Richard Curran’s family owned bars in Dublin, so when it came time to explore the world, he had plenty of experience and knew it would be easy to get a job abroad.
“I went to St Michael’s in Ballsbridge then on to college in Maynooth,” he recalls. However, when his course didn’t fit expectations, he took time out and worked in bars in London for a year.
“I returned to Dublin to study accounting at NCI [the National College of Ireland] in 1992 and, between second and final year, I decided to do a Tefl course to teach English. I paid £50 and earned a certificate at the end of a weekend.”
Making a decision on where to use his new skill proved random.
“I’d heard Prague and Milan had loads of jobs so, with a college pal, I went down to the Usit [office] on the quays. As the flight to Prague was £5 cheaper than anywhere else, we decided to go there.”
Curran knew nothing about Prague on arrival and had nowhere to stay. “We found the Irish bar and got talking to a chap who knew my sister and said they were looking for staff.”
While he worked there, his friend went in search of teaching work during the day. Curran met some girls and crashed with them while his friend disappeared to a music festival in France. He never saw him again.
It was Prague in the 1990s, and my job was to explain to the head of Microsoft why it would take three months to have a phone line installed
Falling in love with a Czech girl meant deferring college and, by now, he was running the James Joyce, a popular Irish bar, and had started teaching English. He returned to Ireland to complete an accounting degree at NCI with his Czech girlfriend before returning to Prague in 1997.
“In the early days, networking was done at the International Football Club. I still play with them 30 years later. We set it up as a way of meeting other teams and we played tournaments in villages all over the country.”
Another source for networking was at Irish bars, and there Curran met a fellow Irish man, who offered him a position as an accountant at Cushman & Wakefield.
“It was an old British surveying company and I never did any accounting; this was a problem-solving business. Nothing worked because it was Prague in the 1990s, and my job was to explain to the head of Microsoft why it would take three months to have a phone line installed. Everything was a crisis: I was managing people.”
Curran was given his first mobile phone late in the 1990s. The next day, the number was sent out to 240 tenants as an emergency number and it never stopped ringing. He spent three years in property management before going into office leasing. “Commercial leasing meant finding tenants for offices and in the 1990s there was very little infrastructure so everyone was working out of residential property. Even Deloitte were working out of apartments.”
From a professional point of view, Curran has seen the whole modern office and retail stock evolve. Something that took 300 years in the UK happened over 20 years in the Czech Republic. In 2004 he was headhunted and joined CBRE, whose commercial real estate services were just starting out.
“We had 20 people to start and went on globally to be the largest real estate businesses in the world. The company expanded to 400 people during the 15 years I was managing director.”
I believe there still is [opportunity in Prague] but my advice to anyone moving here is to try and learn the language and don’t give up
In 2019, Curran took a year’s gardening leave shortly before the world went into lockdown. “My plans to travel were shelved but I joined Knight Frank CZ as managing director in 2021. It was a small operation of 40 employees when I joined and is 70 now. We are not trying to be CBRE but again it’s commercial property that we project-manage.”
Curran has seen one big change in the marketplace. “Eighty per cent of commercial business was international; now it’s 80 per cent local. The Czechs like to own property, like the Irish, and they have expanded out to Poland and Romania. They are the biggest investors in central Europe these days.” Areas of growth in the Czech Republic include IT with many new businesses springing up.
He says Prague is geographically smaller than Dublin. He is married to a Czech woman and says the city is a great place to bring up kids and the education system is fantastic.
“You never see violence on the street, so I had no problem letting my kids wander around the city, and the public transport is good. We can be in Munich in three hours, Budapest in 3½ and the road network is very good too.”
Enticed by Curran’s success, his brother followed him to Prague, and they now share ownership of one of the most successful Irish bars in the old town, called The Irish Times.
Curran believes he arrived in Prague at a time of great opportunity. “I believe there still is [opportunity] but my advice to anyone moving here is to try and learn the language and don’t give up. Say yes to things, and if you don’t have a firm plan, try different things.”
