Affairs of the Nation

Jim O'Callaghan

Affairs of the Nation

FF JUDICIAL BLUNDER

A RAFT of ‘eminent’ figures made fools of themselves in the furore over the government’s Judicial Appointments Commission Bill in the past week, chief among them being justice minister Charlie... Read more »
OBrienDenis

Affairs of the Nation

DINNY’S SWORN ENEMY NO. 1

THERE HAVE been changes on the share register of Red Flag Consulting – Karl Brophy’s consultancy outfit that is locked in an expensive legal battle with Denis O’Brien. The good... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

CARROLL MacNEILL’S POLITICAL PEDIGREE

BARRISTER and author Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has been popping up a lot recently as a media commentator, with her latest outing in The Irish Times this week focusing on the... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Affairs of the Nation

ATTORNEY GENERAL’S BACKYARD

NEW Attorney General Seamus Woulfe has a rich legal and political background, having worked at the Beef Tribunal for then Labour TD Pat Rabbitte; acted for Fine Gael in its... Read more »
Jed Dowling

Affairs of the Nation

CORPORATE CASH BOOST FOR PRIDE COFFERS

GOLDHAWK was interested to see a reference in The Irish Times to a decision by Grant Thornton accountants to send over 100 members of staff to join a beaming Leo... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

CHRISTOPHER SINGH’S FIRE HAZARD

IN THE wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, fire safety issues have jumped to the top of the agenda and it was no surprise to see the High Court moving... Read more »
irish-times

Affairs of the Nation

Denis and Rupert

WHAT A strange gathering of characters ended up in the Shelbourne Hotel earlier this month paying homage to Rupert Murdoch who had been over to mark the launch of the... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Pillars of Society

Dee Forbes

THAT RTÉ should scoop €107.5m for its Montrose land bank and yet still be in financial straits says it all about the apparently insuperable... Read more »

The Young Bloods

The Young Bloods

Ciarán Garrett

CIARÁN GARRETT (26) represents a new generation of Labour Party personalities, seemingly untouched by the party’s recent history. A former chair of Labour Youth,... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Fit to Print?

BEEB MAN KICKS ASS IN RTÉ

BBC legend John Simpson once remarked that while RTÉ’s new managing director of news and current affairs, Scouser Jon Williams, was a top journalist and foreign editor, he was not... Read more »

Fit to Print?

O’BRIEN V KEAVENEY

DENIS O’Brien’s brief, Michael Cush SC, told the Court of Appeal last week that former Fianna Fáil TD Colm Keaveney’s Dáil speech criticising O’Brien in 2015 had not included any... Read more »
Leo Varadkar

Fit to Print?

Indo savages Varadkar

THERE is a distinct polarisation between The Irish Times and Irish Independent on new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with the Indo attacking him while the IT defended him last week over... Read more »

Last Refuge

Last Refuge

LEO VARADKAR’S DISAPPOINTED FANS

THE biggest blunderer among those involved in the 2010 heave against Enda Kenny was Kieran O’Donnell who, having been made finance spokesman by Kenny to replace rebel leader Richard Bruton,... Read more »

Last Refuge

CORK’S FOREIGN MINISTERS

THE axing of Dara Murphy, junior foreign minister for European affairs, is seen as the price he paid for supporting fellow Corkonian Simon Coveney against the new Taoiseach in the... Read more »
Frances Fitzgerald

Last Refuge

Vlad v. Martin

TÁNAISTE Frances Fitzgerald’s outrage at Micheál Martin’s criticism of Máire Whelan in the Dáil debate last week indicates the high regard the former justice minister has always had for the... Read more »
Enda Kenny

Last Refuge

ENDA KENNY’S NEXT MOVE

LEO VARADKAR’S parliamentary coup has resulted in competing demands from not just ambitious TDs but also senators and others looking for Dáil nominations and an interesting situation is developing in... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Mooning on The Mall A CASTLEBAR man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after baring his backside to gardaí in the foyer of the District Court. In February,... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Fowl Emissions

CLIMATE FRIENDLY LEO VARADKAR?

WITHIN hours of receiving his seal of office from Michael D Higgins, our new Taoiseach took the very deliberate step of publicly distancing himself from Enda Kenny’s (abysmal) record on... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Bird's Eye View

WHY SINN FÉIN WILL JOIN EXECUTIVE

SIMON COVENEY certainly got thrown in at the deep end in Belfast. His first response to the astonishingly brazen deal between the DUP and Conservative Party was limited and incoherent.... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

Maura King

Wigs on the Green

KING TAKES ON BAR COUNCIL

BANE of the legal establishment Maura King BL has launched her latest offensive against the Law Library bigwigs by standing in elections to the Council of the Bar of Ireland.... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

LITIGIOUS LEGAL EAGLES

JUNIOR vice-president of the Law Society James Cahill was a driving force behind the society’s volte face on Shane Ross’s judicial appointments bill which they decided to support – to... Read more »

Foreign Frolics

Foreign Frolics

MOVING CLOSER TO DOOM

by BRIAN CLOUGHLEY THE Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has warned that the likelihood of a nuclear war is closer than since 1953. As... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

The flat white is the coffee order du jour that places Miriam firmly in the now. She has the air and flair of a millennial … Sarah Caden interviews Miriam... Read more »

High Society

High Society

High Society

PETER GAYNOR’S GOOD DEAL

IT LOOKS like the hapless Olivia Gaynor Long has taken a serious bath in the Residence private members club at 41 St Stephen’s Green.... Read more »

High Society

High Society

PETER WHITE’S NEW NEIGHBOURS

AN IMPOSING late Georgian style house on the corner of Wellington Road and Elgin Road in the heart of Ballsbridge has just gone on... Read more »

High Society

High Society

JODIE RONAN’S NUPTIALS

NO SURPRISE to see the Sindo gushing about the wedding of Jodie Ronan – daughter of developer Johnny Ronan and Mary Ronan – to John Savage who, like his bride,... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

SARAH GLENNIE’S BIG PAY HIKE

THE NEW director of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Sarah Glennie, director of IMMA. Her decision to exit Kilmainham comes as something of a surprise given... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

UNION BATTLES ON FILM SITES

THERE HAS been an upping of the ante in the increasingly strained relations between film and TV producers and the union that represent the various categories of workers on often... Read more »
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Behind the Scenes

Closing Credits for Picture Palace

A LIQUIDATOR is to be appointed to Lelia Doolan’s Solas Galway Picture Palace Ltd next week, the firm behind that super expensive bijou art house cinema project. Eight years after... Read more »
Sean Rainbird (L)

Behind the Scenes

SEAN RAINBIRD’s contract

WHILE NCAD has been able to announced that it has a new director, there is still no word from the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) about its own director. With... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Sport of Kings

JUMPING THE QUEUE

THE RACE planning division of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has been under fire from some of Ireland’s leading flat trainers. Ger Lyons, Jim Bolger and Kevin Prendergast have joined together... Read more »

Sport of Kings

FRAN BERRY’S TOUGH TASK

IRISH JOCKEY Fran Berry faces an uphill challenge to reinvigorate his riding career with news that his brief tenure as stable jockey to trainer Ralph Beckett is coming to an... Read more »
horses

Sport of Kings

Philip Reynolds’s Roster

CHELTENHAM Festival winning owner Philip Reynolds has consolidated his roster of trainers with Curragh trainer Eddie Harty the major victim of the streamlining process. Harty has run four horses in... Read more »

Sport of Kings

VICHAI’S DEEP POCKETS

GOFFS hosted international racing’s plutocrats at The Orangery in Kensington Palace on the eve of Royal Ascot last week, when the firm offered around 20 horses for sale, many with... Read more »

Reviews

Reviews

RIVIERA – SKY ATLANTIC

THE NEW Sky Atlantic 10-part crime drama comes with impressive credentials. Created by Oscar winner Neil Jordan (who co-writes the first two episodes with John Banville), it’s based on an... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Moneybags

AIB‘s IPO flies despite serious question marks

GIVEN THAT the whole Irish and London financial establishment got its nose in the trough to benefit from the U50m in fees associated with... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Nama and the housing crisis

THE LATEST annual report for Nama refers to fanciful “profit” targets when the reality is that the bad bank is set to lose €39bn... Read more »

Brief Cases

Brief Cases

More heat for Houlihan Cushnahan

MORE on Houlihan Cushnahan, the embattled Dublin accountancy firm facing into strong headwinds on the legal front. Goldhawk spotted another interesting company that has lodged High Court proceedings against the... Read more »

Brief Cases

Paddy Cosgrave’s corruption crusade

GREAT to see Goldhawk’s old pal Paddy Cosgrave is back in town after taking his ball and going to Portugal a few years ago (see The Phoenix 09/10/15). Early last... Read more »

Brief Cases

Law Society’s Cork crackdown

TWO Co Cork legal eagles, Kieran Quill and Daniel Murphy, have been struck off the Roll of Solicitors after being found guilty of professional misconduct at their practices. Youghal solicitor... Read more »

Brief Cases

Daniel Coleman’s ‘procedural mishaps’

GOLDHAWK’s old pal, hapless solicitor Daniel Coleman, is back in the Four Goldmines to contest the 2011 High Court order that struck him off the Roll of Solicitors. The Mayo... Read more »
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Brief Cases

Insight’s tax troubles

INTERESTING to see Bellane Ltd, the entity behind south Dublin PR outfit Insight Consultants, named on the tax defaulters list earlier this week. The Sandyford operation was hit with a... Read more »