{"id":872206,"date":"2026-08-29T03:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872206\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:20:11","slug":"we-were-told-we-couldnt-do-it-meet-the-cork-couple-behind-oprah-coming-to-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872206\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We were told we couldn\u2019t do it’: Meet the Cork couple behind Oprah coming to Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe were meant to be flying out to Pisa tomorrow to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, but we postponed it,\u201d Norma Murphy, one half of the globally successful Pendulum Summit tells me.<\/p>\n

Murphy and husband Frankie Sheahan, the former Munster and Irish hooker, are just weeks away from a coup that\u2019s been 12 years in the making; they\u2019re bringing global icon Opray Winfrey to the 3Arena in Dublin for one night only.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking to book Oprah since we started the business in 2013,\u201d says Murphy. \u201cShe\u2019s been on the vision board for over a decade; she\u2019s the Holy Grail.\u201d<\/p>\n

That weekend away will have to wait until after Oprah, she laughs. \u201cWe had to face it, neither of us would have been able to switch off; we\u2019d have been sitting there with our heads stuck in our laptops or making calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can celebrate next year instead,\u201d suggests Sheahan with a grin. Murphy\u2019s look indicates the re-scheduled weekend will be happening sooner than that.<\/p>\n

So just how do you get to a point where Oprah accepts an invitation from you to come speak in Dublin, in what will be her first visit to Ireland?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really nobody globally that we can\u2019t contact,\u201d says Sheahan.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t bravado or arrogance talking, it\u2019s a result of years and years of sourcing premium speakers, first for Front Row Speakers (the couple\u2019s first business) and then for Pendulum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re well known on the speaker circuit. And once you\u2019re on that circuit you just have those connections, and if you don\u2019t have the direct connection, you know how to get it,\u201d explains the former rugby international.<\/p>\n

Sheahan and Murphy may also have had an ally in making the Oprah event happen. Stedman Graham, Oprah\u2019s long-term romantic partner, spoke at a Pendulum Summit in Dublin in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a brilliant speaker in identity leadership. He\u2019s a smashing man, a real gentleman, and like nearly every other speaker who comes over to us in Ireland, he was blown away by the Irish welcome we offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speakers might have some idea what an Irish welcome is, but Sheahan says they \u201chave no idea they\u2019ll be meeting my brother, or my daughter, or that Norma\u2019s parents will be bringing them up to the green room\u201d. It\u2019s that familiarity and warmth that speakers rave about, according to the couple.<\/p>\n

\"FrankieFrankie Sheahan and Norma Murphy: Oprah is ‘the holy grail’. Picture Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

After Graham\u2019s visit to Dublin, Murphy says he told her, \u201cOprah would love this\u201d. By that stage, the couple were \u201creally on it\u201d. \u201cWe were asking him to have a word with her, to see if she\u2019d like to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then, three years ago, came the breakthrough \u2014 a date opened up in Oprah\u2019s schedule in September 2026. It was all systems go, until the couple hit a Westlife-shaped roadblock.<\/p>\n

The boyband had the 3Arena booked for most of September, including Oprah\u2019s only free date. \u201cWe were told we couldn\u2019t do it,\u201d recalls Sheahan.<\/p>\n

But then a solution came in the surprising form of Westlife member Nicky Byrne, a close contact of Sheahan and Murphy. \u201cHe said to us \u2018hold on a second, we\u2019re not playing every night, let\u2019s see what we can do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byrne went away and \u201cunravelled\u201d the dates and managed to free up the day, Sheahan explains.<\/p>\n

The Up Close with Oprah Winfrey event will happen in the middle of the Westlife series of gigs. \u201cWe\u2019re going to use the Westlife set up, so we\u2019ll have access to their big screens, which will be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy, a long-time fan of Oprah, is looking forward to meeting the talk show host. \u201cI\u2019ll be nervous at first; I\u2019m definitely an introvert, but actually, once I get talking to her on my own I\u2019ll be totally fine, although I\u2019ll probably be crying in the first three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OprahOprah Winfrey was named by Forbes as the number one greatest living selfmade American. Picture: Chris Pizzello<\/p>\n

Sheahan, on the other hand, will be all business. \u201cI don\u2019t really get starstruck like that. That doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t respect her unbelievably. She\u2019s an absolute business tycoon. She was recently named by Forbes as the number one greatest living selfmade American. But, you know, I\u2019m lucky enough now, I\u2019ve met all types of different people. So I\u2019ll welcome her and all that. And then it\u2019s down to business,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

The Cork couple, the picture of confidence and success when I meet them in the Montenotte Hotel in Cork, are not exactly opposites, but they do have different approaches. Murphy, a self-confessed introvert, is thoughtful with a focus on mental wellbeing and self-care, while Sheahan is undoubtedly an extrovert with a sharp business sense and those relationship-building skills that are so important in the business they\u2019re in.<\/p>\n

When they first started working together, Murphy says they were both trying to do everything. It was a challenging time. When the kids were small, she recalls it being a bit frantic. \u201cWe\u2019d be putting the babies to bed and then the laptops would come out again for the rest of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowadays they both know what their strengths are and they focus on those. \u201cFrankie\u2019s obviously great at the business side and sales and partnerships and all that, and with my background of PR and event management, I naturally focus on that side of things and marketing and the production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy also has a keen interest in holistic health, wellbeing and personal development. She loves hearing the speakers they book in those areas, as well as work-life balance, family, psychology and neuroscience.<\/p>\n

With a thriving global business and five kids ranging in age from 19 down to 11, work-life balance may be hard to come by in the Sheahan household. \u201cWe have two boys aged 19 and 18, then a girl aged 16 and the twins, a boy and girl, aged 11,\u201d Sheahan tells me. \u201cWe had Leaving Cert and Junior Cert this year so it\u2019s been a busy time.\u201d <\/p>\n

They joke that Pendulum is like their sixth child, and I suspect they\u2019re probably only half joking. One advantage of running a successful business and leadership company, with expert speakers on topics from communications and ID management to the power of the consciousness and relaxation techniques, is you acquire a lot of knowledge you can apply to your own life. Murphy and Sheahan have been soaking up insights and tips for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Murphy says the big takeaway for her is that all this wisdom only matters if you practice it daily. \u201cLast thing at night, I try to separate myself from all the angst and the frazzle in my head and get myself back to source. Then I\u2019ll try to go to sleep with a bit of meditation and hopefully wake up the next morning and go again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is really hard,\u201d says Sheahan. \u201cI think once you accept that, every day after can be a great day.\u201d One thing the former Munster hooker says is a big thing for him, and one he hasn\u2019t quite conquered yet, is patience. \u201cI think though that you have a better chance of being more patient if you\u2019re well in yourself. I think you have to be a bit selfish, because you have to be well yourself or else you can\u2019t look after anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

To choose the best speakers for Pendulum Summit, the couple lean into their own individual interests for a rounded approach. That\u2019s why the roster of speakers is so diverse \u2014 from Bren\u00e9 Brown to Steve Wozniaki, Tony Robbins to Bear Grylls and Deepak Chopra to Wim Hoff.<\/p>\n

When they brought Chopra, the couple said they weren\u2019t sure if attendees were ready for him. Likewise with Wim Hoff. But the duo believes in their ability to pick the best speakers, even if the speakers might feel a little out of left field for the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go out there to break the mould really. We\u2019re trying to get ahead of the curve and choose speakers that make our members think and push the boundaries a little,\u201d says Sheahan.<\/p>\n

After spending an hour with them, it\u2019s clear that they\u2019re passionate about what they do. And now as they prepare to host Oprah Winfrey, I ask them if Oprah is the Holy Grail, who next? \u201cWe want some with huge impact, someone who hasn\u2019t been here before. For us, it\u2019s all about showing Ireland off. I know I retired a long time ago, but I\u2019m still very much wearing the green jersey with this business. It\u2019s all about flying the flag for Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n

Up Close with Oprah Winfrey will take place in 3Arena Dublin on September 14. Tickets from upclosewith.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were meant to be flying out to Pisa tomorrow to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, but we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,42666,427],"class_list":["post-872206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-this-much-i-know-column-shape-i","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}