Archive for the ‘Independent Group Local Papers Colum’ Category
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.
The Year That Was..2010
Independent Group Local Newspapers 29/1/2011
This week I am going to look back on 2010. I am so conscious of what an awful year it was for thousands – many losing their job, others losing sleep about their mortgage and their mounting debts and, this Christmas, so many looking at the prospect of losing members of their family to emigration in the coming year. So I feel almost guilty that I have had such an eventful and productive year. The Editor has pointed out that there will be a fuller review of all the year’s international, national and, of course, local news here in the paper but has asked me to write a personal log of my year.
January started with me beginning to write this column. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and thank you so much for your most positive feedback! Like me, you too are fed up with the constant negativity of the national media.
In February I inadvertently made the headlines. The Irish Daily Mail ran two pages of photographs of me meeting, on a street in Dublin, with Sean Fitzpatrick, the now disgraced former boss of toxic bank, Anglo Irish. The story sarcastically suggested I was probably meeting Sean Fitzpatrick to see would he invest some of his pension money in my Dragons’ Den products. Though it was a chance meeting, I still had to inform the media that I had never met Sean Fitzpatrick before (or since) and I had never been a client of Anglo Irish. Eventually the story petered out, but for the first time in my life I knew what it was to be “paparazzi-ed”.
In March, during the run of Dragons’ Den on RTÉ, I hit the jackpot! Noelle O’Connor walked in to present her idea for a healthy, non synthetic, non smelling, 100% natural, organic sunless tan. In the first three months in pharmacies over the summer, TanOrganic generated over €1m in sales. It became the number one selling tan in Ireland. So, despite being in the middle of the world’s worst recession, the point was proven again – if you have a good Irish-manufactured product, regardless of the economy it will sell and sell.
At the end of April Gerry Ryan died. We now know this was probably as a result of cocaine use. I would never condone substance abuse but I am not really qualified to comment because I am one of a tiny minority in Ireland who has never drank alcohol or smoked tobacco and has certainly never tried any form of drug. I do have many vices just not those more common ones! What Gerry did was wrong. But I worked with Gerry and I will always remember him as one of the greatest radio presenters.
In May I was asked to go on the Late Late Show for the finalists in the Transition Year Young Entrepreneurs competition. One student had a brilliant idea, “The Wrap”. It is a little plastic thing for wrapping up and avoiding tangling of the wire of your earphones for your phone or I-pod. I was delighted the following week to introduce him to Vodafone, and now his concept is now a real product out there on the market. It proves yet again that our schools are teeming with boys and girls with great business ideas.
In June I started my summer-long involvement with Celebrity Bainisteoir. Definitely one of the highlights of my year was the warm welcome I got from the Roche Emmets football club and its community. I still feel the team and I let ourselves down, and that such a great club deserved to go further in the competition, but I loved every moment of my involvement. The experience reaffirmed for me what a great contribution the GAA makes to local communities across the country.
On the 11th July the nation witnessed the greatest daylight robbery ever. Sports fans from all over the country agreed that Louth was robbed of a deserved Leinster title and Meath also suffered ‘winning’ what became a sullied championship. We simply have to introduce video evidence into these key games.
In August I was asked by RTÉ Radio 1 to fill in for Ryan Tubridy, who was moving over to 2FM, before John Murray was available to start the programme. I hadn’t presented a radio programme for well over a decade and if the truth be told enjoyed it far too much. It was a pleasure to work with Annmarie Power, Aonghus McAnally and their team in Donnybrook.
In September I was doing the job interviews for the Apprentice for TV3. One of the final four and the eventual winner was Michelle Massey. On her CV it stated she had done some modelling so I had to ask her was there anything in her past that could embarrass a future employer. She then revealed her dalliance with Playboy TV. I can tell you now I was never, ever expecting that one. I had to keep it all secret until the programme aired in December.
In late October my fellow Dragons and I really felt the pressure when RTÉ informed us that for 2011 the programme was moving to a prime time slot, 9:30pm on Sunday nights. We were all concerned that in the recession people might not come forward with good ideas. But when we did get to the Den for recordings, we were mightily relieved at the high standard of business ideas. It is television, so the producers will still feature the wacky ideas, but this year there were plenty of sound business ideas. Also RTÉ confirmed that there will be a follow up series looking back on many of the people who featured in series one and two.
In November we had the ‘good’ news that it was in the ECB’s interest to come to our nation’s rescue and bail us out but at a price. Personally I was delighted with the development, because I see it as the turning point on the road to recovery. The media kept pushing a line that we should default. We can’t default but we must restructure our debt in approximately 18 to 24 months from now. So we take this deal and in two years time after Portugal, Spain and maybe even Italy have required ECB/IMF assistance then we can, as a group of countries availing of the bailout, force the senior bondholders to restructure our debt. They will be forced to write a large percentage of it off. Of the group, which country has the strongest exports? Yes, Ireland. I assure you we will eventually come out of this valley of tears and our little nation can be great again.
In December Noel Dempsey followed his cabinet colleague, Dermot Ahern, and announced he wouldn’t contest the General Election. Dermot Ahern would have got re-elected but Noel Dempsey was doomed. He claimed he was doing it because he is over 55 years of age. The facts are party sources in Meath-West were forecasting that he could only muster, at best, 2,000 votes. Worse again his running mate, Deputy Johnny Brady, would poll better. So Dempsey, a former poll topper, couldn’t face the ignominy of being eliminated in an early count and bowed out on a fat pension. We so badly need the New Year’s General Election to draw a line under all the fall out of the Celtic Tiger and start on the road to recovery. To you and yours, a Happy New Year and all the best for 2011.
Ivor’s expenses
There has been a lot said and written about the now disgraced Fianna Fail Senator Ivor Callely. He has protested he is the victim of a media witch hunt.
It is true he has been the focus of journalists’ attempts to expose the corrupt culture of easy expenses paid as a type of top up to our already overpaid politicians.
And therein is the problem. During the boom many in public service complained that they were grossly underpaid when compared with their “colleagues” in the private sector.
And so a culture was allowed to grow where it became normal practise to pay generous expenses, often unvouched, to politicians but also executives in state employment.
There was a belief that if we can’t pay the going rate then we will make up the gap through expenses and, wait for it, bonuses.
The latter is farcical. Many HSE and local authority executives have received large bonuses, worse, still do. For what you may ask? But the practise is widespread.
As tens of thousands of men and women have lost their jobs in the private sector surely the public servants must now accept that having a permanent, pensionable job is actually the greatest job perk anyone can have.
Many teachers have seen their pay cut by about 12%. That’s a hefty pay cut, especially, if like most of us, you were living beyond your means and on top of that have a big mortgage. In such circumstances any pay cut bites deep and really hurts.
But the reality is our teachers are, even after the pay cuts, some of the best paid in Europe. They work very hard but, because of the nature of their job, have months of holidays over the year.
Compared to the private sector worker who has already seen take home pay cut by as much as twenty per cent and works 49 weeks of the year but, probably, spends 52 weeks worrying will he or she have a job next year, the public sector worker has by far the best job terms.
The so called ‘witch hunt’ that Ivor Callely is complaining of is of his own making.
No-one forced him to provide allegedly false mobile phone expenses and if it all serves to get rid of politicians who believe there is one rule for them and another for the rest of us and also ends the easy expenses culture in the public sector, well then I say it is a job well done.
Jet setting Minister Dempsey
Sticking with expenses journalist Ken Foxe of the Sunday Tribune has done the nation great service exposing the irregularities of the expenses system that has benefitted our elected representatives.
His latest target is Minister Noel Dempsey who used the Government jet to fly to the MacGill Summer School. Such an act cannot be justified. I genuinely believe if the punishment was that an offending politician who has wasted resources in such an ostentatious fashion was then forced to pay the bill from their own pocket that would put a stop to all these expensive capers.
But the latest revelation about Noel Dempsey is that he received cash payments as apparently a type of spending money to have when he was going on foreign trips. Is this fair?
A cash advance would be paid to the Minister and then he would spend the money on accommodation and “entertaining” and claim it back.
Now if a Government Minister is abroad and he buys a drink or a meal, “entertains”, someone our country is doing business with should that not be legitimately claimed as an expense?
Jetting to the MacGill talking shop at taxpayers’ expense is unforgivable but it is justifiable to pay some spending money in advance to a Minister going on a foreign trip if that money is then accounted for by receipts which must be submitted and recorded after the trip.
The next assignment for Ken Foxe must be to look at the state employees of RTE and examine their expenses.
For example, journalists talk a lot about balance and fairness. So why doesn’t Ken do a quick trawl on the last five RTE Washington Correspondents just to have a look at their expenses and what they claimed.
I have no doubt the journalists will be seen to be squeaky clean compared to the politicians they report on.
But wouldn’t it be nice to get that assurance and further wouldn’t it be nice to see journalists applying the same high standards to themselves as they expect of all others?
Tune in to Radio 1 from Monday.
Finally, just a bit of news regarding myself. This Monday, the 16th, and for three weeks, I am presenting from 9am to ten each morning on RTE Radio One.
Ryan Tubridy is off preparing for his new show that takes over from the late Gerry Ryan on 2FM. So I am the fill-in before John Murray takes to the airwaves with his new show on September 6th.
I think John is an inspired choice and hopefully will prove to be a winner for RTE in the mornings.
Along with being on Radio One each morning I am building up to my big quarter final clash as part of RTE television’s Celebrity Bainisteoir. That takes place on August 21st.
I can’t believe I am taking it so seriously. I am waking up each morning thinking about where I will play certain players. My team is Roche Emmets from County Louth and we are drawn against Kilconly of Galway, managed by the star of last year’s The Apprentice, Breffni Morgan.
I love football, any type of football. But my first love has always been Gaelic football. I just love the GAA, the parish club and its significance to community life in rural Ireland and now I am living it and loving it.
I will be broken hearted if we don’t win this big game Saturday week. Am I feeling the pressure? You bet I am. Before that hopefully you will be kind enough to listen out for me on Radio 1 from Monday. Talk to you then, bye for now.
We need video evidence / Rogue Developers /Getting to Market
The scenes at the end of the Leinster football final in Croke Park last Sunday were ugly. The shameful sight of Martin Sludden, the referee, being physically assaulted brings the GAA into disrepute. The so-called Louth fans who tried to physically assault him have done a huge disservice to themselves, their team and the sport.
There have been calls for the Gardai to use the video evidence from the TV pictures to identify and prosecute those who attacked the ref’.
But surely if video evidence is to be used should it not have been used earlier in the game to assist the referee in establishing whether Meath’s injury time goal was within the rules or not?
The GAA is rightly proud of its amateur status. It is in fact the most dearly cherished principle of the association. As the referees are also amateurs, volunteering their services, surely the GAA owes it to these brave, genuine, well-intentioned men to give them every possible assistance in doing their difficult job. We have all seen how well it works in rugby. Surely it now has to be introduced to the GAA.
I sometimes think there is a twisted logic in all of this. That somewhere in GAA Headquarters there are some highly-paid executives who are actually delighted with all this controversy and the acres of newsprint and endless hours of radio debates that are generated by it.
On the night of soccer’s World Cup final these highly paid GAA executives probably take great joy from knowing that in every pub in the country the topic of conversation was the events in Croke Park earlier that day and not Spain’s victory in South Africa.
But the GAA would have benefitted hugely from using video technology last Sunday. Just imagine the suspense of Martin Sludden going upstairs to consult with a fourth official, a video ref’ and then declaring, ‘no goal’.
Picture the scenes of uncontrolled joy as Louth wins their first Leinster in 53 years and all the positive media coverage that would have followed about lesser counties like Louth and Sligo breaking through to the upper ranks of the GAA. Meath would still be odds on favourites to reach an All Ireland quarter final.
Instead we refuse to use the technology. Amateurs who have trained so hard for so long are denied fair play, another core principle of the GAA. Meath gain what is, after all, an empty and sullied victory.
We witness a poor referee put in an impossible position being physically attacked. We see Louth supporters behaving appallingly. Most concerning is we see a steward being hit by a bottle thrown from the stand. The game we love is becoming like soccer.
The GAA must now introduce video assistance to referees. It is an open and shut case. An hour before the game in Drumcondra I saw a Louth supporters’ bus. They were all decked out in their red and white but amazingly in the front seat there were two passengers in the green and gold of Meath. That sight for me is reflective of the real GAA not the scenes at the end of the game.
Rogue Developers
Have you heard this term on news bulletins – “rogue developers”? Just lately it is being used with alarming frequency in reports to do with NAMA. We hear about loans from rogue developers being transferred to the National Assets Management Agency. I am concerned about this term and how it is coming into common usage in news reports.
Another term I hate to hear in the news is, “ the victim was known to the Gardai”. When I hear about some appalling murder I am initially concerned. Then I hear that phrase, “was known to the Gardai” and, to my shame, I stop being concerned.
I now surmise the murder victim was some criminal type who I assume was up to no good and, though I hate to admit it, I conclude; good riddance! That phrase, “known to the Gardai” conditions us not to be concerned or compassionate about the fellow citizen who has just brutally lost his or her life.
It is the same with “rogue developer”? It conditions us to think they were an evil lot and good riddance to them. I realise few people have sympathy for those property developers who have gone bust. But were they rogues is my question?
Sadly I have seen some friends lose their businesses in the last eighteen months. An architect’s firm which went into receivership. A coffee shop which has closed. A children’s party business where the phone just stopped ringing. And a recruitment consultancy which has gone to the wall.
Were they all rogues because they set up their business and gainfully employed themselves and others? I think not. To anyone who has lost a job, a business, or worst of all, their home, can we not show some compassion?
For an economy to survive and thrive we need people to set up businesses and to take risks. If their businesses fail we should ensure that once they have paid their debts to the best of their ability then we should encourage them to try again. Our country and its economy needs entrepreneurs and risk takers now more than ever.
Getting to Market
Getting a new product market is always exciting and challenging. The next time you are in a shop look at all the products on the shelves and just think about all the development work that has gone into each product. That’s what I love about doing Dragons’ Den.
It is not the TV part of the show that excites me. It is what happens after I have made an investment on the show. I love mentoring the guys to bring their products to market.
Back in March, Noelle O’Connor, came into the Den with her idea for a 100% natural tan, called TanOrganic. I invested and we have since brought it to market successfully. It is in all pharmacies now nationwide and enjoys strong sales.
But we had huge teething problems with this product or more correctly its packaging. The product comes in a bottle with an old fashioned cork because it is 100% natural. We thought having it in a bottle with a cork made it look different.
But we had not counted on another difference. In warm weather a very small number of corks are likely to pop. Now that is ok with champagne but the last thing you want popping is a tanning lotion.
So we have had to change the packaging and the cork is now replaced by a screw cap and the problem is solved. But poor Noelle hasn’t slept since the 17th of June when we first realised we had a cork-popping problem.
What has amazed me is the goodwill of pharmacies and consumers alike to this product.
It seems in the current recession there is great support for people like Noelle O’Connor who have had the tenacity to invent a new product and bring it to market in the worst recession ever.
This week she is meeting Boots who want to stock TanOrganic in their 2,700 stores throughout the UK.
Even in a recession we need to realise there are new business opportunities out there for those who have the vision and the dedication to see it through. Noelle is a real entrepreneur. She is employing 21 people. With a company with great export potential she is playing her part in trying to help our country find the path to recovery.