Affairs of the Nation

John Bateson

Affairs of the Nation

DERMOT DESMOND’S BUMPY RIDE

LAST YEAR’S crash-landing of Datalex – a company that supplies ticket-booking software to airlines around the world – was one of the more controversial episodes in the history of the... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

MRS BROWN’S BUCKS

WHILE FUNNYMAN Brendan O’Carroll and his missus, Jennifer Gibney, are presumably being very careful when enduring their lockdown in sunny Florida – something of a Covid-19 hotspot – the good... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

DE RENZY’S RETURN

GOLDHAWK spotted one of his old friends is in the middle of a High Court spat with a Cayman Island company. The intriguing case turns out to involve very big... Read more »
Maurice Dockrell

Affairs of the Nation

KINGSTOWN FACTION FIGHTS

SUCH HAS been the tumult in Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael in recent months that chairman of the constituency executive, Edward Kennedy, has decided to install an ethics committee to eliminate... Read more »
Dermot Desmond

Affairs of the Nation

WILLIAM CAMPBELL’S PODCAST

A LITTLE-known podcaster attracted the attention of the super litigious Dermot Desmond recently, although the outcome may not have been exactly what the moneybags anticipated. Last May, William Campbell’s Here’s... Read more »
Ivan Yates

Affairs of the Nation

YATES, KENNY, COOPER RADIO WARS

NEWSTALK’S PROMOTIONAL blitz for its morning programme, The Pat Kenny Show, reached almost hysterical, OTT proportions recently, as it ramps up for what it hopes will be a more even... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

REPLYING TO EOGHAN HARRIS

BRIGHT, NEW, innovative etc Sunday Independent editor Alan English made much of the frightfully courageous decision to interview Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. But English’s mould-breaking editorial style does... Read more »
Michael Quinn

Affairs of the Nation

NIGERIAN BILLIONS

THE QUINN family – Adam and his late father, Michael – have enjoyed extremes of treatment at the hands of the Nigerian government. Currently P&ID, the firm founded by Mick... Read more »
Maura McNally

Affairs of the Nation

WOMEN BREACH LEGAL CITADEL

WHAT A restrained, non-triumphal article the Irish Times published about a victory for feminists – and indeed all women (if not exactly average, run-of-the-mill women) – as exemplified by Maura... Read more »
Alex Murphy

Affairs of the Nation

FUNDING THE ‘YOUNG OFFENDERS’

THE HYPE machine was functioning in overdrive in the run-up to series three of Peter Foott’s mildly entertaining Young Offenders, which kicked off on RTÉ last week. The low point... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Jack Chambers

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: JACK CHAMBERS

HOW TO explain the rapid elevation of 29-year-old Jack Chambers – already one of the top newly appointed junior minsters (finance) – to the... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Kerron O'Luain

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: KERRON Ó LUAIN

THE SEDATE world of Irish-language organisations rarely intrudes on the monoglot English-language media in Ireland. A few polite words, the cúpla focal, usually suffice,... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Fit to Print?

IRISH WRITER NOT CENSORED

DISTINGUISHED AUTHOR, critic and musical director Richard Pine, who currently pens a regular ‘Greece Letter’ for the Irish Times and who studied and worked for many years in Ireland, has... Read more »
Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

OUT OF REACH

THE END of an era was reached recently with John ‘Jumbo’ Kierans stepping down as editor-in-chief of the Irish Mirror after 25 years with the tabloid. In a resignation letter to... Read more »
Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Fit to Print?

Ó SNODAIGHS’ MOTOR CARS

LISTENERS TO Joe Duffy’s Livewhine radio show shortly after the general election would have been taken aback to hear Joe apologising for a slip of the tongue, saying, “I read... Read more »

Last Refuge

Olwyn Enright

Last Refuge

FINE GAEL HEAD (WO)MAN

JOHN CARROLL, special advisor to Leo Varadkar when he was taoiseach, was regarded (for this reason, if nothing else) by many as front-runner for the soon-to-be-vacant job of Fine Gael... Read more »
Micheál Martin

Last Refuge

MARTIN’S REPUBLICANISM

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S inaugural Dáil speech on his election as taoiseach amounted to a not-so-veiled polemic against Sinn Féin as he railed against those who talk only of problems, not solutions,... Read more »
Lisa Chambers

Last Refuge

LISA CHAMBERS LOOKS EAST

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S loss of half a dozen or so party allies after the general election is well documented. But the biggest hit against Martin’s loyal lieutenants came during the election... Read more »
Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

Last Refuge

JOHN MAGNER’S RESIGNATION

THE CHAIRMAN of the Fine Gael Agricultural Affairs Group (FGAAG), George O’Connor, was forced recently to convene a special meeting following complaints from some members that he presented a false... Read more »

Hush Hush

Helen McEntee

Hush Hush

HAS PEGASUS FLOWN TO IRELAND?

Given the ongoing controversies about personal data tracking this week, reports of an Israeli surveillance app that invades smartphones is surely big news. Not so in Ireland, however, despite the... Read more »
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Hush Hush

CAHIR O’HIGGINS AND THE VILLAGE

PROLIFIC SOLICITOR Cahir O’Higgins is about to launch proceedings alleging defamation against Village magazine. A well-known, frenetically busy solicitor, Cahir is also a member of the O’Higgins dynasty, one of... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

Christmas Doughnuts A Tralee man, who was “caught in the act” doing a doughnut in his car on Christmas Day, had his sentence reduced to careless driving following an appeal... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Karen Ciesielski

Fowl Emissions

FORK OFF CLIMATE DEFENDERS

The EU Commission’s recently issued bombshell ‘Food to Fork’ strategy amounted to a radical demand for a complete re-think of how agriculture is to develop in the future. Given that... Read more »
Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

Fowl Emissions

DARRAGH MCCULLOUGH’S HOT AIR

A few short months ago, as Goldhawk reported, dairy farmer and writer Darragh McCullough in the Farming Indo decried the “dangerous nonsense” being spouted by the three IFA presidential contenders,... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

David McWilliams

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Consumer spending is chatty. It likes to go out, have face-to-face contact and it loves mingling. David McWilliams, Irish Times Only a month into the new leadership and I’m already... Read more »

High Society

Bertram Allen

High Society

BERTRAM ALLEN’S CLEAR ROUNDS

WITH SPORT back on the agenda, it didn’t take long for young Bertram Allen to make his mark earlier this month, when he won the first five-star international show jumping... Read more »
Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

PETER SAVILL’S PROPERTIES

INTERESTING to see that the Sunday Times report that a company called Chelverston Investments is the new registered owner of Gerald Kean’s Drayton Manor. Chelverston is one of a number... Read more »
Liam Lonergan

High Society

LONERGAN’S FIRST-CLASS TICKET

IT WAS reported in the Sunday Times at the weekend that securing the UN security council seat cost the taxpayer €850,000, with around €¼m spent by the Department of Foreign... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Tom Sullivan

Behind the Scenes

IFTA’S VIRTUAL PLOT

FOLLOWING THE announcement of Áine Moriarty’s IFTA nominees for 2020 and, er, 2019 (sort of), there was the inevitable clamour about the omission of female nominees. On this occasion, it... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

TAXING TIMES IN CARLOW

FANS of Goldhawk will not be surprised to hear that Carlow County Council has had to bail out the VISUAL arts centre in Carlow. It will be recalled (see The... Read more »

Sport of Kings

John Hanlon

Sport of Kings

SHARK PICKS UP THE SCENT

CARLOW TRAINER John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has enjoyed some great days with the likes of Luska Lad and Hidden Cyclone but, like many of his contemporaries, he has found it tough... Read more »
Amer Abdulaziz

Sport of Kings

BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR ABDULAZIZ

MANY MIGHT have assumed that, six months after being accused in court of stealing $400m via an international Ponzi scheme with Russian links, Amer Abdulaziz of Phoenix Thoroughbreds would not... Read more »

Moneybags

Sean Corkery

Moneybags

DATALEX’S CRASH LANDING COULD ATTRACT BUYERS

WHEN THE 15-month-long suspension was lifted earlier this month, Datalex shares collapsed 75% to 22.5c. The suspension was lifted by Euronext Dublin and its supervising authority, the Central Bank of... Read more »
Brendan Mooney

Moneybags

KAINOS SHARES BUCK THE MARKET TREND

WHILE THE Covid-19 crisis has knocked the stuffing out of many companies, this is certainly not the case for the Belfast-based Kainos IT operation. Having initially furloughed 130 of its... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

David Kennedy

The Hot Water Brigade

DAVID KENNEDY’S SHARE OPTIONS

STILL NO SIGN of détente between the board of quoted airline software company Datalex and its former chief finance office, David Kennedy. Kennedy was in situ at the troubled Datalex... Read more »
Joan Lynch

The Hot Water Brigade

JOAN LYNCH’S DANISH SURPRISE

GOLDHAWK WAS surprised to see fashion guru Joan Lynch’s high-profile clothing retail company, Born Clothing Ltd (BCL), hit with a judgment for a paltry €5,600 by a Danish fashion outfit,... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

PUSHING OUT PAUL COYLE

THE FORMER owner of Decobake Ltd, Paul Coyle, suffered his latest setback last month when he ended up on the wrong end of a resolution passed by the creditors of... Read more »
Chris Shiel

The Hot Water Brigade

CHRIS SHIEL’S CRASH LANDING

SURPRISING To see one of the companies owned by Galway high-flier Chris Shiel come crashing to earth. The good news is that he has been raking in the moolah elsewhere.... Read more »