UK buyer of famous Leeson Street grinds school begins to reap rewards of €135m acquisition

The Institute of Education on Leeson Street in Dublin is a phenomenon. Since it was founded in 1969, the grinds college has become one of the largest schools in the State, with more than 1,500 full-time students paying annual fees of €10,990, not including the thousands who visit it every year for courses during Christmas and Easter.

Last year it was bought for an undisclosed sum by the UK-based Dukes Education, one of the biggest providers of private education in the world, with more than 30 schools across several countries. While the institute’s success is apparent from its high fees and longevity, how much it actually makes has long been a mystery, as its former owners, the Kearns family, chose to operate it through an unlimited company.

But accounts published by its new owner disclose how much the alma mater of Jedward and Paul Murphy TD cost last year. They show Dukes bought 93.3 per cent of the company, with the remaining 6.7 per cent retained by the Kearns family through an Isle of Man-based firm.

The “total purchase consideration” paid by Dukes for its stake in the crammer school, including its Georgian buildings on Leeson Street? Just under €135 million. And it’s so far, so good for their investment. The turnover in its first five months of ownership was about €8 million, and it recorded a profit for the period of €780,000.

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It doesn’t take a H1 in maths to work out that there are serious profits to be made in the Leaving Cert results industry.

Microsoft software engineer is one of the have-yachts

If you are wondering what to study to rake it in like the former owners of the Institute, the arrival of a superyacht into Dublin Port last weekend might provide some inspiration. The 90ft Norn was built last year for Charles Simonyi for a reported $250 million (€233 million). You may not have heard of Simonyi but no doubt you’re familiar with his work: the software engineer helped create Microsoft Word and Excel for Bill Gates.

His programming genius has earned him a fortune of more than €5 billion, according to Forbes magazine. It’s not clear whether Seattle-based Simonyi was on board last weekend when his floating gin palace visited Dublin, although the gunboat grey yacht is not available for charter so he may well have been below deck working on a dazzling new invention.

To prove there isn’t necessarily any correlation between brainpower and sense, Simonyi, who dated Martha Stewart for two decades, is also one of Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic donors.

Dyson puts his signature on Ballynatray Estate

Another moneybags visitor to Ireland is James Dyson, the vacuum tycoon and new owner of the Ballynatray Estate on the banks of the river Blackwater in Co Waterford. Dyson has declined to comment on reports linking him to the €30 million-plus purchase but confirmation comes by way of a letter attached to a recent planning application to restore a series of outbuildings on the estate.

The letter, signed by Dyson, states that he is the new owner of the estate and that he has given Christopher Nicholson, the estate’s manager, permission to make the planning application. Like Simonyi, Dyson’s political nous doesn’t seem to measure up to his business acumen. He was one of Brexit’s most influential backers but moved his company’s headquarters from Wiltshire to Singapore after the UK left the EU, only doing an about-turn after accusations of hypocrisy.

Supermac’s wants to extend its youngest staff members’ bedtimes

It took Supermac’s seven years to see off McDonald’s attempts to exert its “Big Mac” trademark over non-beef products. The west coast’s favourite fast food giant will be hoping it gets another decision a little bit more quickly from Neale Richmond, the Minister of State with responsibility for business in the Department of Enterprise. Records released under the Freedom of Information Act show the company first wrote to Richmond in January querying why 16- and 17-year-olds were allowed to work in pubs until 11pm but had to finish up their shifts in fast food joints at 10pm under employment laws.

“We find it odd that employees under the age of 18 are permitted to work in a pub but not in a premises not selling alcohol,” the fast-food operator told Richmond.

Pat McDonagh’s company was told that it could seek a derogation from the Minister to allow teenagers work beyond 10pm. It subsequently sought one in March, saying it would only ask 16- and 17-year-olds to work after 10pm during school holidays and on weekends but it has yet to receive a decision.

Will Dublin prices push Fair City slickers out to the Wicklow sticks?

There is already plenty of interest from the independent production sector for The Late Late Show, with several shiny floor specialists already linked to producing the show. But whither Fair City? The soap’s most natural destination would be Ardmore Studios in Co Wicklow, now owned by a US consortium. Between 1989 and 1994, before the Carrigstown lot was built in Montrose, all of the soap’s interior scenes were shot in Ardmore. Ironically, RTÉ brought the production in-house after deciding it was costing too much in overtime to transport cast and crew from Montrose to Wicklow.

It was a blow for Ardmore when Fair City left but the studio thrived when multi-series US television shows such as Camelot, The Tudors and Penny Dreadful moved to Ireland, all under the watchful eye of then chief executive Siún Ní Raghallaigh.

Whatever happened to her?

No Disney happily-ever-after for Irish film crew member

Disney has been one of the Irish film industry’s biggest fans, lured by tax breaks and skilled crew. Most recently Disenchanted, starring Amy Adams as a fairy-tale princess, was shot in Co Wicklow in 2022 with the local council permitting Enniskerry to be transformed into a medieval hamlet.

Alas there was no happy ending for Dermot Blighe, a crew member who worked as the property master on the movie. He has just lodged a personal injury summons in the High Court against Clocktower Productions, the Disney vehicle that made the film, and Wicklow County Council.

On condoms and non-doms, the UK electorate is split

Best line of the UK election goes to Labour’s Karl Turner, who told the Guardian last week about a voter who said he wouldn’t vote for the party because they were planning to tax condoms. The man insisted he had heard so on television. “‘We’re taxing non-doms, not condoms,” Turner explained. “Oh,” he said. ‘Like the prime minister’s wife? Ah.”

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