Affairs of the Nation

Mary Lou McDonald

Affairs of the Nation

TÁNAISTE MARY LOU?

POST general election speculation has centred on whether Fianna Fáil can overtake Fine Gael (unlikely), but the real question is whether either party is able to do a deal with... Read more »
Stephen Rae

Affairs of the Nation

JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE PARANOID…

ONE standout irony amid the welter of allegations disgorged daily from the INM imbroglio is the surveillance paranoia that has seized executives at Independent House. As reported, in May 2015... Read more »
Alan Fitzpatrick

Affairs of the Nation

IN PURSUIT OF FILMBASE

WITH TOM Murray having now been appointed liquidator of the film resource organisation Filmbase, focus now turns to the inevitable fallout. Documents released to Goldhawk reveal that the organisation’s prime... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Dolours Price

Affairs of the Nation

VERY ‘HOT’ IRA DOCUMENTARY

THE ghost of Jean McConville, murdered by the IRA in 1972, surfaced again at the recent Hot Docs film festival in Toronto with a screening of the film I, Dolours,... Read more »
Ed Guiney

Affairs of the Nation

CALMLY DOES IT FOR ED GUINEY

CONGRATULATIONS to Goldhawk’s favourite film producers, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, who have added another string to their bow by tapping a fund that nobody else appeared to know had... Read more »

Pillars of Society

John McGuirk

Pillars of Society

JOHN McGUIRK

John McGuirk has three weeks to convince an increasingly liberal Irish electorate to save the 8th Amendment. The professional political animal – whose chequered... Read more »

The Young Bloods

James Lawless Junior Minister

The Young Bloods

JAMES LAWLESS TD

AS ELECTION fever gathers pace and with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil increasingly sparring off each other, Mícheál Martin is casting a worried eye... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Colm Keaveney

Fit to Print?

KEAVENEY V IRISH TIMES

PRESS Ombudsman Peter Feeney is refusing to deal with ex-TD Colm Keaveney’s complaint against The Irish Times coverage of his travails and truce with Denis O’Brien. O’Brien dropped his libel... Read more »
Ian Hyland

Fit to Print?

IAN HYLAND’S GHOST ADVISERS

IAN HYLAND’S most impressive “advisory board” on his newly created PR firm, Principal Communications (PC), seems to have disappeared just weeks after it was announced. PC declared the elite group... Read more »

Last Refuge

Phil Hogan

Last Refuge

HELPFUL HOGAN’S EU REAPPOINTMENT

IRELAND’S EU commissioner, Big Phil Hogan, appears to have his second term on the commission wrapped up following a two-years courtship of Leo Varadkar during which the grizzled political veteran... Read more »
Fergus Finlay

Last Refuge

FERGUS FINLAY’S FUTILE FANTASIES

FERGUS FINLAY received a pointed riposte from President Michael D Higgins to his bombastic yet crafty statement that his presidency would be quite different to that of Michael D’s. Fungus... Read more »
Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

Last Refuge

SINN FÉIN V NAUGHTEN

SINN FÉIN’S move against communications minister Denis Naughten is clever as it stops short of a vote of no confidence but keeps the pressure on the minister and government. But... Read more »
Shane Ross

Last Refuge

FINE GAEL GOES FOR SHANE ROSS’S THROAT

THE Greek chorus that most of the media has become in Fine Gael’s campaign against Shane Ross has gone into overdrive again. Independent Alliance members believe FG wants to split... Read more »

Hush Hush

Stephen Travers

Hush Hush

MIAMI SHOWBAND GERMAN CLUE

Does a rare German World War II ‘KM’ watch hold vital clues to the Miami Showband massacre? There are clear indications that this same type of watch was left behind... Read more »

Fowl Play

Paddy Jackson

Fowl Play

AFTER PADDY JACKSON AT ULSTER

DESPITE THE successful stage management by the IRFU of the “joint Ulster Rugby and IRFU” Jackson/Olding contract review, Ulster Rugby’s grim tide has been flowing back down the M1 and... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

“Do your fucking job!” A KERRYMAN has been jailed for two months at Tralee District Court for assaulting a Tesco employee while on a suspended sentence. Trevor Wall, 22 Woodvale,... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Denis Naughten

Fowl Emissions

WHAT SHELL KNEW

When Shell took over Corrib Gas in 2002, it surely did not foresee the resistance that would delay the project for more than a decade, nor imagine that 16 years... Read more »
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Fowl Emissions

DENIS NAUGHTEN’S COFFEE BREAK

Denis Naughten had a lot on his mind recently, with the fuss over his call with an INM lobbyist, but that doesn’t excuse his strange decision to exempt “compostable” coffee... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Arlene Foster

Bird's Eye View

BREXIT POISONS BODY POLITIC

IT’S A sign of how far apart the two main parties in the north are that Northern Secretary Karen Bradley didn’t even get them into the same room last week... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

The delights of Venice

Wigs on the Green

SEE VENICE AND DINE

LEGAL EAGLES in the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association (DSBA) take their annual conferences seriously and there is none of the raucous, time-consuming wrangling over motions, amendments and angry debate that... Read more »
Modigliani - Nu cote

Wigs on the Green

ANOTHER BUM DEAL FOR THE TAXPAYER

Nu couché (Sur le côté gauche) by Amedeo Modigliani, which is to be auctioned this month in New York for an estimated $150m, having previously been loaned to the National... Read more »

High Society

Danielle Ryan and Richard Bourke

High Society

DANIELLE’S PLOT SPOILER

IN THE latest list of films supported by the Irish Film Board (IFB) one production – Trade from Marcie Films Ltd – landed a handy extra €100,000 on top of... Read more »
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High Society

BIG PLANS FOR WESTPORT HOUSE

INTERESTING to see the extent of the plans being drawn up by Cathal, Owen and Harry Hughes, principal owners of Westport House since last year’s surprise purchase. Westport House was... Read more »
Grainne Ross

High Society

NO DANCING AT THE DYLAN

ONE OF the more high profile celebrity haunts in Dublin 4 is the “boutique” Dylan Hotel off Upper Baggot Street, developed in the good times by property moguls and ‘Maple... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Sheila Pratschke

Behind the Scenes

SHEILA PRATSCHKE’S WONDERFUL LIFE

LAST MONTH Arts Council chair Sheila Pratschke gave a lengthy interview to The Irish Times but what was most interesting was what was not mentioned – the small matter of... Read more »
Cathy Brady

Behind the Scenes

BACK ON THE GRAVY TRAIN

FOLLOWING HOT on the heels of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s hand-out to the TV production sector comes the release by Annie Doona’s Irish Film Board of its first quarter... Read more »
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Behind the Scenes

THE PROJECT’S MURAL

IT MAKES a change to see the Project Theatre making headlines. Not surprisingly perhaps, the media interest was caused not by something staged in the theatre but instead by a... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Barry Geraghty

Sport of Kings

WINNERS AND LOSERS AT PUNCHESTOWN

THE PUNCHESTOWN festival was always going to be exciting this year with the Willie Mullins/Gordon Elliott head-to-head dominating the build-up but Paul Townend did his bit to add extra drama... Read more »
Con Marnane

Sport of Kings

CON MARNANE’S BREEZE DOWN

FANS OF Goldhawk know of the trials and tribulations of the breeze up sales season and the perils of this sector were evident at the Craven Sale at Tattersalls in... Read more »
Willie McCreery

Sport of Kings

INGE D’HAESE’S ROUGH RIDE

VETERINARY officer of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) Inge D’Haese has ruffled feathers among the training ranks, in particular with a couple of well-known Curragh-based trainers. Ms D’Haese was... Read more »
Paul Hensey

Sport of Kings

PAUL HENSEY’S NEW GIG

FORMER CURRAGH Racecourse manager Paul Hensey has bounced back with a new gig after being squeezed out of his previous role when current chief executive Derek McGrath came on board... Read more »

Reviews

Silence Under a Stone

Books

SILENCE UNDER A STONE – NORMA MacMASTER (DOUBLEDAY IRELAND)

SET MOSTLY in the early 20th century in a remote and introspective Co Cavan, this slow-paced story centres on Harriet Campbell whose unfulfilled life is drawing to a close. After... Read more »
Dan Gordon

Reviews

ASSASSINS – GATE THEATRE

“EVERY NOW and then the country goes a little wrong,” says one of the classically understated line in Stephen Sondheim’s musical about the killers and would-be killers of US presidents.... Read more »
Eva Birthistle

Movies

THE DELINQUENT SEASON – DIRECTED BY MARK O’ROWE

ON THE face of it there’s not a lot wrong with The Delinquent Season, playwright Mark O’Rowe’s first film as a director, having previously written screenplays brought to the big... Read more »

Moneybags

Fiona Muldoon

Moneybags

FBD’S BONUSES AND DIVIDENDS NOT JUSTIFIED

IT IS a pity that Fiona Muldoon has resorted to accounting mechanisms at FBD Holdings. The various strategies make it very hard for investors to grasp what is actually going... Read more »
Gavin Slark

Moneybags

GRAFTON GROUP SHARES WEIGHED DOWN BY BREXIT

IN THE 40 years up to 2015, Mike Chadwick built up the Grafton Group to be at one stage the most successful builders merchants in Europe, while regularly forgoing the... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

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The Hot Water Brigade

Pat WHEELOCKS REDACTED DOCUMENT

AN ENLIGHTENING High Court judgment was published recently relating to Michael O’Leary (not that one) and his former business partner Pat Wheelock, who are being sued by US vulture fund... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

EUGENE McCOOL’S “SCURRILOUS” ALLEGATIONS

GOLDHAWK’s old pal Eugene McCool received a serious dressing down in the High Court last month, courtesy of Judge Seamus Noonan. The beak said that McCool had made a number... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

BON VOYAGE ATLANTIC PHILANTHROPIES

IT’S THE end of an era as the company behind Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies moves to wind itself up. Documents filed with the Companies Office reveal that Michael Sargent was... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

TAXMAN GROUNDS LEGAL EAGLES

SOLICITOR Cormac Lohan’s annus horribilis continues. The High Court has just ordered the winding up of his legal consultancy, Lohan Consulting Ltd, on foot of a petition by the Revenue,... Read more »
Lyvegame Logo

The Hot Water Brigade

ANTHONY MARTIN’S GAMING GAMBLE

AN INTERESTING little company called Lyvegame Ltd is facing a winding-up petition in the High Court on foot of an unpaid tax bill. The chief executive here turns out to... Read more »
Allirajah Subaskaran

The Hot Water Brigade

SUBASKARAN’S IRISH ANGLE

INTERESTING to see reports that telecoms giant and UK Conservative Party donor Lycamobile is being investigated for alleged money laundering and tax evasion in France. The company, owned by Sri... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

PETER GILBOURNE’S PERSONAL LOAN

SPARE a thought for veteran businessman Peter Gilbourne, who has just had a judgment for €100,000 registered against him by architect John Smyth. Gilbourne will be familiar to fans of... Read more »