Affairs of the Nation

Jared Kushner

Affairs of the Nation

COVENEY’S CAREFUL CHOREOGRAPHY

ALAN SHATTER’S predictable outburst against Simon Coveney on the Israel-Palestine issue will actually be welcomed by the foreign minister. Far from behaving like a “blundering rhino”, as Shatter put it,... Read more »
Robert Pitt

Affairs of the Nation

PITT’S HUNT FOR INM LEAKS

THE SHINE has come off former Independent News & Media (INM) chief executive Robert Pitt – the man who blew the whistle on INM’s trawl of journalists’ computers – as it... Read more »
Gretchen Mol

Affairs of the Nation

TROUBLE BREWING AT TROY STUDIOS?

IN FEBRUARY this year, culture minister Josepha Madigan was invited to a ‘do’ in the Merrion Hotel, Dublin, by Kim Harris, general counsel at US studio NBC Universal, to launch... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

DIVIDENDS AT GRAFTON COLLEGE

WHILE THE sudden closure of Grafton College English language school attracted plenty of media attention, little has been said about the operation behind the language school or the fact that... Read more »
Neale Richmond

Affairs of the Nation

COMMONWEALTH BLUES

AT THE height of the Brexit crisis, what are Fine Gael senators Neale Richmond and Frankie Feighan up to in their promotion of the Commonwealth? The two senators have organised... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

PHIL HOGAN V FRANCES FITZGERALD

SUCH IS the poll-induced hubris in Fine Gael, especially in Dublin, that party seniors are already divvying up and apportioning potential MEPs and even the EU commissioner’s job among various... Read more »
Dave Harmon

Affairs of the Nation

FF MAN TO SAVE MADAM MENG?

FORMER Fianna Fáil spin doctor Dave Harmon will surely be called on to provide political and diplomatic assistance to Ms Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.... Read more »
Osal Kelly

Affairs of the Nation

UNION FACTION FIGHTS

AN INTRIGUING political quarrel inside the country’s second-largest union, Fórsa, saw its youth wing, Fórsa Youth Network, closed down recently by the union’s bosses, pending its reconstitution (under much tighter... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

CHASING MICHAEL HEGARTY

FANS OF Goldhawk may have been a tad surprised to see East Cork Blueshirt county councillor Michael Hegarty pop up on a three-man panel on RTÉ’s Prime Time last week... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Eamon Ryan

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: EAMON RYAN

The world is waking up to climate change. The issue finally began coming up on doorsteps in 2018, according to TDs. Fears for our... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Lorraine Clifford Lee

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: LORRAINE CLIFFORD LEE

FIANNA FÁIL may be stuck consistently several points behind Fine Gael in the polls, but the party is sticking to its plan of pushing... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Emmet Oliver

Fit to Print?

‘BUSINESS POST’ COUNTER REVOLUTION

A QUIET coup appears to have taken place at the Sunday Business Post, with a purge of the editorial top brass and their replacement with a new, conservative officer class... Read more »
Martina Fitzgerald

Fit to Print?

MARTINA FITZGERALD’S BOOK

WAS IT Martina Fitzgerald’s book, Madam Politician, that jinxed the (former) RTÉ political correspondent, who lost her position last week? Certainly, Martina had a mensis horribilis right after the publication... Read more »
Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

‘IT’ OUTSIDER

HISTORIAN and Irish Times columnist Diarmaid Ferriter quoted Irish Times columnist Kathy Sheridan to buttress his Irish Times column heaping hyperbolic praise on Irish Times cartoonist Martyn Turner in the... Read more »

Last Refuge

Lisa Chambers

Last Refuge

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MUTINOUS MEMBERS

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin’s March reshuffle was intended to supplement and beef up his senior team, not to replace them. However, divisions about the confidence and supply deal with... Read more »
Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

Last Refuge

CHARLIE FLANAGAN’S TACTICS

JUSTICE MINISTER Charlie Flanagan’s passive-aggressive attitude to the Oireachtas in the matter of Shane Ross’s pet project, the Judicial Appointments Bill, seems to have veered towards the aggressive side recently.... Read more »
Tiernan Brady

Last Refuge

MARTIN’S UNWILLNG FAVOURITE

A CONVENTION to select Fianna Fáil’s Dublin candidate in the European elections is likely early in the New Year and is shaping up to be a battle between FF Old... Read more »
Michael Martin

Last Refuge

DE REAL LEADER IN CORK?

THE UNSP0KEN but very real tension between Fianna Fáil’s leader, Micheál Martin, and his constituency ‘colleague’, party finance spokesperson Michael McGrath, is about to be ignited in the upcoming convention... Read more »

Hush Hush

Michael Maguire

Hush Hush

ARRESTING THE MESSENGERS

DESPITE WORLDWIDE protests, Belfast-based journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney – arrested by paramilitary units of the PSNI in August – are still under investigation and subject to stringent travel... Read more »
Gemma O'Doherty

Hush Hush

GEMMA O’DOHERTY’S NEXT MOVE

HAS JOURNALIST Gemma O’Doherty, who failed to get a presidential nomination, begun planning for another shot in seven years? And has she decided that outflanking Peter Casey on the right... Read more »
Freddie Scappaticci

Hush Hush

MI5 SNUFF MOVIES

THE EXTREME porn conviction against Brit spy in the IRA, Fred Scappaticci, is a very public admission of defeat for Operation Kenova. In 2016, the PSNI invited the chief constable... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

A BRIDGE TOO FAR A MAN who fell off a bridge into the Garavogue river after getting drunk on a night out suffered enough punishment according to District Court judge... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

David Attenborough

Fowl Emissions

IRELAND’S CLIMATE WOODEN SPOON

AS A metaphor for the state of the global ‘response’ to climate change, the choice of Katowice as the venue for the UN’s 24th Conference of the Parties (COP) could... Read more »
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Fowl Emissions

MORE HOT AIR

While the young have done the least to cause the ecological crisis, their generation will suffer grievously as the climate hits the fan. In a first of its kind, last... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Jeremy Corbyn

Bird's Eye View

CORBYN AND THE DUP

THERE ARE truly astonishing times in British politics as the Conservative party tears itself asunder. This is not the first time, but it’s certainly the worst time. Ian Paisley Jnr... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Shane Ross

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

My own experience on the ground, weekly experience on the weekends, is that the fans are very enthusiastic about what the FAI are doing. They think the FAI are doing... Read more »

High Society

Gavin O'Reilly

High Society

GAVIN O’REILLY’S MALIBU MOVE

NO DOUBT Independent News & Media’s former CEO, Gavin O’Reilly, was paying close attention to the latest revelations about snooping at the troubled newspaper group, which emerged last weekend in... Read more »
Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

FINE AND DANDY AT BALLYHANE

LAST MONTH’S big foal sale by Goffs saw Ballyhane Stud – the Leighlinbridge stud operation owned by Joe and Jane Foley – spend a fair few bob. They can certainly... Read more »
Doireann Garrihy

High Society

ALL GO FOR THE GARRIHY GIRLS

WITH RTÉ aggressively promoting social media phenomenon Doireann Garrihy as its newest star property, it turns out that there is plenty to report about the very active and talented members... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Zoe Doyle

Behind the Scenes

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

THE PERIOD from mid-November through to mid-January is traditionally a nervy time for idle freelance workers in the film and TV business. There’s little production under way and a lot... Read more »
Josepha Madigan

Behind the Scenes

BUSY TIMES AT ANNAGH-MAKERRIG

EARLIER THIS year, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan spent a week at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (TGC) artists’ retreat to work on her proposed novel about... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

CURTIN CALL AT THE ABBEY

WHILE THE Abbey Theatre’s imported Christmas show, Come From Away, has attracted lots of pre-opening night publicity, one of the board members has decided to go away instead. Dónall Curtin... Read more »

Sport of Kings

JP McManus

Sport of Kings

MARK WALSH’S MISTAKE

MARK WALSH, the expected heir to the throne as number one jockey to JP McManus, was not the darling of punters recently after he gave his boss’s Gypsy Island a... Read more »
Mick Bailey

Sport of Kings

MICK O’LEARY’S CLEAN SWEEP

GIGGINSTOWN HOUSE Stud has taken more steps towards total domination of the jumps game in recent weeks. This was particularly evident when Michael O’Leary’s runners accounted for the first five... Read more »
Barry Connell

Sport of Kings

BARRY CONNELL’S BAD LUCK

BARRY CONNELL and his trainer, Alan Fleming, are finding winners scarce these days and it was presumably frustrating to be stripped of one they did have through no fault of... Read more »
John Butler

Sport of Kings

JOHN BUTLER’S BANJAXED HORSE

NEWMARKET-BASED Irish trainer John Butler has found himself in hot water with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), which has suspended his trainer’s licence for three months and fined him a... Read more »

Reviews

Jamie Dornan and Ann Skelly

Reviews

DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES – RTÉ1/BBC1

THIS IS the first television adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s critically acclaimed 1992 novel about treachery and deception in the 1880s border counties. The three-part series by Allan Cubitt, the writer-director... Read more »
Game Changer

Books

GAME CHANGER – CORA STAUNTON/MARY WHITE

IT HAS been a bumper year for sports autobiographies, with Andy Lee’s Fighter and Tony 10 by Declan Lynch and Tony O’Reilly leading the charge. Cora Staunton’s Game Changer –... Read more »
Pat Shortt

Movies

THE BELLY OF THE WHALE

THERE ARE several indicators that can alert the unwary to ‘troubled’ films in advance of paying money to see them in the cinema. There are too many writers on board;... Read more »

Moneybags

Donal Murphy

Moneybags

DCC’S UNNECESSARY PLACING HURTS SHAREHOLDERS

THE MARKET has recently seen two Irish companies raise bucketloads of cash in very different circumstances. Aryzta was in desperate need of funding and raised €800m by issuing shares at... Read more »
Edmond Scanlon

Moneybags

TASTY KERRY GROUP NEEDS TO SEPARATE INGREDIENTS

A YEAR into the job as CEO of Kerry Group, Edmond Scanlon must be a happy man. The share price is riding high and the food ingredients technology sector is... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Simone Rocha

The Hot Water Brigade

SIMONE ROCHA’S ‘NONLINEAR WAY’

THE CHRISTMAS shopping frenzy should help further boost the overflowing coffers of London-based fashion designer Simone Rocha (daughter of John and Odette Rocha). This is very much a family affair.... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

MARY ROBINSON’S ‘GOOD GOVERNANCE’

MARY ROBINSON has decided to step down from the board of her climate change foundation, where she was in situ for many years. The good news, however, is that she... Read more »
Aine Moriarty

The Hot Water Brigade

IFTA’S NEW STAR SIGNING

HAVING STARTED out this year staring down the barrel of the Revenue’s gun, Áine Moriarty and Deirdre Hopkins – the drivers of the annual IFTA film and TV awards –... Read more »
Ian Glass

The Hot Water Brigade

IAN GLASS’S TRACK RECORD

THE HIGH Court has ordered the liquidation of a Waterford company called Galmor Ltd, which previously published the free sheet Waterford Today. This title featured in one of the various... Read more »
Peter Gaynor

The Hot Water Brigade

PETER GAYNOR’S LONDON LIFE

NEXT WEEK the latest chapter in the Capital Foods group story will unfold when a creditors meting is held for Peter Gaynor’s Capital Food Emporium (Holdings) Ltd. Gaynor now gives... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

ALISTAIR LANIGAN-O’KEEFFE’S RECIPE

SPARE A thought for Alistair Lanigan-O’Keeffe, who has just been declared bankrupt. The restaurateur is a well-regarded operator on the Cork scene, best known in recent years for his Kinsale... Read more »
Sean McLoughlin

The Hot Water Brigade

SECRET ‘SEPTICEYE’

THE NEWS that a young Irishman made the world top 10 list of YouTube earners, as determined by Forbes magazine, took many people by surprise. Using the name Jack Septiceye,... Read more »
Deputies and Senators 1918-2018

The Hot Water Brigade

A DIARY FOR YOUR DATE

FANS OF Goldhawk will be aware of the value he places on the significant source of information that is the annual diary/director published by the Institute of Public Administration (IPA).... Read more »