes local brands to the market, offering entrepreneurs an opportunity to join a group and mould the business around a proven model.
But how does a company know when to adopt a franchise model, and what business person makes a good franchisee? In the first episode of Franchise Matters, Alison Cowzer talks to Dr Rosalind Beere, an expert on the business of franchising. She shares her own experiences in the sector and talks about when the model makes sense, how to avoid trouble, and why franchisees are entrepreneurs in their own right.
All the major Irish team sports wrestle with their relationship with the country in a way that isn’t unique to Ireland but is certainly peculiar in its relentlessness and refusal to settle.
Hurling brings out the self-congratulation; Gaelic football the self-loathing. Football and rugby are often viewed in comparison to Gaelic games, with the historic accusation, implied or explicit, that these games — and more importantly — those who played them — were somehow less Irish.
For Liam O’Callaghan, author of the new book Blood and Thunde, rugby has the most interesting story to tell of all the sports
His book makes a compelling case for his point of view, spanning as it does how rugby was seeded in Ireland, the political tensions, its role north and south and the class element which ultimately may be more important than the nationalist position. He speaks with Dion Fanning.
When Ian Kehoe last met Noel Anderson three years ago, the Dublin publican was navigating his group through the pandemic and recovering from a bruising, but successful, court battle with FBD over disputed business interruption cover. Since then, along with his former rugby-playing backers, he has opened a new restaurant, launched a pub in Blackrock, and recently acquired McSorley’s in Ranelagh for €5.5 million. In this podcast, he explains how the deal came about, outlines his plans for the group, and talks about the glut of closures in the hospitality sector.
Patsy McGarry's career as the Irish Times Religious Affairs correspondent spanned the implosion of the Catholic Church in Ireland. His new memoir details those extraordinary and distressing times. In this podcast he talks to Dion Fanning about why his father stopped going to mass, the bloodless genocide of Protestants in Ireland and the intransgience of the Catholic Church.
Economist Danny McCoy has spent the last 14 years leading the employers' group Ibec, and understands the intersection of business and politics better than most. He has been a vocal critic of government in the past. Now, however, he is siding with the Government over its fiscal advisers, arguing that the coalition is right to breach the National Spending Rule. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, McCoy explains why and also sets out the details contained in Ibec’s pre-Budget submission.
Just days after his sad passing, Tommie Gorman’s beloved Sligo Rovers formally submitted its funding application for the redevelopment of the Showgrounds. If completed, the plan will transform it into a 6,200-capacity stadium with state-of-the art facilities. Gorman was a key player in the plan. So too is Tommy Higgins, the former head of Ticketmaster in Europe and now the chairman of Sligo Rovers. In his podcast with Sam Smyth, Higgins talks about his lifelong friendship with the journalist and why redeveloping the stadium would be a tremendous legacy for Gorman’s efforts.
Cameron Herold is known as the CEO whisperer. He has helped hundreds of companies all over the world to experience exponential growth. He has done it himself. By the age of 35, he had helped build two €100 million companies. He is an author, a mentor, and a consultant. He’s also a podcaster and the founder of the COO Alliance. In this episode of Mindset Matters, a podcast series in association with the Wealth Summit, he talks about his journey – and the lessons he learned along the way.
Even before his teens, Conor Niland knew that his life was unusual. While his friends hung around at the weekend, Niland and his mother would travel across Europe to play in international tennis tournaments, competing against a clutch of junior players who would ultimately rise to the very top of the sport.
Tennis would go on to define his life - from a scholarship in the US to a seven-year career touring the world as a professional player. But while some of those he played against as a teen earned fame and fortune, Niland existed just outside of the rarified status of the world’s top 100. His peak ranking, 129, makes him Ireland’s best-ever player, but it did not secure him a place at the top table. Instead, he fought on the lower tours, peaking in 2011 when he qualified for both the US Open and Wimbledon. He retired a year later.
He has just published his memoir, The Racket, which chronicles the life of a journeyman tennis player trying to earn a living in a hierarchical system. In this podcast, he reflects upon his career, identifies the key turning points, and examines why Ireland does not produce more international-standard tennis players.
