An American perspective with John Driscoll
BOSTON based businessman, John Driscoll, has travelled to Ireland 150 times to date for both business and leisure and jokingly describes himself as a ‘plastic Paddy’.
Regularly catching a 9.30pm Aer Lingus flight from Boston to Dublin, the businessman who travels to Ireland up to 15 times per year - 60% of the time for work - says he prefers to fly by night, arriving in Dublin around 8.30 am the next morning, so he can travel on to Limerick or wherever his meetings may be, by midday.
The co-owner and director of multimillion dollar U.S private equity company, Frazer Capital, now also owns three car ferry services around Ireland with his business partner, Paul O’Sullivan, run and operated by their Limerick based company, Frazer Ferries.
It was a chance encounter at Doonbeg resort 13 years ago that brought the two businessmen together when a causal conversation revealed a shared interest in commercial real estate. The pair launched a small private equity company together in 20016, which has grown exponentially since then, and have been making waves in the car ferry business since founding Frazer Ferries together in 2010.
The foray into the ferry industry was a natural move for Paul, whose father Donal O’Sullivan was one of the founding members of Shannon Ferries, but having business interests in Ireland is something that John, whose grandparents hailed from County Cork, is immensely proud of. “I’m a plastic Paddy!” John laughs out loud. “Both sets of my grandparents are from Ireland. The O’Driscolls, on my father’s side are from Skibbereen and my cousins the Murrays, on my mother’s side, are farmers in Macroom.
“Ireland has always been extremely important to me. It’s the land of my father’s father and it’s important to me that my three kids and my eight grandsons know their cousins and understand where their great, great, grandfather was born.”
For the Irish-American businessman, it’s not just the idea of doing business in Ireland that keeps him motivated. It’s the concept of what his businesses can do for the communities they’re based in that makes him proud. Two of the three Frazer Ferries owned services – the Scenic Lough Foyle Ferry and the Carlingford Ferry – are cross-border services and this is something he views as hugely significant. The third facility, the Passage East Ferry, also links communities in Wexford and Waterford together.
“The cross-border ferries not only cut commuter times and improve travel but they bring people from both sides of the community together to interact with one another and find new meaning to the word peace. That’s something that I think is very important in today’s society – enhancing the relationship between the Republic and Northern Ireland.”
“The ferry journeys are also all absolutely stunning. There’s beautiful scenery wherever you go in Ireland and I think the country has so much to offer visitors. It has a rich past and present and a bright future ahead and I’m proud to be part of it,” he says.
For more details on Frazer Ferries services visit: www.carlingfordferry.com www.loughfoyleferry.com www.passageferry.ie