DJ Carey and Sarah Newman
DJ CAREY
DJ CAREY is one of the all-time greats of hurling. He won five all-Ireland medals, 10 Leinster titles and nine All-Star awards in his career which ended with defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final in 2005 against Galway. He was revered for his virtuosity with a hurley in a county with so much talent.
In 1998 he decided to quit prematurely but relented when 25,000 people wrote to him begging him to change his mind.
In 2003 he was the subject of tabloid speculation about the breakdown of his marriage. The coverage, which happened before the All-Ireland final that year, marked the first media intrusion into the private life of a big-name GAA player.
He was renowned for his modesty on the pitch as much as his ability. He landed lucrative contracts with McCoy crisps and Puma among others. He took a keen interest in business and set up his first cleaning company at the age of just 23. Carey’s companies thrived during the boom but have floundered as the economy hit the rocks. The €9.5 million judgment against him is a major blow for a player who accomplished so much on and off the pitch.
SARAH NEWMAN
SHE FIRST came to prominence as the only female dragon in the first RTÉ series of Dragon's Denin 2009. She made no investments in the first series and only one in the second, before being replaced this year by magazine publisher Norah Casey.
Born in Colchester, Newman confounded the stereotypes of the Essex blonde when she became an early beneficiary of the dotcom boom in the early 2000s.
She spotted a niche in the market for buying up hotel rooms in bulk and selling them on at a premium to airlines.
She came to Ireland in 1995 to marry her first husband and set up needahotel.com.
The company boomed when Ryanair became involved and she was able to sell hotel rooms to the airline’s passengers as well as to travellers with Aer Lingus and BMIBaby. In 2006 she sold her business to multinational Cendant for a reported €60 million, giving each of the 75 staff a cheque for several thousand euros each.
In 2003 she met DJ Carey and the dynamic couple shared an interest in business.
The couple have homes in Mount Juliet, Co Kilkenny and in Monkstown, Co Dublin.