{"id":398408,"date":"2026-03-22T16:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T16:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/398408\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T16:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T16:26:19","slug":"if-i-died-this-minute-i-would-have-had-a-most-fantastic-life-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/398408\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If I died this minute, I would have had a most fantastic life\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

He may have sold out of his famed hotel, Kenmare\u2019s<\/a> The Park, back in 2023, but Francis Brennan<\/a> hasn\u2019t gone far; he still spends much of his day on the grounds of the hotel, as he bought a penthouse apartment, one of 18 properties at The Park, to live in.<\/p>\n

While there is a back entrance to the apartments, which means he \u201cnever sees the hotel\u201d coming to and fro, he still drops in.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s post is delivered to the hotel, so I call in every and now then,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But is it an emotional visit? Does he miss the hotel?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot one single bit. My mother said, when I was five or seven, that I was great at compartmentalising everything. So, my hotel period is over now, and I\u2019m moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving on if not quite moving out then. <\/p>\n

Now 72, Brennan, who ran the hotel with his brother John, says he\u2019s \u201csemi-retired\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I have my health I\u2019ll be running around. I like the diary to be busy with things coming up,\u201d he says, noting that as his mother lived till she was 96, \u201cI have a good 20 years to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I have a diary to die for,\u201d he laughs, \u201cI tell people \u2018I haven\u2019t got a day free\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Park Hotel, Kenmare, Co Kerry <\/p>\n

He used to publish his own, The Homekeeper\u2019s Diary, but rising paper and publishing costs put an end to that in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pity, it was a lovely publication, but I have no books in the offing now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now his diary is the back of an already used A4 envelope, which he has marked out in each month of the year.<\/p>\n

But whether it\u2019s written up on an envelope or in a diary, there\u2019s no doubting that his time is well accounted for; he\u2019s an Age Friendly Ireland ambassador, which takes up about three days a month, he films for RT\u00c9\u2019s At Your Service, the hospitality makeover show, with John, which takes about 40 days a year, while earlier this week, he was on Dublin\u2019s O\u2019Connell Street, reporting on the St Patrick\u2019s Day parade for a US TV channel.<\/b> <\/p>\n

He also goes further afield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still travel quite a bit, and everywhere I go I\u2019m watching out … I have a camera full of ideas,\u201d he says. \u201cTravel opens the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019ll die in Kerry \u2013 I\u2019m not leaving Kerry<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Francis Brennan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A recent trip was to San Diego in California, where he visited the renowned Hotel del Coronado, catching the sun, before moving cross country to the snow in New York. <\/p>\n

But it is his collaboration with Dunnes Stores that might be his biggest current venture. We meet at the Dunnes Stores\u2019 HQ \u2013 a deceptively large building, as the space is much larger than it looks from Dublin\u2019s George\u2019s Street \u2013 where the Francis Brennan brand has a sun-lit showroom.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The creatives of Kenmare, Killarney\u2019s more peaceful sisterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He is the same in-person, as he is on television: great company, with tales of fiery flamb\u00e9s, his sister\u2019s recent 70th birthday, the best feathers for a duvet or cushion \u2013 those from the neck of a duck or goose \u2013 and a \u201cwhopping night of a party\u201d at a recent Age Friendly AGM.<\/p>\n

This year he\u2019s celebrating a decade with Ireland\u2019s largest privately-owned retailer, having started off back in 2016 with just eight products, mostly linen and duvets for a bed. Now the product line is up to about 400.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m there 10 years now \u2013 Dunnes is very happy with me, and I\u2019m happy with them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s impressed with the way Dunnes has segmented its offering into different brands \u2013 in homeware Francis Brennan sits alongside Carolyn Donnelly Eclectic, Paul Costelloe Living, Considered by Helen James, and Cook with Neven Maguire \u2013 and their focus on quality.<\/p>\n

\"FrancisFrancis Brennan is engaged with all aspects of his collection with Dunnes Stores. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very, very strict on standards, and if anything is wrong with the product, it won\u2019t be on the shelf,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The USP of the Francis Brennan The Collection range is simple: \u201canything you can find in a five-star luxury hotel, we can replicate at a good price\u201d says Brennan. \u201cThere\u2019s a look and we try and stay within it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The range now encompasses rugs, furniture, picture frames, lighting etc. Towels are from Portugal, feathers for the duvets come from Westport, and china and furniture are made in China. This Easter a collection of glass eggs and ceramic bunnies that light up can be found in among the bed linen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want to give the customer a little lift \u2013 so that they\u2019d look at it and say \u2018that\u2019s gorgeous\u2019\u201d .<\/p>\n

Brennan is engaged with all aspects of his collection with Dunnes Stores, and is in the office about two days every six weeks (the retailer also has full time staff assigned to the range).<\/p>\n

Its biggest seller is bed linen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of it is wonderful; we don\u2019t use regular cotton, we use percale cotton,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At design meetings, Brennan will bring an idea, something perhaps he saw on his travels, and the team will try and get a \u201csensible\u201d price to produce it \u2013 if so, it will then end up in the shops, after some alterations. Products have a lead time of about nine to 12 months.<\/p>\n

The move into homewares was not such a great leap for the former hotelier.<\/p>\n

Retail is in his blood; his father was a grocer, with a shop first in Milltown, Dublin 6, before moving out to Stepaside, as the city grew. Brennan grew up in Dublin, and attended the Catholic University School on Leeson Street. <\/p>\n

But it was the hotel business that brought him to Kerry, where he started out leasing The Park back in 1984, before his brother John joined him in 1991.<\/p>\n

Now he has no plans to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll die in Kerry \u2013 I\u2019m not leaving Kerry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"FrancisFrancis Brennan with his brother John, filming RTE’s At Your Service <\/p>\n

While the duo sold out of The Park in 2023, selling to US-based entrepreneur Bryan Meehan, and John still owns nearby Dromquinna Manor, the duo still have an interest in a hotel in the town.<\/p>\n

When The Park was being sold back in 2023, The Lansdowne Hotel, also in Kenmare, was also put on the market by the Brennans, and the brothers subsequently came to a deal with Patrick Hanley, a former general manager of the five-star Park Hotel, who now runs it with his wife Aileen.<\/p>\n

The hotel had previously been owned by Hanley\u2019s family, and under a lease agreement, Hanley will run it until this November, with an option then to buy.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bryan Meehan: \u2018I\u2019d love this to be a hotel where someone like my mum could come in and feel welcome\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a model that served both Francis, and his brother John, well in the past \u2013 Brennan leased The Park for two years when it was in liquidation, in 1984, before convincing the bank to lend to him so he could buy it, as did John at Dromquinna. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a marvellous way to give a leg up to the next generation,\u201d says Brennan. <\/p>\n

Brennan has been a regular on TV since 2008; he even made one of the top 10 moments on the Late Late Show<\/a> according to this paper, for his mishap back in 2016, when he struggled to put a cover on a duvet to the glee of presenter and audience alike.<\/p>\n

\"FrancisFrancis Brennan has been a regular on TV since 2008. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

Has he spoken since to then presenter Ryan Tubridy, who has since left RT\u00c9?<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was unfortunate,\u201d he says of the circumstances around the presenter\u2019s departure, adding that while he hasn\u2019t seen him in ages, he sent him a note for his recent wedding.<\/p>\n

He is still on our screens in At Your Service \u2013 the 2026 series is not yet finished \u2013 but would he consider more reality TV?<\/p>\n

\u201cI am asked for things all the time; I\u2019ve been asked to do Dancing with the Stars, but my foot couldn\u2019t take it,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ryan Tubridy: \u2018I\u2019m a different person now to who I was a couple of years ago. I\u2019ve evolved\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In any case, it might be hard to squeeze in another venture given his hectic diary. And Brennan doesn\u2019t do regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I died this minute, I would have had a most fantastic life. I\u2019m so happy I can say that, because unfortunately a lot of people are not happy at work. But I was very lucky all the years, I loved my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EasterEaster bunny with egg in a range of sizes, priced at \u20ac10, \u20ac12, \u20ac15 \"GlassGlass LED egg, \u20ac12 \"FrancisFrancis Brennan Clydagh teacup and saucer, \u20ac12 \"FrancisFrancis Brennan mink towels, from \u20ac4 \"FrancisFrancis Brennan grey double stripe bedlinen, \u20ac45 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may have sold out of his famed hotel, Kenmare\u2019s The Park, back in 2023, but Francis Brennan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[19264,18,117,181112,19,8081,17,5280,957,1181,26666],"class_list":["post-398408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dunnes-stores","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-francis-brennan","tag-ie","tag-interiors","tag-ireland","tag-kenmare","tag-kerry","tag-rte","tag-ryan-tubridy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116273767284811056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}