the church and up the aisle. Her reluctance was about her nerves, not about Jay.
Jay described to Miriam how he got involved in being in business, how his business failed in 1992 and how the advice of his father to "Shut up and do it" motivated him to star
Jay described to Miriam how he got involved in being in business, how his business failed in 1992 and how the advice of his father to "Shut up and do it" motivated him to star
This programme will now be broadcast on 19 June, 2011.
This week Miriam O'Callaghan meets entrepreneur Jay Bourke and his wife, the writer Sarah Harte. Sarah has just had her first novel, The Better Half, published by Penguin Ireland.Jay and Sarah recall meeting at The Kitchen nightclub in Dublin in the early 1990s. At that stage, Sarah was a post graduate student in Philosophy at Trinity College, while Jay had just opened The Globe bar in Dublin's city centre.
Sarah grew up in Youghal, County Cork and in Montenotte in the city. Jay grew up in Dublin, with his maternal grandparents being in business there since they moved to Ireland from Germany in 1933.
They recall their wedding day and how Sarah changed her mind about getting married on the morning of the wedding. She is always afraid when doing something for the first time. But her mother and father managed to get her to the Church.
Jay recalled how his first business venture failed in the early 1990s, but he opened another business. This company grew to run bars and restaurants and employed about 1,000 people. But business began to falter in 2006 and now the company only employs around 250 people. The couple reflect on how this implosion of their business has impacted on them, on how difficult it is for the spouse of an entrepreneur to watch their partner go through business difficulties and the particular emotions experienced by Sarah as she tried to launch a writing career at the time that she felt she should have been doing more to support Jay as his businesses went through such dark times.
Sarah has always loved writing and decided to give up her career as a solicitor to write full time. She managed to get a publishing deal with Penguin Ireland. Her parents have always been supportive of her so she travelled to Cork to tell them about her publishing deal face to face.
Both Jay and Sarah reflect on their changing lives. Jay deals with stress by sailing. Sarah deals with stress by running. Both believe that they will always be able to turn their hand to something to earn a living. Sarah explains that both sets of parents gave them a respect for hard work and her mother gave her useful advice. Her mother always told her that the people who succeeded in life were the ones who could get back on the horse after falling off, and she encouraged her daughter, always a worrier, to only think about how to get through the week until Friday.
Sarah has always loved writing and decided to give up her career as a solicitor to write full time. She managed to get a publishing deal with Penguin Ireland. Her parents have always been supportive of her so she travelled to Cork to tell them about her publishing deal face to face.
Both Jay and Sarah reflect on their changing lives. Jay deals with stress by sailing. Sarah deals with stress by running. Both believe that they will always be able to turn their hand to something to earn a living. Sarah explains that both sets of parents gave them a respect for hard work and her mother gave her useful advice. Her mother always told her that the people who succeeded in life were the ones who could get back on the horse after falling off, and she encouraged her daughter, always a worrier, to only think about how to get through the week until Friday.
Sarah Harte's novel The Better Half is published by Penguin Ireland