Meet the Family Behind 54 Stags Dos: Our Story, Our Business and a Lot of Chaos
If you've ever wondered who's actually behind 54 Stags Dos, we'd like to introduce ourselves properly.
We're Hannah and Kieran. We're parents, business owners, football fans (well, one of us certainly was before we met!), dog owners and, like most families, we're usually juggling about fifteen things at once.
We're not a huge corporate company sitting behind desks telling other people what to do. We're a family who had an idea, took a leap of faith and decided to give it a go. We built it the old-fashioned way: plenty of hard work, a fair few mistakes and, somehow, plenty of laughs along the way.
And here we are. Grab a brew, and we'll tell you how it happened.
It All Started in 2011
Kieran and I met in 2011, and life moved pretty quickly after that. Our first daughter arrived in 2012, followed by our second daughter in 2013.
Before we knew it, we were building a family, figuring life out together and learning that things rarely go exactly to plan.
We've had our ups and downs, like everyone does. COVID-19 was certainly an experience we won't forget in a hurry. It tested people, businesses and families in ways none of us could have predicted.
If those tough spells taught us one thing, it's this: whatever happens, people deserve respect, care and understanding. We try to carry that into everything we do, from family life to how we look after our customers and our team.
But through the good times and the difficult ones, we've kept going, learned a lot and continued building something we're proud of.
One Evening, One Idea and a Two-Footed Leap
The idea behind our business started with Kieran one evening.
It wasn't the result of years of boardroom meetings, complicated business plans or sitting around waiting for the perfect moment. It was an idea, a conversation and a decision to give it a go.
We jumped two-footed in.
Looking back, perhaps we didn't spend quite enough time thinking about everything that would come with running a business! But sometimes you have to take that leap, work things out as you go and put everything you've got into making it work.
That's what we did, and honestly, we're still doing it. There's no secret formula, just hard work, treating people properly and being willing to muck in when things need doing.
54 Stags Dos grew from that original idea into a business built around bringing people together and helping them create experiences worth remembering.
We're proud of how far we've come, though we'd never blow our own trumpet about it. We also know there's always more to learn and plenty more hard work ahead.
Football Runs in Kieran's Blood. Hannah Took a Little Convincing!
Football has always been a huge part of Kieran's life. His dad is Dermot Gallagher, a former Premier League referee, so it's fair to say football has been part of the family conversation for a long time.
Kieran is a massive Liverpool supporter.
Me? Before meeting Kieran, football really wasn't my thing. I certainly wouldn't have described myself as a football fan!
Somewhere along the way, though, I found my own team: Galatasaray.
So now we've got a Liverpool fan and a Galatasaray fan under the same roof. You can imagine how peaceful football conversations are in our house!
This is also where Kieran's quick wit comes in handy. He's never short of a one-liner, and he regularly leaves me in stitches, even when I'm doing my very best not to laugh. Our house is loud, daft and usually good fun, and that same cheeky energy is very much part of how we deal with our customers.
Football is an important part of our business, but what matters most to us is helping people enjoy their own experiences, whether they're lifelong supporters, occasional matchgoers or simply looking for a brilliant weekend away with friends. If that sounds like you, our Football Hub is a good place to start.
Two Daughters, Two Very Different Interests
You might expect our daughters to be football mad, given the family background.
You'd be wrong!
One of our girls is a figure skater. The other would much rather settle down with a history book than get involved in just about any sport.
We've learned that you can't force your interests onto your children. They have their own personalities, passions and ideas about what makes a good day out.
And that's exactly how it should be. People deserve to be taken seriously for who they are, whether that's a teenager with a history book or a group of mates planning the perfect stag weekend.
Our family is a reminder that everybody enjoys different things. Whether your perfect weekend involves football, skating, history, a big night out or simply spending time together, there's no single recipe for having a great experience.
Meet the Dogs: Dottie and Peggy!
Of course, no family introduction would be complete without mentioning the dogs.
First, there's Dottie, our Cocker Spaniel, who is deaf. She has her own way of navigating the world, and we've learned to meet her on her terms. There's something in that, we reckon: meet people where they are, and everything tends to work out better.
Then there's Peggy, our Cockapoo. She's a completely different character: a typical Cockapoo who always wants to be busy and involved in absolutely everything.
Two very different dogs, two very different personalities and, no doubt, plenty of opportunities for confusion!
They are part of the family, and life wouldn't quite be the same without them.
Our Niece: Another Little Member of the Team
Our niece deserves a mention, too. She's practically another member of our household.
She's a typical toddler, keeping everyone on their toes and bringing her own special kind of chaos into family life.
When she's old enough, we'd love for her to become a bigger part of 54 Stags Dos in her own way.
For now, she's busy being a toddler, and we're happy to let her do exactly that!
Jungle Falls: We Don't Just Run It. We Get Stuck In.
One thing we really want people to understand about us is that we believe in leading by example.
We run Jungle Falls as a family, and we see our staff as part of that wider family, too.
You won't find us believing that certain jobs are beneath us or that we should be sitting back while everyone else does the hard work.
If there's grass to cut, we'll cut it. If there's weeding to do, we'll get the weeds out. If something needs cleaning, we'll pick up the equipment and get on with it.
You might even spot us getting our hands dirty while you're visiting.
We would never expect a member of our team to do a job that we wouldn't be prepared to do ourselves. We treat our team the way we'd want to be treated if the boots were on the other feet. It's not a slogan we had printed anywhere; it's simply how we believe a business should be run.
We're proud of Jungle Falls, proud of our team and proud of the work that goes into making the experience enjoyable for the people who visit us.
Bobby: There From the Beginning
And to be clear, because people do ask: Bobby is not one of the dogs. He's Kieran's best friend, a member of staff and, as far as we're concerned, family.
He gets his own section because, quite simply, we couldn't do any of this without him.
He's been with us from the very start, through the good ideas, the questionable ones and everything in between.
When you're building something from an idea, having someone alongside you who believes in what you're doing and sticks with you through the ups and downs makes an enormous difference.
Bobby has been part of our journey from day one, through the hard work, the challenges and the growth, and we want that to be recognised.
He's not just someone who came along after everything was established. He's part of the story of how we got here — best friend, member of staff, and one of the reasons we're still standing.
He's also a Juventus fan. If you ever see Bobby without a Juventus jacket, top or pair of trackies, it'll be a miracle. The loyalty is impressive; the wardrobe is very much committed.
He even tried to turn his wedding into a Juventus wedding, until his wife Emily put her foot down. Some things, Bob, are bigger than football! Kieran and I were so proud to be part of their big day — a lovely memory with someone who's been such a big part of our own story.
Thank you, Bob. We mean that.
We're a Normal Family Building Something We're Proud Of
When people book with us or visit Jungle Falls, we want them to know there's a real family behind it all.
We have busy days, difficult days, brilliant days and days when everything seems to happen at once.
We have different football loyalties, children with their own interests, two dogs called Dottie and Peggy and a business that keeps us on our toes.
If you want to know how we try to run things, it boils down to this: we treat people how we want to be treated. That goes for our customers, our team, our suppliers and, in theory, each other. Nobody's perfect, and Kieran's banter has been known to test that particular rule, but the intention is always there.
We're humble, down-to-earth people who built this through hard work rather than shortcuts, and we'd rather be decent to deal with than impressive to look at.
We won't pretend to be something we're not. We don't have all the answers, and we certainly haven't had a perfectly straightforward journey.
But we've built our business from an idea, worked through challenges together and kept moving forward.
And we're not planning to change who we are just because the business grows. No fancy corporate act, no suits in meetings for the sake of it, and no losing sight of the family that started all of this around a kitchen table.
Whether you're enquiring about a stag weekend, planning a football trip, organising a group experience or visiting Jungle Falls, we hope you feel that you're dealing with real people who care about what they do.
Because that's exactly who we are.
A Big Thank You From Our Family
To everyone who has supported us, worked alongside us, booked with us, encouraged us or helped us along the way: thank you.
To our family and our team — Bobby very much included, because he's one of us — thank you for being part of the journey.
We're proud of what we've built, excited about what's still to come and grateful that we get to do it together.
We're Hannah and Kieran, and this is our story.
We're just a normal family trying to build something special. And if you see us cutting the grass, pulling weeds or cleaning up at Jungle Falls, come and say hello. We'll probably be in the middle of something, but that's nothing new!
Welcome to our world.
All tickets, accommodation and activities are subject to availability and confirmation in your written quote. We don't arrange flights.