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The magazine with the Inside Stories
July 12 - July 25, 2019
Affairs of the Nation
BIG PHIL’S PAYBACK FROM LEO
THE ANGST-RIDDEN debate on the EU deal with South American trading block Mercosur is one thing, and it may be that the government can minimise the fall-out among its farming... Read more »
JUST NOT CRICKET
IT’S JUST not cricket. As England’s lions bestride the sward at Lords in the Cricket World Cup, it must be recorded, with no little sadness, that Irish parliamentarians spurned Blighty’s... Read more »
PAT QUIRKE’S RESIGNATION
THREE MONTHS on from Tipperary farmer Pat Quirke’s high-profile conviction for murder, the company he set up to run his business has just filed accounts showing the bottom line was... Read more »
EMMETT O’NEILL’S STRATEGY
REPORTS last week that former Topaz chief executive Emmett O’Neill is looking to sell his Lovin Media group won’t have surprised Phoenix readers. Denis O’Brien’s nephew, O’Neill, is the largest... Read more »
STRIKING OFF ALAN LLOYD
GOLDHAWK spotted a legal notice last month published by the Law Society of Ireland’s Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal proclaiming that Alan Lloyd had been struck off the Roll of Solicitors by... Read more »
‘POST’ BACKS RTÉ
COMING JUST days after The Phoenix broke the story about Sunday Business Post owner Enda O’Coineen’s bid to buy the RTÉ Guide (see edition, 28/6/19), the Post’s championing of RTÉ’s... Read more »
THRIFTY PROTESTANTS
LAST MONTH, the Irish Times carried an article headlined ‘Protestants outlive Catholics, study shows’, based on a report from the CSO. The report showed that, for example, people living in... Read more »
SARAH O’SHEA’S FOOTBALL SKILLS
IF ALL goes according to plan on July 20, then the subsequent annual general meeting of the FAI could see a brand new 12-person board elected, including four independent directors... Read more »
DERMOT DESMOND’S JET LAG
SURPRISING to see three companies associated with Dermot Desmond’s former investment in a Swiss private jet hire operation being listed for striking off the Companies Register. His involvement in the... Read more »
WAR LIKE FRAU
AMID THE reams of media commentary about new EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, just the barest mention has been made of her enthusiastic championing of a European military... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: MICHEÁL MARTIN
SUDDENLY, after three years of being widely mocked as Leo Varadkar’s pussycat and pilloried by his own members for refusing to fight the Blueshirts,... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOODS: SEÁN MCLOUGHLIN
Millionaire Internet entrepreneur Seán McLoughlin (29), better known to his fans as Jacksepticeye, appears to be one of the most successful young Irish businessmen... Read more »
Fit to Print?
GERRY ADAMS LIBELS
WIDESPREAD MEDIA speculation about Gerry Adams being either involved in or having knowledge of the 1991 murder of alleged informer Tom Oliver appears to have been scotched by a recent... Read more »
FIONNAN SHEAHAN’S “EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE”
DECIPHERING the recent INM advert for an employee communications and experience manager demands a post-graduate degree in HR gobbledygook. Apparently, the core function of the job is “defining and enhancing... Read more »
TO HELL OR CORK
AFTER TWO years as editor of the now-defunct Times Ireland edition, Richie Oakley has spent several weeks weighing up offers to edit the Irish Examiner or the Sunday Business Post... Read more »
Last Refuge
BLUESHIRTS BATTLE FOR TOP JOBS
THE BACK-room machinations by EU states’ leaders in the divvy up of EU top jobs last week were naïve child’s play compared to the parallel manoeuvring and jockeying for advancement... Read more »
ANYBODY BUT REILLY
ABR is the acronym of the message and mission handed down from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to his chief of staff, Brian Murphy, in the urgent matter of the Dublin Fingal... Read more »
FINE GAEL BULLIES?
REPORTS OF bullying, racist remarks and persecution of female members in Meath East Fine Gael have led to an inquiry by the party’s national executive. But the aggressive style of... Read more »
MARY LOU RESHUFFLES SF DÁIL TEAM
SINN FÉIN’S post-election revamp will see the restructure of various layers of the party, but already Mary Lou McDonald’s Dáil reshuffle involves a refocus on those TDs that need strengthening... Read more »
Hush Hush
DONALDSON THROWN TO WOLVES
MI5’s SPY in Sinn Féin, the late Denis Donaldson, is so (in)famous that he has made it into the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography. Donaldson was close to... Read more »
DREW HARRIS’S COLLUSION CONCERNS
GARDA COMMISSIONER Drew Harris’s presence at the head of a Garda/PSNI contingent at the Dublin Pride parade received many plaudits. But Harris was well aware that day that a hugely... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
‘INEXPLICABLE’ STUPIDITY A NEWTOWNSTEWART man, who exposed his backside, has been spared a jail sentence. Martin Mongan (28) from Mourne Park was previously convicted of four public order offences pertaining... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
‘FREEDOM GAS’
When your industry is dirty, it helps to be well connected. Making cement is a filthy business and Irish Cement’s plant in the Limerick suburb of Mungret is a frequent... Read more »
MARK MENEZES’S SALES PITCH
The decision by Leo Varadkar’s cabinet last week to finally kill off TD Bríd Smith’s bill to halt new exploration licences shows the fossil fuel industry can still rely on... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
Maura was both a symbol of modern Irish femininity, loudly opinionated with sexual agency to spare; and a colonial parody of the savage native, uncivilised and promiscuous… Maura went from... Read more »
High Society
CYNTHIA CHUA’S VIBRATIONS
IT’S INTERESTING to see that the colourful and loaded Cynthia Chua – who has recently been extolling the virtues of “perfuming your vejayjay” and giving “vulva facials” – has just... Read more »
MUBARAK AL NAEMI’S NAGS
THE UPCOMING (July 24) auction at the Dunraven Arms in Adare of the impressive Kilfrush Stud in Co Limerick should attract plenty of attention from horsey types. With a U5.5m... Read more »
JUDY WOODWORTH’S BEIT STRATEGY
LAST MONTH saw the inaugural Kaleidoscope festival take place in the grounds of Russborough House in Co Wicklow. Given the positive feedback, it looks like the latest addition to the... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
EUGENE DOWNES’S NEW GIG
GOOD NEWS for fans of Irish cultural promotion abroad. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has finally offered the new position of cultural director to the successful candidate,... Read more »
SHARON ALSTON’S ANIMAL CHARITY
THE MUSIC festivals just keep coming and there is now fierce competition for music fans’ moolah. While Electric Picnic is still going strong, other festivals have seen part of their... Read more »
BRENDAN HALLIGAN’S CHINESE FRIENDS
THE RECENT debut of the China Ireland International Film Festival – which took place at assorted Dublin cinemas as well as the UCD Confucius Institute – represents the latest stage... Read more »
Sport of Kings
O’LEARY’S FLAT AMBITIONS
WHILE MONEYBAGS Mick O’Leary begins winding down his extensive portfolio of national hunt horses, he is taking the opposite approach to his nascent flat-breeding enterprise. O’Leary has long claimed to... Read more »
SOVEREIGN’S COOLMORE SETBACK
THERE WAS some top notch racing over Derby weekend at the Curragh, but what to make of the Derby result? While observers might assume that John Magnier and his Coolmore... Read more »
DEREK McGRATH’S DERBY DILEMMA
THE CURRAGH racecourse came under intense scrutiny during the Irish Derby Festival. The timing of the weekend was less than ideal, given that Kildare was entertaining Tyrone down the road... Read more »
MORE HEAVY GOING FOR JOOSTE
FORMER COOLMORE bedfellow Markus Jooste is being pursued in the South African courts by his former employer, Steinhoff International, for almost £50m. Jooste has been the subject of a well-documented... Read more »
Moneybags
MALIN SHARES NOW AT 50% DISCOUNT TO ASSET VALUE
SOMETIMES, when things go wrong they go really wrong. Malin – the company set up by ex-Elan suit Kelly Martin and floated off in 2015 – is a case in... Read more »
BIG BOYS IN THE ATLANTIC COULD BOOST PETREL SHARES
THE BIGGEST oil company in the world, Exxon Mobil, and the biggest in China, Cnooc, are engaged in a joint venture to drill one of the deepest wells in the... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
WINDING UP PULSE LOGISTICS
INTERESTING to see that a petition to wind up a Total Produce plc subsidiary called Tpem Ltd, which trades as Pulse Logistics, has been filed in the High Court. The... Read more »
KIERAN WALSHE’S RESTAURANT BILL
GOLDHAWK came across an old friend when he examined the winding up of a restaurant company by the dreaded Revenue earlier this week. Kieran Walshe, from Parteen Co Clare, is... Read more »
JOHN SWAN’S ROTTEN FRUIT
A RECENT report in the Sunday Business Post might have rung a few bells with fans of The Phoenix. The article noted that PJ Lynch – the liquidator of a... Read more »
EUGENE MCCOOL’S LATEST SETBACK
GOLDHAWK’s old pal Eugene McCool had another torrid outing in the Four Goldmines recently, where a vulture fund secured judgment against him for over €2.6m. Readers will recall colourful Clontarf... Read more »
ODCE WHACKS DIRECTORS
A COUPLE of interesting names popped up on the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement’s (ODCE’s) latest annual report. Last December, the ODCE secured a disqualification order in the... Read more »
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