Getting it out there

From the zany Paddy Games competition, through documentary and filmmaking to merchandising and celebrity ghostwriting, globetrotting Cork-born businessman Colin Carroll believes creativity and innovation is crucial to success. “I don’t believe luck comes your way… you have to get it out there,” Colin told Keith Watterson.
 
Fermoy entrepreneur Colin Carroll is currently juggling three projects, each of which he believes has the potential to strike gold. The first is Fastnet Rock, a screenplay for a movie based on the foiled €440m cocaine smuggling plot at Dunlough Bay in July 2007, for which he has held talks with influential US film industry players on possible funding.

The second is Paddy Games, the alternative Olympics first held in the Mardyke Arena in August 2010, when over 200 competitors from 15 countries competed in such unusual activities as the pogo stick high-jump, the high-dive belly-flop and the crawling relay, and even broken-leg sprinting.

And the third is Irish Empire, a clothing and merchandising brand targeting the Irish diaspora, as well as issuing official documents for those wishing to become subjects or ambassadors of this “sovereign Celtic nation”.

It is difficult to discern which of the projects the Cork man has most enthusiasm for.

He outlined a passionate pitch for Irish Empire. “I’m very serious about this. It’s a premium brand, and more than a brand; it’s almost a coat of arms, and my target market is the Irish diaspora. Instead of four million people in Ireland, I’m targeting the 80m Irish people round the world.”

Just when you’re swept along on this tidal wave of positivity, talk turns to Paddy Games. “Paddy Games is something that I’ve really looked very closely at. I’ve learned a lot of lessons from the first event in 2010, when everybody supported it, apart, unfortunately, from sponsors. But now there is another opportunity, with the London Olympics this year, and in 2013, I would love to stage the Paddy Games in Cork. I’ve made approaches to Fáilte Ireland and The Gathering, and hopefully they will go well.”