'You'll know in your gut if you are right or wrong'

It's just after nine on a Wednesday morning and Eimer Hannon arrives at the offices of her own company in Academy Street, Navan. From the back windows of the offices, and just the far side of the link road, the Boyne flows past, the river's chocolate brown waters moving swiftly along.

She's marginally late for the interview. She apologises - the heavy traffic coming in on the old N3 had delayed her. In truth I'm just in the door before here. I too had got caught up in the same turgid flow of vehicles.

In a normal circumstances - pre-Covid normal that is - it is easy to imagine how the Hannon Travel HQ would have been abuzz at that hour of the morning, staff members going hither and thither, phones ringing, the constant murmur of voices as arrangements were made with clients - mainly corporate clients - to bring them to and from destinations throughout the world.

Now, however, the place is as quiet as a church, desks and chairs left empty as most of the employees - those who remain with the company - work from home. Eimer is joined in the office by her colleague Vicky Snow who has been with the company almost from the start - and this year Hannon Travel marks it's 21st birthday. What a anniversary it has turned out to be.

It all started to go a little crazy last February when incessant rain caused the Boyne to rise and rise. “There is no carpet in our front reception and that's for a good reason,” explains the company's MD. “We were flooded. The water came up from under the ground so we'll have to carry out work to elevate the floor.”

It was a setback sure, but things would get better right. Well, no actually. Things were to get worse, an awful lot worse. In March while on a visit to the Hill of Tara Eimer Hannon suddenly fell ill and had to spend a few days in hospital.

As she was recuperating it became obvious that she, her company, and the world, were facing a major crisis. From her contacts in Asia, Hannon had heard about something strange called a coronavirus. By March it had spread to Europe, then Ireland.

Suddenly there was lockdowns. Suddenly the world stood still. Borders were shut down like shop-front shutters. Travelling came to a standstill. Within a few short weeks Hannon's business - which she and her colleagues had worked so hard in building up - had collapsed. The fall off in business was a like a rock rolling off a precipice. “We fell by 95 per cent,” she says, a startling fact that underlines just how badly her industry has suffered.

However before the lockdown kicked in in earnest, Eimer Hannon and her staff were closely engaged in what could be described as a patriotic act in a time of crisis. In response to a request from the Government they got involved in bringing home hundreds of people who lived in Ireland but who found themselves abroad when the pesky virus started to do its worst. As borders started to shut, one by one, these people could easily have found themselves stranded a long way from home. Locked out.

Using their contacts with Qatar Airways, Hannon Travel got working on the logistically-challenging task of in getting these people home, including, in some cases, back to Meath. As part of the operation Hannon harnessed the support of two other companies based in the Royal County - Noel Moran's eComm Merchant Solutions who set up a payment system and Stephen Mackeral's Workair who organised a communications system.

“Bringing the people back home was a way for us to earn some revenue but also help out in some way during the pandemic,” the company MD explains.

“We knew how many were stranded so we were able to use our contacts to put 60 people on this flight, 200 on that flight. We did it in blocks over two weeks. The biggest block was 200. We took people out of places from all over the world, from Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Singapore, New Zealand, Philippines, South America, North America, including Meath people. We were all working from home trying to manage this and we did.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs asked if we would become involved in repatriation flights but they don't pay for the flights, they co-ordinate it all right. If you don't have the money to travel home from abroad they will give you a loan against your PPS number and come to some arrangement as regard the payment of tax,” she explained.

As a way of saying 'thank you' the then Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney wrote a letter to the Navan woman thanking her and her staff on behalf of the Government.

“Your efforts in assisting 950 people to return to home from Australia and New Zealand at a time when flight options were reducing rapidly, including by means of our good relations with Qatar, were particularly noteworthy,” he wrote.

“Staff at several of our Missions abroad have expressed their sincere appreciation for the great support you provided throughout this very challenging time,” he added. Underneath Coveney added his uncomplicated, unvarnished signature.

ENTREPRENEUR

Eimer Hannon's folk once lived in Kilkenny but she and her parents and her siblings moved to Meath when she was 15. She says that the fact she is the eldest of six was perhaps the reason why she went into business; why she became an entrepreneur. Perhaps.

She recalls how after attending St Joseph's Mercy in Navan she did a course in Dublin and landed a job working in the USIT office in UCD. Back then she went by the name of Eimer Kiernan. She started working in the corporate travel sector and identified a niche in the market. She had built up a lot of contacts in the travel business, she knew what was involved.

She got married to Ray Hannon and they have three children. The same year as her eldest son, Ronan was born she “took the plunge” and set up her business. She was on her way. By the time she gave birth to twins Clodagh and Sinead, Hannon Travel was well established.

From the start the company was focused on arranging travel for business people. It evolved and grew until there was 26 staff employed. Then in March Covid-19 arrived with all the subtly of a wrecking ball forcefully crashing against the wall of a building.

As head of her company Eimer had the unpleasant task of telling 20 of her 26 staff that they were being made redundant. Not only that she had to do it online.

An optimist by nature she says the travel business will bounce back big time, but it will take time.

She is attracted and intrigued by the challenge of setting up a business, creating something out of nothing.

“I suppose it is always something I have found interesting, I just love it. You go with your gut, you do have to take risks while ensuring you have a little bit of padding behind you to fall back on,” she adds.

“You'll know in your gut whether your right or wrong. It does help if you have a optimistic view of life. There have been so many curve balls thrown at us over the past year but you just can't go under, you just have to keep pushing them away,” adds Hannon who won the Matheson Women Mean Business Female Entrepreneur of the Year award last year.

That fascination for setting up a viable commercial enterprise is seen in the way Hannon has become deeply involved, on a voluntary basis, in helping others who have set up their own enterprises as part of the ACORN programme.

“It's like I'm mentoring them but they are actually mentoring themselves and I'm facilitating them. They are such a good bunch of people and they act as a sounding board to each other. We have a conference call once a month.

“I tell them to believe in themselves but it is tough - and enjoy the successes. I think we don't reward ourselves enough, we don't pat ourselves on the back enough and say 'You've done a bloody good job there today.'”

More than ever, she suggests, we now need to recognise our little triumphs, to give ourselves a pat on the back.