#404: Dennis McGettigan, From a House of Ten in Dublin to Dubai's Biggest Pub Empire

Dennis McGettigan is the founder and CEO of McGettigan's, one of the most  recognisable  hospitality brands in the UAE. But the story behind it starts in Dublin, in a house with ten children  run  "like a business", where the kitchen was locked at 7pm and every kid got jobs and five pounds a week. His father started as a dishwasher on the QE1 at nineteen, bought his first pub for eight thousand pounds in 1964, and built a hotel empire across Ireland, the UK and eventually Dubai.  

This conversation is about grit. The 2008 crash that left him with zero revenue and hundreds of millions in exposure. The international expansion he opened in three weeks and closed during Covid. And the personal side too: his wife Nicola's cancer and recovery, told through a racehorse and a moment at Royal Ascot that still moves him.  

This is one of the most grounded, human conversations about what it  actually takes  to build something that lasts.  

 

Timestamps:  

0:00 Growing up one of ten in Dublin, a house run like a business, the kitchen locked at 7pm  

6:30 His father: from dishwasher on the QE1 to a pub empire across Ireland and the UK  

12:15 Why he would hire work ethic over a university degree every single time  

14:00 The Burlington Hotel, the 2008 crash, and becoming  a fireman  putting out fires  

18:30 How McGettigan's was born from one simple idea: a bar he wanted to go to himself  

36:45 Where he got it wrong: New York, Singapore,