By Gordon Deegan
Agnes Browne continues to roll in the profits for Brendan O’Carroll as profits at O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown Boys firm last year totalled €673,250.
That is according to new accounts just filed by O’Carroll’s main firm, Mrs Browns Boys Ltd which show that O’Carroll and his wife, Jennifer Gibney pocketed €276,899 in dividends from the company last year.
This brings to €3.1m the two have received in dividends from Mrs Browns Boys Ltd between 2015 and 2017.
On top of the Mrs Browns Boys dividends, the two shared a dividend of €1.3m from a connected firm, Boc-Pix Ltd last year.
This brings to €4.4m the two have received in dividends from the two firms over the past three years.
The new accounts for Mrs Browns Boys show that the company’s accumulated profits at the end of last December totalled €417,568.
The bumper year for the company resulted in the firm’s cash pile rising from €318,152 to €674,058.
The €673,250 profit at Mrs Browns Boys follow losses at the company of €773,486 in 2016.
Mrs Browns Boys Ltd owns a number of subsidiaries - BOC Productions Ltd; Pennyrush Films Ltd and Mrs Browns Boys Australia Pty Ltd
The healthy dividend income over the past number of years allows O’Carroll spend some of his year in Florida between his busy touring and performance schedule in Ireland, Great Britain and Australia.
The Dubliner’s career is continuing on an upward trajectory with his new BBC One quiz show ‘For Facts Sake’ debuting earlier this month.
O’Carroll generates much of his income from touring and has completed a 26 date Mrs Brown’s Boys tour of Australia and New Zealand
The tour would have generated millions for O’Carroll and Gibney - who plays Cathy Brown in the hit show - through their Australian firm, Mrs Brown’s Boys Australia Pty Ltd.
This is based on Pollstar figures for the 3Arena in Dublin last year where it shows that Mrs Brown’s Boys generated €1.27m at the box office after entertaining 31,069 over five performances between December 14th and December 17 last.
The Dublin comedian donated the proceeds of one of the performances to a number of charities including Peter McVerry Trust, Childline and the St Vincent de Paul.
The Childline annual report for 2017 show that the charity received €44,548 from the performance with the annual report stating: “We're hugely indebted to Brendan O'Carroll, Jenny Gibney and all the crew at Mrs. Brown's Boys for their generous support to our services to children.”
The appeal of Mrs Brown’s Boys shows no sign of abating with O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special the most watched TV programme in Ireland for Christmas 2017.
This followed 695,000 watching the show on RTE on Christmas Day and this is added to 6.8m who watched the show on BBC1.
The show’s global success has sparked a minor industry in itself.
Fans of the show can now purchase Mrs Brown’s Boys calendars, greeting cards, t-shirts, hats, mugs, t-pots, towels, key chains, magnets, badges, tea pots, tea towels and even wooden spoons.
The success is not bad for someone who left school at the age of 12 and then tried a number of occupations of milkman, painter-decorator and pirate radio disc-jockey before becoming an entertainer.
O’Carroll’s role as entertainer involves him being an actor/director, script writer, playwright as well as a stand-up comic.
