This week on the 10forty Podcast, we’re joined by Ciaran Mulqueen — the creator of Crazy House Prices and author of How to Buy a Home in Ireland.

Ciaran’s journey doesn’t follow a straight line.

He started young — studying business and accounting at just 17 — taking a path that, on paper, felt sensible and secure.

But his route changed.

After college, Ciaran spent seven years working as a personal trainer, building discipline, resilience and a real understanding of people and the realities many face trying to build a life in modern Ireland.

Then came another shift.

Ciaran returned to education, going back to college to retrain as a teacher — bringing lived experience with him and a growing curiosity about how systems shape opportunity.

It was during this time — while searching for his own home — that another idea took shape.

As Ciaran navigated listings, prices and contradictions in the market, he began sharing what he was seeing. What started as a way to make sense of the process for himself grew into Crazy House Prices — an Instagram page that captured attention by showing the reality of Ireland’s housing market through real examples.

That work eventually led to his book, How to Buy a Home in Ireland — a practical guide aimed at helping people understand a system that often feels confusing, inaccessible and stacked against them.

In this episode, we go deep.

We talk about Ireland’s housing policy and the impact it’s having on everyday lives.

We question the education system and whether we’re pushing too many people toward academic routes without enough consideration for alternative paths.

And we explore what it means to change direction — more than once — in search of work that makes sense and has purpose.

This is a conversation about choices, systems and the confidence to question the paths we’re told to follow.

Because sometimes, the most important step is asking whether the system itself is working.

This episode is proudly sponsored by:

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HERE WE GO.

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