Taking Care Of Business with Ronan Berry
Sep 9, 2026 · 47 min · 11 segments
How does a semi-retirement idea become an award-winning artisan food brand? We hear the story of O’Mimo’s Chilli Madness, built in Portarlington around family recipes, bold flavours and plenty of…
Ronan BerryHost
Mimo O'FlynnGuest
Joan MulvihillGuest
Aidan ShortallGuest
Tommy HoganGuest
Seamus O'FlynnGuest
Just over a year ago, Aidan Shortall joined me on Taking Care of Business with a plan on paper and the promise of some significant funding to the EU Just Transition Fund.
Well, today that plan has become a reality, and a new tourism business in the heart of Tullamore has emerged.
Along with his wife, Vanessa, they've transformed a historic 18th century building on Church Street into the Old Coach House.
Um, when we spoke to you back then, did you think you'd have it open and ready for business a year later?
When you sent me an email probably last week [chuckles] and you said to me, "It's a year ago since you had-- since I was in," which I was like, "God, where did that year go?" Um, and yeah, I, I probably when I sat in with you a year ago, I initially probably thought I might get it opened in June of 2026 and then kind of like, as with the nature with building projects, you kind of get set back.
Uh, laborers aren't kind of, aren't always available as soon as you need them, or kind of there's a little bit of a domino effect where kind of you get help.
Um, but yeah, we got there in the end, you know, and I'm very happy with the product we have.
I think we get a sense of maybe where that year disappeared on you, given it's a, it was an ambitious project as well.
Talk us, talk to us again about the Old Coach House, the building that you started with, and then we, we can touch on the building that it is now.
Because if anybody has checked out your social medias or seen the recent press coverage, they'd be, uh, pleasantly surprised and astounded by what you've achieved.
So I, I know, uh, my wife Vanessa wrote, uh, a speech the night of the launch, [chuckles] and she kind of said, "We've never had so many, uh, conversations about bricks budgets and bathrooms." And God, yeah, the, it was all about that.
But, uh, yeah, the, the building itself, it's kind of very hard to really put an age on it.
But, like, we know the, the church next door to us wa- was built in 1786, and we tend to, kind of take from the conclusion that this Church Street itself started forming in around that period of time, you know? Um, so the building itself, uh, obviously, like it's really hard to know when it stopped becoming into use as a coach house.
You know, it had been fully overgrown, um, the roof had fallen through, um, there was, there was, like, a, a tree maybe 100 foot tall overshadowing it as well.
Just over a year ago, Aidan Shortall joined me on Taking Care of Business with a plan on paper and the promise of some significant funding to the EU Just Transition Fund.
Well, today that plan has become a reality, and a new tourism business in the heart of Tullamore has emerged.
Along with his wife, Vanessa, they've transformed a historic 18th century building on Church Street into the Old Coach House.
Um, when we spoke to you back then, did you think you'd have it open and ready for business a year later?
When you sent me an email probably last week [chuckles] and you said to me, "It's a year ago since you had-- since I was in," which I was like, "God, where did that year go?" Um, and yeah, I, I probably when I sat in with you a year ago, I initially probably thought I might get it opened in June of 2026 and then kind of like, as with the nature with building projects, you kind of get set back.
Uh, laborers aren't kind of, aren't always available as soon as you need them, or kind of there's a little bit of a domino effect where kind of you get help.
Um, but yeah, we got there in the end, you know, and I'm very happy with the product we have.
I think we get a sense of maybe where that year disappeared on you, given it's a, it was an ambitious project as well.
Talk us, talk to us again about the Old Coach House, the building that you started with, and then we, we can touch on the building that it is now.
Because if anybody has checked out your social medias or seen the recent press coverage, they'd be, uh, pleasantly surprised and astounded by what you've achieved.
So I, I know, uh, my wife Vanessa wrote, uh, a speech the night of the launch, [chuckles] and she kind of said, "We've never had so many, uh, conversations about bricks budgets and bathrooms." And God, yeah, the, it was all about that.
But, uh, yeah, the, the building itself, it's kind of very hard to really put an age on it.
But, like, we know the, the church next door to us wa- was built in 1786, and we tend to, kind of take from the conclusion that this Church Street itself started forming in around that period of time, you know? Um, so the building itself, uh, obviously, like it's really hard to know when it stopped becoming into use as a coach house.
You know, it had been fully overgrown, um, the roof had fallen through, um, there was, there was, like, a, a tree maybe 100 foot tall overshadowing it as well.
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