Affairs of the Nation

Paul Kehoe

Affairs of the Nation

OPERATION SOPHISTRY AND NEUTRALITY

Paul Kehoe AS cynical political manoeuvres go, the government’s co-option of Ireland’s defence forces into Operation Sophia – touchingly named after a baby born on a German frigate in the... Read more »
Claire Loftus

Affairs of the Nation

THE CASE AGAINST DPP CLAIRE LOFTUS

Claire Loftus SPARE A thought for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Claire Loftus, who finds herself targeted publicly in a way her predecessors never were. Just over half way... Read more »
Trina Vargo

Affairs of the Nation

TRINA VARGO’S VENGANCE

Trina Vargo “MY EXPERIENCES with the Irish Film Board (IFB) are kind of like James Comey’s experiences with President Trump – I’ve learned to take notes in the meetings, or... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Kieran Mulvey

Affairs of the Nation

KIERAN MULVEY’S FANCY FOOTWORK

Kieran Mulvey A RULING by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that the Irish governing body for tennis – Tennis Ireland (TI) – discriminated against an applicant for the post of... Read more »
Dermot-Desmond

Affairs of the Nation

Plutocrats’ Pow-Wow

Dermot Desmond MORE ON that strange plutocrats’ pow-wow at Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel last month, when Rupert Murdoch was in town for the launch of the Irish edition of The Times... Read more »
Ruairi Quinn

Affairs of the Nation

QUINN NOW HEADS EURO QUANGO

Ruairi Quinn CHAIRMAN of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Brendan Halligan (81), has moved aside and has been bestowed with the more honorific title of president of... Read more »
Lisa Chambers

Affairs of the Nation

FF’s Friendly Faces

Lisa Chambers THERE have been silly season rumblings against FF’s communications director, Pat McParland. A particular grievance is the selection by McParland, guided by the real boss, Deirdre Gillane, of... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Susan Denham

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: SUSAN DENHAM

Susan Denham AS SHE heads into bucolic retirement, Chief Justice Sue Denham will have ample time to enjoy the “horses and gardens” she once... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Dave Murphy

The Young Bloods

Young Blood: Dave Murphy

Dave Murphy SOLIDARITY press officer Dave Murphy (34) is the most dangerous man in Ireland, or so the Dublin media would have you believe.... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Paul Williams

Fit to Print?

PAUL WILLIAMS IN THE BOX

Paul Williams THE Sunday Independent’s extensive feature on Paul Williams’ evidence to the Charleton Tribunal described how the ”pre-eminent crime journalist of his time … gave as good as he... Read more »
Brendan O'Connor

Fit to Print?

Brendan O’Connor for TV3?

Brendan O’Connor THE personalities mentioned as successor to Vincent Browne’s TV3 programme have ranged from Ivan Yates to Matt Cooper and the venerable David Davin Power. But TV3 heads Bill... Read more »
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Fit to Print?

TRIBUNAL WITNESSES

TRIBUNAL chairman Mr Justice Charleton made a most significant statement about the motivation of witnesses when it was suggested by Paul Williams’ barrister Rossa Fanning that former Irish Independent journalist... Read more »

Last Refuge

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy

Last Refuge

BIPARTISAN DRINKS PARTIES

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy THE alacrity with which Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voted through a bill allowing pubs to open on Good Fridays contrasts with the interminable obstruction that has... Read more »
Noel Rock

Last Refuge

VARADKAR’S DISAPPOINTED FANS

Noel Rock FURTHER signs of mutinous discontent among the ranks of those who fought not wisely but too well in support of Leo Varadkar’s seizure of the Fine Gael leadership... Read more »
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Last Refuge

Colm Keaveney’s Return

FIANNA FÁIL’S Galway East TD Anne Rabbitte felt a slight chill when party leader Micheál Martin told Galway Bay FM last week that former TD Colm Keaveney would be on... Read more »
Stephen Donnelly

Last Refuge

STEPHEN DONNELLY IRKS FF INSIDERS

Stephen Donnelly STEPHEN DONNELLY, who recently joined Fianna Fáil and was appointed the party’s Brexit spokesman, is experiencing a rather mixed welcome. A waspish line in Miriam Lord’s Irish Times... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

‘Silly lady’ drenches little girl A 63-YEAR-OLD Ratoath woman pleaded guilty to assault in Trim District Court after drenching her neighbour’s three-year-old daughter with a garden hose. Karen Beattie of... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Emmanuel Macron

Fowl Emissions

VARADKAR IS NO MACRON

Emmanuel Macron A “fundamental societal transformation”. With these words, on the first page of his Government’s (very) long-awaited National Mitigation Plan (NMP) on climate change, published last week (July 19),... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Bird's Eye View

GOVE’S DUP LOVE-IN

Michael Gove THE visit of Michael Gove, Britain’s controversial Environment Secretary, to one of the north’s premier agricultural shows at Antrim was for some people akin to letting a fox... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

Maura King

Wigs on the Green

Paul McGarry v Maura King

Maura King THE poll topping performance of dissident barrister Maura King who argued for greater transparency and accountability in recent elections to the Bar Council saw the Good Ol’ Boys... Read more »
Denis O'Brien

Wigs on the Green

WILL DINNY GO FOR BROKE?

Denis O’Brien NEXT MONTH’S annual general meeting of Independent News and Media (INM) will be a bumpy affair and awkward questions will be unavoidable on issues such as that bid... Read more »

Foreign Frolics

Donald Trump

Foreign Frolics

THE STORY BEHIND THE JERUSALEM ATTACK

Donald Trump By Ramzy Baroud Al-Aqsa is believed to be the second mosque ever to be built, the first being Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. The Holy Quran mentions it as the... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Colm Toibin

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

Colm Toibin The page is not a mirror. It is blank when I start to write, but it contains a version of the world when I finish. It is there... Read more »

High Society

David and Sabena Power

High Society

Dave Power’s Curragh bet

David and Sabena Power INTERESTING to see money-bags bookmaker David Power, who holds a valuable stake in the Paddy Power Betfair group, deciding to pump some loose change into the... Read more »
Domhnal Slattery

High Society

Dómhnal Slattery’s des res

Domhnal Slattery THESE ARE busy times for aviation millionaire Dómhnal Slattery of Avolon aircraft leasing. The moneybags is preparing to move into Ouragh, the Shrewsbury Road pile previously occupied by... Read more »
Kate Hyde

High Society

KATE HYDE’S HAPPY PARTNERS

Kate Hyde CONGRAULATIONS to Kate Hyde, the woman behind the high profile henparty.ie brand, who was the first Irish businesswoman to be invited to Dell’s global Women’s Entrepreneur Network summit... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Theo Cullinane

Behind the Scenes

BLACK HOLE BY THE LEE

Theo Cullinane WHAT ON earth is going on at the proposed Cork Event Centre? The construction company charged with the delivering the 6,000-seat venue, BAM (where Theo Cullinane is chief... Read more »
Rose Mchugh

Behind the Scenes

ROSE MCHUGH’S PRIORITIES

Rose Mchugh THE NEW chair of the Crawford Art Gallery, accountant Rose McHugh, has plenty on her plate in Cork where the retirement of Peter Murray has left a gaping... Read more »
Miriam Allen

Behind the Scenes

GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THE IFB

Miriam Allen IT WAS announced last week that Annie Doona’s Irish Film Board (IFB) is introducing assorted funding schemes that can be accessed only by women. But it turns out... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Denis Hogan

Sport of Kings

HOGAN’S WISHFUL WINNINGS

Denis Hogan THE APPEALS and Referrals division of the Turf Club has had a busy month as the robustness of rule 212 has been tested recently by trainer Denis Hogan.... Read more »
horses

Sport of Kings

RONNIE WOODS’S NEXT HIT?

ALL ROADS lead to Ballybrit this week as the seven-day bonanza for the Galway Races. It will be interesting to see how Dermot Weld and Tony Martin fare on the... Read more »
Henry de Bromhead

Sport of Kings

DRAMA AT KILLARNEY

Henry de Bromhead KILLARNEY’S summer festival provided its share of drama, with the penultimate race declared void after Stars Over The Sea was deemed to have been allowed a headstart... Read more »
Caravaggio

Sport of Kings

EVEREST TOO STEEP FOR ‘CARAVAGGIO’?

Caravaggio JOHN MAGNIER has gone on public record over Coolmore’s great white hope, Caravaggio, potentially serving as a much needed breeding outcross to the harem of blue-blooded Galileo mares the... Read more »

Reviews

Reviews

All sizzle, no steak at the Gate

FEW SHOWS in Irish theatre have prompted as much anticipation as Gatsby at the Gate. The story of the 1920s millionaire playboy in New York, whose wealth and generous decadence... Read more »

Books

THE BLOOD MIRACLES – LISA McINERNEY (JOHN MURRAY)

THE FOLLOW-UP to Lisa McInerney’s award-winning 2015 debut, The Glorious Heresies, returns to the adventurous life of Ryan Cusack. The 20-year-old “mid-ladder dealer” is now struggling to maintain his uneasy... Read more »

Movies

PILGRIMAGE – DIRECTED BY BRENDAN MULDOWNEY

THE MEDIEVAL thriller Pilgrimageí opens with a scene that could be read as a metaphor for the cinemagoer who frequents Irish films, as a man is hauled out into the... Read more »

Moneybags

Pat O'Sullivan

Moneybags

The battle for Conroy Gold

Pat O’Sullivan IT IS an unusual scenario to have an ex-professor of physiology running a gold mining company, especially given that Dick Conroy is... Read more »

Moneybags

Bob Etchingham

Moneybags

Applegreen fuels share price growth

Bob Etchingham EVEN THOUGH Applegreen floated off in July 2015, raising e95m in fresh equity, it is still unclear what happened in December 2013... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Paul Stenson

The Hot Water Brigade

Paul Stenson’s bad reviews

Paul Stenson THIN-SKINNED restaurant proprietor Paul Stenson is generating plenty of publicity of the wrong sort for his café in Phibsboro, D7, after becoming embroiled in an online spat with... Read more »
Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

The Hot Water Brigade

Leo Sherlock’s libel woes

Leo Sherlock GREAT to see Goldhawk’s old pal Leo Sherlock back in the news after his two copyright rows were settled in Ardee District Court earlier this month. But the... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Huibrecht Luykx’s “lifestyle”

PJ Lynch SPARE a thought for Goldhawk’s old pals Belgian-Irish businessman Huibrecht Luykx and his wife Sally Ann Luykx who have been restricted in the High Court from acting as... Read more »
Jay Bourke

The Hot Water Brigade

Jay Bourke’s Shebeen hangover

Jay Bourke DUBLIN restaurateur Jay Bourke had a bad day in the High Court courtesy of Judge Robert Haughton. Bourke was disqualified from acting as a company director for eight... Read more »
Paddy Holohan (Left)

The Hot Water Brigade

Paddy Holohan’s “Staffing issue”

Paddy Holohan (Left) CONGRATULATIONS to former Dublin UFC fighter Paddy Holohan, who is opening up his brand new Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gym, SBG Dublin 24, next week. Fans will... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

Niall Sullivan’s failure to file

SPARE a thought for retired accountant Niall Sullivan who was fined €4,000 and ordered to pay €3,500 in costs by the disciplinary tribunal of Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI). UK-based Sullivan... Read more »
Aussie BBQ

The Hot Water Brigade

Burnt BBQ

Aussie BBQ BAD news for fans of the trendy Aussie BBQ restaurant on South Richmond Street in D2 where the High Court has appointed Miles Kirby as liquidator on foot... Read more »