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The magazine with the Inside Stories
April 22 - May 5, 2016
Affairs of the Nation
“ZAPPER” ZAPPONE FOR NEXT CABINET?
KATHERINE ZAPPONE TD, liberal media darling, former beneficiary of Labour Party patronage and probably the most politically correct person in the western world, has shown unexpected political dexterity and ambition for one so earnest. She has also exhibited a rather... Read more »
HALAWA: CAIRO TWO FINGERS TO FLANAGAN
HAS the penny not yet dropped with foreign minister Charlie Flanagan that the Egyptian government has contempt for the Irish government’s cap-in-hand approach to the incarceration of Dublin teenager, Ibrahim Halawa? Or does the latest ‘confusion’ about Halawa’s transfer to... Read more »
PANAMA PAYDAY FOR JOE LEWIS
WHILE A couple of high profile Irish names have been appearing in the ‘Panama Papers’ revelations of offshore company activity, including the likes of Dermot Desmond and JP McManus, the most colourful Irish link is surely the one featuring the... Read more »
LAWYERS FOR BIG TOBACCO
A LITTLE noticed part of Fine Gael’s health programme for government as pitched to Independent TDs recently was to reduce the number of smokers in Ireland to fewer than 5% by 2025. That’s a reduction of three-quarters and with a... Read more »
Pillars of Society
Martin McDonagh
AN IRISH playwright (well London-Irish but that has never seemed to matter before) picked up one of the most prestigious awards in UK theatre... Read more »
The Young Bloods
Lisa Chambers
ONE of the high points in a good election for Fianna Fáil was undoubtedly 29-year-old Lisa Chambers’ securing of a seat in Mayo. Not... Read more »
Fit to Print?
LYING DRUG MULE OR MISSIONARY?
THE Indo and Sindo managed to transform Michaella McCollum from an Aids charity worker to lying drugs pusher and back again to charity worker in the space of eight days following her recent parole from a Peruvian jail for drugs... Read more »
SEAN O’CALLAGHAN’S EVIDENCE
WHAT a spoilsport the Irish Examiner has turned out to be with its failure to defend a libel action from Tralee’s James Sheehan, former director of elections for Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris. Thus the public has been deprived of... Read more »
Vincent Browne to Retire?
LOOKS as though not just Ivan Yates but also that other big broadcasting beast, Vincent Browne, is on his way out of the media scene. Yates is off to the United States for a sabbatical with his long suffering wife,... Read more »
Last Refuge
McCONALOGUE MARTIN’S MAN
FIANNA FÁIL’S team negotiating with Fine Gael is a little lopsided, with big beasts Michael McGrath and Jim O’Callaghan alongside second team players Barry Cowen (nothing like as sharp as the brother) and Donegal’s Charlie McConalogue. McConalogue performed mightily in... Read more »
Enda Kenny’s Ace Card
GOLDHAWK predicted recently that Enda Kenny would not easily be dislodged from his perch as Taoiseach and Fine Gael party leader (see The Phoenix 11/3/16) and despite noises about his unpopularity as well as that recent opinion poll, he is... Read more »
JOAN BURTON CLINGS TO POWER
LABOUR leader Joan Burton and most of her TDs, supported by a growing number of ever so sensible media voices, want the party to re-enter coalition with Fine Gael because they are worried about Labour’s future prospects in opposition. This... Read more »
MICHAEL McDOWELL ON THE GO AGAIN
HE’S BACK. The notion that Michael McDowell is running for the Senate merely to secure a platform was never an adequate explanation for the man whose appetite for politics on the national stage is insatiable. McDowell retains his ambition to... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
CORK ON THE WILD SIDE TWO men were bound to the peace in a case where one claimed he was headbutted and the other was left with a broken jaw. After hearing the evidence at Cork District Court, Judge Olann... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
TONY McLOUGHLIN TD AND FRACKING
“THE EPA Research Study on Fracking is now stopped,” declared the Good Energies Alliance Ireland (GEAI) on its website on February 3, in what appeared to be one of those rare events in Irish history – a major victory for... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
SDLP FACING LOSSES IN ASSEMBLY ELECTION
THE North goes to the polls on May 5 in what will be, as usual, two elections, one in each politico-ethnic camp. Anyone watching the leaders’ debates on UTV and BBCNI could not but notice the absence of acrimony between... Read more »
PETER KELLY’S BIBLE BELT
THERE has been an interesting encounter between the President of the High Court, Peter Kelly, and a couple of solicitors over the importance of the Bible. It may surprise lay people that this episode required two senior counsel to appear,... Read more »
RED FLAG BUT NO WHITE FLAG
DOES Red Flag possess the financial resources to fend off telecom and media mogul, Denis O’Brien, as he pursues them through the courts for alleged defamation and conspiracy via that USB stick containing unflattering material on him? Already, the bill... Read more »
Foreign Frolics
HILLARY CLINTON’S NEOCON PROBLEM
by Gerald Sussman HILLARY Clinton has a dark history in foreign policy. She is a product of her husband’s alignment with the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and the right wing shift of the party, which moved the Democrats away from... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
Sitting in a sunlight-filled room in Portobello, this woman from Passage West in Co Cork looks and sounds like a very glamorous and beautiful mix of Ophelia, Lady Macbeth and Patti Smith. Barry Egan on Camille O’Sullivan, Sunday Independent (submitted... Read more »
High Society
ANN REIHILL’S RETIREMENT
THE CHANGES continue at Image magazine, where Ann Reihill has now stepped down as a director of Image Publications Ltd, and has been replaced by her stepson, Raymond Reihill, the deputy chairman and 25% shareholder of Tedcastle Holdings. Another new... Read more »
Niall Scott’s pad
THE write-up in The Irish Times for an impressive townhouse on Percy Place overlooking the Grand Canal was suitably effusive, given the €2.2m asking price. While much of the piece extolled the amenities and “timeless quality” of the area (“intriguing... Read more »
DAVID RAETHORNE’S BIG PLANS FOR HAZELWOOD
THERE WAS some coverage in the business pages last week of the doubling in profits to E12m at Brentwood Investments Ltd, the private investment operation owned by low-profile moneybags David Raethorne and his wife, Sue. Of more interest to Goldhawk... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
ELIZABETH GARRAHY’S DURROW DRAMA
FOLLOWING A trip to the District Court to get an extension to file its overdue accounts, the charity Arts For Peace (AFP) has got its house in order, with the figures showing a deficit of €355,000 at the end of... Read more »
LIMERICK’S TROJAN HORSE
WHEN plans were being hatched to turn Limerick’s former Dell plant into a film studio, there was plenty of PR guff about Ireland’s drastic shortage of studio space and the loss of film and TV production business to international competitors,... Read more »
Sport of Kings
CONNELL’S ITCHY BRITCHES
ONE TIME hedge fund supremo Barry Connell is obviously a hard man to please when it comes to jockeys. He recently announced his split from his retained jockey Adrian Heskin after just two seasons together. This comes about after Connell’s... Read more »
KEVIN BLAKE’S CRITICISM
THE DECISION by the Turf Club’s Appeals and Referrals Committee to reverse the hefty 30-day ban imposed on Barry Geraghty for the ‘running-and-riding’ of Tony Martin’s favourite at Limerick earlier this month has again focused attention on the state of... Read more »
AL NAEMI’S ASSETS
THE ARRIVAL of Qatari moneybags Mubarak Al Naemi to these shores continues to bring dividends to Horse Racing Ireland who have been eager to up the amount of Qatari money in the sport. Having swooped on the famous Kilfrush Stud... Read more »
Reviews
WHAT ARE YOU EATING? – RTÉ ONE
OVER RECENT years Philip Boucher-Hayes has spent a lot of time on television peeking into school lunch-boxes or people’s supermarket trolleys – and drawing damning conclusions. This latest six-part series is no different – more populist consumer fare served up... Read more »
Books
FLAWED – CECILIA AHERN (HARPER COLLINS)
GRIM ALLEGORICAL tales about dysfunctional futuristic societies have become staples in youth fiction over the past decade. ‘Young Adult’ novels – predominantly written by women – have enormous appeal for teenage girls. Having recently replaced wizards and vampires with a... Read more »
Moneybags
Massive margins at Dalata hotels
PAT MCCANN must be feeling pretty lucky, having raised €265m cash in new equity in March 2014 when he floated off his Dalata hotels group, despite the fact that the company had had a very poor five-year trading record up... Read more »
Manifold impact pushes CRH shares sky high
ALBERT MANIFOLD has had a significant impact on CRH since he was appointed CEO in January 2014. He immediately grasped that CRH needs to be focused on its fundamental operations and that it should build up more scale in these,... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
Eleanor McEvoy’s Good Timing
ONE OF the new faces on RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den is Limerick woman and serial entrepreneur Eleanor McEvoy, currently cleaning up in the electricity market in Northern Ireland. Whatever about switching on the lights in Belfast, Eleanor has shown an uncanny... Read more »
Domini Kemp’s Recipe Book
CELEBRITY CHEF Domini Kemp, of RTÉ’s Recipe For Success, and her business partner in the Hatch & Sons restaurant on St Stephen’s Green – food consultant and former Irish Times food scribe Hugo Arnold – have been letting the heat... Read more »
Sean Melly’s Campaign
WITH JUST days to the Seanad poll closing, outspoken venture capitalist Sean Melly, running for a Trinity College seat, was keeping his profile as high as he could. Meanwhile, one of his companies looks in need of some medical assistance.... Read more »
Ciaran Larkin’s Shoeboxes
WITH NAMA having appointed a receiver to a company called Player Square Ltd (PSL), which was set up to redevelop the old Players cigarette factory site on Dublin’s South Circular Road, it looks like the wheels are to be set... Read more »
Derek O’Neill’s Wellness Bonanza
HAVING decamped this week to the Provost’s House at Trinity College in order to try to secure a breakthrough in the negotiations, the boys and girls from Leinster House might consider a trip down to New Ross, Co Wexford, where... Read more »
Michael D to appear on Dragons’ Den
INM Car Boot Sale
TRUMP VISIT CALLED OFF
GANGSTERS OFFENDED BY BALACLAVA ‘HIJACKING’
KAREN BRADLEY’S TOURIST GUIDE TO NORTHERN IRELAND
