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June 19 - July 2, 2020
Affairs of the Nation
GREEN PARTY HEAVE
PREVIOUS FORECASTS about the Green Party’s leadership contest were that Catherine Martin would win if party members rejected the government deal, while Eamon Ryan would survive if the deal was... Read more »
TENI’S FUNDING
THANKS TO JK Rowling’s incendiary comments last week, the transgender debate got rather heated again, although here in Ireland the temperature remained relatively cool. John Boyne did dip a toe... Read more »
DERMO TO THE RESCUE?
WITH THE hunt on for a new chief executive of the FAI, the first team players are coming in for some rough treatment from “ordinary football people”. Fans of Goldhawk... Read more »
NPHET’S ACADEMIC MATTER
IT’S HARD to keep everyone happy and in the snippy world of academia this is doubly true. Goldhawk is hearing grumblings about UCD’s influence at the National Public Health Emergency... Read more »
JOHN O’DONOGHUE’S LIBEL CASE
A RE-RUN of the 2009 public debate about the excessive expenses claims of the then Ceann Comhairle and former minister, John O’Donoghue, is due for a re-run in the Circuit... Read more »
DREW HARRIS’S ‘ABUSE OF POWER’
THE ANNOUNCEMENT last November of yet another investigation into state collusion with loyalist murder gangs – this time the notorious Glenanne gang – saw some northern nationalists react with scepticism.... Read more »
ADMIRAL HIGGINS
Gregg Bemis Jnr, American owner of the wreck of the Lusitania, (torpedoed by a German submarine off Kinsale in 1915), recently died aged 91. In his time, he ‘salvaged’ and... Read more »
EUGENIE HOUSTON’S NEW FRONT
AS IF barrister Eugenie Houston has not cost the Bar Council enough in recent times, she has just landed the esteemed legal eagles with another headache courtesy of a missive... Read more »
RORY GODSON AND THE PRINCESS
EMBATTLED BILLIONAIRE Isabel dos Santos – eldest daughter of the Angolan president of nearly 40 years, José Eduardo dos Santos – has hired Irish PR handler Rory Godson to assist... Read more »
SIMON STOKES’S PHOTO
GOLDHAWK SPOTTED High Court defamation proceedings lodged against the Mail on Sunday earlier this month by one Simon Stokes (no, not that one). It turns out to be a case... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: ALAN ENGLISH
THE NEW editor of the Sunday Independent, Alan English, seems determined to make readers sit up and notice him. English presents readers with a weekly... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOODS: ALAN DILLON
Enda Kenny could take some quiet satisfaction from the success of his local Castlebar protégé, Alan Dillon (37). Football hero Dillon held Kenny’s Castlebar... Read more »
Fit to Print?
IVAN’S HARD NECK
THE RETIREMENT of The Hard Shoulder presenter on Newstalk, Ivan Yates, was announced by the ex-Fine Gael minister in February following a settlement with AIB over his Wexford family home... Read more »
BRENDAN O’CONNOR’S REINVENTION
THE REINVENTED, caring Brendan O’Connor is beginning to grate almost as much as when he prided himself on dishing it to every vulnerable group in society. But at least RTÉ... Read more »
‘SINDO’ SENSITIVITY
WEDNESDAY’S Irish Times opinion and analysis page has recently resembled an old Sunday Independent edition, with former Sindo personalities Anne Harris and Michael McDowell dominating the section. McDowell has had... Read more »
Last Refuge
GURRIER GREENS VS GENTLE GREENS
THE MEDIA mantra about the Greens has changed from one condemning the party for not simply capitulating to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to an attack on Catherine Martin. According... Read more »
MARTIN SWEATS IT OUT
THE NEUROTIC behaviour of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as he closes in on the long-cherished, moist dream of becoming taoiseach – at the possible expense of his party’s destruction... Read more »
UN SECURITY COUNCIL FODDER
FOREIGN MINISTER Simon Coveney’s repetitive explanation to the Irish public of the government’s refusal to enact the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB) – passed by majorities in the Dáil and Seanad... Read more »
Hush Hush
TRUMP OBLIGES LONDON
The 1988 state-sponsored assassination attempt on Belfast man Malachy McAllister and his family is key to understanding the British government’s pursuit of McAllister and why he was finally deported from... Read more »
DERMOT O’LEARY’S SOLUTION
THE OIREACHTAS Covid-19 Committee has been presented with an exciting submission from Dermot O’Leary’s National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU), namely the extension of bus and rail travel to a... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
Rugby Tackled Roadworker A Tipperary man was arrested for rugby tackling a roadworker operating a stop/go sign outside Nenagh, Tipperary, following an altercation. James Sage of Glenacre, Ballina, Tipperary, had... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
GAS ‘STORIES’
If the programme for government is green-lighted next week, it will spell the end not only for new oil and gas exploration licences, but will also make Ireland the first... Read more »
LOBBYING THE AG
Meanwhile, the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association is understandably less than pleased about the promise to end exploration. Its CEO Mandy Johnston – Bertie Ahern’s former press secretary – was this... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
The business is too big to fail. It plays too important a role in the Irish media scene. Niall McGarry’s detached analysis of his Joe.ie website, Irish Independent Staycation is... Read more »
High Society
JP’S MISSING YANKS
WITH RESTAURANTS preparing to reopen at the end of the month, the owner of one Michelin-starred establishment sees little point unless the two-metre guideline is taken off the menu. JP... Read more »
NOELLE O’CONNOR’S HIGH BAR
LAST WEEK, Noelle O’Connor told the Business Post, “When Covid-19 hit last March, it felt so familiar to me. Setting up TanOrganic 10 years ago had been about reinventing myself... Read more »
BRIAN KINGHAM’S NEW PLAN
ACROSS THE Irish Sea, villagers in Aldbourne in Wiltshire are up in arms at a contentions planning application to build 35 houses on agricultural land. The plan was submitted in... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
BONO’S FILM STUDIO ROLE?
THE NEWS that James Morris and Alan Moloney’s proposed 48-acre film studio and ‘media park’ in west Dublin is to involve the son of moneybags Paddy McKillen Snr – LA... Read more »
RHA GALLERY’S ROADMAP
THE GOOD news is that the RHA Gallery re-opens in late July, although a max of 40 visitors an hour will be permitted, with online booking required. And October 13... Read more »
Radio
BRENDAN O’CONNOR – RTÉ RADIO ONE
FOR MANY years, with programmes such as Don’t Feed The Gondolas and Brendan O’Connor’s Cutting Edge, Brendan O’Connor unconvincingly attempted to position himself as a maverick within RTÉ’s ranks. Unfortunately,... Read more »
Moneybags
ICG SHAREHOLDERS FACING PERFECT STORM
IF EAMONN ROTHWELL thought that 2018 was his annus horribilis, then he ain’t seen nothing yet. Irish Continental Group (ICG) has been hit hard by the Covid-19 shutdown of the... Read more »
BREEDON GROUP FIGURES REVEAL MASSIVE IRISH CEMENT MARGINS
ONE OF the bigger deals struck in this country is Kevin Lagan’s €500m cash sale of his Lagan cement, concrete and aggregates business in May 2018. The purchaser of the... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
GOFF LALOR’S DISTRIBUTION
THE OFFICIAL assignee Chris Lehane has published a list of bankrupts whose estates will be distributed on July 20. One of the more interesting accounts will surely be that of... Read more »
JOHN GILMARTIN’S CHALLENGING TIMES
A FINANCIAL consultant who set up a number of companies to provide business advice has seen one of them come a cropper. The good news is that, according to documents... Read more »
JONATHAN COSGRAVE’S PROPERTY PUNT
A LITTLE-known company called AHC Ltd has just been the subject of a notice from its auditors about the keeping of accounting records. No doubt, high-flying fund exec Jonathan Cosgrave... Read more »
PAUL BLANCHFIELD’S CREDITORS’ MEETING
A CREDITORS’ meeting has been called for a company called Frontier Entertainment Ltd, which was behind the failed theatre tourism project in the Liberties, The Vaults Live. Plenty of people... Read more »
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