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May 6 - May 19, 2016
Affairs of the Nation
INVESTIGATING ROTHSCHILDS BANK
GOLDHAWK spotted an interesting report on Bloomberg recently, which said that the Swiss unit of Edmond de Rothschild SA is the subject of a French probe regarding a former business... Read more »
STRIKING OFF TONY O’REILLY
THE LATEST chapter in the commercial demise of Tony O’Reilly unfolded last week when the Companies Registration Office listed a company called Columbia Investments for striking off, as a result... Read more »
WILL MICHAEL TWEE RESCUE THE PICTURE PALACE IN GALWAY?
FANS OF Goldhawk will not be surprised by the ongoing farce surrounding Galway’s multi-million euro bijou but unfinished ‘Picture Palace’ cinema. Details of a dramatic saga behind the scenes have... Read more »
Sponsored Content
National Enterprise Hub Offers Easy Access to Government Supports for Businesses
Conor O’Donovan, Head of the National Enterprise Hub & Global Marketing & Communication, Enterprise Ireland. Running a business is challenging, but accessing government supports shouldn’t be. While there is... Read more »
FEARGAL QUINN’S €200 MILLION
AN ANNOUNCEMENT last month that Swiss bank Lombard Odier was awarded a mandate valued at €200m “for an established international family” went unnoticed by the Irish media. Happily, Goldhawk can... Read more »
Robbos Accounts
MARY ROBINSON’S Victoria House Foundation (VHF) has just published its first accounts and all seems to be going swimmingly. However, there is still one big question mark hanging over the... Read more »
HEFFERNAN SHUNNED BY SOC DEMS
FORMER Labour senator and SD candidate in Limerick, James Heffernan, must be feeling a little unloved by his new comrades in the Social Democrats, given his reported €16,000 contribution to... Read more »
Downey’s Legacy
THE Irish Independent engaged in an unseemly and competitive effort to claim the late Jim Downey as its very own and downplay his quintessential Irish Times persona and association with... Read more »
ALCOHOL BILL KICKED TO TOUCH
WILL Leo Varadkar – if he is still health minister by at the end of this week – make his long awaited Public Health (Alcohol) Bill a priority? This was... Read more »
Kieran Wallace’s Fees
GOLDHAWK has to hand it to accountancy firm KPMG, and in particular its star liquidators, Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson. It seems that the licence to print money that is... Read more »
THE RISE AND RISE OF JIM O’CALLAGHAN
IF Micheál Martin is the big winner in the recent election and in subsequent negotiations with Fine Gael, then the other winner is Fianna Fáil’s legal advisor, the previously unelectable... Read more »
FERDINAND TRUMPS DONALD
HAVING BEEN the subject of a failed move to have him banned from entering the UK, following his call for a ban on Muslims entering the US, presidential hopeful Donald... Read more »
Pillars of Society
Profile: Bob Geldof
WAS William Butler Yeats reincarnated and dumped back on Earth as Sir Bob Geldof? St Bob seems to think so. In his hyperbolic two-part... Read more »
The Young Bloods
Young Bloods – Catherine Martin
CATHERINE Martin’s maiden Dáil speech made public something that Green Party members say they have known for a while; that the deputy leader should... Read more »
CEA 2024 Conference: Advancing Corporate Law Enforcement and Compliance
The Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) held its 2024 conference on October 17 at The Honorable Society of King’s Inns, Dublin. The event was attended by policymakers, regulatory bodies, and... Read more »
Fit to Print?
O’CONNOR AIRBRUSHES DENIS O’BRIEN
A SELECTION of 100 defining moments in the last century by Brendan O’Connor in the Sunday Independent was more interesting for what was omitted than included. In middlebrow, Sindo mode,... Read more »
Pig-Headed Litigant
THE jury in a looming High Court libel case against the Sunday World will be presented with a catalogue of crime – some of it proven and some of it... Read more »
DENIS O’BRIEN Vs IRISH TIMES
DAYS before the end of the one year period within which a defamation action can be taken, Denis O’Brien has lodged a writ for libel against The Irish Times for... Read more »
Last Refuge
WHEN ZAPPONE ZAPPED LONE PARENTS
KATHERINE ZAPPONE’S bid for a cabinet seat with her early vote for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach was tastefully dressed up as a childcare deal for young children with, of course,... Read more »
HANG DOWN YER HEAD TIM DOOLEY
SENATE director of elections for Fianna Fáil, Timmy Dooley, is taking some flak inside the party over a poor result with a lower than expected tally. With 265 councillors to... Read more »
TONY COUGHLAN EXCORIATES SINN FÉIN
IRELAND’S most enduring and intellectually powerful opponent of the EU for nearly half a century is Tony Coughlan, associate professor emeritus at TCD. That Sinn Féin should now find itself... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
HAD BOLT CUTTERS IN TROUSERS A MAN who was found with a bolt cutters hidden down his trousers appeared in Naas District Court. Gavin Breen, aged 21, pleaded guilty to... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
BRENDAN GLEESON’S PIPELINE TO RTÉ
WITH gas flowing through Shell’s contentious refinery in northwest Mayo since December 30 last, one of the legacies left by the demonisation of those who resisted the multinational’s activities is... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
SF FIGHTS FOR 30 SEATS IN ASSEMBLY
THE traditional economic fumble which afflicts Sinn Féin in election campaigns in the Republic seems to be infectious. Last week the virus spread North and hit both the SDLP and... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
A rare painting of a sporting event by Louis le Brocquy. The fluid depiction of the entangled limbs and the highly expressive faces of the players convey the complexity and... Read more »
I looked at the old woman and the man opposite me and wondered when was the last time either of them had been on fire with desire. Which drew me... Read more »
High Society
THE OTHER RICH LIST
THERE WAS plenty of fun reading through the Sunday Times annual ‘Rich List’, but Goldhawk was struck by some of the names not there... Read more »
GAY O’CALLAGHAN’S WINDFALL
IT LOOKS like big congratulations are in order for former banker Gay O’Callaghan, whose Morristown Lattin Bloodstock operation looks to have netted nearly €8m... Read more »
A Year of Innovation with NEAT Fusion
As we approach the end of 2024, NEAT Gates celebrates a landmark year of innovation, marked by the success of NEAT Fusion – a cutting-edge, one-piece, easy-install automated gate... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
FILMMAKERS FOLLOW THE MONEY
WHOEVER LANDS the arts gig in Enda Kenny’s limbo government will be faced with plenty of begging bowls and nowhere more so than the movie sector, where, for example, the... Read more »
DISHARMONY FOR ROYALTY AGENCIES
INTERESTING to see two of the music royalty agencies facing off over the proper amounts due to performers and record labels. Record Artists Actors and Performers (RAAP) has struck a... Read more »
Sport of Kings
DECLARED RUNNERS?
A COUPLE of names of ‘runners’ were on the lips of members of the board of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for similar reasons this month. First up is the name... Read more »
PROFITS UP, STALLIONS DOWN
IT’S BEEN a rather mixed month at the Irish National Stud. Barely a week after announcing significant revenue and profit increases for its 2015 business, chief executive John Osborne had... Read more »
LYONS ROAR
DUNDALK Racecourse is largely viewed as a well run, progressive enterprise that has become a useful cog in the racing wheel, especially to middle-tier trainers and jockeys, as it provides... Read more »
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
SOME PEOPLE clearly love their job. Take, for example, bookmaker David Power, one of the founders of Paddy Power and father of the company’s spokesman of the same name. The... Read more »
Reviews
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? – GATE THEATRE
OF ALL Irish theatres, the Gate boasts the most predictable programme, keeping its dedicated clientele entertained with a stable of reliable revivals. Now director Michael Colgan has broadened his mid-century... Read more »
WRECKING THE RISING – TG4
WITH centenary programmes now linking arms across the schedules, this three-part bilingual series (produced by Tile Films) was a TG4 project to mark the Easter Rising. Among the familiar ‘TV... Read more »
TRIAL OF THE CENTURY – TV3
SHOWN LAST weekend over three consecutive nights (to coincide with the anniversary of Pádraig Pearse’s execution), TV3’s take on the centenary commemoration imagined an Ireland in which the rebel leader... Read more »
Moneybags
Tuning in and out of Wireless Group
FANS OF Moneybags will recall (see The Phoenix Annual 2015) that the launch of the new TV station, UTV Ireland, at the beginning of... Read more »
Vultures profit from Nama strategy
WITH Nama about to flog off two further Irish portfolios – Project Emerald and Project Ruby, with a nominal value of €4.7bn – Nama’s... Read more »
Gold – Uncertainty and Your Business
Have you ever considered holding gold as part of your business’s portfolio? It’s not that surprising if you haven’t, but it’s also not surprising that an increasing number of... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
Francesca’s De Cataldo’s Accounting Troubles
GOLDHAWK’S favourite Italian import Francesca De Cataldo might be in another spot of bother. New accounts filed by the glamorous interior designer’s Sundogs Rock Productions company show that the business... Read more »
Nick O’Connor’s Knack for Trouble
IT will be three strikes and you’re out for a Wexford accountant, who in 2015 pleaded guilty to four counts of theft against a client. Last week, Nicholas ‘Nick’ O’Connor,... Read more »
Scruffy’s Feeling A Bit Rough
SHUTTERED Dublin boozer Scruffy Murphy’s was the subject of a morning raid by the Dublin Sheriff’s Office two weeks ago. The after-work favourite is on the market for €1m, but... Read more »
Stewart Doyle’s Pen Pal
WHILE ex-Nama executive Enda Farrell is awaiting sentencing for leaking confidential information from the bad bank to companies, one name that keeps popping in relation to the ‘bad banker’ is... Read more »
David Pratt’s Bad News
THERE WAS a setback last month for David Pratt, the squire of Hampton House, when one of his main operations was placed into receivership by vulture fund Lone Star. He... Read more »
Pamela’s Letter
WHAT an angry letter The Irish Times published last week from a Pamela Kearns, Templeogue, who railed furiously against the notion of a left alternative government based on Sinn Féin... Read more »
Credit Review: Helping Irish Businesses Secure Credit
Recent economic surveys indicate that Irish SMEs are positive about the future, with more than two-thirds expecting sales to grow. To support their growth, many businesses will seek bank... Read more »
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