Affairs of the Nation

Micheál Martin

Affairs of the Nation

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S APPALLING VISTA

THE REMARKABLE aspect of the current crisis in Fianna Fáil is the almost deafening silence, not just from senior politicians but the media, which, by and large, has lapsed into... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

ANNE HERATY’S REWARDS

INTERESTING to see that eager nurses who thought they would be recruited by the HSE when seeking to help fight the pandemic are instead being asked to sign precarious and... Read more »
Sinéad Flanagan

Affairs of the Nation

FESTIVAL FEELS THE PAIN

WITH THE 61st Rose of Tralee hooley cancelled, it will be 2021 before the successor to Limerick’s Sinéad Flanagan is crowned. Given the financial strains showing in the operation, the... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

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Affairs of the Nation

TALES FROM THE FRONT

THE SOOTHING tones of the messages pumped out on the state broadcaster, reassuring employers that the government of Ireland has their backs in keeping the better-paid staff on the books,... Read more »
Michael Somers

Affairs of the Nation

MICHAEL SOMERS AND THE LAWYERS

WITH THE state focused on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated mounting costs, a new front was opened by loaded former chief executive of the National... Read more »
Martin Varley

Affairs of the Nation

CONSULTANTS HOLD THE LINE

THE SUDDEN appearance of what looks like a single, public-only health service has come as a shock to the better-paid specialist doctors in the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA). A... Read more »
Lucinda Creighton

Affairs of the Nation

LUCINDA TAKES ON LEFTIES

LAST MONTH Lucinda Creighton got back into her Renua ‘flat-tax’ mode with hysterical attacks on harmless Labourites, do-gooder Social Democrats and environment-loving Greens as the “reckless radical left”. God only... Read more »
Jimmy Tolan

Affairs of the Nation

COMING AND GOING AT REHAB

THE PANDEMIC means that few – apart from regulators in HIQA and some funders in the Department of Health – have noticed the rapid exit of a layer of senior... Read more »
Diarmuid Ferriter

Affairs of the Nation

ARMS TRIAL REPLAY

THE Sunday Times selection of academic Eoin O’Malley – son of then justice minister Des O’Malley (Jack Lynch’s prodigy) – to review Michael Heney’s new book, Arms Crisis of 1970,... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

RACEHORSE OWNERS SADDLE UP

AFTER MEMBERS of the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) got quite the shock last year, there has been some corporate jockeying. The bolshy Jimmy Gough, AIRO’s representative on the... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Claire Byrne

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: CLAIRE BYRNE AND MIRIAM O’CALLAGHAN

WHEN SEAN O’Rourke recently told his morning radio audience that he was about to stand down from the highest seat of national broadcasting, he... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Elisha McCallion

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: ELISHA MCCALLION

ON THE political roundabout that is modern Irish politics, there should be no recovery from defeat as abject as that of Derry’s Elisha McCallion,... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Leo Varadkar

Fit to Print?

VLAD TAKES GLOVES OFF

IT’S THE lure of dangling money at the broken newspapers for political purposes that Varadkar is about in stimulating those supportive media reports about how he is going to take... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

ENDA O’COINEEN’S ADS

WITH THE media suffering a collapse in advertising (at least non-state advertising) it was nice for the Business Post to be able to run ads in some of its editions... Read more »
Quim Torra

Fit to Print?

HOMAGE TO CATALONIA

VILLAGE EDITOR Michael Smith has become embroiled in a six-month-long spat with journalist Jason O’Toole over the magazine’s publication of O’Toole’s interview with cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan. O’Toole’s speciality... Read more »

Last Refuge

Eamon Ryan

Last Refuge

40 SHADES OF GREEN

THE GREENS’ deputy leader, Catherine Martin, had no problem confirming to the media that she voted against the party holding government formation talks with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. This... 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

WILLIAM PRASIFKA’S POLITICAL PREFERENCES

BABY BARRISTER William Prasifka was busy last month when his private social media message was reported on by the Sunday Times, “I have been talking to several lawyers and there... Read more »
Róisín Shorhall

Last Refuge

SOCIAL DEMOCRAT FEUD

THE NUMBERS in the new Dáil indicate that Sinn Féin will dominate the opposition benches – 37 seats to six each for Labour and the Social Democrats and a disparate... Read more »
Eoghan Murphy

Last Refuge

MURPHY’S CO-LIVING WITH VIRUS

THE PANDEMIC is beginning to show up the folly of housing minister Eoghan Murphy’s planning ‘reforms’. Two years ago, he lowered apartment minimum standards to allow smaller rooms, fewer balconies,... Read more »

Hush Hush

Helena Sheehan

Hush Hush

THE OFFICIAL LINE

‘OPERATION SPLASH’ was a 1970s arms importation op by the Official Republican Movement organised by Séamus Costello and Cathal Goulding. That’s according to former ‘Sticky’ (Official Republican Movement) activist Helena... Read more »
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Hush Hush

EAMON FARRELL’S TIMING

TIMING IS everything in showbiz, so spare a thought for Eamon Farrell, brother of Hollywood superstar Colin, whose National Performing Arts School has just filed its accounts for the year... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘Fucking Pig Guard’ JOHN MURRAY (40), of Derragh, Dunmanway, Cork, was handed a two-year suspended sentence in Cork Circuit Court following a bout of heavy drinking. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Simon Coveney

Fowl Emissions

SIMON COVENEY’S DOG WHISTLE

AN INTRIGUING game of cat and mouse is being played out between the Green Party and Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael over the Greens’ so-called “red line” of not going into government... 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

JOHN FITZGERALD’S GAS ADVICE

THERE HAS been little reason for cheer in the oil and gas division of the Department of Climate Action & Environment in recent days, as both main political parties appeared... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Caroline Boyle

High Society

CAROLINE BOYLE’S NEW MENU

AWARD-WINNING restaurant owner Caroline Boyle of Salamanca in D2 features in last weekend’s Irish Times in a piece looking at the impact of lockdown... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

JOHN McGRANE’S FAMILY BUSINESS

IT IS unlikely that John McGrane – the head of the family business lobby and support organisation Family Business Network Ireland – is pleased... Read more »

High Society

2011 Hawker 900XP

High Society

JOE McCARTHY’S PRIVATE JETS

GOOD TO see that, while Mick O’Leary and Willie Walsh have been putting on the poor mouth, the sky appears to be the limit for sellers of private jets here,... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Eoin Colfer

Behind the Scenes

EOIN COLFER’S COFFEE

BESTSELLING children’s fantasy fiction writer Eoin Colfer got a pat on the back recently from the Irish Mail on Sunday, which headlined a gushing piece, “Coffee for the frontliners thanks... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

ELAINE GERAGHTY’S SURVEY

THE PANDEMIC has put a stop to assorted film and TV productions and has shone a spotlight on the precarious nature of work in this ‘glamorous’ business. Cue a survey... Read more »

Reviews

Daisy Edgar Jones

Reviews

NORMAL PEOPLE – RTÉ ONE

IF THE Joe Duffy outrage-ometer is anything to go by, the BBC/Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People predictably generated oodles of publicity for the already much-hyped production. With rather... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Jason Hannon

Moneybags

MAINSTAY MEDICAL’S UNHEALTHY TREATMENT OF SHAREHOLDERS

MAINSTAY MEDICAL floated off in Dublin six years ago at €21 a share, raising €18m, but it has proved an underperformer ever since. The... Read more »

Moneybags

Michael Stanley

Moneybags

CAIRN HOMES FACING A TOUGH 2020

CAIRN HOMES has some notable features, including a huge number of new housing unit completions. Most notable, however, was the way in which the... Read more »

Briefcases

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Briefcases

BART DALY’S CELTIC GOLD

AT THE weekend it was reported that insolvency specialists Jim Stafford and Tom Murray of Friel Stafford have adapted to the ‘new normal’ by hosting creditors meetings via Zoom. One... Read more »
Ronan Lynch

Briefcases

RONAN LYNCH’S NEW REGIME

THE REPRESENTATIVE bodies for publicans has been putting the pedal to the floor in an effort to convince the government to allow them to open their doors at the end... Read more »
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Briefcases

MARIE BRAMBLE’S BAD MARKS

A COMPANY that appeared to be very much honours material in the education field thanks to its popular school app, Unique Diary Productions Ltd (trading as Unique Publishing), has just... Read more »
David Hall

Briefcases

DAVID HALL’S BUSY SCHEDULE

COVID-19 is keeping David Hall busy. One of the self-promoter’s multitude of tweets last month proclaimed that extra services being provided by his private ambulance company to the HSE resulted... Read more »