Affairs of the Nation

Mary Robinson

Affairs of the Nation

MARY ROBINSON’S EXPENSIVE ARCHIVE

THE NEWS from the west of Ireland last week was that the Mary Robinson Centre (MRC) in Ballina is set to open in 2017. What is far from clear at... Read more »
David Agar

Affairs of the Nation

DAVID AGAR’S SEMI-D

  THINGS are looking bleak for poor David Agar, the auctioneer and property developer who hit the headlines following a prescient interview in 2012, in which he complained that Nama... Read more »
michael-martin

Affairs of the Nation

FIANNA FÁIL’S ‘NO’ TO GOVERNMENT

THAT disavowal of coalition government by Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher is as devious as it is amusing. FF talking about rebuilding the party from the opposition benches and spurning power... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Dermot Desmond

Affairs of the Nation

DERMOT DESMOND’S BAD BET

DERMOT DESMOND is digging in his heels in an attempt to stymie the proposed merger of betting giants Ladbrokes and GalaCoral. Behind his public anger is the fact that Dermo’s... Read more »
Leo Varadkar

Affairs of the Nation

VARADKAR’S ABORTIVE MOVES

WHAT an unusually moderate and discreet stance Leo Varadkar took during Fine Gael’s abortion row last week. That row was triggered by James Reilly’s dramatic interview but it was Frances... Read more »
Simon Stokes

Affairs of the Nation

BANG BOYS GO BUST

A LITTLE late in the day, the Taxman has registered a judgment of €236,000 against ‘delinquent director’ Simon Stokes, whose restaurateur family previously ran the well-known Unicorn restaurant in Dublin... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

Henderson’s Ham-Fisted HR Hiccup

EVEN though the Irish Daily Mail’s flamboyant MD Paul Henderson hasn’t previously been shy about putting journalists’ noses out of joint, it appears that he may have finally overstepped the... Read more »
Fiona McLoughlin Healy

Affairs of the Nation

FIONA’S FOOT IN THE DOOR

ONE Dáil candidate who cannot be described as a token female selected to fulfill the gender quota is Fine Gael’s Fiona McLoughlin Healy in Kildare South. Fiona is sitting TD... Read more »
Sandra McLellan

Affairs of the Nation

Exotic Alliance adds another specimen

LORD Ross’s Independent Alliance becomes more exotic and eclectic by the hour and the latest target for his parliamentary grouping is Sinn Féin TD, Sandra McLellan. Sandra is a bruised... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Kevin Bakhurst

Pillars of Society

Kevin Bakhurst

WHILE former BBC executive Kevin Bakhurst (50) affects to be ”thinking” about whether to apply for the vacant RTÉ director general’s job, the hacks... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Oisín Hanrahan

The Young Bloods

Oisín Hanrahan

LAST MONTH’S Web Summit marked the return to Ireland of Oisín Hanrahan (31), a Dubliner who has apparently managed to raise over $100m for... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Pat Kenny

Fit to Print?

WHO CONTROLS INM?

A RECENT paean of praise to Pat Kenny from Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris was followed the week after by Kenny’s own composition of self-praise in the same newspaper, in... Read more »
Colm Keena

Fit to Print?

LEGAL EAGLES’ NEST IMPREGNABLE

THE castration of ex-justice minister Alan Shatter’s legal services bill by justice minister Frances Fitzgerald has been roundly criticised, condemned even, by all sections of the media; well, almost all.... Read more »
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Fit to Print?

Indo onto IS?

A FRONT-page splash in the Sunday Independent as well as further articles in the Indo reported that “Ireland’s top Islamic State terror suspect” is “providing logistical support for ISIL fighters... Read more »

Last Refuge

Brendan-Howlin

Last Refuge

BRENDAN HOWLIN’S LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN

FINGER pointing at Alan Kelly for the recent leak about Labour’s election prospects to both The Irish Times and Irish Independent could be a devilishly clever diversion by the real... Read more »
Tom Barry

Last Refuge

CORK ELECTION FEUDS

CONVULSIONS inside the four main parties in Cork East could result in three sitting TDs out of four – David Stanton and Tom Barry (Fine Gael), Sean Sherlock (Labour) and... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

bog cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

MAN TELLS JUDGE HE WILL ‘BRING HIM TO JUSTICE’ A 53-YEAR-OLD man, charged with carrying a knife and being drunk and a danger, told a district court judge that he... Read more »
bog cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

GRANDMOTHER REPEATEDLY KICKED MAN A “MULTI-TASKING” grandmother who repeatedly kicked a man on the ground as she held onto a pram has been given a suspended sentence. Michelle Conroy of... Read more »
bog cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

MAN WHO DEFECATED IN DERRY CITY CENTRE SHOUTED ‘UP THE RA’ AS TROUSERS FELL DOWN A MAN who defecated in Derry city centre shouted ‘up the RA’ when his trousers... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Theresa Villiers

Bird's Eye View

DIRTY WAR: IN DENIAL

THE Northern Secretary, Theresa Villiers, told the House of Commons with a straight face that she “wholly dissociated” herself from SDLP MP Mark Durkan’s description of the Troubles as a... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

Máire Whelan

Wigs on the Green

LABOUR LAWYERS LAY DOWN LAW

THE neutering of Alan Shatter’s Legal Services Bill by his successor as justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, has as much to do with the Labour Party as Fine Gael or even... Read more »

Beyond the Pale

Beyond the Pale

CLAIRE CULLINANE’S RECORD

THE FOUR-SEAT constituency of Cork East is shaping up to be a crowded field come the next general election, and one of the Independents expected to throw her hat into... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Andrea Corr

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

All I’m saying is I didn’t make a record to sell like I’d sold with my family. I made a record of songs I had written. To be honest, I’m... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Bernie Gallagher

High Society

BERNIE GALLAGHER’S ARTISTIC CREDENTIALS

INTERESTING to see Newstalk radio reporting that the purchasers of one of the Beit collection paintings are John and Bernie Gallagher of Doyle Hotels... Read more »

High Society

William Jones

High Society

THE OTHER COOLMORE STUD BOOK

A CONTROVERSIAL book written by William Jones, an ex-employee of Coolmore Stud, is causing quite a stir inside Irish racing and has already attracted... Read more »

High Society

Des Leadon and Mariann Klay

High Society

THE FLYING VETS

THERE WAS good news last month for veterinary couple and owners of Swordlestown Little Stud in Co Kildare – Des Leadon and Mariann Klay – when they offloaded a colt... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

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Behind the Scenes

Committee Review Board Chair

ANOTHER new chairman of a national cultural institution, David Harvey, was also up before the Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht recently. This concerned his appointment to the... Read more »
Paul Shovlin

Behind the Scenes

PAUL SHOVLIN’S NATIONAL LIBRARY GIG

THERE WAS very good news last month for the National Library of Ireland, when the Government announced a major refurbishment of the building on Kildare Street. However, there are still... Read more »
Michael Noonan

Behind the Scenes

MICHAEL NOONAN’S CHRISTMAS MOVIE

IT IS odds-on that planning permission for a ‘change of use’ submitted by Limerick’s Troy Studios will sail through this week. The ‘Part 8’ application was submitted to Limerick Council... Read more »
Nancy and Baz Ashmawy

Behind the Scenes

BAZ ASHMAY’S INTER-NATIONAL EMMY

THERE WAS plenty of media coverage of a rare International Emmy awarded to a show produced by an Irish player – Baz Ashmawy. This was for his TV series, 50... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Meta Osborne

Sport of Kings

META OSBORNE’S NEW REGIME

AN UNUSUAL clause inserted into Simon Coveney’s disputed Horse Racing Ireland Act 2015, is the one that permits the Bowler Hats to form a limited company under the Companies Act... Read more »
Jim Martin

Sport of Kings

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOUR-HOOD

THE IRISH Harness Racing Association (IHRA) and its chairman, Mark Flanagan, who recently won the battle to stage a trial meeting of its trotters at Dundalk Stadium, is set to... Read more »
Ted Walsh

Sport of Kings

FOXROCK’S RETURN RIDE

FOXROCK, the Barry Connell-owned handicapper at the centre of the high-profile Punchestown missing shoes enquiry last May, made his seasonal reappearance at Navan recently. The Ted Walsh-trained gelding was making... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Michael-OLeary

Moneybags

Ryanair flying high with EasyJet model

THE MARKET has taken a real shine to Ryanair since it adopted the new ‘cuddlier’ business model, but the share price is now flying... Read more »

Moneybags

John McCann

Moneybags

John McCann’s doomed UTV strategy

READERS OF The Phoenix were advised from the outset that John McCann’s decision to launch a separate broadcasting channel in the Republic of Ireland,... Read more »

Brief Cases

Mark Carroll

Brief Cases

More Surprises From Shanghai

FINALLY, the saga of Financial Plaza Shanghai Ltd (FPS), the British Virgin Islands company owned by around 140 Irish investors, who together spent €30m on an apartment building in Shanghai,... Read more »
Brian Murphy

Brief Cases

Brian Murphy’s Bum Note

The Taxman is investigating a Cork accountant named Brian Murphy – a former partner at Deloitte – for various alleged tax related offences. It is alleged that Murphy submitted a... Read more »
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Brief Cases

Shanny in the Slammer

SPARE A THOUGHT for a Meath accountant named Kenneth Shanny, who was jailed last month at Trim Circuit Court for various tax related offences. The beancounter received a three-year sentence... Read more »

Brief Cases

Eddie Sweeney’s Latest Challenge

PROPERTY developer Eddie Sweeney may be a familiar name thanks to his appearance in the Mahon Tribunal report in 2012, which was highly critical of the businessman in relation to... Read more »
Oisín Hanrahan

Brief Cases

Oisín Hanrahan Hits Back

HANDY – the US-based online booking company for cleaners which was co-founded by Irish tech entrepreneur Oisín Hanrahan – is currently involved in two ‘worker classification’ lawsuits by some of... Read more »
John Delaney

Brief Cases

Creditors’ Meeting For Intrade

INTERESTING to see that a creditors’ meeting has been called for Intrade The Prediction Market Ltd and its related company, Trade Exchange Network Ltd (TEN). The meeting is set to... Read more »
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Brief Cases

Fishy Fiddler Fined

MARK FISHER is not yet clear of the mess he got into with his property management company, Global Property Care Ltd (GPC). Having been restricted last year from acting as... Read more »