Archive for January, 2011
The Good and Bad in us
Two very different business stories to share with you this week – together they demonstrate all that is good and bad about us Irish.
First the bad. Sadly we are a nation of gossipers and rumour mongers. Nothing travels faster than bad news, and not only is it happening here in our own town but in every town up and down the country. Vicious, malicious and mischievous rumours abound, claiming the imminent collapse of some local business. The horror about these rumours is they can be self fulfilling prophecies. Once the gossips start spreading their vile story, customers may decide to pass the door and suppliers may demand immediate payment, a sure recipe to drive even a good business to the wall.
Do the gossipers ever stop to think about the untold damage they are doing just for the fleeting delight to be had from spreading bad news? Do they ever stop to ask how good or reliable is the information they are peddling with such gusto and meanness?
I know one business that has suffered from persistent, false rumours, or correctly termed, lies. Since before Christmas people were whispering “the liquidator is at the door”. In this case there was absolutely no truth whatsoever in the story but so called intelligent people, who should know better, kept spreading the lie.
Can I ask you to not participate in these destructive rumours that circulate freely about every other car dealership, hair dressing salon, shoe shop, restaurant, boutique, and builders’ providers? The list goes on and on, because the rumour mongers spare no one.
If some gossip tells you very dramatically that a certain business is in trouble, please say.., “Oh I find that hard to believe, are you just making that up? How would you know? I must give them a bit of support I will make sure to shop there this week.” That will shut up the rumour monger.
If we don’t pull together and support one another we will never get out of this economic mess we are in, which takes me on to the good that people do.
I was in Wexford last week filming with RTÉ for Dragons’ Den. Series 3 comes on air Sunday nights at 9:30 from February 20th. When the series ends at Easter there is a second series called Dragons’ Den on Tour, a ‘where are they now’ follow-up to some of the inventions, business ideas and start ups that came into the Den over the first two series.
So as part of this I found myself in Enniscorthy catching up with a new company called Wexgen which manufactures a carbon neutral, high-energy, fire-briquette called Green Flame. It is made from a new crop to Ireland, miscanthus. Also called elephant grass, miscanthus is a woody, bamboo-like crop and its only similarity to grass is that you set it once and it keeps growing and growing every year. Instead of making hay you cut it to make straw that ends up in a bale that looks more like the reeds used for thatching.
When 35 farmers from the Southeast, all former sugar beat growers, suddenly saw the Irish sugar industry being closed down by the EU, rather than whinge about it, they decided to look for an alternative crop to go into business themselves. The paltry compensation they got from Europe they ploughed into this new venture and raised another half a million euro to set up their manufacturing plant.
It was fantastic last week to see it now in full production. These farmers are a shining example of what can be achieved when we all work together. They have tapped into the great national heritage of Horace Plunkett and the Co-operative movement and the fighting, never say die heritage of Wexford, always evident, from the 1798 pike-men to the All Ireland Hurling champions of 1996.
These 35 farmers, who manufacture and distribute nationwide, Green Flame Briquettes, deserve our support. For the remainder of this winter, instead of buying a bag of dirty, imported coal, buy a bale of these, high-energy briquettes and do our country, our environment and some brave, get up and go farmers a good turn. I promise you, giving Green Flame your support will leave you with a nice warm feeling both in your heart and on your hearth.
Micheál Martin should be FF Leader
Independent Group Local papers Jan 24th 2011.
History will record Brian Cowen as our worst ever Taoiseach – someone who mishandled the worst economic crisis and who resigned in the worst possible manner.
Brian Cowen’s premiership failed, because he failed to communicate with the voters. So Fianna Fáil’s next leader must be a consummate communicator. If that is the uppermost requirement, then Fianna Fáil would be mad not to select Micheál Martin.
Brian Lenihan, the other main contender, is rightly and frequently praised for his speed learning of the Finance brief and his command of it in media interviews. But his style has been formed in the legal world and is far too formal – it lacks humanity and warmth. I have heard him address conferences, and while he is competent, he would never ‘wow’ the room. He does not have the necessary charisma for leadership, which Martin has in abundance. Like Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, Micheál too has buried a daughter recently. Both could have done the easy thing in their awful, tragic circumstances and remained silent in their grief. But they knew the nation was mourning with them, so they faced the media, connected with us, and probably even drew strength from it.
Eamon O’Cuiv and Mary Hanafin I won’t comment on, as I don’t consider them real contenders, except to say that O Cuiv would be a throw back and Hanafin a throw forward. She is putting down a marker for the next leadership contest – in five years time she will still be only in her mid fifties!
If the soldiers of destiny want a destiny they have to select Martin as the eight leader of Fianna Fail.
But this land of ours produces addicts who happen to have great talents.
Independent Group Local Newspapers- 12/1/2011
This leads me onto the fate of another media star, Gerry Ryan, deceased.
Daily now, since the inquest result on December 10th, more revelations and claims are made about his apparent cocaine addiction.
Most damning of all was his brother’s wife telling how she saw him crawling on his hands and knees desperately sniffing the carpet for any remains of cocaine spilled earlier, as he couldn’t get a new supply quickly enough from his dealer.
She stated that Gerry frequently took cocaine, even at his place of work.
Now the media are trying to implicate RTÉ. But, like most addicts, Gerry was probably most devious and brilliant at hiding his dependence.
We all suspected that Gerry had dabbled in drugs in his thirties, but we believed he had given it up. If his new partner Melanie Verwoerd didn’t know he was a substance abuser, then I don’t see why we think his line manger in RTE should have known.
We have to draw a line under all of this. Is it fair that one of the lasting images of Gerry Ryan might be our imaginings of him, in a drug crazed sense, sniffing his carpet? That’s not the lasting image of Gerry Ryan I want to retain.
Gerry should be remembered for being a really great broadcaster. Yes he did wrong. He took drugs and paid a huge price. He further denied his children, whom he loved dearly, the opportunity of having Dad at their weddings and christenings and all future family events.
But this land of ours produces addicts who happen to have great talents.
Should we remember George Best for his great football skills or for his alcoholism? Should Brendan Behan be remembered for the genius of the Borstal Boy, or the fact that he was an alcoholic?
In years to come I pray I will first and foremost remember Paul McGrath for that day in 1994 in Giants stadium New York when he kept Roberto Baggio and his Italy team scoreless, whilst Ray Houghton hit the net for an historic Irish victory.
I don’t want to remember that he has, on his own confession, been so addicted to alcohol that he has drunk paint stripper.
Gerry Ryan is not the first great Irish talent to have suffered an addiction. It is time to let him rest in peace and for us all to remind ourselves that he was, for half a million people throughout the nineties, a great friend, there on the radio, every morning.
Stars Rise and they Fall
Independent Group Local Newspapers 12/1/2011
As you know each week my column here on this page alternates with Ivan Yates. So I feel I have to comment on last week’s demise of Celtic Bookmakers, founded by Ivan. The dignified, open and honest way Ivan dealt with the prospect of his financial ruin and the potential loss of his home, and his consummate handling of the media coverage, confirmed yet again what a loss he is to politics.
I would love to think he might reconsider a career in public service. With our country facing possibly its biggest ever crisis, we need people like Ivan Yates in Dáil Éireann. He wouldn’t have to run in his old Wexford constituency and be a threat to his successor. With his Newstalk Breakfast national profile, he could run in any Dublin constituency and would easily command more than 15,000 votes. Remember George Lee got 26,000. Our political system is crying out for reform and we need people of integrity and experience like Yates.
However one factor could be a difficulty. If AIB or another Celtic Bookmakers’ creditor chooses to officially and legally bankrupt Ivan Yates, then he can’t be a member of the Oireachtas and he is barred from being a director of any business for 12 years. That’s six times longer than if he lived in the UK or the US.
It seems a very severe punishment for someone who created over 200 jobs and gave gainful employment to many for almost a quarter of a century. His only crime? He was entrepreneurial.
All I hope is the bank and the creditors will avoid that awful last resort of declaring him bankrupt.
The public perception of Ivan Yates has probably been enhanced rather than diminished by his handling of the events surrounding AIB appointing a receiver to his chain of bookie shops. I predict Ivan’s media star will continue to rise and rise.