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The magazine with the Inside Stories
Annual 2018
Affairs of the Nation
DR VARADKAR’S DILEMMA
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has been defended by his party colleagues as a doctor with experience of management practice in the health service after yet another PR howler attacking medics for... Read more »
MARKING DERMO’S CARD
WHAT AN extravagant splash the Sunday Business Post published on the “Billionaire investor. Media mogul. IFSC visionary… patriot and a fearsome litigant”, Dermot Desmond, last weekend. The massive, trillion-word feature... Read more »
ARAMARK RATTLED
Is food services giant Aramark starting to panic about the boycott of its cafes and restaurants by students at the University of Limerick (UL)? It certainly looks that way. The... Read more »
IVY’S PR BLITZ
SOME rather ingratiating advertisements appeared in the national dailies recently, thanking Irish customers of The Ivy restaurant, the ritzy eatery that opened in Dublin’s Molesworth Street in the summer. It... Read more »
LOVIN MEDIA’S SAUDI LOVE IN
Irish businessman Emmet O’Neill must be shocked at some of the articles being published by Lovin Saudi, a franchise of his Lovin Media Group. Lovin’s expansion into Saudi Arabia was... Read more »
LOST LEADER BRIAN HAYES
RICHARD BRUTON is the man that effectively blocked MEP Brian Hayes’s planned route back to the top in national politics. But judging by his recent remarks on Irish banks, the... Read more »
JOHN ARKINS’S HEADACHE
THE TIMING of Prime Time’s recent breathless exposé of the Irish film industry was less than perfect for the Irish Film Workers Association (IFWA), the ‘union’ that has been getting... Read more »
Pillars of Society
POSH BOY MURPHY’S NOBLESS OBLIGE
FOR ALL his Leo-style skinny neck ties and multifarious photo ops of him emerging à la the Man from Atlantis from muscle-rippling sea swims,... Read more »
Fit to Print?
PAUL WILLIAMS’S EXIT
NEWSTALK BREAKFAST’S joint host, Paul Williams, met with managing editor Patricia Monahan last Thursday and, following a fraught discussion, it was agreed that the next morning’s programme would be his... Read more »
EXITING THE INDO
TWO more INM executives shuffled off last week, both of whom held senior positions during recent convulsions at the group. Chief peoples officer Celine Doyle – who previously worked for... Read more »
MIRIAM’S MANY MEDIA FANS
RSVP magazine was back promoting Miriam O’Callaghan for all its worth this month, with the presenter splashed across the front page under the headline “Miriam – straight from the heart... Read more »
Last Refuge
MARTIN FLEES THE NORTH
ÉAMON Ó CUÍV and senator Mark Daly have been depicted as mavericks for endorsing Sorcha McAnespy, Independent councillor, as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the north’s local elections. But the... Read more »
FF DUBLIN EURO DOG FIGHT
TWO Fianna Fáil ‘names’ – Conor Lenihan and Barry Andrews – are jockeying for the party’s Dublin nomination for the European elections. However, they could both be eclipsed by the... Read more »
Hush Hush
FORENSIC PURSUIT OF DOWNEY
THE PSNI’s pursuit of John Downey contrasts with its failure to hunt down those who committed a raft of serious crimes in the same historic period. Especially when it is... Read more »
SHARON BANNERTON’S NEUTRALITY
THERE HAS not been much love shown by the media to presidential runner-up Peter Casey. Even the normally cuddly Ryan Tubridy got his claws out for the interview on The... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
DUP VS THERESA MAY
“COME YE out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing.” St Paul’s injunction from Corinthians was Paisley’s guiding text that led him to establish... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
Good luck getting me out of this skirt! I can only imagine how cringe it looks when I make Spencer take these pictures of my outfit. Hopefully nobody ever catches... Read more »
High Society
PATRICK DORAN’S HIGH RAILINGS
SOON-TO-BE resident of Shrewsbury Road in the heart of D4, packaging moneybags Patrick Doran, has just suffered a setback for his plans to install “overly high” railings and gates to... Read more »
JUDY WOODWORTH’S GOOD AND BAD NEWS
THERE WAS bad news last week when Wicklow County Council shot down a proposal from the Judy Woodworth-chaired Alfred Beit Foundation (ABF) to convert two outbuildings at Russborough House in... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
AFTER FILMBASE IN TEMPLE BAR
THE APPLICATIONS are in from arts organisations seeking to move their headquarters to the cultural hub that is Dublin’s Temple Bar. The prize is the old Filmbase offices on Curved... Read more »
REPLACING JOHN MCAULIFFE
AFTER FIVE years, John McAuliffe has finished his term as a member (and deputy chair) of the Arts Council. This is the start of a period of regime change on... Read more »
SOAKING UP THOSE FILM FUNDS
ANNIE DOONA’S Screen Ireland posted its third-quarter funding allocations last week. As with every round, there is the usual, dominant set of recipients, the established companies that soak up much... Read more »
Sport of Kings
LUKE COMER’S COLTS
LUKE COMER’S long-running quest to train a winner continues, but the developer has upped his game recently, spending freely on fresh blood. At the Tattersalls Horses In Training sale recently,... Read more »
WHIPPING UP A STORM
AS ANIMAL rights escalate further up the agenda, it looks like racing’s culture is going to have to get its house in order. The use of the whip has always... Read more »
ELLIOTT BACKS SAMCRO
SO, WHAT to do with Samcro? Hailed by Davy Russell last year as the second coming, trainer Gordon Elliott fanned the flames of the horse’s reputation any time he spoke... Read more »
Moneybags
MONEYBAGS PROFILE: GENE MURTAGH
GENE MURTAGH is chief executive of one of Ireland’s most dynamic companies of recent time – Kingspan. Although he is only 47, he has been in situ as CEO for... Read more »
MONEYBAGS PROFILE: EUGENE MURTAGH
EUGENE MURTAGH’S story features an incredible rise to the big time, taking place mostly off the radar (no honorary doctorates for the media-shy Cavan man). Those who have backed him... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
SEAN LYNCH TACKLES THE ‘IRISH TIMES’
INTERESTING to see that the Irish Times is being sued by a popular Dublin 2 pub. The Swan Bar on Aungier Street and its owners – Sean and his son,... Read more »
TAXMAN LOCKS ON TO BASTA
MORE headaches for the team behind Sligo lock and door manufacturing plant Basta Parsons Ltd, with the taxman filing a winding-up petition. This follows the company’s appointment of an examiner.... Read more »
ADRIAN BLANC’S BILL
SPARE a thought for Foxrock businessman Adrian Blanc, who has just been whacked by vulture fund Launceston to the tune of €2.3m. Blanc (also known as Adrian Le Blanc) and... Read more »
TRIBUNAL GROUNDS LEGAL EAGLES
A COUPLE of troubled legal eagles have found themselves on the wrong side of the Law Society again. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has censured and fined Limerick City solicitor Christoper... Read more »
MARTIN REASSURES THE PEOPLE
OLD TESTAMENT TIME
SUMMER READS – PHIL BOOK RECOMMENDS 5O MUST-READ TITLES
DEAR DIARY…
