Affairs of the Nation

Phil Hogan

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 »
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Affairs of the Nation

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

Affairs of the Nation

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 »

Affairs of the Nation

Emmet O’Neill

Affairs of the Nation

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 »
Alan Lloyd

Affairs of the Nation

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 »
Enda O'Coineen

Affairs of the Nation

‘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 »
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Affairs of the Nation

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

Affairs of the Nation

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

Affairs of the Nation

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 »
Ursula von der Leyen

Affairs of the Nation

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

Micheál Martin

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

Sean McLoughlin

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

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 »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

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 »
Richie Oakley

Fit to Print?

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

Simon Coveney

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 »
Janice Boylan 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

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 »
Damien English

Last Refuge

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 McDonald

Last Refuge

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 »

Northwind

Gavin Williamson

Northwind

BORIS AND THE DUP

There should have been a second election to a northern assembly in 2017 after the parties failed to establish an executive following the election in March. That’s the law, but... Read more »

Hush Hush

Denis Donaldson

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 »
HushHush-def

Hush Hush

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-Defaul

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

Mark Menezes

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 »
Climate Disinformation Coillte Climate Action EU Livestock NDC Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

Fowl Emissions

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

Maura Higgins

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

High Society

Cynthia Chua

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... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

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... Read more »

High Society

Judy Woodworth

High Society

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

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 »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

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

Behind the Scenes

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

Michael O'Leary

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 Derby 2019 win

Sport of Kings

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 »
Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

Sport of Kings

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 »
Markus Jooste

Sport of Kings

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

Moneybags

Ian Curley

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... Read more »

Moneybags

John Teeling

Moneybags

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... Read more »

Brief Cases

WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Brief Cases

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

Brief Cases

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 »
WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Brief Cases

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 »
WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Brief Cases

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 »
Pizza Hut

Brief Cases

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 »