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May 3 - May 16, 2019
Affairs of the Nation
WALSH-MCGUINNESS SHOOT OUT
THE BLUEBLOUSE EU candidate in the Midlands-North-West (MNW), Maria Walsh, proved she is no wilting Tralee Rose with a retaliatory broadside against her running mate, Máiréad McGuinness, following the MEP’s... Read more »
DER KAISER’S INDO DEAL
ALTHOUGH IT was Goldhawk who first revealed that Denis O’Brien wanted to sell up at Independent News & Media (see The Phoenix 8/2/19), the nature of the agreed exit deal... Read more »
BRENDAN HOWLIN’S ATTACK
DOES Labour leader Brendan Howlin believe he is still minister in charge of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER)? Howlin’s attack on the government for its green light... Read more »
SAORADH CHIEF’S DÁIL AMBITIONS
BRIAN KENNA, chairman of Saoradh, which reflects the New IRA’s political outlook, was once a model of the Sinn Féin parliamentary road and had aspirations to be a TD. Kenna... Read more »
PHELIM & MAGDALENA O’NEILL
In an article headlined ‘Phelim O’Neill’s many hats’, it was stated that the company called My Valuation Ltd, incorporated in 2012, ceased to trade in 2016 after its plans “came... Read more »
KELLEHER’S STRONG FOUNDATION
THE GIANT Apple TV streaming service launching later this year has commissioned the first 10-episode adaptation of sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series of books, which is to be filmed... Read more »
BY-ELECTION BLITZ?
IT NOW looks as though there could be four and possibly five Dáil by-elections within six months of the EU elections. TDs Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal), Billy Kelleher (Cork North-Central),... Read more »
FIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
STILL NO word on the National Museum of Ireland’s internal review of its ‘Spanish Flu’ debacle last year. No doubt Catherine Heaney and her board are hoping that any allegations... Read more »
PETER CASEY AND HERMANN KELLY
HAVE THOSE soul brothers on the right of Irish politics, EU candidates Peter Casey (Midlands North-West – MNW) and Hermann Kelly (Dublin) had a split already? Or is it that... Read more »
MADURO’S IRISH CRITICS
Exactly who were the Venezuelans so “enraged” by Clare Daly’s comments on the troubled country, according to a recent Sunday Times article? One is Luis Alvarez, a Dublin-based supporter of... Read more »
JIM BAILEY
IN The Phoenix edition of April 19, 2019, it was stated that documentation ordering Jim Bailey to be detained in St Finan’s Mental Hospital in 1988 was signed by his... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: CLARE DALY TD
CLARE DALY’S EU election bid in Dublin – as well as her political and personal partner Mick Wallace TD’s outing in the South constituency... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOOD: CATHAL HAUGHEY
There is an old saying that it only takes three generations to ruin a family business. Cathal Haughey (22) will be hoping it’s just... Read more »
Fit to Print?
‘BUSINESS POST’ BUSINESS
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST chief executive Siobhán Lennon’s goodbye bash in Doheny & Nesbitt’s Baggot Street hostelry last week saw her replacement, Colm O’Reilly, mingle with the newspaper’s hacks and other... Read more »
DERVAN’S FIERY FAI DEBUT
THE THEN FAI boss John Delaney announced the appointment of veteran sports hack Cathal Dervan as the FAI’s director of public relations and communications, with the following remarks: “These are... Read more »
NEW MEDIA CURRENCY
THE TWO Sunday Business Post journalists — ex-editor Ian Kehoe and executive editor Tom Lyons — who wanted to buy out their newspaper from their then publisher, Key Capital’s Conor... Read more »
Last Refuge
VARADKAR’S LEGAL PRECEDENT
WHAT AN interesting sequence of events has taken place since the New Year surrounding Shane Ross’s judicial appointments bill. Fine Gael and, in particular, Leo Varadkar appear to realise the... Read more »
RABBITTE’S TUAM BABIES BLUNDER
FIANNA FÁIL has landed itself in la merde over the Tuam babies with a most disingenuous statement from TD Anne Rabbitte, expressing concern about 21st century children (as opposed to... Read more »
AK47 LIMBERS UP
ELECTORAL CATASTROPHE could be facing the Labour Party in the local elections if two recent polls are anything to go by. Labour had an abysmal local election in 2014, with... Read more »
FG PEMBROKE BLUE BLOODS
WHAT A stellar trio of candidates Fine Gael has assembled in the local election barony of Pembroke – formerly Pembroke-South Dock – which has been stripped of the jarring, proletarian... Read more »
Hush Hush
BRITISH SOLDIERS TAKE THE FLAK
Reports of the formal interview by police of top Force Research Unit (FRU) spook Brigadier Gordon Kerr got British media headlines last week. The FRU was a British army agent... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
Judge jibes over thrown traffic cones A LEMYBRIEN man, who was observed throwing traffic cones around the street late at night, was asked by the judge if he had aspirations... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
REBELS AND REACTIONARIES
THE Extinction Rebellion movement brought civil disobedience on to streets across the world last month in a furious, but carefully planned, response to the twin existential threats of climate breakdown... Read more »
TREE TOPPLING TIME
In case you needed another reason to believe insurers are sucking the life out of us, the industry has been identified as the dark force behind the slaughtering of thousands... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
I think the most important thing here is the fact that it was an interesting line in the sense that people look at perhaps me or any other female candidate... Read more »
High Society
DANIELLE RYAN AT CANNES
CONGRATULATIONS are due to Fantastic Films, which saw its Vivarium selected to compete at the snooty Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival. While the media focus has been on... Read more »
NIAMH PATTEN’S JEWELLERY
A JEWELLERY venture established by Niamh Patten shut its doors recently after a short-lived existence in the city centre. Despite the backing of a multi-millionaire, New Romantic Jewellery is no... Read more »
OFFLOADING LAURISTON
AN EDWARDIAN house on Ranelagh’s Park Drive (backing onto the playing fields of Gonzaga College) caught the eye of the Sindo last weekend, with the “elegant” and “gorgeous” D6 property... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
KEVIN RAFTER’S CV
NOT TOO late in the day, Blueshirt Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan has appointed Kevin Rafter as Sheila Pratschke’s replacement in the chair of the Arts Council. The journalist and... Read more »
NEIL JORDAN’S ‘LUDICROUS THRILLER’
NEIL JORDAN’S latest opus, Greta, opened to predictably ‘mixed’ reviews over the Easter weekend. The Financial Times’s opening salvo referred to the “ludicrous thriller” and went downhill from there. Irish... Read more »
Sport of Kings
JAMIE MORRIS VS MICK O’LEARY
THE TRAINER Mouse Morris has had one of the longest serving relationships with Gigginstown and Mick O’Leary, but that relationship looks like it’s being put to the test following a... Read more »
DUNDALK’S BIG TRACK SURFACE BILL
PERHAPS IT should not come as a surprise that the manager of Dundalk’s racing track is set to lash out circa €3m to provide a replacement running surface. The question... Read more »
NIALL CRONIN’S STRATEGY
THE IRISH Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) has decided to up its communications strategy, announcing the Herald’s former racing corr, Niall Cronin, as its new communications manager. Cronin has been acting... Read more »
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
THIS SEASON has seen Scottish bookmaking supremo Kenny Alexander emerge as a growing force among the Irish jumps ownership ranks. While Alexander, the chief executive of GVC Holdings, has had... Read more »
Moneybags
WHY I-RES SHOULD END THE CANADIANS’ SWEET DEALS
IRELAND’S HOUSING crisis has provided opportunities for certain players, notably Irish Residential Properties Reit (I-Res), where the Canadian founders have been doing very well for themselves, not least courtesy of... Read more »
THE INCREDIBLE €240M CASH TAKEOUT OF IFG
THE £200m Elysian Fuels controversy is still unresolved and a further £5m provision has had to be made to cover potential further sanction charges and mediation costs on foot of... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
SEAN LYONS’S DOOMSDAY SCENARIO
IS THE apocalypse approaching for Sean Lyons’s troubled company, Doomsday Challenge Ltd? Yet again, the firm is listed to be struck off the Companies Register for failure to file accounts,... Read more »
PETER QUEALLY’S FOUL EMISSIONS
GOLDHAWK wasn’t too surprised to see Kildare-based food-processing giant Arrow group on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) latest ‘name and shame’ list. The group – run by beef baron brothers... Read more »
PAT MCCAUGHEY’S SPICY MEATBALL
UNFORTUNATELY for businessman Pat McCaughey, former boss of Dublin-based spice burger maker Walsh Family Foods Ltd (WFF), the crash is still leaving a bad taste. The Castleknock businessman has just... Read more »
MARTIN TUBRIDY’S TAX TROUBLES
THE REVENUE moved this week to wind up a company owned by one Martin Tubridy in Co Clare. The publican-cum-engineer has had a tough few years and now his GMD... Read more »
FAREWELL FIMAK
A COMPANY that found itself the subject of some media coverage last year over the operation of the student Leap Card system has wound itself up, although people might not... Read more »
DAVID SMYTH’S BLACKHALL BLUES
INTERESTING to see that the Law Society has just registered a judgment against Waterford tech outfit Agenda Computers Ltd, where the principal is one David Smyth. The judgment relates to... Read more »
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