Latest news with #Geraghty
Irish Independent
11-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
‘We're not great for going to the pub. Our thing is the house' – making a new build a true family home in Maynooth
Asking price: €1.095m Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Brady O'Flaherty (01) 6510000 Just over 34,700 Irish citizens emigrated in the year to April 2024, the highest leaving the country since 2015. Most were aged between 25 and 44, and Australia was the destination of choice. Not being able to buy or rent a house and the rising cost of living were most typically cited as the reasons for leaving. Maura Geraghty and Mark Nolan, two accountants from Celbridge, Co Kildare, were almost in the same boat in the last economic downturn. But through good luck and hard work, they managed instead to avail of some of the cheapest home prices in a generation after the crash. Having met as freshman students at DCU, where both were studying accountancy, they had their sights set on moving to Oz after they qualified. 'All of our friends were going and we planned to do the same, but then one day Mark said, 'I don't think it's the right thing to do. I think we should actually buy a house',' recalls Geraghty. It was 2013, and home prices were affordable if you could get a mortgage. Builders were still having trouble shifting new homes outside Dublin. 'There were ghost estates around the country and everyone thought we were crazy, that the housing market would crash even more. But looking back, I realise just how lucky we were. I don't know how any young people can afford to buy a house now,' she says. When Geraghty found a new home at the Castlepark Square scheme in Maynooth, it was a real stretch up. 'We had been looking at much cheaper homes initially,' Geraghty says. But it was around this point in time that the economy started to turn. Both got trainee accountant jobs with blue chip firms, Geraghty with PwC and Nolan with Deloitte. They each moved back with their parents to save on rent, and there was no going out. Geraghty also accepted any offered overtime. 'We really pushed the boat out because I really wanted that house.' Finally, they purchased their 2,480 sq ft, newly built four-bedroom detached house in Castlepark Square. 'From living with our parents and before that in student accommodation in DCU together, we couldn't get over the amount of space,' she says. ADVERTISEMENT Today, they know they got in just under the wire. 'The next phase saw the prices rise by €50,000,' Geraghty says. Since then, property prices have more than doubled. In 2017, they had their first child, Nathan, who is now eight. They've since had three more children, Nina (six), Sam (four), and Lilla (three). 'I used every maternity leave to redecorate the house,' says Geraghty. 'We're not great people for going to the pub. Our thing is the house, and we're constantly repurposing and redecorating it. I'll often wake up and say, 'I'm so bored today, let's change the furniture around,'' she adds, laughing. 'If Mark was going to the shop on a Friday night and wanted to treat me, he would buy me an interiors magazine.' With the addition of their children, they quickly realised they needed a boot room. It has a drop-down clothes horse that extends down from the ceiling at the press of a button, called a Foxydry, a cupboard for coats and even a drawer for odd socks. 'Storage is the key to our happiness. It's where we dump all the clutter, and it's become the engine of our home.' In 2017, they extended the kitchen/living/dining space at the back and hired a friend who runs Opus Interior Design to design the kitchen. 'She recommended Crittall–style windows and we painted the kitchen navy and added burnt orange stools at the island. I've gone off navy now because everyone has it, but we were quite ahead of our time.' The island counter here is nine-foot long and made from a single piece of quartz. It fits six high stools, but originally there were five. 'We planned to have three children originally. When we had the fourth, I had to get another stool.' Earlier this year, they collaborated with designer Lorna Pringle, who advised on changing the colour of the kitchen units to Portland Stone by Little Greene. This combined well with the gold rims of the stools, which have been reupholstered in cream, and the brass sink tap. The flooring is chevron-style laminate. 'For me, the kitchen is the jewel of the house,' says Geraghty. 'It's great for entertaining.' There's a separate sitting room at the front, the walls of which have been painted French Gray by Farrow and Ball. 'It's where we go for some peace and quiet. With the kids being young still, I felt we needed that,' she says. On the other side of the hall is the playroom, which was previously an office and before that, a gym. During the pandemic, the couple found themselves working from home, so they converted the attic to make two offices with storage cupboards under the eaves and an en suite bathroom. Upstairs are three double bedrooms, two of which have en suite bathrooms and one generously-sized single room. The master bedroom has a laminate floor and a large en suite bathroom. The back garden has been designed as an outside room with a patio area, artificial grass, and foliage. Maynooth is a 40-minute drive from Dublin city centre. 'It's a really cool place,' she says. 'It's got a number of nice restaurants and coffee shops, and it's a vibrant community.' Now, they've bought another home five minutes' drive away in the countryside. 'We're looking forward to having more space for the children, and maybe a vegetable patch." Sherry FitzGerald Brady O'Flaherty seeks €1.09m.
Time Out
08-07-2025
- Time Out
A three-Michelin-starred restaurant is taking over a stunning waterfront Sydney spot this month
Ready for an extraordinary experience? Norway's three-Michelin-starred restaurant Maaemo – located in Oslo and known for its innovative Norwegian cuisine and zero-waste philosophy – is heading Down Under this July for its second residency at Sydney's Berowra Waters Inn. Australian-born executive chef Jay Boyle will join Berowra Waters Inn owner and executive chef Brian Geraghty to serve an exceptional 14-course menu of Maaemo dishes, reimagined using local ingredients, at the fine diner located on the picturesque Hawkesbury River. The pop-up will run for four days only – July 24–27 – with just 250 seats available. I'd say run, don't walk, but you can only reach the waterfront restaurant by seaplane or boat. If you're due for a go-hard-or-go-home outing, this is it. The menu will feature a mix of signature Maaemo dishes, including 'Oyster Tradition 2010', which will see Norway's Bømlo molluscs swapped for Hawkesbury oysters, as well as a handful of yet-to-be-revealed plates. Boyle says: 'It's a major and slightly terrifying challenge to recreate these dishes without a single item from the Maaemo pantry – there's a whole alphabet of ingredients we need to replace – but it's very exciting to recreate and even elevate dishes through a purely Australian lens.' 'Dishes will closely resemble those served in Oslo, but will also be completely bespoke, taking on the unique flavours of Australia, cooked up by a couple of Australian chefs at the top of their field, in an iconic Australian setting,' says Geraghty. Hailing from Newcastle, Boyle is one of only three Aussie chefs running a three-Michelin-starred restaurant globally, alongside Matt Abé (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay) and Brett Graham (The Ledbury). YTB. Boyle will be sourcing top Aussie produce to reimagine the dishes. Instead of king crab and hazelnuts, there'll be Hawkesbury mud crab in macadamia milk. Wattle seeds will replace coffee in the smoked Atherton raspberries and brown cheese dish. There'll be pistachio miso in place of pumpkin seed for the lamb course, and marron will sub in for langoustine. Other native ingredients being celebrated include emu egg, bunya nut, Atherton raspberry, Geraldton wax, Australian tamarind, sunrise lime, Davidson's plum, cinnamon myrtle, rosella flower and rye berry – sourced via local suppliers including Tinja Farms and Newcastle Greens. Geraghty adds: 'This is our second Maaemo x Berowra Waters Inn collaboration in two years, and with this uniquely all-Australian version of the menu highlighting incredible native ingredients, we're expecting it to be even more special than the first.' The Maaemo x Berowra Waters Inn 14-course tasting menu is $420 per person, with two optional wine pairings at $220 and $340. Book here. Can't make it this time? On a related note, Jack Brown – proud First Nations man and head chef at Berowra Waters Inn (ex- The Zin House) – has created the July menu now available at Two Good Co Café in Darlinghurst. Designed to spotlight native ingredients, the menu features dishes like a pastrami Reuben with a lemon myrtle mayo-mustard spread; Warrigal greens soup with smoked ham and native dukkah; and wattleseed and macadamia blondies. Find out more here.
The Age
01-07-2025
- The Age
Three-Michelin-starred Maaemo returns to Sydney with an all-Australian menu
Geraghty is working with a network of local producers including Tinja Farms and Newcastle Greens, as well as native food expert Nathan Lovett from the National Indigenous Culinary Institute to source rare, wild and native ingredients for the menu. Among the produce sourced will be Atherton raspberries, which will replace Norwegian strawberries in a dessert of dried and rehydrated berries with native herbs and edible flowers. 'Dishes will closely resemble those served in Oslo, but will also be completely bespoke, taking on the unique flavours of Australia, cooked up by a couple of Australian chefs at the top of their field, in an iconic Australian setting,' says Geraghty. Originally from Port Stephens, NSW, Boyle first met Geraghty in 2010 while working in the kitchen of Sydney's Bilson's restaurant. Boyle left just a year later to join Maaemo, and today is one of only three Australian chefs leading a three-Michelin-starred kitchen anywhere in the world — alongside Brett Graham from The Ledbury and Matt Abe from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
Sydney Morning Herald
01-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Three-Michelin-starred Maaemo returns to Sydney with an all-Australian menu
Geraghty is working with a network of local producers including Tinja Farms and Newcastle Greens, as well as native food expert Nathan Lovett from the National Indigenous Culinary Institute to source rare, wild and native ingredients for the menu. Among the produce sourced will be Atherton raspberries, which will replace Norwegian strawberries in a dessert of dried and rehydrated berries with native herbs and edible flowers. 'Dishes will closely resemble those served in Oslo, but will also be completely bespoke, taking on the unique flavours of Australia, cooked up by a couple of Australian chefs at the top of their field, in an iconic Australian setting,' says Geraghty. Originally from Port Stephens, NSW, Boyle first met Geraghty in 2010 while working in the kitchen of Sydney's Bilson's restaurant. Boyle left just a year later to join Maaemo, and today is one of only three Australian chefs leading a three-Michelin-starred kitchen anywhere in the world — alongside Brett Graham from The Ledbury and Matt Abe from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
Skift
30-06-2025
- Business
- Skift
Qantas Tests A321XLR's Limits with Historic Nonstop Flight to Bangkok
Qantas is turning an aircraft delivery into a marketing moment for the Airbus A321XLR. While the record-setting flight grabs headlines, the bigger story is how single-aisle jets are reshaping long-haul route planning. Flight QF6041 isn't your regular Monday morning departure from Hamburg. As of 2 p.m. CET (8 a.m. ET), the aircraft is flying over Turkmenistan, and on course to make aviation history. Qantas being the operator of the new plane is a big clue about Monday's mission. The Australian flag carrier took delivery of the jet last week, and is now flying the plane back to the airline's HQ. The distance from the Airbus factory in Hamburg to Sydney is more than 9,000 nautical miles. A regular delivery flight for a single-aisle aircraft would typically include between two and four refuelling and crew-rest stops en route. But QF6041 is no ordinary aircraft. Qantas is accepting its first Airbus A321XLR – that's Xtra Long Range – and it plans to showcase its performance on the delivery flight Down Under. The aircraft is due to fly from Hamburg to Bangkok nonstop. If realized, this will be the longest A321XLR flight operated by a commercial airline. Qantas estimates the journey will cover more than 5,000 nautical miles. After a turnaround in the Thai capital, the XLR will continue from Bangkok to Sydney, with this second leg clocking in at around 4,000 nautical miles. If all goes to plan, the XLR, named 'Great Ocean Road,' will touch down in Sydney just after 10a.m. local time (8 p.m ET) on Wednesday morning. The total journey is due to take 42 hours, of which 21 hours will be in the air. Thousands are following the plane's progress on live flight-tracking websites such as Flightradar24. Qantas Pushes the Envelope While impressive, the historic flight is not entirely representative. The plane is not carrying any paying passengers or cargo. This makes the aircraft much lighter than normal and increases its overall range. Airbus' marketing materials say the A321XLR can fly up to 4,700 nautical miles 'in typical airline service.' Airlines tend to be more conservative about an aircraft's performance, taking in additional practical considerations on a route-by-route basis. This was highlighted by JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty at the Skift Global Forum last September. On the topic of destination targets for JetBlue's own fleet of A321XLRs, she cautioned: '[The range] is from the aircraft manufacturer, and you have to keep in mind that airlines always do their own studies to make sure that's accurate and sometimes it's not.' Despite New York JFK to Rome being within the official range of the A321XLR, Geraghty added: 'I'm not sure the XLR would actually make it to Rome with the level or reliability we would need. It's tougher to fly back in the wintertime and we don't want to have a technical stop to get gas over the Atlantic.' What's Next for Qantas and the XLR? Qantas is the latest big-name airline to switch from Boeing to Airbus for its next generation of planes. Despite huge retraining and operational complexities, the carrier is betting that the short-term pain will pay off handsomely. Monday's delivery flight is the first of an initial batch of 28 XLRs. These are planned to be direct replacements for Qantas' existing Boeing 737s. These previous-generation jets are due to leave the Qantas fleet over the next decade. Operating in one of the world's largest, yet least densely populated countries, Qantas is likely to feel the benefits of the XLR's improved range. It can fly around 1,500 nautical miles further than the outgoing 737s. The airline has highlighted Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands as possible new markets for the narrowbody jet. First Look Inside Qantas' New 'Xtra Long Range' Plane Qantas is the latest big-name airline to switch from Boeing to Airbus for its next generation of planes. Despite huge retraining and operational complexities, the carrier is betting that the short-term pain will pay off handsomely. Read More Despite being a replacement for the 737, the XLR is five meters (16.5 feet) longer than the Boeing jets. The larger plane can seat 197 passengers – an increase of 13% in overall capacity – with the amount of space between economy seats unchanged at 30 inches. In line with global industry trends, Qantas is using the new plane to boost the number of premium options. The XLR will have 20 business class seats in a 2-2 configuration, representing a 66% increase on earlier models. The upscale seats will have a pitch of 37 inches and offer a five-inch recline. Other perks include a wireless charging pad, an extendable cocktail table, and adjustable calf-rest and footrest. Qantas will be the type's first operator in the Asia-Pacific region. The XLR is already in service with Iberia and Aer Lingus who use it to fly nonstop from Europe deep into the U.S. Ultra low-cost carrier Wizz Air is also due to start flying the jet between Hungary and India, and from the UK to Saudi Arabia. Other future operators include Air Canada, American Airlines, and IndiGo. What am I looking at? The performance of airline sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets including network carriers, low-cost carriers, and other related companies. The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more airlines sector financial performance. Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
