N UAC HT
March 21 2018
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GNÉ -ALTANNA
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‘King of Ireland’ Pat McDonagh visits NUI Galway By Connell McHugh On 6 March NUI Galway’s BizSoc and the Career Development Centre held an event entitled ‘An evening with Pat McDonagh’ with an interview section followed by a Q&A with the man himself and the 200 students in attendance. Organisers took the time at the beginning of the evening to explain that it was the founder of Supermacs who offered to make an appearance in NUI Galway. Immediately setting a light-hearted tone for the evening, McDonagh looked around the hall, stating that some of the students “look familiar alright.” Founded in Ballinasloe in 1978, Supermacs was intended to be a pool hall, but this venture was turned down on the grounds of planning permission.
“You always have to use your imagination,” McDonagh explained to the audience. There were three options available to him when he bought the site in Ballinasloe; a furniture shop, a nightclub or a fast food restaurant. In fact, he bought the premises before he had secured a loan from the bank. Supermacs now has 108 restaurants across the country and employs 2,500 people of 21 nationalities. Starting out as a businessman turning away from the teaching profession, McDonagh admitted that he “didn’t know how to boil a kettle.” He says he worked 364 of 365 days a year, because there “simply is no shortcut to success.” In the Q&A session, more subjects were touched upon which truly showed the scope of Supermacs’ future. When asked about
HearMe! NUI Galway students helping tackle communication barriers in Galway cafés By Martha Brennan NUI Galway’s Enactus society are seeking to create better communications between catering staff and people with communication impairments in Galway. The society, which aims to bring together people in the community, launched their ‘HearMe!’ initiative last year with the hope that their training programmes could better equip Galway establishments with the tools to communicate with customers with speech difficulties. Aonaid Carr, a final year civil law student, is the auditor of the society and says that the training can aid café and restaurant workers immensely and can help servers feel more com-
someone that you don’t understand instead of being embarrassed really helps”. “You just need to give some people time, let them write the order if they need to. It can be hard as a waitress in a rush but you would want someone to do it for you,” Aonaid said. So far six Galway cafés have been HearMe certified in the 35 training programmes the society has ran, including 37 West, 56 Central and Ard Rí House as well as the university cafés. The course is also offered to students, with over 120 people in total being trained to date, including 50 students so far this semester. The programme has also been included in the manual HR training in both UHG and Roscommon University Hospital. Enactus NUIG has also trained 12 professional speech and language therapists to set up their own training programmes in Sligo and Cork. Founded in 2011, Enactus is an intern at i o n a l c h a r i t a b l e o r g a n i s at i o n w h i c h enables third level students to create, and implement, social entrepreneurial projects which positively impact the community. Every year a national competition is held by Enactus Ireland in May and NUIG’s society were awarded a bursary for their work last year and are aiming to bring the prize home with the HearMe! scheme this year. HearMe! is only one of three of the student’s current projects around Galway, the other two include drama classes with Ability West and an autism awareness programme with Galway secondary schools. The society, who are sponsored by KPMG, Arthur Cox and Bank of Ireland have a lot more planned for HearMe! and Aonaid said that the goal is to eventually “make anyone in Galway with speech impairments feel independent and more confident in every day activities”. The training programme is available to students for just €20. See more on becoming HearMe! certified by contacting Enactus NUIG.
“Just learning simple things like not looking to a person’s carer for their order or just telling someone that you don’t understand instead of being embarrassed really helps”. fortable with their communication skills. “Being trained to tackle these barriers shows that Galway cafés and restaurants care about their customers and the people in their community,” Aonaid said. “So many people have speech impairments, be it from a simple stutter, a stroke or an intellectual disability, it’s vital that we don’t make anyone feel excluded in everyday activities, such as ordering food,” she added. The idea behind HearMe! came from the thesis of a final year NUI Galway speech and language therapist. The training programmes are taught by speech and language therapy students along with a co-trainer who has a speech impairment. Anna Vaughan, an NUI Galway student and waitress who took the course said that hearing from the co-trainer really helped in the training. “It put everything into perspective,” she said. “Just learning simple things like not looking to a person’s carer for their order or just telling
taking the brand to an international stage, McDonagh raised the issues that the business is facing in relation to other international brands blocking their progress. While he did not mention the company by name, he mentioned the use of the prefix ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ as causing issues for international markets. McDonagh made a submission to the European Unions Intellectual Property Office in the spring of 2017. McDonald’s has registered several trademarks such as ‘McKids’, ‘McHome’, ‘McWallet’, ‘McNoodle’, and more applicable to Ireland, ‘McMór.’ McDonagh believes the US giant has done this to thwart smaller family businesses. The United Kingdom is where he is looking to next to expand Supermacs’, and yet Brexit is not something that is affecting his judgement. “I’m one of the few people who does not think that Brexit will happen,” he said, “or if it does, it will be a watered-down version of what people are expecting.” Closer to home, Supermacs has had to deal with false compensation claims before the courts. At one point in time, McDonagh was faced with 125 live cases claiming injury on Supermacs premises, several of which were fabricated. When asked by a member of the audience if he finds it hard to trust people as a result, he gave a definitive response; “No I
still trust people. There’s always going to be that four or five percent that chance their arm, but the majority of people are goodnatured.” McDonald’s currently have kiosks which eliminate the need for staff, and when asked about this McDonagh simply said “that’s the way it’s going to be” in years to come. He explained how he goes abroad on a regular basis just to observe the changes in the hospitality industry on a worldwide scale. Obesity is another topic that was brought up, but he defended the company saying that there are options available to customers for healthier eating, the grilled chicken sandwich being cited as an example; “it’s the sauces that add calories to the burgers, and customers can request not to have sauce.” Supersubs which was established in 2014 and is now located in 16 stores nationwide including Eyre Square and Newcastle Road, give customers the option of salads, wraps and soups, which McDonagh believes counteracts the idea of fast food being unhealthy. The evening finished with a round of applause for the man who has provided a place for countless Galway students to gather after a night out. McDonagh provided pizza for the audience, proving that he is one of Ireland’s well-deserved success stories.