Peter Casey
TV star and Derry entrepreneur Peter Casey has spoken of his childhood in Derry, watching the events of Bloody Sunday, and running his first ‘business’ venture – selling plastic bullets.
Peter hit the headlines on Derry Daily a few weeks ago after we revealed he had bought distressed properties in Derry and leased them back to the owners.
He is due to release a book in March called: Ten Commandments of How To Make A Million.
“I grew up in the worst of the Troubles,” he says.
“I was on the Bloody Sunday march with my mother and brother and sister. I heard Bernadette Devlin say: ‘Stand your ground.’
“My father was a member of the Bogside Community Association along with John Hume, Michael Canavan and Ivan Cooper – they were a body elected to run the area during the no-go times.
“My father was the secretary. When you grow up in a political situation like that… I couldn’t get out of Derry fast enough.”
His first business venture was selling plastic bullets as souvenirs to tourists and he wanted to leave school at 16 to become a truck driver – but his mother insisted he get a third-level education. This resulted in a move to Birmingham in 1976 to study economics and philosophy.
He rose fast through the world of business, owning and losing businesses three times.
His book will be about recognising when a venture is going to work – and when it won’t.
He is also planning to run for the Dail at next year’s elections, but hasn’t decided whether to stand in Donegal (he has a home in Inishowen) or in Dublin where his wife is from.
Casey insists he couldn’t do a political deal with Sinn Fein if he is elected.
“I do not agree with their economic policies at all. I don’t think they’re very pro-business, so I wouldn’t dance with them. But I do have huge respect for what they achieved with the Peace Process,” he said.
He says he misses his mother Patsy all the time. She died two years ago of pancreatic cancer – the same illness that had claimed his father.
“I miss her all the time,” he said.
“She had a lot of children and grandchildren. I was at the Derry vs Donegal match last Sunday and I had five nephews on the team.”
He says the new book is going to be dedicated to his father Leo, who drummed one lesson into him: ‘There’s no right way to do the wrong thing.”
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