The Business

With the welcome stretch in the evenings and the appearance of crocuses and daffodils in our gardens in the past couple of weeks, chances are that thoughts will have turned to spring-cleaning in many households around the country. If, however, you’re one of those people who has ever worshipped at the altar of Marie Kondo, you might be feeling a little deserted after the Queen of Clean announced recently that, since having children, even she has come to the conclusion that maybe there’s more to life… Siofra Mulqueen rolled up her sleeves and put on her Marigolds to bring us this report.

I’m joined in studio now by a mother and daughter who have both blazed their own trails, albeit in very different ways. Rosita Sweetman was one of the founders of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970’s and before she went off and traveled around South America in her twenties. On returning to Ireland and becoming a mother, she decided to home-school her son Luke and her daughter, Chupi. Chupi herself was in the news this week because she secured investment of 3.8 million euro to fund the expansion of her jewellery business which bears her very distinctive name. Having started her career working with the Arcadia fashion group as a designer with Top Shop, she went on to set up her own jewellery business 10 years ago from her spare bedroom. Since then it has evolved into a luxury brand that sells in 70 different countries and employs 50 people.

Well it seems that a lot of people are looking for romance, maybe not in person, but on the page at least. Since the pandemic there’s been a bit of a boom in the sale of romance novels, in the US sales of print copies have surged by over 50%. Our own true romantic Siofra Mulqueen has been finding out more.

Our first guest this morning has a story of near death experiences, barge living, thatching, trad music, and tours in Ibiza. Meath man, Donagh Quigley is the founder of the Handmade Soap Company.

This week platforms like TikTok and Twitter were under fire for their handling of disinformation. The companies had to present progress reports as part of the European Union (EU) new code of practice. Jenny Darmody, Editor of Silicon Republic, joins us now.

Well with Valentine's day approaching we’re all inundated with pictures of red hearts, rom coms, restaurants and hotels offering up loved up packages. But what becomes of the broken hearted as Jimmy Ruffin once sang? Our next guest has just the ticket. Alice Haddon is a psychologist and co founder of the Heartbreak Hotel in the Peak District of England.

Sticking with romance, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were in a bit of a heap this week when their grumpy exchange at the Grammys was caught on camera. Affleck looked less than enthusiastic about being there and professional lip readers say JLo warned him - to “Cop on, would you ever look a bit more motivated” or something to that effect. But we’ve all been there haven’t we - a corporate event, a wedding, a family brash where you would just rather go home. Pat Carty from Hot Press and Sarah Geraghty from The Communications Clinic join us in studio now.

The housing crisis remains front and centre as the issue the country really needs to tackle Architect Roisin Murphy and Alfonso Bonilla, Director at Maremoto Architects join me in studio to discuss what other countries have done to get things right.

Wirecard was Europes answer to Paypal. The tech company was worth almost 30 billion dollars at its peak. It’s now the subject of a Netflix documentary. Dan McCrum is the FT journalist who uncovered the truth. We asked him what was the real true story at Wirecard.

You can thank St. Brigid for your lie in on Monday morning, but are there a few more things we should thank her for? Poet Jessica Traynor certainly thinks so.