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The magazine with the Inside Stories
July 29 - August 11, 2016
Affairs of the Nation
JOINING NATO BY STEALTH
THE NATO summit in Poland this month was regarded as a key event in the US and European powers strategy of military expansion against Russia. That neither the Department of... Read more »
BAR COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S TAX BILL
THE NEW chairman of the Bar Council is Paul McGarry SC, a busy barrister who has made quite a name for himself. And a little run-in with the dreaded Revenue... Read more »
MOYA DOHERTY’S COMMISSIONS
THERE WAS plenty of coverage of the latest annual report from RTÉ published last week but not so much attention to the report of the Independent Productions Unit (IPU) which... Read more »
Apology
The Commissioner of an Garda Síochána, The Minister for Justice and Equality and the Attorney General and The Phoenix magazine Further to the settlement of Contempt of Court proceedings brought... Read more »
NOEL C DUGGAN’S LEGAL ACTION
NOEL C DUGGAN is getting as well known in the Four Goldmines as the showjumping world. He has just escalated his legal stand-off with the Show Jumping Ireland (SJI) and... Read more »
SINN FÉIN’S ‘TRANSITIONAL LEADERSHIP’
SINN FÉIN’S new 10-year plan, currently being put to members at meetings around the country, has yet to be fully decoded by the media. When the penny drops it will... Read more »
MAX BARRETT VS THE BAR COUNCIL
LAST WEEK’S ruling in favour of former judge Barry White, who was seeking to be allowed to practise as a barrister in courts lower than those he oversaw, has caused... Read more »
THE PERENNIAL ATTORNEY GENERAL
‘BAFFLEMENT’ is the overwhelming response to the failure of government to appoint Attorney General Máire Whelan, now into her second term as AG, to the Court of Appeal last week.... Read more »
VW in Mayo court
BALLYHAUNIS solicitor Evan O’Dwyer has giant multinational Volkswagen on the run in Castlebar District Court. The Mayo legal eagle has forced the car manufacturer to disclose a voluminous number of... Read more »
Pillars of Society
Paul Williams
CAN Paul Williams save Newstalk from disaster as Denis O’Brien’s station faces life without Ivan Yates, with George Hook heading towards the door and... Read more »
The Young Bloods
Brendan Griffin
Brendan Griffin (34) TD was the only Fine Gael backbencher to call openly for the resignation of Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the latest anti-Kenny... Read more »
Fit to Print?
MCD’s blacklist
IS Irish Independent feature writer and music critic John Meagher the latest disrespectful hack to fall foul of omnipotent music promoters MCD Productions? Goldhawk recently reported on how MCD blacked... Read more »
DEE FORBES’S GOODBYE KISS
RTE’S NEW director general Dee Forbes gave her “enormously talented” charges a corporate pep talk via a memo to staff when she landed at her desk a fortnight ago. But... Read more »
EOGHAN HARRIS HOUNDS HALAWA
AS IF Ibrahim Halawa, jailed for three years in Egypt without trial and facing a possible death penalty, had not enough to contend with, his release campaign has now been... Read more »
Last Refuge
FINE GAEL’S ELECTION POST MORTEMS
BRIAN HAYES is the most likely to be targeted in the two Fine Gael election post mortems – if they ever see the light of day. The first, initiated by... Read more »
ALAN KELLY RELOADED
ALAN AK47 KELLY has neither gone away nor been decommissioned and after a temporary ceasefire is firing off salvoes against the government in a bid to reassert himself again. But... Read more »
Renua’s money
RENUA HAS no TDs or senators but is being kept alive by state funds of €250,000 a year and is already making preparations to fund a full time party leader... Read more »
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S LONG-TERM GAME PLAN
FINE GAEL’S Brendan Griffin is not the only member of his party terrified of Fianna Fáil suddenly pulling the plug and racing to the country. Griffin exaggerated the danger in... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
‘Beyoncé could have slipped on her backside’ KILRUSH, Co Clare, has been buzzing with the rumour that Beyoncé was a recent guest to the area. Locals were convinced the singer... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
BREXIT IS BAD FOR THE PLANET
“A MORE flexible approach to environmental protection” – this Orwellian promise from UK farming minister George Eustice ominously sums up the likely direction of UK environmental policy post-Brexit. Eustice, a... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
PARAMILITARIES TO SCOOP £50 MILLION
AT THE beginning of July a memorial banner was hung from a pole in Dungannon extolling the murderous activities of Billy Wright, known as ‘King Rat’, a man generally held... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
“We don’t do Abba. We don’t do Robbie f*****g Williams. Brentwood, we are the Boomtown Rats. We are mega.” Bob Geldof fooling nobody at Brentwood gig, VIP Magazine, submitted by... Read more »
High Society
RENVILLE HOUSE’S NEW OWNER
THE NEW owner of Renville House on 130 acres outside Oranmore overlooking Galway Bay is burger and chips millionaire Pat McDonagh of Supermac’s fame. He lashed out €3.2m for the... Read more »
Colgan’s property pals
THE HIRING of the Gate’s Michael Colgan as an arts adviser by boom-time developer Sean Mulryan (who has now exited Nama) is the kind of move that suggests the old... Read more »
GREG BRODERICK’S CLEAR ROUND
SHOWJUMPING has been in the news thanks to the Irish Horse Show at the RDS but there has also been another story garnering attention in the media – the selection... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
FILLING THOSE TOP ARTS JOBS
WITH THE renewal of the contract of James Hickey as chief executive of the Irish Film Board (IFB) this month, a pattern is starting to emerge in the manner in... Read more »
NOW THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
THEY SAY “there’s no business like show business” and this is strongly supported by the latest healthy flow of public money into the coffers of the country’s mendicant film and... Read more »
Sport of Kings
‘RACING POST’ WINNER ALRIGHT
THE NEWS that the Racing Post has been sold to private equity company Exponent represents a big windfall for the various moneybags who came on board when the loans attached... Read more »
Jim BOLGER’S US friends
OVER THE last 10 years, Jim Bolger has generally relied on himself rather than outside owners to produce the raw material to train. But he has also shown quite a... Read more »
GILLIGAN VS THE BHA
PAUL GILLIGAN, the Galway-based trainer who sent out Bertie’s Dream to win at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010, is continuing to lock horns with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) over... Read more »
BRIAN KAVANAGH: WINNER ALRIGHT?
AS PREDICTED by Goldhawk (see The Phoenix 17/6/16), Brian Kavanagh has been reappointed chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland for third time, without any advertisement for the position. However the... Read more »
Reviews
SECOND CAPTAINS SUNDAY – RTÉ RADIO ONE
IN THIS latest version of their old Newstalk Off the Ball programme, presenters Eoin McDevitt, Ciarán Murphy and Ken Early aim to attract a wider weekend audience than traditional sports... Read more »
THE WEIR – PAVILION THEATRE
LOOKS LIKE Andrew Flynn is on to something. The Galway-based producer-director is wrapping up his first major show of 2016. As usual, it has been a national tour, this time... Read more »
THE PRIVILEGED – EMILY HOURICAN (HACHETTE IRELAND)
THIS DEBUT novel by Sindo hack Emily Hourican explores the lives of three female protagonists, focusing mainly on dysfunctional relationships between friends and lovers. Stella, Laura and Amanda have known... Read more »
Moneybags
More pain at Providence Resources
THE SHAREHOLDERS in Providence Resources had much to be annoyed about last year when a share placing caused significant damage to their investment. The March 2015 placing to raise a... Read more »
Moguls taking on Denis O’Brien
IT IS now much clearer what strategy was behind Eir’s decision to buy Setanta Sport. It was not just the building up of a better “quad play” – offering mainline... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
Michael O’Leary’s tax woes
SPARE A thought for Michael O’Leary (not that one) who just had a judgment for €54,000 registered against him by the Revenue in July. O’Leary, a Co Wexford-based accountant and... Read more »
Revenue gets tough with solicitors
THE REVENUE has registered judgments against no less than five solicitors since the start of June. The legal eagles will now have to explain themselves to the Law Society as... Read more »
Bad times get worse for O’Connor brothers
THERE WAS bad news in July for Kerry developers and builders WK O’Connor & Sons Ltd (WKOC) which had a receiver appointed to it on foot of eight Anglo Irish... Read more »
Solicitor Condon’s saga of litigation
DUBLIN solicitor John F Condon was the subject of a judgment by the president of the High Court, Judge Peter Kelly, last week, which provided an interesting insight into the... Read more »
Another bad day in court for Peter McCann
GOLDHAWK’S old pal Peter McCann had a rough day in court last week when the High Court upheld a ruling that he intended to defraud a solicitor out of €411,000.... Read more »
Some good news for Peter Lavelle
CONGRATULATIONS to property investor and financial markets trader Peter Lavelle, who had a great day in the High Court last week in front of Judge Marie Baker. A Luxembourg-controlled vulture... Read more »
DELANEY SECURES SPONSORSHIP DEAL FOR FAI
ENDA’S NEW JOBS
PWC’S CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL RECOMMENDATIONS
TEST CASES FOR FAST-TRACK DIVORCE
MEDICAL MATTERS
