Hotelier-coach Paul Madden always sees room to improve

Clare manager Paul Madden. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Speak to anyone involved in the Éire Óg football set-up of recent years, which we did, and they’ll talk at length about Paul Madden’s attention to detail. They'll tell you about his obsession with efficiency.

Professionalism and perfectionism are his guiding principles. And not just in what he demands of himself, but in the environment he fosters for those working alongside him.

Paul Madden’s attention to detail used to fixate on a hotel lobby and bedroom layout. A guest does not want to be let down when they first walk through the revolving doors or tap their room key card. They want to be impressed, have their mood lifted.

His attention to detail is now fixated on the Clare football dressing room. What is laid out for a Clare footballer when they arrive in for midweek training or weekend matchdays, what picture are they presented with when heading out onto the field.

What tone is being struck and message sent.

Madden has been managing people for the past 30 years. Though you or I might struggle to find similarities between an 1,100-bedroom hotel on London’s Oxford Street and a Division 3 football team, he sees an operation to be run, and run meticulously.

Having owned and overseen the Temple Gate Hotel in the heart of Ennis town from 2003 to 2024, Madden and his staff catered for a great number of county teams who had just come off the field at nearby Cusack Park.

Roles are now swapped. Cusack Park is now his office.

After graduating from the Shannon College of Hotel Management, experience was gathered in Switzerland, France, and America before spending nine years as food and beverage manager at the Cumberland Hotel in London.

“I came home from there to run the family business we had in Ennis, the Temple Gate. It is very different running a 70-bedroom town centre hotel in the West of Ireland to managing an 1,100-bedroom hotel in Oxford Street. They're chalk and cheese, but the principles of management are the same.” 

As they are in sport too. There has been plenty carried across from life in the hospitality sector, not least his scrupulous nature.

“When you've spent 30 years running hotels throughout Europe and here in Ireland, and then owning your own business, which is 24/7, you develop certain attention to detail traits,” Madden explained.

“And that borders on extreme OCD at times nearly, which my wife and kids wouldn't be happy about! There is an element of perfectionism that comes with the territory. You are always striving for it.

“The same as the hotel business, managing Clare is a 24/7 business that involves loads of moving parts, so perfection never probably ever comes, but you strive to get better every single day, from the first training session to the 40th, from match one in the League all the way into championship.

“I live by that. You want to be better. I don’t cut corners. If there's a right way and wrong way, you do it the right way every time, even if it is tiring and frustrating and hard work. That’s the way to do it.

“All those things sound perfect, but you need buy-in from all of the stakeholders. It is not always possible to do everything 100% perfectly all the time, but you have to aim for it.” 

His start as Clare manager has turned an early corner. After losing their opening two games to Down and Westmeath, Clare have since bagged every available point.

They are firmly in the hunt for promotion. They’ve been here before. In 2024, they fell short by a point. In 2025, they fell short on score difference.

Wexford are the visitors this Sunday. The pair, along with Westmeath, sit joint-second in the table on six points.

“After two rounds, we were bottom and had to go to Enniskillen. Fermanagh are a team that would have been eyeing promotion. It was literally a case of whoever won that game could look forward. Whoever lost was going to be under pressure.

“We’re after five rounds now and Fermanagh have lost five games, and they are a decent team. The margins are so small.

“Promotion is still very much alive for us. It will be down to us,” he insisted.

In her final report as Clare GAA CEO last December, Deirdre Murphy wrote that they had learned the hard way of the risk that comes with appointing outside managers. 

Madden’s appointment was the third in the space of two years, after Kerry natives Mark Fitzgerald and Peter Keane spent just one season in the role.

A three-time Clare SFC winning-manager with Éire Óg, the latest man in found no hangover or poor attitude on the players side, even if there was a small degree of frustration at being presented with an entirely new front of house for the third season in succession.

“I didn't make any sweeping statements to the group when I met them. But from the off they knew that my intention was to work as hard as I can with the group for as long as is feasible.

“They had great time for Mark and Peter, with different views on each of them, but it is probably a little frustrating for the player group when there's constant change. Some lad that strives to make an impression with one guy, then he's gone. And then the next guy might have a different opinion, then there’s another guy. Consistency is the key, really.”