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'I walked away and never looked back' - Francis Brennan on retirement

Hotelier and TV personality Francis Brennan sold the Park Hotel in Kenmare last year after working there for 42 years
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

10.43 21 Sep 2024


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'I walked away and never looke...

'I walked away and never looked back' - Francis Brennan on retirement

Jack Quann
Jack Quann

10.43 21 Sep 2024


Share this article


Francis Brennan says he has 'never looked back' since retiring last November.

The hotelier and TV personality sold the Park Hotel in Kenmare last year after turning 70.

He told The Anton Savage Show he still feels connected to the property.

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"I was there 42 years - 45 years in the total hotel industry - and I walked away on the 17th of November and I never looked back," he said.

"I am terrific in my mind to partmentalise everything - that was then, this is now and I'm off.

"My heart would be in the Park Hotel Kenmare - Bryan Meehan, the new owner, he lives in California and there'd be articles in the paper that wouldn't reach that far.

"If they were of interest or whatever they might be I email them off to them to just keep me in the loop of Ireland.

"So I always be thinking of the hotel, even though I'm not there at all."

Looking forward

Francis says TV commitments and his Dunnes Stores range are keeping him busy.

"We'll be looking at next winter now," he said. "We'll be thinking of things that we need."

"One has to source them, get the made, get them packaged [and] do all of that.

"The amount of work that goes into getting a jug - I'm looking at a jug here - that we want at the right size, shape and price it just doesn't happen overnight.

"You have to go around the world talking to jug people and say, 'What have you got?'"

'Keep your ear to the ground'

Francis said knowing what people want into the future is something that is built into him.

"I don't know why I picked that particular jug, those pajamas or that candle," he said.

"If you keep your ear to the ground and you know people, which I would have followed my life with the hotel and meeting people all the time, you just kind of know what people want and you just go with it.

"Sometimes the colour that you'd be using and whatever you'd be doing would become the colour of the year and you think, 'How did I know that?' Even I'm surprised at that," he added.

Francis Brennan will be back on TV screens with a new series of 'At Your Service' from September 29th.

Main image: Francis Brennan in the Stephen's Green branch of Dunnes Stores as he launches a new collection, 29-9-15. Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

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Dunnes Stores Francis Brennan Kenmare Park Hotel Retirement The Anton Savage Show

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