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October 18 - October 31, 2019
Affairs of the Nation
€40BN ARMAMENTS STROKE
A SPEECH last year by then TD Mick Wallace and a short paragraph in the Sunday Times, of all places, are the only references Goldhawk can find on the most... Read more »
VLAD’S PLANS
THOSE who believe Leo Varadkar is not even considering an early election should revisit his recent taunts about the Fianna Fáil frontbench. Vlad compared the FF amateurs to Fine Gael’s... Read more »
LIAM LYNCH’S LOSSES
THE NEWS that Enda O’Coineen is about to purchase Irish Tatler magazine from Irish Central Media (ISM) suggests that Liam Lynch and Niall O’Dowd could be making a swift exit... Read more »
RTÉ VS OIREACHTAS
A MOST interesting and possibly expensive conflict between RTÉ’s Prime Time Investigates programme and members of an Oireachtas committee will play out in the High Court unless somebody blinks in... Read more »
FG GONE TO DOGS
How embarrassing that the first greyhound to be traced under the Irish Greyhound Board’s (IGB) new ‘care line’ is still registered to an Oireachtas syndicate of Fine Gael senators and TDs,... Read more »
RACHEL MORAN’S REACTIONS
FORMER PROSTITUTE Gayle Dalton would have expected a reaction from high-profile, media-friendly anti-sex-work campaigner Rachel Moran after challenging the latter’s account of her past in various tweets. Moran has been... Read more »
IFTA’S MYSTERY PLOT
EARLIER THIS year (see The Phoenix, 8/2/19) Goldhawk noted a potential lacuna in the diaries of the nation’s celebs with the non-appearance on the calendar of this year’s IFTAs ceremony... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: JOHN FITZGERALD
ONE OF Ireland’s pre-eminent economists, with a gargantuan academic and professional CV that includes membership of the Central Bank Commission and the Economic and... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOOD: DAVE GIBNEY
With the spectre of an upcoming general election haunting the body politic, efforts are being made to reboot the Right 2 Change (R2C) electoral... Read more »
Fit to Print?
AND THE WINNER IS…
“WHY WOULD I not believe it?” was the plaintive cry of non-Nobel prize-winner John Banville, quoted in the Irish Times last weekend. Banville later emphasised that the joke was on... Read more »
ULICK O’CONNOR’S SPECIAL SEAT
ARGUMENTATIVE, hot-tempered and sometimes even threatening, writer and critic Ulick O’Connor was Goldhawk’s favourite rebel contrarian – even when being verbally abused by him. O’Connor’s literary and other works have... Read more »
McGREGOR SPLITS MEDIA AWARDS
THE Newsbrands Journalism Awards judging process has proceeded with the usual behind-the-scenes bickering and lobbying. Already the Irish Mirror’s editor-in-chief, John ‘Jumbo’ Kierans, has notched up a first-round victory over... Read more »
Last Refuge
EAMON RYAN’S MEDIA CRUSADE
WHO KNEW what champions of free speech and the media the main Dáil parties are, as exemplified by their leaders’ bold call to Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp radio stations to drop... Read more »
BLUESHIRT SURGERY IN SLIGO AND CAVAN
THE SPECTRE of former MEP Marian Harkin haunts Fine Gael in Sligo-Leitrim, where the already nervous party members believe that her possible entry to the general election would put paid... Read more »
FG’S PRODIGAL SON, FLANAGAN
GOD LOVES a trier and former Dublin North-East Fine Gael poll topper in the 2011 general election, Terence Flanagan, might well believe that his Catholic crusade against abortion entitles him... Read more »
SINN FÉIN DAMAGE LIMITATION
SINN FÉIN’S local election plunge to 9.5% from 16% in 2014 (and 13.9% in the 2016 general election) is far more significant than its cack-handed presidential disaster. Privately, neither Mary... Read more »
Hush Hush
WILLIE FRAZER’S ‘VICTIMHOOD’
Justice Minster Charlie Flanagan’s praise for Loyalist killer Willie Frazer, now deceased, looks a little misjudged. Flanagan’s posthumous eulogy to Frazer was posted on twitter after the death of the... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS 3721
‘TRAPPED IN BALLYPHEHANE’ A MAN who found the road closed during last year’s Cork City marathon became agitated at the though of being “trapped in Ballyphehane”.Gordon Forde (47) of Hillside,... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
WHAT’S A HYBRID CAR?
Earlier this month, RTÉ’s website ran a scoop, headlined, ‘Toyota to drop petrol versions of Corolla and C-HR’. Motoring editor Donal Byrne explained that the Japanese manufacturing giant expects 92%... Read more »
CALM REBELLION
“Gardaí we love you, we’re doing this for your children too.” This was the surreal chant emanating from the Extinction Rebels during a recent sit-in at Leinster House. Some gardaí... Read more »
Wigs on the Green
LEGAL LIGHTS
LAW SOCIETY president Patrick Dorgan will be hoping that the bad vibes engendered by some of his ‘filthy’ trainees last week will be eclipsed by the society’s upcoming charitable event.... Read more »
WILLIAM JONES VS JOHN MAGNIER
SPARE A thought for Goldhawk’s favourite ex-employee of John Magnier’s all-powerful Coolmore Stud operation – the irrepressible William Jones. Having set out to challenge the global bloodstock giant, he has... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
Is it just me, or has anyone else wondered where do we go when we die? Stephanie Preissner asks the big questions no one else has considered, Sunday Independent, ‘Life’... Read more »
High Society
ANGELA MOORE’S SEAT
THERE IS a new face on the board of the Ireland Funds here. Virginia-based Angela Moore has just been appointed a director and joins the Alan Foy-chaired board. The most... Read more »
PIPPA O’CONNOR’S BEST LIFE
IT HAS been a busy few weeks for ubiquitous model-turned-blogger-turned-designer Pippa O’Connor, social media sensation and wife of TV presenter Brian Ormond. She has been energetically plugging her latest book... Read more »
DAVID RAETHORNE’S ‘FABULOUS’ HOUSE
THE INDO went to town in its property supplement last week, gushing about Brentwood House in Dundrum, Co Dublin, which is on the market with an asking price of E4m.... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
LEO’S HOLLYWOOD LUVVIETHON
WITH LAST month’s coast-to-coast luvviethon in the US – which saw Leo Varadkar hobnobbing with Jimmy Fallon and NBC/Universal in New York and then pressing the film and TV studio... Read more »
LABHRÁS Ó MURCHÚ’S NARROW ESCAPE
ALTHOUGH MINISTER for Culture Josepha Madigan was happy to boast after the Budget of a €5m hike in funding to €80m for the Arts Council, closer examination of the announcement... Read more »
TAXING MATTERS AT VISUAL IN CARLOW
WHAT ON earth is going on at VISUAL, the multi-million euro contemporary arts centre in Carlow? The board has lost eight directors and there has been no chief executive appointed... Read more »
Sport of Kings
BYRNES BASHES THE BOOKIES
THE BOOKIES at Roscommon were caught on the hop recently by Charles Byrnes as the fearless punter carried off another successful coup via his runner, The Big Galloper. The horse... Read more »
DAVID DUNNE’S ANXIOUS WAIT
NORTH COUNTY Dublin trainer David Dunne could be facing a hefty fine and or a ban if the findings of an ongoing investigation into a positive test for anabolic steroids... Read more »
KEANE VS O’BRIEN
UNLIKE THE flat trainers’ championship, which has been won more or less every year this century by Aidan O’Brien, the flat jockeys’ championship has seen some tremendous duals over the... Read more »
ROBBIE COLGAN’S REPRIMAND
ROBBIE COLGAN obviously felt hard done by over a five-day ban handed to him at Listowel last month. This followed his second-place finish on the Tony Martin-trained Bigger And Better,... Read more »
Books
RECOVERING – RICHARD SADLIER (GILL BOOKS)
ELEVEN YEARS ago, The Phoenix published a ‘Young Blood’ profile of former footballer Richie Sadlier, who impressed with his ambition, confidence and ability to take on – and defeat –... Read more »
Moneybags
ARYZTA’S SLOW RECOVERY REFLECTED IN SHARE PRICE
IT HAS never been explained why former Aryzta CEO Owen Killian bought a minority 47.8% stake in French frozen foods retailer Picard, for a huge €447m in August 2015, given... Read more »
PETRONEFT SHAREHOLDERS SHOULD PREPARE FOR THE WORST
THE RESIGNATION last November of the founder of PetroNeft Resources, Denis Francis, was merely another negative development for a company in way over its head and the situation now looks... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
JAMIE HEASLIP’S TACTICS
FORMER Irish rugby captain Jamie Heaslip is everywhere at the moment. When he’s not appearing on RTÉ’s Rugby World Cup panel, the Newbridge native is doing the media rounds in... Read more »
WILLIAM PRIOR’S CHARITY PROBLEM
PROVIDING FINANCIAL advice to individuals struggling with debt and lack of credit lines has become a growth business since the economic collapse of 2008. One such organisation is Laois-based Phoenix... Read more »
LAR CORRIGAN’S APPEAL
WEXFORD businessman Lar Corrigan’s scrap with Deloitte accountant Ken Fennell looks to have finally wound down in the Four Goldmines. The toxic row had been rattling since 2015, when receivers... Read more »
JOHN WALSH’S FOXROCK ASSETS
SPARE a thought for Foxrock developer John Walsh and his wife Bronagh Walsh, who recently suffered a setback in the Four Goldmines after a scrap over their posh Westminster Road... Read more »
IRELAND FUND DONORS
WITH A new face on the board of the Ireland Funds (see p18), it is interesting to see that the charity has been upping its spending. The Ireland Funds is... Read more »
DANIELLE MEAGHER’S TARGETS
ALTHOUGH SHE is now based in sunny California, Danielle Meagher (formerly ‘Dr Botox’) continues to create waves this side of the Atlantic. Now known as Danielle Collins, the dentist-turned-beautician-turned-actor is... Read more »
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