That Great Business Show

The Gaeltacht Advantage: Free Green Energy, Global Talent & Why the West Is Winning

Many people think rural Ireland is at a disadvantage.

Tomás Ó Síocháin says the opposite.

On Episode 285 of That Great Business Show, we uncover the Gaeltacht Advantage — a combination of green energy surplus, digital hubs, global connectivity and a quality of life that multinational executives quietly crave.

We talk about:

• Why the West Coast may become an energy superpower

• Free green electricity — yes, free

• Digital hubs where good coffee builds global companies

• AI in Irish and the race to make Gaeilge future-proof

• Why data centres belong in the West

• The diaspora effect: how culture closes global deals

• Housing, infrastructure and the fight to keep communities alive

If you think Dublin is the only game in town, think again.

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Ireland has roughly 350,000 self-employed people — many of them solo. The problem is not talent. The problem is financial control.

Sinéad Doherty, CEO & Founder of Fenero, explains the realities she sees every day supporting independent earners:

“Going solo doesn’t mean going alone” — the ecosystem you must build

Why revenue is not your income

The simplest habit to avoid tax shock: separate the tax money

Cashflow discipline, invoicing speed, and the small expenses people forget to claim

The networks and programmes that actually help you get traction

If you’re self-employed, this is the episode that stops the panic and replaces it with a system.

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Episode 283 of That Great Business Show

We normally do a 25 minute record. We thought this was sooo good that it's 47 minutes. Because who wants to spoil a great party. We didn't want to stop Mary.

Mary Sadlier, CEO of Coole Swan — the Irish cream liqueur brand that decided it wasn’t enough to be “nice”. It had to be better. And not better in a marketing-deck way. Better in taste tests. Better in ingredients. Better in margins. Better in resilience.

Coole Swan uses single malt Irish whiskey and Belgian white chocolate. That matters. Because when you go up against Baileys, you are not nibbling around the edges. You are walking into a category owned by a global giant.

This episode is about:

• What it really takes to build an Irish FMCG brand internationally

• Why distribution is harder than the product

• What happens when tariffs land out of nowhere

• Retail shelf power — and how fast you can disappear from it

• The brutal difference between cashflow and profit

Mary has been through the mill. Expansion. Contraction. Currency swings. US volatility. Decisions made without guarantees.

Things have gone very right.

Things have gone very wrong.

And the gap between the two is thinner than most founders think.

This is real business. Not pitch-deck business.

Brought to you by our long-standing sponsor, De Facto Shaving Oil. The world’s best shaving oil. Not a beard oil. For shaving any and all of your bits. They back us, you back them. DeFactoShave.com.

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Episode 282 — Quantum Is Coming. And Ireland Is Already In It.

Everyone is shouting about AI.

Very few people are paying attention to what comes next.

Quantum computing is not about doing things faster.

It is about doing things that were previously impossible.

Finding new drugs in days, not decades.

Optimising energy grids, logistics, traffic and supply chains that defeat today’s supercomputers.

Re-engineering AI itself so it stops burning the planet for compute.

On Episode 282 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin sits down with Jason Lynch, CEO of Equal1 — the Irish quantum computing company that has just raised $60 million, led by Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund, to build enterprise-grade quantum computers using standard silicon chip fabs.

No sci-fi. No hype.

Just real hardware, real money, real timelines.

We talk:

• Why quantum makes AI look like the warm-up act

• Why 50 qubits beats every computer on Earth combined

• Why data centres won’t need to melt rivers to run quantum

• Why pharma, banking, energy and defence are already preparing

• Why Ireland has a once-only window to lead — and could miss it

This is a five-years-out story hiding in plain sight.

Brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil — made in Mayo, no foam, no nonsense, no landfill-bound cans.

They back us. You back them. DeFactoShave.com.

Our Gentleman’s (and ladies’) Agreement is simple:

We do the work. You hit subscribe. Fair exchange.

Listen on Acast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.

Build the Tribe.

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Sales up. Bank balance looks fine. Everyone busy.

So why does the business still feel… tight?

On Episode 281 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin is joined by accountant and business adviser Sharon Kearns, the woman who spots the leaks most business owners never see.

This is not theory.

This is what actually drains cash, time and energy from otherwise successful businesses.

We talk:

• The “leaky bucket” problem most owners don’t want to face
• Profitable businesses quietly losing money on certain products or services
• Hidden time leaks, stock traps and invoicing sins
• Why “busy” does not equal profitable
• The simple fixes that free up cash fast
• And the “hire in a heartbeat” answer you won’t forget

Recommended by Tom Murphy, founder of De Facto Shaving Oil — and when Tom recommends someone, you listen.

Brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil, handmade in Mayo.

No foam. No nonsense. No landfill-bound cans.

👉 defactoshave.com

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Irish business podcast, SME cashflow, business profits Ireland, accountant advice Ireland, scaling a business, working capital, Irish entrepreneurs

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Episode 280 – Why local newspapers still matter (and why we’d miss them if they were gone)

Confession time:

I love local newspapers.

And I cannot go past the small ads without reading every last one of them.

While national newspapers are having a torrid time — and some may not even survive this decade in their current form — one part of print is quietly going against the tide.

The local free newspaper.

On Episode 280 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin is joined by Catherine Madden, Managing Director of the Dublin Gazette Newspaper — Dublin’s number one free weekly, reaching over 300,000 readers every week.

We talk about:

• Why local papers are surviving while nationals struggle
• Why small ads still work for real businesses - and that's important for your business
• Who is actually keeping an eye on councils, planning and courts
• Why “free” doesn’t mean low quality
• And why local journalism matters more than ever

If you care about your area, your business, or who’s minding the shop locally — this one matters.

🎙 Sponsored by De Facto Shaving Oil — all-natural, made in Mayo, no foam, no nonsense, and none of those pressurised cans quietly (and unneccesarily) heading for landfill.

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A lot of Irish businesses quietly turned their backs on the UK after Brexit — paperwork, friction, hassle.

But here’s the thing:

The UK never stopped being one of Ireland’s biggest trading partners.

In Episode 279 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin talks to Billy Griffin, Vice President of BITA, about why now may be the time for Irish businesses to take a fresh look at Britain — and where the real opportunities (and blockages) lie.

We cover:

• Why Brexit is still costing UK growth — and what that means for Ireland
• How red tape, permits and skills recognition are quietly choking trade
• Why services travel better than goods post-Brexit
• The surprising truth about doing business in Manchester vs London
• What BITA actually delivers beyond business cards and bad coffee

As always, we bring you insight, not hype.

Thanks to our sponsor De Facto Shaving Oil — all-natural, made in Mayo, sold worldwide. No foam. No nonsense. Available at defactoshave.com

Listen, subscribe, and share with anyone thinking about exporting — or re-exporting — to the UK.

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On Episode 278 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin is joined by Aidan Donnelly, Head of Equities at Davy Private Clients, for a plain-English global market update — and a hard look at the biggest investment story of our time: artificial intelligence.

Markets have rallied.

Investors have relaxed.

But a simple question sits underneath it all:

What happens when companies start lending money to their own customers just to keep the story going?

In this episode, Aidan explains:

• why AI is transformative — but valuations still matter
• how today’s AI boom is being funded
• why debt is quietly replacing equity
• what happens when sellers subsidise buyers
• and why “everyone cheering” is not an investment strategy

No jargon. No hype.

Just a calm explanation of where risk may be building — and what investors should really be watching.

Powered by De Facto Shaving Oil — the all-Irish, all-natural shave, made in Mayo and sold worldwide.

If you found this useful, share it with one other business owner or investor.

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On Episode 277 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin speaks with James Flynn, co-founder and CEO of  Coso.ai the Irish startup automating one of the biggest headaches in small business: social media.

Most SMEs know they should post.

Most don’t have time.

Most can’t justify agency fees.

Coso.ai solves that problem by automatically writing, scheduling and publishing social media content — without needing a full-time marketer or a €2,000-a-month retainer.

In this episode, James explains:

• why 90 percent of SMEs don’t have a social media manager
• how Coso.ai actually works in practice
• why AI failed before ChatGPT — and why it works now
• how Coso.ai is raising €5 million to scale internationally
• why AI isn’t replacing marketers, but rescuing business owners
• 
  

This is AI doing something useful — reducing cost, saving time, and fixing a real business problem.

Powered by De Facto Shaving Oil — the all-Irish, all-natural shave, made in Mayo and sold worldwide.

If you enjoy this episode, share it with one other business owner.

That’s how we grow our tribe.

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On Episode 276 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin sits down with Scott Baigent (Kiwi) and Cameron "Cam" Wallace (Aussie), founders of Eight Degrees Brewing in Mitchelstown, Cork.

Their story is business at its rawest.

They arrived in Ireland for love.

They stayed for negative equity.

They helped kick-start the Irish craft beer movement.

They created 88 unique beers, won global awards, sold the business to Irish Distillers… and then, when most people would have gone to the beach, they bought the brewery back again.

On this episode, they talk honestly about:

• how hard early-stage business really is
• being pushed off supermarket shelves
• financing massive infrastructure with no outside investors
• shipping a brewery from Mauritius to Mitchelstown
• selling out, buying back, and starting again
• and why reinvention is not optional in tough markets

This is a masterclass in graft, resilience, and staying in the game when the odds are stacked.

Powered by De Facto Shaving Oil – the all-Irish, all-natural shave, made in Mayo and sold worldwide.

Listen now.

And if you like it, share it with one other business owner – that’s how we grow the tribe.

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