On today’s Morning Focus, Senator and Businessman Feargal Quinn joined Clare FM’s John Cooke to talk about his new book Mind Your Own Business. Senator Quinn firmly believes every business has the potential to survive, and even thrive, during a recession. In his new book, Mind Your Own Business, he uses real-life examples from his hit RTE television programme, Feargal Quinn’s Retail Therapy, as well as valuable experiences gained in his fifty-year career in business, to explain exactly how to do it. From the importance of setting the right tone in your business, to placing innovation at the heart of everything you do, responding to your customers’ needs, planning for succession in a family-run business, and much more, he challenges many of the bad habits that can build up in businesses over the years. Feargal Quinn founded Superquinn, the Irish supermarket group, in 1960 and was its Managing Director for many years during which it built an international reputation for excellence in customer service. His bestselling book Crowning the Customer (O’Brien Press) is used by multinational companies across the world as the essential customer care manual. It has been translated into 12 languages worldwide and was an international bestseller.
Journalist with the Irish Examiner Catherine Shanahan also spoke to John live from Rome where she is attending the inauguration mass for Pope Francis at the Vatican. A huge crowd has converged on St Peter’s Square in Rome to see Pope Francis celebrate his inaugural mass. It comes amid a wave of hope for a renewal of the scandal-plagued Roman Catholic Church. The mass will formally install Pope Francis as the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. The crowd could be the biggest in Rome since more than 1.5million people went to the city for the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II on 1 May 2011.
Also on today’s programme the new owner of the West County Hotel in Ennis spoke to John Cooke about how the future of 115 jobs there is secure. Patrick Treacy, whose family run hotels in Waterford and Enniscorthy, has just taken up the role of managing director of the well-known Clare hotel which was formerly operated by the Lynch Hotel group before it went into receivership. A reported price tag of two million euro was paid for the West County which has been in operation in Ennis since 1968, and the new owner plans significant investment including upgrading the hotel’s 152 bedrooms and conference facilities. Patrick Treacy told Clare FM he’s confident about the future of the hotel and plans to maintain current staff levels
Garda Colin Egan, based at Ennis Garda Station also joined John in studio for this week’s Garda Focus. Local Gardai are appealing for the public’s assistance in relation to a number of incidents over recent days, including in Scariff, where a garda’s private car was burned out on Bank Holiday Monday. Killaloe Garda Station are investigating – they can be contacted on 061 376 242.
John Lowe – The Money Doctor – also joined the show to answer your personal finance queries and discussed how confusion is growing on the home tax. Homes with vastly different market values have been bunched together in the new Revenue Commissioners guidelines on the property tax, fuelling confusion over the controversial charge. He also spoke about how thousands more people will apply for debts to be written off under new personal insolvency rules than expected, according to new research. Money Doctor John Lowe, of moneydoctor.ie website, and is the author of the best-selling Money Doctor Finance Annuals. Follow John on twitter – @themoneydoc or read his Sunday Business Post column every week.
Dr. Fiona Shanahan is a Psychologist from Kilmurray, Sixmilebridge and talked about her participation in the Sixmilebridge Lenten talk series. Fiona will be speaking about building resilience in young people – in Sixmilebridge Church this evening at 8pm, which has been organised by the Meaning to Life Group. This event is especially aimed at parents and teenagers. Fiona carried out research in Uganda on how child soldiers re-integrated into society. She also volunteered in a hospital in Ghana as a student
Phillip Brennan, Artist and Traditional Singer from Stonehall, Newmarket on Fergus was also a guest of the show today to talk about his latest exhibition ‘Clarescapes’. The exhibition will be opened by writer and historian Seán Spellissy at 8pm on Wednesday, March 20th at the Great Hall, Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis, with a preview from 6pm. The exhibition runs until 8pm Friday, March 22nd. This is Philip’s 20th solo exhibition.
To contact the show please email [email protected]
