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The magazine with the Inside Stories
March 22 - April 4, 2019
Affairs of the Nation
MORE DRAMA AT THE ABBEY
WHEN GOLDHAWK profiled the Abbey Theatre’s joint director, Graham McLaren, earlier this year (see The Phoenix, 25/1/19) the Abbey was under heavy fire. While the chair, Frances Ruane (ex-ESRI director),... Read more »
IAN BAILEY: TRIAL BY ERROR
A FRENCH FARCE will shortly (late May) follow the Irish farce that was the Garda campaign to charge Ian Bailey with the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. The... Read more »
CRYSTAL LI’S TENDER DOCUMENTS
CONGRATULATIONS to Goldhawk’s favourite Russian lawyer, Olga Shajaku, who has sent a shot across the bows of Paschal Donohoe’s Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), where the mandarins are... Read more »
LIMERICK POSTER BOY
LIMERICK’S St Paddy’s Day celebrations cost the city council €30,000, leaving just €60,000 in the municipal allocation for such ventures, but ambitious local DJ, Nicky Woulfe, is looking for half... Read more »
DERMOT DESMOND’S BUMPY RIDE
THERE WAS plenty of excitement last week surrounding shares in Datalex, the airline technology company (sorry, “leading provider of digital commerce solutions to global travel retailers”) that had shocked the... Read more »
BAD SPORTS AT TRINNERS
A spectacular row is on the boil in Trinity College Dublin where the University Times (UT), newspaper of the Trinners Student Union, is being accused of bugging a student’s apartment.... Read more »
KELLEHER: PRO- LIFE VENGEANCE
MYSTIFICATION AT Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher’s defeat at the Euro convention for the South constituency was soon clarified as most delegates and members elsewhere realised that the frontbencher had... Read more »
SINÉAD O’CONNOR’S EX
THE DREADED taxman has just registered a judgment against one Fachtna O’Ceallaigh, who happens to be the former long-term manager and former lover of the singer formerly known as Sinéad... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: SEÁN FLEMING
WHAT IS it about the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that has provoked such a backlash from ministers, government TDs, Leinster House... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOOD: HOZIER
Expressing oneself while offending as few people as possible is a key trait of modern pop stars and Hozier is no exception. In an... Read more »
Fit to Print?
RUTH DUD DEPARTS ‘SINDO’
LONG-TIME Sunday Independent scourge of Republicanism Ruth Dudley Edwards bid the newspaper au revoir recently. However, she reassured anxious readers that, while she was exiting the paper, she would occasionally... Read more »
FIONA MITCHELL’S DESK
RTÉ’S departing south-eastern correspondent, Damien Tiernan, gave the station a lash as he walked out the door in January. Tiernan pointed out that news stories broadcast from the Waterford studio... Read more »
GEMMA EXPOSES CHRISTCHURCH!
“INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST” Gemma O’Doherty has either produced the international scoop of the 21st century or shot herself in various limbs with the assertion that the Christchurch horror “has all the... Read more »
Last Refuge
DALY AND WALLACE FOR EUROPE?
THE FOURTH seat in the Dublin Euro constituency is seen as hard to call, with the first three going to Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael), Barry Andrews (Fianna Fáil) and Lynn... Read more »
RUTH COPPINGER’S BORDER LINE
THE CURIOUS fascination of the ‘bourgeois media’ with the attacks on TD Paul Murphy’s Socialist Party (SP) from its comrades on the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) may have... Read more »
PASCHAL, SIMON AND VLAD
SOMEBODY IS stirring it for Simon Coveney, with the Sunday Times followed by the Irish Times both suggesting that Paschal Donohoe is now the anointed successor to Leo Varadkar. This... Read more »
MARTIN LET DURKAN SLIP TO FG – TWICE
FINE GAEL’S acquisition of former SDLP leader Mark Durkan to its Euro election ticket in Dublin has been characterised as a brilliant coup by Leo Varadkar. It seriously embarrassed Fianna... Read more »
Hush Hush
SLEEPWALKING WITH THE FAR RIGHT
The biggest shock for New Zealanders is that the Christchurch massacre at two mosques happened at all. The Kiwis pride themselves on being a ‘land of the welcomes’. But just... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
Garda called a ‘dickhead’ A CARRICK-ON-SUIR man called a garda a “dickhead” and made a rude gesture at him when the officer seized a car he was sitting in. Dean... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
KIDDING YOU NOT
The kids are all right. Last Friday, an estimated 1.4 million schoolchildren worldwide walked out of school and took to the streets to demand climate action. The scale and intensity... Read more »
LEO VARADKAR’S FARM FAN
Just days before the schools climate strike, another street-based show of strength took place in Dublin, this time in the leafy environs of Lansdowne Road. Donning their green scarves, Taoiseach... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
DUP’S HARD BARGAIN
WHAT WERE the DUP and what passes for a British government talking about as Theresa May headed towards a third attempt to get her withdrawal agreement over the line? All... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
The key difference between England and Ireland is class dynamics and education. A lovely expression of this is the cheese counter at the new artisan Dunnes. David McWilliams, Irish Times,... Read more »
High Society
ROSHEEN McGUCKIAN’S EXIT
THERE HAVE been changes at NTR’s charitable foundation, with NTR chief executive Rosheen McGuckian, who chaired the charity, stepping down last year. McGuckian is a woman in demand and a... Read more »
BERNIE BUTLER’S ENERGY BALLS
AT LAST week’s DMX Dublin marketing conference in the Aviva stadium, the great and good gave their tuppence worth, including the likes of former Ireland rugby captain Jamie Heaslip. Also... Read more »
KAREN’S WEDDING DATES
THE IRISH arm of a business that organises glamorous weddings in the port of Lindos on the sunny Greek island of Rhodes has come a cropper at the hands of... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
NO QUEUE TO SUCCEED PRATSCHKE
CULTURE MINISTER Josepha Madigan’s search for the next chair of the Arts Council has begun (albeit a little late in the day), but suitable candidates are in rather short supply.... Read more »
SLOWLY DOES AT IVEAGH HOUSE
DOCUMENTS released to Goldhawk reveal that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade created the new post of cultural director as it was deemed one of a number of “urgent... Read more »
MORE HAPPY ENDINGS FOR FILM PRODUCERS
BY HAPPY coincidence, figures have emerged from three separate film and television funding schemes that dispense public lolly to hard-pressed producers. The Sound and Vision fund at Michael O’Keefe’s Broadcasting... Read more »
Sport of Kings
BOOM GETTING BOOMIER
FANS OF Goldhawk may not have been too surprised to see Sean Mulryan in the winners’ enclosure at Cheltenham last week (see The Phoenix, 22/2/19). Mulryan celebrated his first runner... Read more »
BLACKMORE’S BRACE
DESPITE HER ascension into the top tier of jump jockeys, Rachael Blackmore still had a point to prove as, before the Cheltenham festival, she hadn’t ridden a Grade 1 winner... Read more »
DECLAN LAVERY’S SURPRISE BAN
A GROUP of Irish amateur jockeys felt the full force of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) at Cheltenham when the trio of Declan Lavery, Rob James and Noel McParlan were... Read more »
RICCI FEELS THE HEAT
CHELTENHAM provided liberal helpings of thrills. There was also karma of sorts at play when the Rich Ricci-owned Benie Des Dieux, considered by many as one of the bankers of... Read more »
Movies
THE HOLE IN THE GROUND – DIRECTED BY LEE CRONIN
THERE’S NOT much wrong with Lee Cronin’s technically adept debut, The Hole in the Ground. Its problem is that, although it is streets ahead of recent Irish-made schlockers, like Brian... Read more »
Reviews
FERTILITY SHOCK – RTÉ 1
DEARBHAIL MCDONALD is group business editor at Independent News and Media, but in recent times has been developing her brand beyond the confines of the business pages. A regular on... Read more »
Books
WHEN ALL IS SAID – ANNE GRIFFIN (SCEPTRE)
THIS DEBUT novel from the prize-winning short-story writer takes the form of a series of expansive inner monologues by a recently widowed 84-year-old farmer, Maurice Hannigan. Over the course of... Read more »
Moneybags
TIME FOR CRH TO SPIN OFF US INTERESTS
TAKING ADVANTAGE of the recent collapse in CRH’s share price, the arrival on the share register last month of the largest activist fund in Europe – the Stockholm-based Cevian (which... Read more »
WILL INT PAPER SWOOP ON SMURFIT AGAIN?
SMURFIT KAPPA’S Tony Smurfit has proven a short-sighted CEO who displays little awareness of the bigger picture. When the much larger International Paper (IP) cardboard box company requested a meeting... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
BACSTROKE’S BAD NEWS
SPARE a thought for the production company and, er, specialists in inflatable leisure Bacstroke Limited, which featured on the tax defaulters’ list, having paid the Revenue almost €60,000, including penalties... Read more »
RACHEL GRAHAM BOUNCES BACK
Rachel Graham and hubby Victor Graham’s Italian-themed Dundalk restaurant, Eno, had a liquidator appointed last month. Entrepreneur Rachel previously owned a specialist shoe shop, The Shoe Room, which catered for... Read more »
TV PRODUCER FEELS THE PINCH
A busy Ranelagh-based television production firm, Good Company Productions Limited, starred in the latest tax defaulters’ list, having paid the Revenue some €219,000 (including €78,000 in penalties and interest) for... Read more »
FINAL WORD ON ALAN HYNES?
A small legal notice published in the media last week by Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) marks the final chapter in the long-running Alan Hynes saga. The legal note confirmed that... Read more »
VITGESON’S MILLION EURO BONUS
THE receiver of a Nama-controlled property development company, Vitgeson Limited, offloaded a 59-acre site in Blackcastle, Co Meath, for a healthy €9.5m – €1m more than it had been previously... Read more »
RUTHIE H’S HARD TIMES
FANS of Goldhawk will remember nutrition entrepreneur Ruth Heatherington and her company, Miss Fit Enterprises Ltd, which has now been wound up. Heatherington previously refused to tell Goldhawk if the... Read more »
JOAN LYNCH’S TAXING TIMES
ONE of the companies in the Born Clothing franchise, Born Clothing Ltd, has featured on the tax defaulters’ list, having paid the taxman €260,000, including €110,000 in interest and penalties... Read more »
THE DAILY BORISGRAPH – WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
ONES TO AVOID AT GALWAY RACES
THE ‘BOTTLER’ WHO KNEW ME
DONALD TRUMP FAVOURITES
THAT FAI AGENDA
