'We were told we couldn’t do it': Meet the Cork couple behind Oprah coming to Ireland

The Cork couple behind Pendulum Summit reveal how persistence, connections and a little Westlife intervention secured Oprah Winfrey

Frankie Sheahan and Norma Murphy, the couple behind Pendulum Summit pictured in the Montenotte hotel. Picture: Chani Anderson

Sat, 29 Aug, 2026 - 01:00

Deirdre McArdle

“We were meant to be flying out to Pisa tomorrow to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, but we postponed it,” Norma Murphy, one half of the globally successful Pendulum Summit tells me.

Murphy and husband Frankie Sheahan, the former Munster and Irish hooker, are just weeks away from a coup that’s been 12 years in the making; they’re bringing global icon Opray Winfrey to the 3Arena in Dublin for one night only.

“We’ve been looking to book Oprah since we started the business in 2013,” says Murphy. “She’s been on the vision board for over a decade; she’s the Holy Grail.”

That weekend away will have to wait until after Oprah, she laughs. “We had to face it, neither of us would have been able to switch off; we’d have been sitting there with our heads stuck in our laptops or making calls.”

“We can celebrate next year instead,” suggests Sheahan with a grin. Murphy’s look indicates the re-scheduled weekend will be happening sooner than that.

So just how do you get to a point where Oprah accepts an invitation from you to come speak in Dublin, in what will be her first visit to Ireland?

“There’s really nobody globally that we can’t contact,” says Sheahan.

This isn’t bravado or arrogance talking, it’s a result of years and years of sourcing premium speakers, first for Front Row Speakers (the couple’s first business) and then for Pendulum.

“We’re well known on the speaker circuit. And once you’re on that circuit you just have those connections, and if you don’t have the direct connection, you know how to get it,” explains the former rugby international.

Sheahan and Murphy may also have had an ally in making the Oprah event happen. Stedman Graham, Oprah’s long-term romantic partner, spoke at a Pendulum Summit in Dublin in 2019.

“He’s a brilliant speaker in identity leadership. He’s a smashing man, a real gentleman, and like nearly every other speaker who comes over to us in Ireland, he was blown away by the Irish welcome we offer.”

The speakers might have some idea what an Irish welcome is, but Sheahan says they “have no idea they’ll be meeting my brother, or my daughter, or that Norma’s parents will be bringing them up to the green room”. It’s that familiarity and warmth that speakers rave about, according to the couple.

Frankie Sheahan and Norma Murphy: Oprah is 'the holy grail'. Picture Chani Anderson

After Graham’s visit to Dublin, Murphy says he told her, “Oprah would love this”. By that stage, the couple were “really on it”. “We were asking him to have a word with her, to see if she’d like to come.”

And then, three years ago, came the breakthrough — a date opened up in Oprah’s schedule in September 2026. It was all systems go, until the couple hit a Westlife-shaped roadblock.

The boyband had the 3Arena booked for most of September, including Oprah’s only free date. “We were told we couldn’t do it,” recalls Sheahan.

But then a solution came in the surprising form of Westlife member Nicky Byrne, a close contact of Sheahan and Murphy. “He said to us ‘hold on a second, we’re not playing every night, let’s see what we can do’.”

Byrne went away and “unravelled” the dates and managed to free up the day, Sheahan explains.

The Up Close with Oprah Winfrey event will happen in the middle of the Westlife series of gigs. “We’re going to use the Westlife set up, so we’ll have access to their big screens, which will be great.”

Murphy, a long-time fan of Oprah, is looking forward to meeting the talk show host. “I’ll be nervous at first; I’m definitely an introvert, but actually, once I get talking to her on my own I’ll be totally fine, although I’ll probably be crying in the first three minutes.”

Oprah Winfrey was named by Forbes as the number one greatest living selfmade American. Picture: Chris Pizzello

Sheahan, on the other hand, will be all business. “I don’t really get starstruck like that. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect her unbelievably. She’s an absolute business tycoon. She was recently named by Forbes as the number one greatest living selfmade American. But, you know, I’m lucky enough now, I’ve met all types of different people. So I’ll welcome her and all that. And then it’s down to business,” he laughs.

The Cork couple, the picture of confidence and success when I meet them in the Montenotte Hotel in Cork, are not exactly opposites, but they do have different approaches. Murphy, a self-confessed introvert, is thoughtful with a focus on mental wellbeing and self-care, while Sheahan is undoubtedly an extrovert with a sharp business sense and those relationship-building skills that are so important in the business they’re in.

When they first started working together, Murphy says they were both trying to do everything. It was a challenging time. When the kids were small, she recalls it being a bit frantic. “We’d be putting the babies to bed and then the laptops would come out again for the rest of the night.”

Nowadays they both know what their strengths are and they focus on those. “Frankie’s obviously great at the business side and sales and partnerships and all that, and with my background of PR and event management, I naturally focus on that side of things and marketing and the production.”

Murphy also has a keen interest in holistic health, wellbeing and personal development. She loves hearing the speakers they book in those areas, as well as work-life balance, family, psychology and neuroscience.

With a thriving global business and five kids ranging in age from 19 down to 11, work-life balance may be hard to come by in the Sheahan household. “We have two boys aged 19 and 18, then a girl aged 16 and the twins, a boy and girl, aged 11,” Sheahan tells me. “We had Leaving Cert and Junior Cert this year so it’s been a busy time.”

They joke that Pendulum is like their sixth child, and I suspect they’re probably only half joking. One advantage of running a successful business and leadership company, with expert speakers on topics from communications and ID management to the power of the consciousness and relaxation techniques, is you acquire a lot of knowledge you can apply to your own life. Murphy and Sheahan have been soaking up insights and tips for over a decade.

Murphy says the big takeaway for her is that all this wisdom only matters if you practice it daily. “Last thing at night, I try to separate myself from all the angst and the frazzle in my head and get myself back to source. Then I’ll try to go to sleep with a bit of meditation and hopefully wake up the next morning and go again.”

“Life is really hard,” says Sheahan. “I think once you accept that, every day after can be a great day.” One thing the former Munster hooker says is a big thing for him, and one he hasn’t quite conquered yet, is patience. “I think though that you have a better chance of being more patient if you’re well in yourself. I think you have to be a bit selfish, because you have to be well yourself or else you can’t look after anyone else.”

To choose the best speakers for Pendulum Summit, the couple lean into their own individual interests for a rounded approach. That’s why the roster of speakers is so diverse — from Brené Brown to Steve Wozniaki, Tony Robbins to Bear Grylls and Deepak Chopra to Wim Hoff.

When they brought Chopra, the couple said they weren’t sure if attendees were ready for him. Likewise with Wim Hoff. But the duo believes in their ability to pick the best speakers, even if the speakers might feel a little out of left field for the time.

“We go out there to break the mould really. We’re trying to get ahead of the curve and choose speakers that make our members think and push the boundaries a little,” says Sheahan.

After spending an hour with them, it’s clear that they’re passionate about what they do. And now as they prepare to host Oprah Winfrey, I ask them if Oprah is the Holy Grail, who next? “We want some with huge impact, someone who hasn’t been here before. For us, it’s all about showing Ireland off. I know I retired a long time ago, but I’m still very much wearing the green jersey with this business. It’s all about flying the flag for Ireland.”