Those parents who fret about their children spending most of the day on YouTube should take comfort in the success of Paddy Galloway. The 28-year-old from Carlow is a YouTube strategist, helping the likes of Mr Beast, Ryan Trahan and Noah Kagan boost their subscriber numbers. Accounts filed last week for Galloway’s company Creator Growth Ltd show the man dubbed the Godfather of YouTube strategy has more than €1 million in the bank.
Galloway, who recently said on social media that he had moved to Austin, Texas, made a profit of €401,807 in 2022 and another €505,027 last year, while paying himself €101,042 in 2022 and €133,767 last year. His company had more than €900,000 in the bank at the end of 2023, while a note in the accounts points out that bitcoin he owns that was valued at €632,643 at the end of last year had increased in value by €396,099 as of April 23rd this year, the day the accounts were signed off.
In an interview with The Irish Times last year, Galloway said he was constantly told growing up to get a “proper job” by “middle-aged” people. Luckily for him, he ignored them.
[ Paddy Galloway: ‘I have a really good skill in making videos go viral’Opens in new window ]
High-profile barrister defends his own home extension plans
Seán Guerin, the chairman of the Bar Council who has appeared in dozens of high-profile trials, including prosecuting murderer Graham Dwyer, is now defending plans for his own home in south Dublin. The barrister and his wife submitted plans to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for a part two-storey extension to the rear of their home last month, including converting the garage into living space and adding a single-storey room in the rear garden.
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Objection, cried their neighbour, who claims the extension will have “a profoundly negative impact” on their home, describing it as “visually incongruous, and overbearing”. They claim that the senior counsel’s plans are “a prime example of overdevelopment” and “will have a negative impact on the value of adjoining properties”.
Guerin, who represented the Stardust families in the recent inquests into the 1981 nightclub fire, has responded through his planning consultant, arguing the design was “carefully thought through” with the intention of “minimising” any impact on neighbours. “Contrary to the suggestion of over-development, the proposed extension is in keeping with the recent pattern of upgrading, modernisation, and resizing of homes on the road,” the lawyer’s consultant contends.
The council’s verdict is due next month.
I helped make controversial Trump film, and so did you
Donald Trump has threatened to sue the producers of The Apprentice, an origin story about his early years as a property tycoon in New York under the tutelage of ruthless lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, played by Succession’s Jeremy Strong. In typical Trump fashion, he has labelled the film, which received a three-star review from The Irish Times, as “fake and classless”, saying it was made by “human scum”.
Some may be interested to hear, then, that their taxes were used to help produce the character study, which has had an underwhelming first few weeks at the US box office. Irish company Tailored Films was a co-producer of the film, and the latest list of beneficiaries of section 481 funding shows it received the tax break in August for post-production work in the Dublin region. While Revenue doesn’t disclose how much each film gets from the scheme, it’s listed in the “less than €500,000″ category. The film also got €350,000 in funding from Screen Ireland, the semi-State body.
So next time you’re looking gloomily at how much Revenue has taken out of your pay cheque, console yourself with the thought that at least some of it was used to help infuriate Trump.
Irish journalists snub tech bro love-in Web Summit
Web Summit, which is taking place in Lisbon next month, describes itself as one of the world’s largest gatherings of international media with attendees from influential organs such as the New York Times, CNN, Wired, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, BBC and the Financial Times. But the Irish media seems to have fallen out of love with the annual shindig for tech bros hoping to become unicorns.
While there are hundreds of journalists accredited so far to attend from countries such as the UK and United States, only a handful of Irish journalists have signed up to attend a month from the event. There will be at least 17 reporters from the United Arab Emirates, 21 from Qatar and more than a dozen from China but only four have signed up from Ireland’s “useless and toothless” legacy media, as Web Summit organiser Paddy Cosgrave calls them – that’s fewer than from Ghana or Lithuania.
Was it something he said?
Life’s a lottery when you’re Pearse Doherty
Pearse Doherty declared an interest in the Dáil during a debate on the gambling regulation Bill on Wednesday. The Sinn Féin spokesman on finance said he was involved in a not-for-profit organisation that runs a local music festival in Co Donegal.
“In raising money for that, we operate a lottery licence. This legislation will affect us and many of the people with whom we compete who operate outside of current regulations and will be dealt with,” he said.
The music festival turns out to be the annual Sult festival in Gweedore, which takes place every summer. Last year’s concerts, which started on the glorious July 12th, included Bell X1, Alabama 3, rapper Example and the fantastically titled Red Hot Chilli Pipers. The Scottish pipe band mostly do covers of rock songs, including Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey – an anthem for Doherty’s beleaguered party heading into a general election on the back foot.
Prison is full of fantasy fans
A tender from the Prison Service offers an insight into the reading habits of those serving sentences at the State’s pleasure. Ireland’s almost 5,000-strong prison population can look forward to titles on health, fitness, wellbeing, crafts and history in the near future. The Prison Service has told book suppliers it wants “a strong emphasis on Irish-published titles and titles of Irish interest”, including books as Gaeilge for those “wishing to refresh their knowledge of the language having learned it in school”.
Genres popular with the prison population include sci-fi, self-help and, for those eager to learn the error of their ways, true crime. But the most-sought-after titles turn out to be fantasy books, which the Prison Service describe as “particularly popular”.
“We would put a particular emphasis on the tenderer’s ability to supply complete sets of, or missing volumes from, fantasy series, as in our experience they can go out of print unexpectedly,” the tender advises. Given recent revelations in this newspaper about prison overcrowding leading to a 66 per cent increase in inmate-on-inmate assaults last year, we can see why dystopian, Hunger Games-style fiction might be resonating with those incarcerated in Irish jails.
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