UAE. Dubai Airports today inaugurated O’Regan’s Irish Bar & Restaurant at Dubai International Airport. The outlet is a tribute to Dr Brendan O’Regan, whose multiple achievements include founding the airport duty free industry, which he created at Shannon Airport, Ireland in 1947.
Among his many achievements, O’Regan also drove the creation of the Shannon Free Zone and had an enormous impact on regional tourism and the hospitality sector in Ireland.
Dubai Airports described O’Regan as “an innovator, a visionary and, not least, a peacemaker” [he played an important behind the scenes role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland –Ed].
Today’s inauguration of the elegantly designed, bright and expansive space was graced by Alison Milton, Ambassador of Ireland to the UAE, and Patrick O’Donovan, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
They were joined by Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths; Dubai Airports Executive Vice President – Commercial Eugene Barry, who drove the project and hosted proceeedngs; and Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin.
The audience included VIP guests, business partners, the project’s design company Keane, and media (The Moodie Davitt Report from the travel retail sector).
Dr Brendan O’Regan’s universal gestureAnyone who is involved in duty free anywhere in the world should understand that Dr Brendan O’Regan gave breath not just to an industry but to a concept. His great achievement was that, at the very essence, he took commerce and made it a force for good – so it was no longer just commerce. That is his outstanding heritage.
He transcended business. Not many people and not many ideas do that. Not many people bequeath great notions. He did. Dr O’Regan once said: “I will fight to the last breath helping to make peace in my country.” Read more from The Moodie Blog, written on Brendan O’Regan’s passing in 2008 |
The event was highlighted by the unveiling of a bust of Brendan O’Regan, created by one of Ireland’s leading bronze sculptors Seamus Connolly, that takes pride of place in the location. Connolly also sculpted a life-size statue of O’Regan, unveiled in July 2023, that sits in the latter’s native village of Sixmilebridge, County Clare, Ireland.
Welcoming guests, Barry said (in both Gaelic and English): “I’m delighted you could all join us this morning to celebrate the official opening of O’Regan’s, and at the same time acknowledge the inspiration of Dr Brendan O’Regan, whose legacy resounds to the present day as the founder of the global duty free industry – as well as being a very forward-thinking innovator in the world of airports, travel, tourism, and hospitality.”
Milton was next up, noting she hails from Shannon and that her father had worked on the Shannon Free Zone development, a project conceived and driven by Dr O’Regan. She paid rich tribute to his seminal influence on west Ireland’s economy and “incredible entrepreneurial innovation”, concluding, “I’m sure Brendan O’Regan has made it [the opening] all happen in this serendipitous way today”.
O’Donovan paid further tribute to O’Regan, noting: “Not only did he have a huge involvement in the airport and in aviation but he set a standard for tourism – not only in Ireland but around the world – with the creation, for instance, of the Shannon College of Hotel Management. As well as that, he later became Chairman of our National Tourism Board, Bord Fáilte.
“That was at a time in Ireland when we were awaken from being an inward-looking country that had values set in a Victorian era.
“It was people like O’Regan that really set the standard for us as Irish people to reach out because of the baseline that he created with hospitality. So I think it’s very apt and appropriate that he’s been immortalised here.”
Mcloughlin said: “I worked at Shannon Airport for 14 years from 1969 until 1983. And Brendan O’Regan was the boss of everything in Shannon at that time.”
McLoughlin noted the enormous economic impact that O’Regan’s work had on the town of Shannon, whose population grew rapidly from around 200 to 8,000 (today around 10,000).
He added: “And something that’s not written very much about is the fact that he was one of the main instigators for the peace talks in the north of Ireland and he will be renowned for that for many, many years.”
Griffiths said: “What we’ve been able to do here is express a modern, warm Irish hospitality venue, which I think is a fantastic export. We’ve had some wonderful exports from Ireland – Colm being the father of them all. And it’s just fantastic here in this airport – the biggest and the best in the world – to be able to introduce yet another great customer service feature, which we are now world renowned for doing.
“Everyone thinks that airports are big, frightening infrastructure facilities with lots of big terminals and lots of complex stuff. Actually they are places for the hearts and for the minds. And we want to make sure that we are in the hospitality business, a people business – run by people for people. That’s what it’s all about.
“And in O’Regan’s Bar, Brendan O’Regan’s legacy will live on for many years to come. It’s been a great honour and a privilege to carry on this fantastic legacy.” 
PICTURE GALLERY
