Gervaise Slowey, the former chief executive of media group Communicorp, will chair the board of Eason on an interim basis, while the chain of bookstores seeks a permanent replacement for its former chairman, James Osborne, who died last month. Ms Slowey has served as an independent director of Eason since 2012.

Eason has said it will commence a recruitment process to “identify an external professional independent chairperson with similar skillset and experience” to Mr Osborne, a high-profile lawyer and corporate figure.

In addition to chairing Eason, he was also senior independent director of Ryanair. He passed away in Donegal on August 17th at the age of 68.

Ms Slowey works currently as a business consultant, having departed her executive role at Communicorp in December 2016. She was previously a senior executive at the global advertising and communications agency Ogilvy.