Trevor Twamley, CEO of the sports marketing platform Sport Endorse, has done an analysis of Rory’s Insta followers and tells me that 18.6pc are female, with 33pc in America, 11pc in the UK and 5pc in France.
This shows the extent and variety of the Irish golfer’s appeal.
Twamley also spotted some high-profile followers on Rory’s account, including Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Justin Timberlake…
Why does this matter?
Because of the commercial power it gives McIlroy. Several of his Insta posts last week were related to brands he endorses, including Nike, TaylorMade and Whoop.
“What I liked about his Masters victory is the humility that came across, and the hard work he did,” Twamley says. “Brands love that.”
There’s more lucrative commercial deals out there for McIlroy, offering eight-figure returns, if he wants them.
The question is does he put up with the hassle that goes with that – or, already well on his way to being a billionaire, does he decide to spend his spare time in other ways?
David McWilliams. Photo: Gerry Mooney
David McWilliams takes it private
Probably fed up of nosey parkers such as yours truly going through his accounts, David McWilliams has taken his Iconic Media firm private.
The economist and author recently informed the Companies Registration Office that he is re-registering as Iconic Media Unlimited Ltd.
The last-ever accounts for Iconic were filed in March and showed it in a healthy position, with cash funds of €369,680. The value of the company’s unlisted investments remained at €685,661.
There was no detail about how much the directors – McWilliams and his wife Sian – were paid. The last time this was published was in 2022, when the figure was €173,603.
Given the recent commercial success of his book Money: A Story of Humanity, the bottom line has no doubt improved further.
“It’s for business reasons,” McWilliams told me about the delisting.
“The company doesn’t have any liabilities to be limited from – so there’s no commercial point being a limited liability company!”
Brian O’Driscoll and Amy Huberman at the launch of AH wine
Palmerston period piles are back in profit
The well-heeled denizens of Palmerston Road in Dublin 6 will no doubt raise a toast of Amy Huberman’s new Cava Brut Rosé on hearing the price recently paid for a house on the tree-lined strip.
Just down the road from Amy and Brian O’Driscoll, the owners of No 71, Palmerston Road recently put their extended four-bed property up for sale with a guide price of €2.85m. This was in line with other sales in the area, since No 64 sold for €2.8m last October.
Unlike other period piles on the market, including on Shrewsbury Road, this got away quickly. The Property Price Register shows the hammer came down at €3.3m, or almost half a million more than the advertised price.
The O’Driscolls paid a knock-down €1.8m for their red-bricked Victorian pile almost a decade ago.
That, in turn, was less than half the €4.3m paid by the previous owners in 2006, at the top of the Celtic Tiger market. Seems like Palmerston Road prices are on the rise again. Bottoms up!
Eavan Saunders
Kingspan recruits legal eagle to the board
Eavan Saunders, the country head of Dentons legal firm in Ireland, will be joining the board of Kingspan on May 1, according to its annual report.
It’s an interesting choice of independent non-exec director for the Cavan-headquartered firm, as it strives to repair its image after shipping heavy criticism in the final report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry last September.
This concluded that Kingspan was not directly responsible for the fire that resulted in 72 deaths, but showed “complete disregard for fire safety” in how it marketed one product.
British prime minister Keir Starmer said at the time that companies involved in the failings that led to the fire would no longer be awarded government contracts.
Kingspan has had lawyers on its board in the past, but its choice of Saunders suggests it went after someone with global – and specifically British – experience.
Saunders previously worked in London as a senior corporate partner at Ashurst, and her specialisation is in international M&A and capital markets.
National Lottery
Lotto owners frown on our winning streak
La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), the French gaming giant, is off to a bit of a losing start following its purchase of the Irish National Lottery at the end of 2023. This was its first venture outside France, and it paid €350m for the privilege.
Last week, FDJ reported €925m revenue for the first quarter of this year, a 30pc increase on the same period in 2024.
Chief financial officer Pascal Chaffard explained that in its international lottery division, however, Q1 revenue was €38m – down 22pc.
This was because of non-recurring elements at the Irish lottery – “most notably an exceptional number of jackpot winners in draw games, that has driven the play-off pay-out up”.
Quel dommage!
Actually there were 26 lottery draws in Q1, and only five were won. The biggest payout was €4.6m on January 29, followed by €4m on March 23.
There were nine Lotto “millionaires” created, just one more than in the first quarter of 2024. There were 11 winners of the top prize of €500,000 in the EuroMillions Plus game, compared to four in Q1 of 2024.
Still, hardly exceptional. Presumably La Francaise des Jeux is used to paying out less, and less often.
Regular lottery players should note the “exceptional” streak is not expected to continue. Monsieur Chaffard told the analysts that the non-recurring elements affecting its bottom line “should normalise over the year”.
Franck Magennis, Farhad Ansari and Daniel Grutters of Riverway Law
Irish lawyers irk the UK Tory right
Two lawyers with strong Irish connections have caused quite a row in Britain, after submitting an application to the Home Office to remove Hamas from the list of banned organisations.
The barrister on the case is Franck Magennis, originally from Dublin “and raised in the Six Counties”, though we didn’t detect any hint of a northern accent in his heated clash with Talk TV’s Peter Cardwell.
Also on the legal team is Fahad Ansari, a solicitor who studied law at UCD, and obtained an LLM in international human rights law from University of Galway.
The lawyers have been heavily criticised for their action, though Hamas is not paying them.
Robert Jenrick, a Tory MP, has called for a “thorough and transparent investigation” of the legal team – and suggested they could potentially be struck off.
Support, however, has come from a group styling itself the Socialist Lawyers’ Association of Ireland, which has issued a “Franck Magennis solidarity statement”.
The association said it is “gravely concerned” for his safety and well-being, as he and the rest of the team are “facing intimidation, hindrance, harassment, and improper interference in the performance of their professional functions.”?
source