Archive for May, 2011
DJ & Sarah’s Troubles
My former colleague on Dragons’ Den, Sarah Newman and her partner DJ Carey, were in the news last week. AIB went to the Commercial Court to foreclose on a debt of 9.5 million euro. There were acres of coverage for the story because, of course, they are a very high profile couple. She was judge on Dragons’ Den for its first two series and her partner is one of the greatest sportsmen this country has ever produced.
Now it has been reported that the couple weren’t expecting a hearing of the case on Monday the 9th last but rather a listing. So when the case went ahead they must have been taken by surprise. But Sarah and DJ should have made themselves available to the media immediately. Instead they kept their heads down hoping it would all blow over. What happens then is a media free for all.
If you have been regularly in the media and using it to promote yourself or your business you can’t then go to ground, so to speak, on a bad news day.
It will sound like I am promoting my fellow columnist here in the paper when I say look at how Ivan Yeats handled his problems just back in January.
Actually Ivan’s problems were far wider ranging in that many people were losing their jobs. Now in both cases it was the same bank AIB that was playing hard ball but Ivan faced the music with great dignity, integrity, honesty and empathy for his colleagues.
The amount of support and concern for Ivan and his wife Deirdre was absolutely amazing and well deserved. Very different to the coverage for Sarah and DJ, described as a couple who “enjoyed the high life” which was not deserved. It would be hard to come across a harder working couple than both DJ and Sarah.
I hope they will both pull through this awful mess. In many a game DJ was well down at half time but the fighter in him would come back and get a win. I know he and Sarah will apply the same determination in overcoming this crisis and I sincerely wish them every success.
World’s Most Famous Heads of State in Ireland.
The Queen has arrived and so too has a milestone in the process of reconciliation between our two countries. I warmly welcome the British Head of State and believe her visit is long overdue.
I am very privileged to be meeting both Queen Elizabeth and President Obama at functions I will attend in the next few days. The Queen’s itinerary has been published but the final details of President Obama’s visit is a ferociously well guarded secret.
In a professional capacity I am working the members of Moneygall community. Normally this too should have stayed secret until Ollie Hayes the publican in Moneygall told RTE’s John Murray on his radio show last Friday morning. Now everyone knows, thanks Ollie.
Anyway what is my role? For Henry Healy, a relative of Barak Obama who lives in Moneygall, for John Donovan, who owns the ancestral home and for Canon Stephen Neil, the genealogist who established the link between County Offaly and the US President, next Monday is monumentous. These three men will each be interviewed over a thousand times by the world’s media between, say, Saturday and Wednesday next.
I don’t think people have any idea how big an international story this is. My team and I will be on the ground in Moneygall to help them cope with the media tsunami that is about to hit them. It is important that the spokespersons in Moneygall do themselves, their village and Ireland justice. It will be a fantastic few days for Ireland having the two most widely recognised heads of state in the world meeting the warm and friendly people of Ireland and pictures of it all beamed around the world on TV.
As a result of my involvement I have been invited to attend an “intimate function” with the US President but if I told you the details of that here now his secret service would have to shoot me so I will tell you all about it in my next bog update!
Sean Gallagher for the Park
So my great friend, Sean Gallagher, is hoping to run for the Park in November’s Presidential election. The news that he is entering the race appeared in Sunday’s papers. Late on Saturday night I had received a courtesy text from Sean telling me there would probably be something in the papers the next day about his candidacy as an Independent.
Ever the gentleman, Sean was giving his close friends a heads up. Since then I have been amazed at the number of people who said to me he would make a great candidate. I don’t mean to sound surprised but when you know someone so well, after all, we have shared a dressing room on the Dragons’ Den set for three years, it is more difficult to think of him as possibly, “His Excellency, Sean Gallagher, Uachtaran na hEireann”.
However, at a time when employment prospects are dismal, it would be fantastic to have a person in the Aras who understood the importance of people creating a job for themselves rather hoping to be offered one. Separate from our current economic woes, the days of lifelong employment in a firm, ending at age 65 with a pension and a gold watch, are over. Those entering the job market today have to possess a knowledge, skill, service or product they can sell to companies. That’s how many people will earn their living in the future. We have entered the age of the sub contractor and perhaps the only prospect of earning decent, dependable money will be to become self-employed. This is a seismic change in our job structures and requires someone who fully understands and appreciates the challenges facing the self employed and the small and medium sized business operator. For that alone Sean is worthy of serious consideration.
The fact that he also has championed so many, what I will call, disability causes, would also be a benefit to the entire voluntary sector that does such Trojan work throughout Ireland. When people see Sean on the TV they see him as a relaxed, jovial, warm man but they don’t realise the daily struggle Sean has with his greatly impaired vision. Something he has suffered from childhood. In the Den I have to constantly tell Sean what is on the large display board in front of us on the easel. Of course this is always edited out of the programme. He can’t see big letters on a board from fifteen feet. A combination of his ever worsening impaired vision and the bright studio lights leave him blinded. But Sean never complains. He is one of the most positive, uplifting people I have ever met.
He faces a difficult challenge to win an Independent nomination for the Presidency but Sean has a long track record of overcoming challenges. With his energy and self belief he has every chance of succeeding.