My Job: Frankie Sheahan’s journey from Munster rugby to hosting OprahHow Sheahan landed Oprah Winfrey for her historic first-ever visit to Ireland’s Pendulum Summit. Tue, 01 Sep, 2026 – 08:02John Daly
Name: Frankie Sheahan
Occupation: Co-founder of Front Row Speakers and Pendulum Summit
Background: Sourcing top speakers in leadership, motivation and entertainment, in addition to organising major business and self-empowerment events.
Frankie Sheahan is no stranger to arenas, having played rugby for Munster from 1996 to 2009, and won 29 caps for Ireland.
The former rugby stalwart, the founder of the Pendulum Summit motivational symposia, now ‘plays’ at a different type of stadium, the 3Arena, to which he will welcome one of the world’s most recognisable women, Oprah Winfrey, on her first-ever visit to Ireland next month.
The Pendulum Summit’s autumn event, Up Close With Oprah Winfrey, is billed as “a landmark, one-night-only experience, offering audiences the chance to experience an intimate conversation” and it marks the realisation of a long-held ambition for Frankie and his business partner and wife, Norma.
Frankie established Pendulum in 2013, following his retirement from professional rugby, and the company has since brought a number of international figures to Ireland, including Chris Hadfield, Boris Johnson, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Richard Branson.
Read More
‘I am an Irish badass’: Mick Clifford soaks up the optimism at the Pendulum Summit
How Cork couple Norma Murphy and Frankie Sheahan finally brought Oprah Winfrey to Dublin
Frankie says: “Right from the beginning, we have been targeting the biggest names in the world, and Oprah is certainly the holy grail, in that sense. We had been interested in getting her to come to Ireland, a country she’s never visited, and, eventually, we were successful in that effort.”
It did help that Pendulum had previously invited Oprah’s partner, Stedman Graham, to Dublin some years ago.
“We have been inviting Oprah for a number of years, and while she was interested, it usually came down to finding the right space in her schedule. Stedman became a good friend of ours, and certainly that did help in eventually getting her to agree,” Frankie says.
As the first black female billionaire, Oprah has become one of the entertainment world’s most recognisable names, famous across a number of sectors, including as author, television personality, actor, producer, and investor.
“She is a woman with an incredible story to tell, someone who came from very humble beginnings in Mississippi and grew up in a very traumatised childhood. She is the first self-made black billionaire, currently worth $3.4bn (€3bn), set against all the enormous challenges she faced along the way,” he says.
“She is an icon, culturally and financially, and we will be trying to get her to share all those nuggets of wisdom. It is going to be fascinating to hear her talk about all those people she has interviewed on her show over the years and the many global personalities involved, not least the famous sit-down with Megan Markle and Prince Harry, both of whom are back in the news again on this side of the Atlantic.”
The Pendulum Summit arose out of the Front Row Speakers agency, which provided speakers on leadership for Irish companies.
It was a business perfectly timed for a country slowly emerging from the financial meltdown and that wanted to hear the secrets and experiences of top-performing individuals across global corporate leadership.
Their first event, in January 2014, had astronaut Chris Hadfield address an audience of 600 people about his life and career. Next month, Oprah will take the stage at the 3Arena, to a potential audience of 9,000.
Pendulum was set up out of necessity, because Frankie, like many others, had found himself grappling with the property crash and an eventual bankruptcy.
“We had five years of litigation, an amount of desperately wasted time drafting letters and drafting responses, putting proposals together,” he said of the period.
“I look back at many lost years of negative energy, with nothing productive coming from it.”
While his property portfolio was an estimated €3m, his negative equity was €500,000. “We had proposals on the table to pay every penny back over time, but we just couldn’t pay it in one lump sum. It was a very unreasonable ask, but that was the ask. It absolutely damaged my pride, but we had no option but to declare bankruptcy.”
Frankie’s lessons learned earlier on the rugby pitch, when wearing the Munster and Ireland jerseys, ignited a spirit of survival and rebirth from the ashes of commercial disaster: “When you’re going through hell, there’s only one thing to do: You just keep going. It was a time to put the shoulder to the wheel, work hard, and find a way back. We were still relatively young and healthy, and we were determined to get through it.”
While Pendulum in 2026 is a well-oiled machine capable of getting the attention of any global personality, the distinct Irish welcome is an added draw. “Coming to Ireland is, in itself, part of the attraction. And it was something I had a fair degree of experience of during my time with Fáilte Ireland.”
In 2011, he was appointed to the board of Fáilte Ireland by the then tourism minister Leo Varadkar. After the success of events like golfing’s Solheim Cup and the Volvo Ocean race, his appointment marked an increased focus on the potential benefits of sports tourism.
“More than ever, Ireland is now seen as a secure place to come, and our temperate climate has become part of that attraction,” Frankie says.
“So, when we are making a pitch to potential individuals for our Pendulum Summit events, I am still, in a way, wearing that same hat from those Failte Ireland days.”
Looking to the future, Pendulum will continue to attract global names, keen to share their insights on business and life to an audience clearly interested enough to fill seats in vast auditoriums like the 3Arena.
Frankie says: “These people are excellent communicators, very authentic, and grounded. What you see is what you get.
“They all have interesting stories to tell, with many of them, like Oprah, having overcome immense challenges to get where they are today. People are always interested to hear those kinds of stories.”
With his own memories of financial hardship well in the rearview mirror, Frankie still makes the ‘10-yard rule’ part of his mental readiness for any career challenges he may yet encounter. “When Tiger Woods hit a bad golf shot, he allowed himself to give out to himself only while he walked the next 10 yards.
“After that, he cleared his head, lined up his next shot, and got on with it. It’s a life lesson I can relate to.”
Read More
Frankie Sheahan: Gaillimh set the bar for the dressing room speech
x
185th Anniversary Offer
Six months of digital access for €18.50
Already a subscriber? Sign in
No obligation. Ts&Cs apply.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
NEWSLETTERS
NOTIFICATIONS
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
More in this section
Manufacturing expands in August on the back of strong new orders
Ireland is now building homes at the fastest pace in Europe
FFI calls for review of fuel excise duties before changes are made to carbon tax