Cé hé Darragh Price?

Ask me anything! Darragh in front of a frothy pint in a Prague 6 pub

Tell us a bit about yourself, Darragh

I'm from Portmarnock, North County Dublin. If you're familiar with Malahide, or Howth, it's in between. I grew up there and stayed there until 2020, and that's when I came to the Czech Republic. I was following closely the COVID pandemic and watching various borders across Europe close. My wife Martina and I and our son (who was not even two at the time) were living in Portmarnock, on Station Road. And then on March 12th, 2020, Leo Varadkar [the then Taoiseach of Ireland] announced that all the schools across the country had to close because of COVID. And being in the education business (I run an English-language school), that meant I had to jump straight into action and close our school immediately. That evening, I came home, sat down with Martina and asked, if either of us gets sick over the next six months or so, which country do we want to be in?” And we both said the Czech Republic. So, I pushed her and our son onto a plane the next day,  I wrapped things up in Dublin over the next two days, and then I followed them out to Prague that weekend. The day after I arrived the borders closed, and we were locked down and we've been here ever since.

Timing Ireland - Darragh with his dad Brian Price (former course director of Dublin Marathon and founder of the Dublin Women's Mini-Marathon) and his brother Colm Price

Tell us a little about the school you run

Ten years ago. I made the decision to change direction and go into private education, in English language. I took over a language school in Harcourt Street in Dublin City. We teach adult students from all over the world, they come from all parts of Europe, Turkey, China, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and many, many more countries. But I'm the type of person who can't just do one thing. So I have to have multiple things on the go. I'm very much involved in our family business as well, that's where I started. It's a sports timing business. It's all of the technical stuff in the background when you're looking at a sports event, that people sometimes don’t think about. But it's critical to the functioning of the event. We supply everything from stadium scoreboards to big screens to photo finish equipment. It's brought us all over Ireland and the world in various different sports events and competitions. I'm still very much involved in that part. The company is called Timing Ireland („founded 1982 and still counting”). It has sent us all over the world from Malaysia with cycle races to Qatar with falcon racing and to Ireland for sheep shearing competitions. So it's a colourful industry, but the older you get, the less travel you want to do.

And how did you become involved with CIBCA?

Back in 2018, Martina was pregnant with our first child and I was visiting often, and while I was over here, I realized, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in this country over the next while, so I might as well see what's happening in the Irish community here. And so I Googled, found CIBCA, fired off an email, got a reply back from Paul Dubsky and joined immediately. We didn't really get around to going to any of the CIBCA events until 2020, when we attended the Barbecue in Letna. We started to get to know the CIBCA crew and that was the beginning of the involvement and then as time goes by, you get roped in and you have ideas…

Man of the Hour - Darragh marsalling crowds via megaphone during the 2025 St. Patrick's Day Parade. Pictured beside him is Tereza Macoszek Jindrová, fellow-member of the CIBCA Parade Committee

And you had a specific idea, right?

It was already November 2023, and CIBCA had its new Committee formed, and I was absolutely happy to come to meet them, and throw out lots of ideas - one of the ideas was the St. Patrick's Day Parade. This had stuck in my mind for a long time because when we moved to Prague first, we saw that there was really nothing happening around St. Patrick's Day. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade back home was always the highlight of the year, growing up in Ireland - to go to see the parade or make decorations in school and I felt sad that our kids living in Prague won’t get to experience that important cultural event, unless we do something ourselves. Everyone has been very supportive of the idea of having the Parade, especially the locals.

So in the first edition of the Parade in 2024, we started at the top of Wenceslas Square and we got 100 or so people there on the day and as we marched down it looked more like a protest than a parade. But as we walked and continued to weave our way through the streets, people started joining, and by the time we got to Old Town Square, the Easter Stage was in place, and it looked like the Irish took over the square. It is really an exceptional memory that I won't forget. So when planning for 2025 came around, we wanted to make it a more official event, get the proper permissions, which we did, and I think we got a thousand people at the 2025 Parade. And 2026 is going to break all the records!

Anything you'd like to share with our readers about the 2026 Parade?

It's going to be bigger, we're going to need more megaphones. And one little part of that whole day, which I'm really proud about, is the kids Céilí and Craft Workshop that we do in Duplex from 12 noon to 1:30 and that's a really fun event and the interest in that is just crazy. So it's going to be big and it's going to be memorable. And happy for everyone, I think. We have sponsors on board this year for the first time, and that means we can really think big. But you'll have to wait to see.

Tell us about Kids GAA in Prague.

Prague Kids GAA was a concept created by Clive Allen and myself in early 2024 as a spin off from an RTE children's programme filmed in Prague in Dec 2023. It is a growing Czech Irish sports culture club for Czech and Irish meeting every two weeks. We train the kids to play Hurling, Gaelic football with more sports to come in 2026. It is open to all kids, and training is delivered through English. We cater for kids aged 4-12.

Darragh [second from right] with the Prague Kids GAA coaches - from left Clive Allen, Brian Keogh, Samo Ferenčík and Ondřej Macoszek

Looking into the future then, do you see yourself being a long time in Prague? 

When we moved here first, one of our kids had a health challenge that required time to be resolved, and we were 18 months resolving that challenge, and it was 100% successful - because of the Czech healthcare system. By then the rental price of our original Dublin apartment had dramatically increased, so we were very much priced out of going back to Ireland. And after 18 months living in Czech Republic, we spread ourselves around and we got to know people and we integrated and we also got to see the pros by that time, the many pros that Prague and Czech Republic have to offer. Not that I'm bashing Ireland, everywhere has pros and cons and there just happens to be more pros for us as a family at that stage in our life in Czech Republic. We decided, right, let's make this work out here. It's going to be harder, but we're going to be able to provide better because it's more affordable than being in Dublin and we don't have any regrets. It's the best decision, the best quick decision we've ever made to jump on the plane.