Mattress Mick: ‘I’m a firm believer in starting again. I had to feed my family. I had to look after them’
In 2012, Michael Flynn created the persona of Mattress Mick to rescue his failing bedding brand – and a cultural icon was born. Here, the Dublin entrepreneur talks about losing his beloved wife, adopting a daughter from Russia and being photographed at last year’s Coolock protests
Mattress Mick. Photos: Ruth Medjber
Mattress Mick smiles, his trademark mane of hair – now greying, in comparison to the luscious locks on display in the promo photos that made him a cult figure – bouncing as he shakes his head.
I have just asked him whether he ever gets tired of looking at himself, and he scoffs at the very idea. There he is, on posters, cars and vans lining the streets to his Dublin store, adding garish flashes of colour to the grey industrial estate as they point the way to mattress bargains. Upstairs in the store’s showroom, an army of cardboard cut-outs loom ominously over us.
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