and Poland to curry favour. He was always explaining the way that economics worked and it sounded really interesting.” Once on campus, however, Barrett found that – though he did a dual degree – in the end he was more interested in law. He was also pragmatically influenced by the campus lay out: Economics students had lectures at the Westland Row end and studied in the Lecky Library, whereas law students had Front Square and the Berkeley. As a result, economics students tended to come in through the Lincoln Gate and stay around that end, whereas law students were centrally placed.” This shows acute sensitivity to his physical environment, something he would go on to make a career of. In fact, while still a student, he was already buying and selling houses. He would see something and know it wasn’t priced right and that it could be done up, or obtain planning permission for more value. He makes light of this “small scale stuff” but there aren’t many undergraduates, then or now, dabbling in real estate. His ability to stay ahead of the curve and spot opportunity stood to him after he graduated in 1974. He went to King’s Inns and worked for a few years as a barrister; two revealing stories suggest why he moved on: In 1979, an oil tanker, Betelgeuse, blew up in Bantry Bay, killing most of the crew and causing huge economic damage. It was a complicated legal case, involving a French oil company and German insurance company. A girl, who came to the bar with me, had studied modern languages at Trinity, and she was hired by both the French and Germans to explain Irish legal procedures to them in their own languages. She was earning one of the highest salaries at the bar for what was essentially not a legal task. I figured languages were useful!” Also: “I kept getting clients whom I felt, let’s say, they wouldn’t be coming to see me if they knew what they were doing… so I figured property development couldn’t be that difficult.” As a result, he left the bar to partner with a schoolfriend, Johnny Ronan, in a property development company which became Treasury Holdings, and he started learning languages, getting qualifications in French and Spanish from Nice and Barcelona. This stood to him when Treasury Holdings diversified its portfolio outside Ireland to UK, Spain, Sweden, Germany and Russia, and in 2006, when he relocated to Shanghai and started learning Mandarin. I was initially invited to Shanghai to help build a racecourse as part of the Chinese government’s plan to make Shanghai into a leading modern global city. This gave me entry into China where I set up a joint venture company with the Shanghai government which expanded into other joint ventures with other partners.” His business interests in Asia now include several tech companies as well as property portfolios. Shanghai is now considered to be one of the most glamorous cities in the world and the Chinese economy will be the largest absolute economy in the world within three or four years. He thinks Ireland has been: slow off the mark in relation to China and is missing out. Everywhere you go in the world, you find Irish people, but we’re not in China to the extent we should be.” Read more.
Download PDF file