Subscribe Now
Annual 2020
Affairs of the Nation
WOULFE IN JUDGE’S CLOTHING
HAVING BEEN transformed from predator into the hunted one vis-à-vis Supreme Court ‘colleague’ Séamus Woulfe, Chief Justice Frank Clarke may now feel he laid too much stress on a legal... Read more »
FRANK CLARKE’S APPOINTMENT
ANOTHER aspect of Séamus Woulfe’s term as attorney general that has recently been seized on is the secretive manner of his appointment to the Supreme Court and the fact that... Read more »
FARRELL’S FALL
GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend, security specialist Jim Farrell, has just been adjudged a bankrupt in relation to a row over his former company. Business Mobile Security Services (BMSS) may have a... Read more »
Sponsored Content
Dovida’s Live-in Care Service
A compelling alternative to nursing home care, delivered by the most experienced care provider in Ireland Michael Wright, Director of Growth, Dovida Ireland Growth in nursing... Read more »
BIDEN AND IRISH NEUTRALITY
AS VICTORY for Joe Biden’s US presidential campaign inched closer, the Irish Times’s EU warriors became more exercised about the consequences for what is quaintly called “EU security”. On the... Read more »
LONDON CALLING
CONGRATS TO the chaps in News UK, London head Office of the Sunday Times – which dictates the tone and tenor of its aawrish edition – for perhaps the most... Read more »
UNICORNS’ PROFITS
LAST YEAR the Dáil declared a biodiversity emergency and, in recent months, the EU’s Farm To Fork strategy set out ambitious targets to cut the use of environmental poisons like... Read more »
WILD MOUNTAIN MEN
WITH ALL the fuss over the trailer for Wild Mountain Thyme, it is interesting to note that the taxpayer has put a fair few bob towards the film that features... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: GOLDHAWK’S AWARDS FOR THE PASSING PARADE 2020
Tony Holohan IT IS probably safe to say that Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is not on repeat on Tony ‘Soprano’ Holohan’s playlist. The undisputed... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020- CLERICAL ERRORS: IRISH APOSTATES CAST OUT
On Saturday November 28, Pope Francis will preside in Rome at a ceremony conferring red hats on 13 new Cardinals, but none of them will be either Diarmuid Martin (75),... Read more »
Pillars of Society
ANNUAL 2020 – PROFILE: WILL MARTIN MAKE IT TO 2022?
‘FIANNA FÁIL can kiss my ass – I’ve got the taoiseach’s job at last.’ That seems to be the political ditty that Micheál Martin... Read more »
ESB’s Ardnacrusha Power Station Reopens for Free Public Tours This Summer
ESB is once again running guided tours at Ardnacrusha Power Station in Co Clare this summer, offering the public a rare opportunity to explore one of Ireland’s most significant... Read more »
Fit to Print?
WOMAN MD FOR ‘IRISH TIMES’?
WOMEN JOURNALISTS at the Irish Times will surely be pleased should yet another woman take the post of managing director now that Liam Kavanagh is stepping down (Kavanagh succeeded Maeve... Read more »
STEPHEN COLLINS’S OMISSION
A MOST arresting headline on the recent weekly column of former Irish Times political editor Stephen Collins declared, “It’s worth recalling defining moment in Irish democracy”. Before he even identified... Read more »
INM’S MIXED RESULTS
A CHEERFUL report in the Irish Independent last week gave figures from the annual results of Independent News & Media Group Ltd, the holding company for various titles now owned... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: ABC OF MEDIA ABANDONED
Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the print media still managed to afflict some of the comfortable during a torrid year. Just ask the various worthies who thought it was... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020 – AIRWAVES: COVID: A GOOD NEWS STORY
While COVID nearly destroyed the economy and laid waste to the independent TV sector right across the country, the disaster zone that has been 2020 might just have saved RTÉ... Read more »
Last Refuge
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CORK REBELS
RTÉ AND its Drivetime host, Sarah McInerney, managed last week to transform a most interesting story about Fianna Fáil abandoning its republican traditions – in rebel Cork, of all places... Read more »
IVANA TRIES AGAIN
LABOUR SENATOR Ivana Bacik has let it be known to her fans in Dublin Bay South (DBS) that she will – for the fourth time – be looking to stand... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR LEADERS
THIS YEAR at times resembled a science fiction B movie as civilisation virtually succumbed to the plague in most countries with politics, economics, sport and social interaction paralysed in the... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: SINN FÉIN ON THE BRINK
IF 2019 was an annus horribilis for Sinn Féin, 2020 has been the year of resurrection, of Aiséirí. From the depths of a major setback, the party’s prospect of government... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: FRINGE PARTIES TRAPPED
As they considered who to vote for to lead our government in February, the electorate faced the choice of TweedleFF or TweedleFG. Perennial predictions of a wipe-out of Independents were... Read more »
Northwind
ANNUAL 2020: STORMONT RETURNS: PLUS ÇA CHANGE
IS COVID-19 a Fenian virus? Does it mutate when it transfers to Protestant victims? Stormont’s DUP agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, injected a virulent northern strain into the Covid debate this... Read more »
Hush Hush
IRELAND’S SPYCOPS
A British spy in the Real IRA, Dennis McFadden, is alleged to have a ‘love child’ with a woman from Donegal, whom he is said to have left shortly before... Read more »
Wigs on the Green
ANNUAL 2020: INJUDICIOUS JUDGES
IT WOULD be easy to think that nothing much happened in 2020 beyond the pesky coronavirus. In one way, that is right, but what the plague taketh away, it also... Read more »
Foreign Frolics
ANNUAL 2020: BALLINA BIDEN TO BIFF BORIS?
It’s been quite the rollercoaster year on the foreign affairs front. Covid-19 will of course be remembered as the defining global event of 2020. As the virus spread exponentially in... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
I did a major declutter of my ‘Dulux colour’ coats – the pinks, the oranges, the reds, which I only wore for TV. I gave them all to a charity... Read more »
High Society
THE KRAUSE FAMILY FRIEND
FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with Mexican-English millionaire Allen de Jesus Sangines Krause (see The Phoenix 25/8/17), who is the squire of Killua... Read more »
PAT’S PILE
A SALE price has been recorded in the Property Price Register of the Co Meath mansion owned by software moneybags Pat McDonagh and it... Read more »
LISMORE CASTLE’S ARISTOCRATS
NICE TO see the vaunted Book of Lismore returning home. The priceless medieval manuscript has been donated to UCC and the good news is that there appears to be no... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: BILLIONAIRES COME AND GO IN 2020
IRELAND started off the year with the news that we had the fifth-largest number of billionaires per capita behind Hong Kong, Cyprus, Singapore and Switzerland, according to an Oxfam report... Read more »
CEA: There is No Such Thing as Director-lite
THE Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) enforces any breach of company law by companies or the directors of a company. Michael Dillon, CEA’s Director of Legal, explains that... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
WILD MOUNTAIN JAM
THE NATIONAL public broadcaster as well as the rest of the media (social and otherwise) got their knickers in a twist over Emily Blunt and Christopher Walken’s excruciating Oirish accents... Read more »
LEO’S NEXT CHAIR
ONE OF the next appointments to be made by Leo Varadkar in his role as enterprise minister is the chair of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, where Pennys... Read more »
Arts & Entertainment
ANNUAL 2020 – ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: 2020: CANCEL CULTURE, COVID AND CONTROVERSY
THIS WAS a year not much like any other given that the arts were savaged by the pandemic. Nevertheless, it was business as usual for many – or at least... Read more »
Sport of Kings
KEANE’S AMERICAN DREAM
THIS YEAR’S Breeders’ Cup, held at Keeneland racetrack in Kentucky, was a mighty success for Irish trainers and jockeys, none more so than Colin Keane, who was also crowned Irish... Read more »
BOYLESPORTS UNSADDLED
BOYLESPORTS HAS received a sharp rap on the knuckles from the Gambling Commission in the shape of a £2.8m fine after a series of money-laundering failures had been highlighted by... Read more »
STICKING IT AT DUNDALK
FLAT STAYERS aren’t particularly well catered for at Dundalk and, after some lobbying from Michael Grassick’s Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association, Horse Racing Ireland agreed to add a low-level handicap over... Read more »
GORDON ELLIOT’S CROCODILE
GORDON ELLIOTT has teamed up with Eddie O’Leary to very lucrative effect this year with a couple of young point-to-point horses. Elliott has unleashed two very promising four-year-old point-to-point winners... Read more »
Books
SNOW – JOHN BANVILLE (FABER)
OVER RECENT years, John Banville has written a relatively commercially successful series of hard-boiled noir thrillers under the name of Benjamin Black. This latest crime novel, however – the first... Read more »
Moneybags
ANNUAL 2020 – STOCKS & SHARES: WINNERS AND LOSERS IN 2020
THIS YEAR, the company leading the winners’ table is one that has lost billions over the years, Providence Resources. The new management, under Pat... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: MICHAEL O’LEARY’S PANDEMIC OPPORTUNITY
MICHAEL O’LEARY is facing an existential moment for Ryanair, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a seismic difference to the company and help it change... Read more »
Croke Park’s Newest Hospitality Experience
THIS EXCLUSIVE section blends the hospitality experience of Croke Park with a social, shared space, giving you the best of both worlds to enhance your match-day experience. Located in... Read more »
Brief Cases
JAMES MCILVENNA’S DOG DAY
THERE’S BEEN plenty of good press for ambitious dog treat inventor James McIlvenna lately, but he is facing a challenging year. Just last week, the Indo wrote in glowing terms... Read more »
ALI RYAN’S GOSSIES
ALI RYAN, the boss of online gossip outlet Goss, announced last week that her much-talked-about annual awards show, the Gossies 2021, will indeed be going ahead come January, albeit not... Read more »
PAUL LANNEY’S APPEAL
These are difficult times for grocer Paul Lanney, who runs a SuperValu in his shopping centre in the county Louth town of Ardee. With hefty accumulated losses, he is now... Read more »
ANNUAL 2020: HOT WATER BRIGADE 2020
THE MORE things change, the more they stay the same. This year may have seen economic carnage like nothing before, but there were plenty of scraps and scrapes in the... Read more »
Orla Kiely: A Life in Pattern at National Design & Craft Gallery
The highly anticipated Orla Kiely: A Life in Pattern exhibition has arrived at Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) National Design and Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. Running from February... Read more »
Popular Stories
