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January 27 - February 9, 2017
Affairs of the Nation
BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH
ONE of the most skilful tactics Enda Kenny has deployed in retaining his leadership is that of presenting continuous staging posts – the budget, the upcoming St Patrick’s Day meeting... Read more »
Sean Lyons’s Doomsday Challenge
A COMPANY with the interesting name of Doomsday Challenge has just been restored to the register by the High Court, presumably in connection with proceedings lodged against it by one... Read more »
LAURA MAGAHY’S HEALTHY CONTRACTS
Mary Mitchell O’Connor and Laura Maghahy GOLDHAWK’S old friend, Laura Magahy, found herself back under the spotlight last week after a number of years in which she managed to keep... Read more »
THE RACE TO SUCCEED PAT HICKEY
WHILE THERE has been much talk of a changing of the guard at the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), next month’s election of a new president could yet see the... Read more »
Peter Prendergast’s prescriptions
WITH THE Christmas festivities fading into the memory, eager members of the public have turned to diets, gyms and purification regimes and there is presumably less call for the cocktail... Read more »
FROM TV3 TO LAGOS
THE mystery surrounding Andrew Hanlon’s sudden departure from his job as TV3 director of news, a post he occupied since the station was launched in 1998, is easily explained. Hanlon... Read more »
RONAN CAVANAGH’S GOALS
IT WAS interesting to see An Post in the headlines the same week as the deadline for the filing of returns by lobbyists. One of those who turns out to... Read more »
Pillars of Society
BRENDAN OGLE
BRENDAN OGLE is a dangerous man. You can tell that from the media reaction to the Ogre’s leadership role in the Apollo House homeless... Read more »
The Young Bloods
Leo Sherlock
Leo Sherlock, owner and publisher of The Liberal.ie, is enjoying a moment of notoriety. At a time when the alt-right and fake news phenomena... Read more »
Fit to Print?
IVAN YATES OFF AIR
THE return from his US sojourn of former minister, bookie and broadcaster Ivan Yates has not resulted in Denis O’Brien begging him to resume his post at O’Brien’s ailing Newstalk... Read more »
TK WHITAKER’S VIEW OF DENIS O’BRIEN
THE Sunday Independent wrote with typical hyperbole about recently deceased TK Whitaker, pointing out that he had been voted the greatest living Irish man of the 20th century and was,... Read more »
Damery dismisses apology
AN apology appeared in the Irish Examiner last week to Ciaran Damery for wrongly accusing him of the rather serious crime of involvement in the IRA killing of Detective Garda... Read more »
Last Refuge
SF LEADERENES
THE switch from South Armagh’s ex-IRA man Conor Murphy to health minister Michelle O’Neill as Sinn Féin’s chosen leader in Stormont, surprised everyone, including most SF members. The swift and... Read more »
ONE, TWO, THREE – BINGO!
A BRIEF but fascinating discussion at last week’s Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting has caused much anxiety among the party leadership and they fear the avenging crusader of new politics,... Read more »
FG DISMANTLING THEIR OWN BILL
FINE GAEL is playing a most insidious game with its own Alcohol Bill and is effectively caving in to the blitzkrieg of lobbying from the alcohol and retailers that has... Read more »
THE JEAN MONNET OF CASTLEBAR
MUCH wincing as well as suppressed giggling at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last week as junior minister for European affairs Dara Murphy delivered an uninhibited accolade to his... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
‘THE DPP can kiss the ring of my arse’ A 21-YEAR-OLD man appeared in Ennis District Court charged with assault causing harm following an alleged incident in the town in... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
DONALD TRUMP’S CLIMATE CREED
THE Trump presidency has become reality and with it eight years of American leadership on global efforts to curb the ever-worsening impacts of climate change have been eviscerated. This is... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
A ‘BRUTAL’ BAPTISM FOR O’NEILL
SINN FÉIN has shot the DUP’s fox. In the 2016 Assembly elections, Arlene Foster campaigned on the basis that a vote for the UUP was a vote for Martin McGuinness... Read more »
Wigs on the Green
THE QUEEN OF KING’S INNS
IF barrister Maura King’s elders and betters thought she was an irritable crank in her recent polemic against the Bar Council’s autocratic MO they got a rude awakening at the... Read more »
JAMES CAHILL’S LAW SOCIETY PROSPECTS
A RATHER unusual precedent has been set by the junior vice-president of the Law Society, Castlebar solicitor James Cahill, who has taken the society to the High Court. This follows... Read more »
Clerical Errors
BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE FOR FLANNERY?
REBEL CLERIC Fr Tony Flannery may have seriously miscalculated by defying a five-year-old Vatican ban on celebrating mass to mark his 70th birthday. Worse still, the Founding Father of the... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
From the real source of religion to the infinite reach of rock ‘n’ roll; from the puzzle of the human ‘I’ to the true meaning of money, John Waters speaks... Read more »
High Society
DOMINIC WEST’S TAX PLANNING
YET MORE confusion at Glin Castle in Co Limerick, where the on-again off-again boutique hotel concept could be back on the cards. There may even be a tax wheeze to... Read more »
Image magazine’s editorial strategy
INTERESTING TO see where the priorities lie at the glossy Image magazine these days. A Sunday Business Post interview with chief executive of Image Publications Ltd (IP) Clodagh Edwards revealed... Read more »
MAY FRISBY’S NEW RECIPE
AFTER 27 years of operating Pasta Fresca on Chatham Street in Dublin 2, May Frisby’s restaurant has served up the last bowl of spaghetti and shut its doors. This is... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
WHY FIACH IS SMILING
NOW THAT the Irish theatre industry’s annual navel-gazing exercise is just over a month away, it’s time to tally up the nominations for The Irish Times theatre awards. In that... Read more »
IRISH FILM BOARD’S LATEST AUDITIONS
AN ARTICLE earlier this month by Colm McCarthy in the Sindo characterising the Revenue’s Section 481 tax credit as grants will not have cheered the film industry’s players, accustomed as... Read more »
HEATHER’S ‘IMPLICIT POWER’
THE DECISION by arts minister Heather Humphreys to add a surrender letter signed by Pádraig Pearse to the register of cultural objects has been the subject of extensive legal discussion,... Read more »
Vacancies at the IMC
A YEAR after their terms expired, Heather Humphreys has advertised for applications to sit on the board of the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC). It is currently chaired by James Maguire,... Read more »
Sport of Kings
DAVID MULLINS EYES NEW PRIZE
LAST YEAR teenage jockey David Mullins became a household name To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber. Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as... Read more »
ANOTHER GOFFS DISPERSAL
GOFFS HAS landed some valuable coups in recent years by being chosen to handle not one but two major dispersals of world class bloodstock. And another tasty deal has now... Read more »
Justin Carthy’s new role
JUSTIN CARTHY, best known for being a bookie to the high rollers, has branched out into the role of bloodstock agent. Carthy recently came out on top in an online... Read more »
TURF CLUB TINKERING
WHAT AN eventful start to the year for the Turf Club, where the rules are changing but the legal eagles still look likely to earn a few bob. Last year’s... Read more »
Reviews
DANCING WITH THE STARS – RTÉ ONE
THE NEW centrepiece of RTÉ One’s weekend schedule is a fluffy light entertainment effort filled with shameless attention seekers – and no, it’s not The Week In Politics. Rather, it’s... Read more »
Books
LYREBIRD – CECELIA AHERN (HARPERCOLLINS)
SINCE WRITING PS I Love You in 2004, Cecelia Ahern has had extraordinary success and there is no doubt that her 14th novel will be eagerly welcomed by her many... Read more »
Moneybags
Paddy Coveney rolls the dice at Greencore
THERE ARE some troubling aspects to Greencore’s $751m (€700m) acquisition of the American Peacock Foods convenience food group. It is not clear if this is a deal that fits with... Read more »
First Derivatives’ sky-high share rating
ONE OF Ireland’s more impressive but little reported success stories is the fast growing financial software house, First Derivatives (FD), set up by Brian Conlon in 1996 in Newry, Co... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
Workplace Relations Commission ‘grinding to a halt’
ALL IS not well at the new Workplace Relations Commission, according to a number of legal practitioners including Richard Grogan of Grogan & Associates Solicitors, a well regarded employment law firm. Recent public... Read more »
David Hughes’s timing issues
THE Courts Service last week published an intriguing judgment relating to liquidator David Hughes, who just before Christmas was ordered by the High Court to provide details of work he... Read more »
John Flanagan’s hotel woes
SPARE a thought for Doolin businessman John Flanagan who had a judgment for €62,000 registered against him by Clare County Council at the start of January. Flanagan has had a... Read more »
Legal eagle Madden’s tale of woe
GOLDHAWK’s old pal, former solicitor Paul Madden, is set for a stint in the slammer after he got three and a half years at Monaghan Circuit Court last week. The... Read more »
More headaches for John Condon
SPARE a thought for unlucky solicitor John Condon who had High Court proceedings lodged against him last week by the dreaded taxman. Condon, who is the principal at McMahon Tweedy... Read more »
A rough start to 2017
GOLDHAWK spotted a couple of interesting names and companies that have popped up in Stubbs Gazette since the start of 2017. Meath choreographer and dance teacher Niall Newman’s year got... Read more »
Taxman gets tough with Cork solicitors
GOLDHAWK’s old pals Michael and Seamus “James” Doody have fallen foul of the taxman again with the boys having identical judgments for €16,000 registered against them in early January. The... Read more »
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