Pioneering Irish surfer and businessman who rode a long wave of success

Brian Britton
Born: June 5th, 1950
Died: February 20th, 2018

Back in the 1970s, not longer after the Irish Surfing Association began sending a team to the European championships, they discovered that the cheapest way to travel to Biarritz, the French resort where the event was often held, was to sign up for a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Clad in their official surf tops and sometimes given seats at the front of the plane, the team was, as Brian Britton remembered in a later interview, "made up from lads north and south and of all creeds . . .

“There would be four whole rosaries said by the time we’d get to Lourdes. I remember once sitting between Rocci Allen and Grant Robinson, Ulster boys who ‘kick with the other foot’ in terms of religion, during a recitation of the rosary. And they were muttering, ‘Jesus, good job me auld fella can’t see me now.’ ”

The announcement, on February 20th, of Britton’s death, after illness, was received with tremendous sadness across the surfing and business communities. He was a highly popular and respected man, and a pioneer of surfing in Ireland, combining a deep love of the sport with exceptional organisational ability and a clear-sighted vision of how it could be developed.

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His mother brought home two surfboards, thinking hotel guests might use them. Instead her sons instantly became hooked, learning to surf on instinct

The oldest of five boys raised by the Co Donegal hoteliers Vinnie and Mary Britton, Brian spectacularly shook off the “dull” and “grey” tags often attached to his chosen profession, accountancy. He had a talent for numbers but was an entrepreneur with a fearless streak informed by his parents’ approach to business and by decades spent surfing through Irish winters.

Vinnie and Mary Britton opened the Sandhouse Hotel, in Rossnowlagh, in 1948 after buying the original property for £900. It was then a thatched cottage with a bar and bed-and-breakfast rooms. In summer they ran the bar. In winter they built the hotel. By the time the outbreak of the Troubles erased 70 per cent of their annual business Mary Britton had already begun taking trips to the United States, where she successfully attracted American visitors. On one of those trips she brought home two surfboards, idly thinking that guests might use them. Instead her five sons instantly became hooked, learning to surf on instinct rather than expertise. The Britton family and Rossnowlagh, whose beach has some of the best waves in Europe, became synonymous with Irish surfing.

Brian Britton was educated at Gormanston College, in Co Meath, and Trinity College Dublin, where he studied business, before joining Stokes Kennedy Crowley & Co, the accountancy practice that is now part of KPMG. He spent three years working for the firm in Zambia before being headhunted; in 1983 he joined Larry Goodman's beef firm, where he rose to deputy chief executive in charge of finance during a period when the company made spectacular surges as an exporter.

Trade sanctions against Iraq, in response to its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, left the company owed £170 million, destabilising its finances. A year later an investigation of the meat industry by the ITV current-affairs programme World in Action precipitated the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry, an exhaustive, three-year inquiry into tax evasion, political interference and subsidy malpractice at Goodman International.

Britton had resigned from his position in the group in September 1990, days after being named in an affidavit in the High Court by an executive of one of the Goodman group’s banks. The affidavit claimed that he told senior bank officials that Larry Goodman had the support of Fianna Fáil ministers in his efforts to re-establish export credit insurance. The government rejected the claim.

Britton later appeared as a key witness at the tribunal; in one piece of testimony he recalled having to intervene during a meeting at Government Buildings when he feared that Mr Goodman might hit Des O’Malley, the minister for industry and commerce, who was considering voiding the company’s credit insurance for Iraq. He rejected some of the allegations made about the use of company funds as “crazy suggestions” motivated by “political gamesmanship”. The tribunal led to the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition government.

Britton helped to secure a series of international events for Ireland and was the key figure in establishing the country as a first-class surfing destination

Although he settled in Blackrock in Co Louth, Britton continued to spend much time in Rossnowlagh; he bought the Sandhouse in the late 1990s, after his parents decided to take a step back. He maintained a private-equity consultancy and was at the forefront of the renewable-energy industry, becoming managing director of Oriel Windfarm, a €990 million project set to become one of Ireland's biggest power plants.

Through all of this he continued to advance the cause of Irish surfing with phenomenal energy. Courteous, patient and with a terrific sense of fun, Britton was a long-time president of the Irish Surfing Association and became vice-president of the International Surfing Association. He helped to secure a series of international events for Ireland and was the key figure in establishing the country as a first-class surfing destination – while always acknowledging the tension between competitive and "soul" surfing.

It’s an age-old debate in surfing, and the Britton brothers sometimes found themselves on opposite sides, with Barry, in particular, falling on the side of surfing as escapism. “Barry and I have this deal now that our relationship as brothers is more important,” Brian said in 2006.“There is no better boy to share a wave with. We decided after nearly coming to blows on our views on surfing after pints that we just don’t talk about surfing culture. I spent a month in a camper van with him in New Zealand when I was 50, and we had a fabulous time. You agree to differ. And it comes back to surfing. All of our kids surf. The thing just keeps going.”

Britton’s children, Neil, John and Naomi, are all accomplished surfers; Neil has a surf school in Rossnowlagh. Barry’s daughter Easkey has become one of Ireland’s best surfers. Among Britton’s other legacies is surfing’s inclusion as an Olympic sport: it will debut at the 2020 Games.

Brian Britton was buried at St Fursey’s cemetery in Haggardstown, Co Louth. He is survived by his wife, Antoinette; children, Neil, John and Naomi; brothers, Conor, Barry, William and David; and grandchildren, nieces and nephews.