Padraig O'Ceidigh
Entrepreneur, Businessman and Mentor

It was probably obvious to those who knew him in his younger days that Padraig O'Ceidigh would become a successful entrepreneur. At ten, the Connemara born O'Ceidigh was picking periwinkles from a beach in Spideal and travelling to Galway to sell them to fish exporters.

Since then, O'Ceidigh has moved on to bigger and better things, but until the early 1990s it appeared that he had given up his business dreams and settled into life as a teacher.

However, he started to work as an accountant with KMPG and studied law at night. In 1993, he set up his own legal practice in Galway. A year later, he became part owner of Aer Arann, an airline that served the three Aran Islands. At the time it was running at a loss, but when he took full control of the company last year, after buying out his fellow partners Eugene O'Kelly, it was back in the black.

Aer Arann Express, as it was recently re-branded, managed to grow passenger numbers from 8,000 in 1999 to around half a million this year. This was mainly due to the addition in 2001 of the public service obligation routes - Dublin to Galway, Kerry, Sligo, Donegal and Knock, that Aer Lingus abandoned. The company also flies to Sheffield and three new routes to the UK - Birmingham, Bristol and Southampton, have recently been announced. Such activity has made Aer Arann the third busiest carrier out of Dublin airport and one of the fastest growing regional airlines in Europe.

An Irish speaker, O'Ceidigh set-up one of the country's best selling Irish language newspapers, Foinse, in 1995. He is also the owner of a printing company, Clodoiri Lurgan Teo, which is based in Connemara, as well as a local summer language school. It's a long way from picking periwinkles, but O'Ceidigh has shown that he still knows how to unearth some great local business opportunities.

In 2003 Padraig was appointed to the new Board of Failte Ireland by the Minister for Tourism, John O Donoghue TD.

Aer Arann was awarded the European Bronze Airline of the Year Award for 2004 by the European Regions Airline Association. Aer Arann was chosen from among 65 airline members throughout Europe to win the coveted bronze award and is the only Irish airline to have received the accolade.
Padraig and Aer Arann also actively supports local and national charities having raised over €400,000 over in the past five years by organising and sponsoring an annual half marathon on the Island of Inis Mór. The chief beneficiary of these fund raising efforts was Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin.

Padraig is currently a member of the Irish Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel and was a member of the 2004 World Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel.

Testimonials

“Padraig has been absolutely fantastic – I can’t ever remember a speaker in my career that had such unanimous vote of excellence from every single participant – I was literally inundated with praises for him – from personal admiration, to content, inspiration, motivation, his inter-personal skills are really second to none”
Marina Nitzak, Ashville Media Group

‘Padraig O’Ceidigh’s energised speech is unscripted and unaccompanied by powerpoint slides. Instead he entreats us to look at the powerpoint slides in our heads………. His speech is about leadership and vision……’
Patrick Freyne, The Investor Magazine reporting on The First Annual Investor Mortgage and Insurance Broker Conference

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