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October 23 - November 5, 2015
Affairs of the Nation
DENIS O’BRIEN IN CRISIS?
HAS Denis O’Brien completely lost it? Launching a lightning legal assault against a relatively inconsequential PR and lobbying consultancy, following on from his efforts to bring RTÉ and the Dáil... Read more »
JOHN McCANN’S “ASTUTE” PURCHASE
THERE WAS plenty of focus last week on Tom O’Gorman’s audacious plan to ‘flip’ the sprawling Kilcooley estate in Co Tipperary for €8m, having bought the huge pile – for... Read more »
REBALANCING MICHAEL DWYER
ALTHOUGH the story has not been receiving much media attention of late, RTÉ opted to broadcast a new documentary on the subject of the killing of Michael Dwyer in Bolivia... Read more »
Sponsored Content
The Evolution of Company Secretaries: Navigating Governance in a Dynamic Landscape
Nadine Conlon, President, The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland In the past decade, the role of the company secretary has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from a technical... Read more »
ISRAELI ARMY START-UPS
THE new Dublin Startup Commissioner is get-up-and-go-girl, Niamh Bushnell, who has been getting a lot of airtime recently on RTÉ, Newstalk and so on. Funded privately by the DCU Ryan... Read more »
DERMOT BANNON’S COURT DATE
DUBLIN architect Dermot Bannon has made a name for himself through the RTÉ programme, Room to Improve, in which the affable architect helps punters redesign their homes. Of course, this... Read more »
BAILING OUT LELIA DOOLAN
FOLLOWING a meeting of Galway City Council earlier this month, the expensive end credits are now rolling for Lelia Doolan’s ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ in Galway. At the October 12... Read more »
Madigan’s Steamy Briefs
FINE GAEL councillor and general election candidate Josepha Madigan has a knack of generating publicity, good and bad. The recent halting site tragedy involving the death of ten Travellers generated... Read more »
DERMOT DESMOND’S DATA DISCRETION
IS there no limit to the financial and legal resources that billionaires like Denis O’Brien and Dermot Desmond will expend to battle those sections of the media they do not... Read more »
SF AND FF IN GOVERNMENT?
THE notion that Sinn Féin would form a coalition government with Fianna Fail was raised this week in the book, Power Play: The Rise of Modern Sinn Féin, by ex-Irish... Read more »
Pillars of Society
Brendan Howlin
The wonder of Michael Noonan’s political resurrection late in life has been much commented on, but what about the renaissance of his job sharing... Read more »
The Young Bloods
John Kavanagh
THE remarkable growth in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Ireland years is thanks in no small part to businessman and gym owner John Kavanagh... Read more »
Coillte : Positioning Wood as the Sustainable Building Material of the Future
Coillte‘s forestry strategic vision aims to balance and deliver the multiple benefits of its forests for climate, nature, wood, and people. This is a long-term vision that will see... Read more »
Fit to Print?
DISCORD AT IRISH TIMES
THAT recent reshuffle at The Irish Times involving some of the most senior posts at the Court of Tara Street has created serious discontent among those who believe that the... Read more »
HONOURING HORGAN
THE ACCOLADES heaped upon former Press Ombudsman, Professor John Horgan, by establishment figures last week would embarrass a man with less self-confidence. But Horgan took it all in his stride... Read more »
Keaveney Makes Guarded Comments
GIVEN the upcoming election, Galway East TD Colm Keaveney is more concerned with the Connacht Tribune than INM newspapers’ coverage of his alleged involvement in a conspiracy against their boss,... Read more »
Last Refuge
KENNY’S BIG BLUNDER
THE shambles that was Enda Kenny’s agonising over and eventual retreat from a November election helps to explain a 3% drop in the latest Sunday Times/ Behaviour and Attitudes poll.... Read more »
BERTIE’S BOYS RETREAT TO FINGAL
TWO reports in The Sunday Times a fortnight ago indicated the bitterness of the BEGOBs (Bertie’s Good Ol’ Boys) at being routed and outmanoeuvred by that bloody woman, Mary Fitzpatrick,... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
LOYALISTS PLEDGE NEW LEAF
JONATHAN POWELL, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, last week made his first public intervention in the North’s politics for a decade. This time he was speaking on his own... Read more »
MAHON TRIBUNAL’S HOT POTATOES
MAJOR dilemmas face the current Mahon Tribunal members struggling with the poisoned chalice passed to them by its long retired original chairman, Justice Feargus Flood. These include a continuing stand-off... Read more »
Beyond the Pale
PASCHAL BERGIN’S POCKET MONEY
FANS of Goldhawk will already be familiar with the many battles of property developer Mervyn Walsh, originally from Wexford, who was behind a disastrous housing development in Co Laois through... Read more »
High Society
FOUR FAULTS FOR JAMES BUCKLEY
THE PURCHASE of the former Jessbrook equestrian centre outside Johnstownbridge in Co Kildare – originally built by the notorious John Gilligan – has not proved a happy deal for Carlow... Read more »
RICHARD WOOD’S TAX BILL
FORMER BULA Mines director Richard Wood has just come a cropper with the Taxman and finds himself on the end of a judgment for €602,000. It represents the latest setback... Read more »
ATALANTA POLLOCK’S WIND PROBLEM
SPARE A thought for the Pollock family and their Mountainstown House outside Navan, Co Meath. After being in the same family for 250 years, the sprawling demesne has been on... Read more »
Transform Your Outdoor Space with A Room Outside…
Established in 2009 by Liam and Caroline Whelan, A Room Outside has gone from strength to strength to be the leading suppliers of hot tubs, swim spas, outdoor kitchens,... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
FUNDING PIXIE McKENNA’S ‘SEX CLINIC’
THE STRUGGLING UTV Ireland got a small shot in the arm from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) when it announced the latest handouts under its Sound & Vision funding... Read more »
Druid Theatre Company & Colm Toibin
THINGS HAVE been good on stage and off at Druid theatre company in recent times, where artistic director Garry Hynes generated plenty of plaudits for the lauded DruidShakespeare production. Next... Read more »
Sport of Kings
WILLIE MULLINS’S SMART MOVE
CHAMPION trainer Willie Mullins is now operating out of a stable he runs near Irish racing HQ at the Curragh. The remarkably successful handler, whose main yard is located in... Read more »
AIDAN O’BRIEN’S ‘DUCKS’
“THE DUCKS are not in a row.” Aidan O’Brien’s words before unwrapping the thick layers of cotton wool from his star miler, Gleneagles, at the Sheikh Fahad Al Thani-sponsored Queen... Read more »
BLUE DAY FOR BOWLER HATS
THE FINE PRINT of Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Bill 2015 was unveiled to the public earlier this month and the legislation marks the death knell for... Read more »
WINNER ALL RIGHT
ONE OF the big winners of Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Ireland Bill 2015 is Joe Keeling’s Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), which sees its influence increase significantly. The two seats... Read more »
Moneybags
Can Owen Killian’s strategy pay off for Aryzta?
OWEN KILLIAN has been under pressure since March when Aryzta’s shares peaked at €73. Progressive trading updates have increasingly warned of not just a halt to the group’s fantastic growth... Read more »
Total Produce expanding rapidly but what’s the plan?
CARL MCCANN has been running Total Produce, the fruit and veg merchanting arm of the original Fyffes group, for nine years and has not done too bad a job of... Read more »
How To Protect Yourself From the Next Banking Crisis
Dave Russell, CEO, GoldCore Ltd This year 88.5% of respondents to Goldcore‘s annual survey told us that they ‘view owning gold as a way to protect against bank failure.’... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
HOT AIR BRIGADE
Alfred Hitchcock once said that the greatest female stars had the trick of transforming themselves into a blank canvas onto which the masses could project their private hopes, dreams and... Read more »
Kathryn Thomas’s Shares
THERE was some bad news last month for Carlow-based developer Gwynne Thomas – father to RTÉ star Kathryn Thomas – when a company he part-owns, Thomas Thompson Holdings Ltd, was... Read more »
Jamie White’s Rehabilitation
CONGRATULATIONS are in order to budding young Dublin publisher, Jamie White, who enjoyed a nice plug earlier this month in the Sunday Independent, which included him in its ‘30 under... Read more »
Luigi Wewege’s Legal Contacts
MORE ON Luigi Wewege, the colourful boss of Irish registered subprime mortgage company, Vivier Mortgages Ltd (VML), which is currently suing RTÉ for defamation over an investigation broadcast earlier this... Read more »
Tom Keane’s Bust Up With Beancounters
DUBLIN accountant Tom Keane – of BKRM accountants in north Dublin – has come out on the losing side of a row with the Certified Public Accountants Ireland (CPA Ireland),... Read more »
Clare Dooley’s Double-Dealing
FINANCIAL advisor Clare Dooley escaped jail last month over an insurance scam against New Ireland Life Assurance plc, but she was disqualified from acting as a company director for five... Read more »
Ruairi O’Ceallaigh’s Tax Affairs
SOME more bad news for disgraced legal eagle Ruairi O’Ceallaigh, who was jailed in 2014 for five years (with the final two years suspended) for pilfering €2.8m from clients to... Read more »
The Return Of Alan Hynes
GOLDHAWK was curious to learn of reports emanating from Wexford concerning disgraced accountant Alan Hynes, who has clocked up numerous findings of misconduct at the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (CARB).... Read more »
More Bum Notes For Gary Hansard
NOT for the first time, Dublin property investor Gary Hansard – brother of Frames frontman Glen Hansard – has landed in trouble with the Taxman. Gary Hansard has just had... Read more »
‘Layers of Dublin Port’ Mapped for First Time in New Conservation Strategy
On April 30, Dublin Port Company (DPC) unveiled its inaugural Conservation Strategy, meticulously documenting the layered tapestry of natural, industrial, and cultural heritage within Dublin Port, spanning over three... Read more »
AINTREE ANTICS
WHILE ZILLIONAIRE Geneva tax resident JP McManus won his third Aintree Grand ...
SUSAN O’REILLY’S ‘APPARITION’
A “STUNNING beachfront house hovering over the water in Howth” has attracted ...
MARK GALLAGHER’S €10M MANSION
THE ADVERTISING by Sherry FitzGerald of a redbrick pile on leafy Ailesbury ...
LYRA V BEYONCÉ
IT HAS been hard to avoid Irish singer Laura McNamara (aka Lyra) ...
JOHN MAGNIER’S SILAGE
JOHN MAGNIER, obviously not thwarted by the previous rejection of his acts ...
LARA HICKEY’S CLOSE-UP
THE FILM and TV business has long been one where ‘who you ...
TONY’S FAILED APPEAL
THE RECENT overturning by the IHRB appeals panel of the referral committee’s ...
O’BRIEN’S OBSTACLES
While trainer Aidan O’Brien supplied three of the five runners in Leopardstown’s ...
CATHERINE MARTIN’S LATEST VACANCY
THE RETICENCE of arts and culture minister Catherine Martin when it comes ...
DES McGAHAN’S BOLTHOLE BLUES
GOLDHAWK SPIED yet another glowing report in the Business Post on the ...