The Irish Times — Ireland's newspaper of record — profiled BuyIreland.com co-founder John Beckett in a feature article exploring his remarkable entrepreneurial career, from building Ryanair's first website at age 16 to founding a portfolio of innovative businesses.
The article described how Beckett's company Adrenalin Systems developed the Ryanair.com website for just £20,000, while other web designers had been quoting "ridiculous" figures of £3.5 million. "Don't get me wrong, Ryanair got a bargain... We got so much publicity after it as well. I mean you couldn't pay for the publicity that we got," Beckett told The Irish Times.
Among his ventures, the article highlighted BuyIreland.com: "Yet another of Beckett's 'hare-brained schemes' that's going from strength to strength is buyireland.com, which sells 1sq ft plots of land in Roscommon as novelty gifts to Irish Americans."
The Irish Times noted a significant milestone: "The company scored a recent coup when a distiller bought up 2,000 plots to use for a St Patrick's Day promotion" — a testament to BuyIreland.com's appeal as both a personal gift and a corporate marketing tool.
Being featured in The Irish Times — a publication that has served as Ireland's paper of record since 1859 — was an important endorsement of BuyIreland.com's legitimacy and growing success within Ireland itself.
The Irish Times, February 23, 2007Original Article
