British buyer of famous Leeson Street Grinds school reaps the rewards of €135m takeover – The Irish Times

The Institute of Education on Leeson Street in Dublin is a phenomenon. Since its establishment in 1969, Grinds College has become one of the largest schools in the state, with more than 1,500 full-time students paying fees of €10,990 annually, not including the thousands who visit for courses each Christmas and Easter.

Last year it was bought for an undisclosed sum by UK-based Dukes Education, one of the world’s largest providers of private education with over 30 schools in several countries. While the institute’s success is evident in its high fees and longevity, how much it actually takes in has long been a mystery since its previous owners, the Kearns family, decided to run it as an unlimited company.

But accounts released by its new owner reveal how much Jedward and Paul Murphy TD’s alma mater cost last year. They show that Dukes bought 93.3 percent of the company, with the remaining 6.7 percent remaining with the Kearns family through an Isle of Man-based company.

The “total purchase price” that Dukes paid for its share of the Crammer School, including the Georgian buildings on Leeson Street, is just under €135 million. And so far, their investment is doing well. Turnover in the first five months of ownership was around €8 million, and a profit of €780,000 was booked for that period.

You don’t have to be an A maths expert to realise that there is real profit to be made in the Leaving Cert results industry.

Microsoft software developer is one of the Have yachts

If you’re wondering what to study to make a ton of money like the institute’s former owners, you might be inspired by the arrival of a superyacht in Dublin Port last weekend. The 90-foot Norn was built last year for Charles Simonyi for a reported $250 million (€233 million). You may never have heard of Simonyi, but you certainly know his work: the software developer helped develop 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 grey gunboat yacht isn’t available for charter, so he could well have been working below deck on a dazzling new invention.

To prove that there is not necessarily a connection between intelligence and reason, Simonyi, who was with Martha Stewart for twenty years, is also one of Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic donors.

Dyson signs the Ballynatray Estate

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

The letter, signed by Dyson, states that he is the new owner of the property and that he has given permission to Christopher Nicholson, the estate’s manager, to submit the planning application. As with Simonyi, Dyson’s political acumen does not seem to match his business acumen. He was one of the most influential supporters of Brexit, but moved his company’s headquarters from Wiltshire to Singapore after the UK left the EU, only reversing his position after accusations of hypocrisy.

Supermac’s wants to extend the sleeping hours of its youngest employees

It took Supermac seven years to fend off McDonald’s attempts to impose its Big Mac trademark on products other than beef. The West Coast’s favourite fast-food giant is now hoping it will get a decision a little quicker from Neale Richmond, the minister of state for business at the UK’s Department for Enterprise. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the company first wrote to Richmond in January asking why 16- and 17-year-olds could work until 11pm in pubs, but in fast-food restaurants their shifts had to end at 10pm under employment law.

“We find it strange that employees under the age of 18 are allowed to work in a pub but not in a non-alcoholic establishment,” the fast-food operator told Richmond.

Pat McDonagh’s company has been told it can apply to the minister for an exemption to allow teenagers to work after 10pm. It applied for such an exemption in March, saying it would only ask 16- and 17-year-olds to work after 10pm during school holidays and weekends, but a decision is still pending.

Will prices in Dublin push people out of the Fair City and into the Wicklow area?

There is already plenty of interest in The Late Late Show from the independent production sector, and several shiny floor specialists have already been contracted to produce the show. But where to, 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 site in Montrose was built, all of the soap’s interior scenes were filmed in Ardmore. Ironically, RTÉ brought production in-house after deciding that transporting cast and crew from Montrose to Wicklow was costing too much overtime.

Fair City’s departure was a blow to Ardmore, but the studio flourished as several US television series, including Camelot, The Tudors and Penny Dreadful, moved to Ireland – all under the watchful eye of then-CEO Siún Ní Raghallaigh.

What happened to her?

No Disney happy ending for Irish film crew member

Disney is one of the biggest fans of the Irish film industry, attracted by tax breaks and skilled employees. Most recently, “Disenchanted,” starring Amy Adams as a fairytale princess, was filmed in County Wicklow in 2022, with the local council approving the transformation of Enniskerry into a medieval village.

Unfortunately, there was no happy ending for Dermot Blighe, a crew member who worked as a prop master on the film. He has just filed a personal injury claim in the High Court against Clocktower Productions, the Disney production company that produced the film, and Wicklow County Council.

The British electorate is divided on the question of condoms and non-condoms

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

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