Author interview: From family fortunes to scandals, real-life drama of Dunnes dynasty

Matt Cooper’s new book reveals how the owners of retail empire have had triumphs but also turmoil over years, from kidnapping and addiction to a bitter battle for succession

The opening of Dunnes Stores on St Patrick’s Street in Cork in March 1944 drew a huge crowd.

• Dynasty 
• Matt Cooper 
• Eriu,  €27.50

Matt Cooper discovered a lot when he was researching and writing his latest book Dynasty, about Dunnes, the quintessentially Irish retail chain.

As one would expect from the well-known journalist and broadcaster, it is an impressively researched and engaging read, full of fascinating insights about the Dunnes empire and the family behind it.

However, one of the biggest revelations for Cooper, a Cork native long resident in Dublin, was when he finally got to visit the expansive Dunnes Stores outpost in Bishopstown. 

Not that it’s a competition or anything but Cork readers will be happy to note that the store beat its Dublin counterpart hands down.

“I had never been in Cornelscourt in Dublin, so I went out to have a look at it when I started the book.

“And then people told me I had to go to the one out by the Bandon Rd, which I didn’t realise that people refer to as the ‘posh’ Dunnes.

“So I went there and it’s better than Cornelscourt, which is saying something.

“We went on a Sunday in January at 11am; it was packed and we could hardly get parking.”

I was going, ‘What the hell?’ I was walking around inside and just going, ‘Wow.’

The ongoing upgrading of Dunnes’ retail offerings perfectly displays how the business has transformed itself in the 21st century, thriving in an era of increasing competition and a seismic shift in consumer tastes. 

It is a story that also began in Cork, when Ben Dunne Sr opened his first shop on St Patrick’s Street, where it remains, joining the ‘posh’ Dunnes with a recent transformation into a five-floor emporium encompassing everything from clothing and grocery to numerous cafes and high-end food offerings. 

While Cooper says such investment is indicative of the high regard in which the original Cork store is held, the family didn’t appear to have a strong attachment to the city.

Ben Sr, who was originally from Rostrevor in Co Down, opened the Cork store on March 31, 1944. 

A draper in the city had closed and Ben Sr, in a typically shrewd move, secured the stock cheaply — in advance of the opening, an ad in the Evening Echo read: ‘Luke Burke’s Stock to be Cleared.’ 

Cooper writes about how gardaí had to intervene because the eager crowds had smashed a window in the crush to access the shop.

Ben Sr, his wife Nora, and their children initially lived in Browningstown Park in Douglas, before moving to a house in Blackrock, and finally on to the nearby stately residence of Ringmahon House on a 100-acre farm. 

Ben Sr, however, spent most of his time in Dublin, while Nora was very much involved in the running of the Cork shops.

Ben Dunne Sr, who was originally from Rostrevor in Co Down, opened his first shop on St Patrick’s Street in Cork.

“Ben Sr did say Ringmahon was where he intended to retire home to but he never did,” says Cooper.

“The children left Cork, and I say this as somebody who left myself for work reasons, but there didn’t seem to be an enormous sentimental attachment to Cork.”

However, Margaret Heffernan, the eldest child who oversaw the continuing success of the business into the 21st century, is a regular visitor to Cork as her younger sister Anne, who is believed to have had health issues, still resides in an institution there.

The story of how Margaret took control of the business starts with her younger brother Ben, a larger-than-life personality who also took on an outsize role in the public consciousness, first with his kidnap by the IRA and then his arrest in Florida on drugs charges.

Later, there was controversy over payments to former taoiseach Charles Haughey.

Cooper was well-placed to write about Ben Jr in particular, meeting him on many occasions in his work as a business journalist. 

They first met in 1993, when Cooper went out to his house after Ben had been ousted from the family company. It was a “bizarre” encounter, he says. 

“While I was interviewing him, he took a phone call and it was Charles Haughey checking out how he was.”

It was only subsequently that I discovered his concern wasn’t motivated by Ben’s health or anything like that but by his own personal financial involvement.

As Cooper writes, the Dunnes family story is one blighted by addiction, and Ben’s played itself out in full public view. 

It is difficult to appreciate from today’s vantage point but his arrest for cocaine possession and soliciting in Florida in 1992 was a massive news story that ran and ran. 

Cooper, however, says the more impactful event in a personal sense was the IRA kidnapping in 1981, when Ben was captured on the way to open a Dunnes branch in Portadown and held hostage for seven days before a ransom was paid.

“The kidnapping was such an enormous trauma for him. I think he would have suffered with addiction issues anyway but what happened in Orlando was partly down to the fact that he hadn’t dealt with the trauma of the kidnapping.

“After that, he went straight back to work. His father told him, ‘It’s over now, we’ll see you in work tomorrow morning.’

“To a large degree, he hadn’t fully addressed the issues and I’m not sure he ever did or got much help.”

After the trials and tribulations of Ben’s departure, the future for Dunnes was female — it has been mainly Margaret steering the ship to bigger and better things, although in recent years she has handed over more responsibility to daughter Anne and niece Sharon McMahon. 

At 83, Margaret still remains in the driving seat.

Keeping Dunnes Stores relevant to modern Ireland

“These three women have transformed the business and kept it entirely relevant to what modern Ireland actually wants, and it remains a really highly profitable and dominant company in that regard.”

As the book outlines in more detail, the road hasn’t always been smooth for the family, personally or professionally. 

The family story has been compared to a real-life episode of the gripping TV drama Succession, and the echoes of ruthless wheeling and dealing and the personal costs that come with it are evident. 

It is a story that Cooper says he greatly enjoyed telling as, although he is now mainly known as host of The Last Word radio show on Today FM, writing the book tapped into his love of print journalism.

“I loved doing the research, interviewing, and writing it. I had great fun putting it together.”

He has become something of a story himself recently, with the departure of his co-presenter Ivan Yates from the podcast The Path to Power after it was disclosed that he had given media training to former presidential candidate Jim Gavin. 

Cooper says the whole episode has been “very unfortunate” but instructive.

“It does actually provide a useful lesson in what it must be like for other people who are at the centre of news stories. So, from that point of view, it’s been an interesting experience.

“Obviously, I wish it hadn’t happened. I’m not sorry that I acted the way I did. I felt it had to be done, and the reason why I did so is very clear.

“There should have been transparency. I should have been told, and I should have been able to tell listeners to the podcast about the involvement with Jim Gavin.”

It is perhaps not surprising that Cooper, who has previously written biographies of Michael O’Leary and Tony O’Reilly, is taking a breather from writing books for the moment. 

He laughs when I ask if he is working on anything. “Yeah, I’m working on a daily radio programme and writing a couple of newspaper columns.” 

Not forgetting the podcast, of course. That relentless work ethic is something he shares with his subjects at least.