Inside the Press Up group founders’ rise and fall

Through their Press Up, Dean Hotel and Oakmount vehicles, Paddy McKillen Jr and Matt Ryan cut a swathe through the hospitality and property development sectors over the past decade. With lightning speed, the former classmates built the largest hospitality group in Dublin, a substantial new hotel chain from scratch, and made a number of high-profile forays into the residential and commercial property markets.

Nobody caught the zeitgeist of post-bust Ireland quite like the two Dubliners.

Yet now the empire is rapidly dwindling. The Dean Hotel Group was sold in February to the London-headquartered Lifestyle Hospitality Capital, backed by funds advised by Elliott Investment Management, in a transaction that valued the chain at a reported €355 million. The McKillen family, Ryan and associates retain a