There are very few TV personalities who transcend popularity and achieve what is lovingly known as “national treasure” status.
Names that spring to mind are: Gay Byrne, a bastion of professionalism, whose demeanour never betrayed the seriousness of the issues he discussed; Terry Wogan, the self-professed “jobbing broadcaster” whose humble nature built a bridge between Irish and British cultures via a love of the arts; and news anchor, Anne Doyle, proprietor of the OG bleach blonde bob whose pronunciation of the word, ‘sexual,’ will go down in the annals of Irish oral tradition.
So how did the owner of just one ankle, a 90s-era silver heartthrob haircut and a distinctively singsong speaking voice become one of Ireland’s most loved TV personalities?
I’m talking about Francis Brennan, of course; hotelier, designer, TV star and devout Catholic. It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in the service industry or whether you’re religious or not, it’s hard not to warm to the eldest Brennan brother.
Although a dodgy ankle means he can’t walk on uneven ground, (which, to this writer, just adds to his ethereal mystique) he recently went out to the Spanish pilgrimage spot, Camino de Santiago, to help drive friends and their luggage from A to B, in no way miffed by what most would consider so-called “grunt work”.
The irony is not lost on Francis when he recalls his time spent in the Vatican, where he “nearly met his end.” He was doing some work for the Irish college there when he thought he’d “love to do a bit of a walk” and decided to make his way back to his lodgings on foot.
“Oh my god. I nearly died — because it’s all cobblestones. I can’t walk. My foot swelled up — I never saw it as bad before — or since, to be honest. You’d want to see me going around, looking for the curves [on the ground]. I’m sure people would be looking at me and saying, ‘is he playing hopscotch or what?’”
Walking on level ground is “sweet and smooth,” he says but anytime it gets “bumpy, bumpy” (like the Camino), he’s out. Although Francis may quite possibly be the most agreeable person I’ve ever interviewed, since Covid hit, he has become less of a yes-man. He knows his personal limits. That means cutting down on his walking, eating a balanced diet, and getting a good night’s rest.
In February of this year, Francis was hit with a humdinger of a revelation that he needed a stent in his heart to keep a blocked passageway open.
At 69 years of age, and as co-owner of the Kenmare Park Hotel and now the newly crowned 4-star hotel, The Landsdowne, the hotelier, TV personality and designer has a lot of strings to his professional bow.
And in this respect, Francis finds it difficult to say no, but he is keen to follow the orders of his doctor, who told him: “You’re doing far too much; you need to slow down. No one was more surprised than me.”
Francis’ distinctive uniform of dapper suit and tie, replete with pocket square along with his icy curtained tresses means he gets recognised a lot, and sometimes has to cover up with a baseball cap.
“It’s the voice that gives me away”, he says.
While his nature seems to hold universal appeal, he chuckles at the idea that he is a “TV personality.”
“I am a hotelier. Everything else — writing books, speaking at public meetings, and television is all secondary to my life, my real life.”
John Brennan takes my call standing on his boat in Brittany. Growing up on a diet of classic 1950s rom-coms and musicals (thanks, Dad), my mind instantly casts a shadow of Gregory Peck in boat shoes and a powder blue outfit, standing deck-side opposite Lauren Bacall or Sophia Loren.
Maybe the comparison is stretching, but John Brennan is a classy man with a devil-may-care attitude that has carried him through a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His acceptance of the illness is utterly inspirational.
“If you saw me now, in my swimming togs, standing at the front of my boat, there’s not a bother on me. I definitely — 100% — would not be in Brittany today on a boat if I didn’t have cancer.”
John was diagnosed with stage four cancer back in 2011 without much previous knowledge of the disease. “I hadn’t a clue. When they told me I was stage four, I never thought it was four out of four. It never even dawned on me. Gwen [his wife] was in bits. But sure listen, I genuinely think you could be hit by a bus tomorrow or in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.”
Although John’s form of cancer is not curable, he is sanguine about the fact that he can live with it, and still have a good quality of life.
“We all have a terminal illness you don’t even think about – life. We’re not going to be here forever. I’m fierce lucky. I got a cancer that was treatable. It’s not curable, it is going to come back and haunt me and the next time, it will be twice as bad as before but if I was to sit at home….”
John travelled to New York to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a hospital renowned for having the most advanced cancer treatment in the world. He believed they could offer him a wider suite of treatments, but his American physician advised him that the treatment was no better in America than in Cork.
“He said ‘do you know what you do, John? Get on the plane and go back to Cork. [Prof] Mary Cahill [Clinical Professor and Consultant Haematologist at CUH] in Cork knows everything I know today. You have one of the best people in the world looking after you today.’ He said I had no reason to talk to him.”
The new series of At Your Service, the much-loved reality show where the Brennans advise other business owners in the hospitality industry is back on televisions this summer in an updated hour-long format.
When they started filming in 2019, everything was “hunky-dory”, says John. Once Covid struck, they were “in and out, in and out for almost two years,” says Francis.
The featured projects were being spearheaded by seasoned professionals, according to the brothers and each one had realistic budgets and bank agreements in place, which were completely scuppered due to pandemic-fuelled inflation.
John describes the series as “absolute heartache” and Francis says it was a “horrendous nightmare” watching each project they wanted to desperately succeed fall apart with the pandemic in the mix.
“Every single thing was turned upside down because the banks withdrew their agreements,” says John. “Planning permission was refused in one case, the market fell apart in all cases. The price of labour was significantly more expensive.”
The first episode of the new series kicks off with the K2 Alpacas, in Newtownmountkennedy, Wicklow, run by Joe Phelan, who had “terrible trouble getting builders with Covid” and had the launch of the new business delayed by over a year.
Joe’s plan was to open seven self-catering holiday cottages on his farm. When Covid-19 hit, the bank reneged on their promise of money to Joe, and to make things worse, Joe’s brother got very ill during the course of filming.
The brothers both say that they always prioritise the featured businesses and their long-term goals over a story.
“We only ever do something in a business that we would do ourselves — we’ve never done anything for the sake of making television. Because it would be grossly unfair because when we leave those businesses — we’re leaving them with debt.”
So, how do they cope with it? John says that over time, he has learned how to switch off.
“You kind of withdraw yourself a little bit from it. If you were to carry the thought of it with you the whole time, you’d crack up.”
There was one standout project from the series that seems to really haunt the two brothers: a Dunmore East holiday and golf resort in Waterford.
This particular episode (which airs July 18) centres on a couple, Alan and Grace Skehan, who run a large mobile home park, self-catering houses, a nine-hole golf course, and restaurant and bar.
While the couple spent tens of thousands applying for planning permission for luxury lodges, they were simply given, as Francis says, “the cold no”. From there, “everything had to start from scratch again.” When building did resume after Covid, the price of everything had gone up, and the couple simply didn’t have the money to go ahead with their ambitious plans. John, in particular, can’t face revisiting this episode. His throat is slightly croaky when he tells me it was absolutely heart-breaking to see this couple’s “hopes and dreams” quashed.
“Application probably cost them in the region of about €50,000 and they get a ‘no’ and it’s like as if you throw that €50,000 out the window.”
The show shows the pitfalls of planning permission and all the rest – the only one to “get through the system”, as Francis puts it, was Smuggler’s Inn in Kerry.
A recent Instagram post shows the brothers leading their team from the Kenmare Park to the Landsdowne, replicating the iconic Abbey Road Beatles’ album cover. John is in bare feet, just like Paul McCartney, and it’s pretty obvious he’s not afraid to go out on his own when he believes in an idea. Dromquinna was one such idea and a business opportunity he seized in 2011, the same year he received his cancer diagnosis. Set in a waterfront estate over 40 acres, the views are absolutely breathtaking, and he enjoys running it with his wife Gwen, “brilliant management” and chef Benny Scannell, who is famous for his unfussy approach to fresh fish.
So, is it difficult working with family? Well, it was really only in later years that the brothers got to know one another, Francis having left the house when John was very young. While Francis took a traditional route — he studied hotel and catering studies and bought the Park Hotel in the 80s — John went down the road less travelled, starting businesses from the age of nine, selling logs in his estate, moving on to selling glow sticks at Lillie’s Bordello as a teenager, and leaving school when he was 15.
The Brennans don’t try to make good television but make good television they do, and they make a pretty good double act.
Before we wrap up, I have to ask what are their favourite places in Cork?
For Francis, it’s the “wild and wonderful Mizen Head.”
“I love over towards Schull, and Durrus, that part of West Cork. I always have to stop in Manning’s Emporium in Ballylickey when I’m down that way. They do lovely fresh Irish cheeses and lunches.”
- At Your Service airs on RTÉ One from Monday, July 4.
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