Affairs of the Nation

Susan Denham

Affairs of the Nation

QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

SÉamus Woulfe got filleted by the Irish Times for his deluded self-pity over Golfgate, but the judges’ favourite newspaper still blamed “successive governments going back more than a decade” for... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

DENIS O’BRIEN’S APPLIANCES

A LIQUIDATOR has been appointed to a company called Demirca Ltd. Although not a familiar name, it turns out to be one of Denis O’Brien’s more forgettable ventures. Demirca was... Read more »
Seamus Woulfe

Affairs of the Nation

PRINCES OF LAW

GOLDHAWK IS grateful to a reader who looked up the Wikipedia entry for controversial Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe. The highlight is, without doubt, a link in the references to... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

IAN MARSHALL’S SF SUPPORTERS

IS Micheál Martin about to make an embarrassing blunder by failing to present as unionist friendly, compared to those subversive, sectarian etc Sinn Féin scoundrels? Northern unionist and former Seanad... Read more »
Willie Walsh

Affairs of the Nation

WILLIE WALSH’S ROUTE MAP

WITH FORMER Aer Lingus boss Willie Walsh having finally exited the giant International Airlines Group (IAG), where he had been chief executive for nine years, there may be some concern... Read more »
Ed Guiney

Affairs of the Nation

ED GUINEY’S PLOT TWIST

FANS OF Goldhawk are familiar with the costly development and change of ownership of the controversial Pálás cinema project in Galway, where the opening scene featured the sod-turning by Michael... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

MATT COOPER’S MANY HATS

MATT COOPER is a very busy chap, which may explain why he apparently forgot to mention his roles in Today FM and Virgin when taking his latest pop at RTÉ... Read more »
Charlie Flanagan

Affairs of the Nation

CHARLIE FLANAGAN TO BE SUED?

IT’S RARE that a full-on riposte to Eoghan Harris’s attacks on those with the ‘wrong’ outlook is sanctioned by the Sunday Independent and even rarer that it would be published... Read more »
Simon Coveney

Affairs of the Nation

COVENEY YIELDS TO TRUMP ON ISRAEL

THE HIGHLY regarded Irish Times Middle East correspondent, Micheal Jansen, recently summarised the so-called breakthrough of the United Arab Emirate (UAE)-Bahrain-Israel deal as something that would finish off the long-sought-after,... Read more »
Barry Ward

Affairs of the Nation

BLUESHIRT ETHICS

THE CHAIRPERSON of Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael constituency organisation, Edward Kennedy, takes his responsibilities seriously. ‘Ted’ informed members in a recent missive, “I am setting up an ethics committee to... Read more »
The Phoenix Annual 2022 Out Now

Pillars of Society

Norma Foley

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: NORMA FOLEY

FAILING TO get on to the Fianna Fáil general election ticket in Kerry last year, Norma Foley could not have imagined she would end... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Laura Whitmore

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: LAURA WHITMORE

It has been a trying time of late for Bray’s sweetheart, Laura Whitmore, who struggles with balancing the demands of her rapidly ascending star... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Dara Bradley

Fit to Print?

HACK GOES DOWN ON GALWAY BAY

AN INCESTUOUS spat and legal action between Galway Bay FM and a journalist from the radio station’s owners, the Connacht Tribune, was settled in July, with damages and legal costs... Read more »
Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL

THAT “FEARLESS” Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph correspondent, the late Chris Ryder, was for many years an inspiration to British hacks covering the Troubles, especially when it came to the... Read more »
Jane Suiter

Fit to Print?

NUIG JOB CONFLICT

EX-IRISH TIMES editor Conor Brady’s appointment as Honorary Professor of Journalism at NUI Galway (NUIG) underlines the ambition of the university’s top hack-ademic, Tom Felle. The go-getting head of journalism... Read more »
The Phoenix Annual 2022 Out Now

Last Refuge

Frank Clarke

Last Refuge

SEPARATING JUDGES AND POLITICIANS

SÉAMUS WOULFE has achieved the compelling feat of lowering the stock of judges to beneath that of politicians. But amid the reams of media analysis (overwhelmingly critical of Woulfe and,... Read more »
Mick Barry

Last Refuge

MICK BARRY’S MEDIA STRATEGY

OPPOSITION TDS and even Fianna Fáil have denounced the obsession with spin and media manipulation engaged in by Leo Varadkar in recent years. And left-wing TDs have been especially indignant... Read more »
Niamh Smyth

Last Refuge

FIVE-YEAR LIBEL CASE

A SLOW-motion defamation action in the Northern Circuit Court is causing some confusion within and without Fianna Fáil. This is because the plaintiff – a county councillor who resigned from... Read more »
Richard Bruton

Last Refuge

BLUESHIRT CALL TO ARMS

THAT’S A slightly unnerving group of right-wing Fine Gael TDs now ensconced in a political bunker hammering out a battle plan to revive the party and lead it back to... Read more »

Hush Hush

Dmytro Firtash

Hush Hush

DARK MONEY DELUGE

The fierce conflict raging at the moment between Azerbaijan fighters and the Armenian army seems a long way from money laundering and dubious financial transactions in Ireland and Britain, but... Read more »
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Hush Hush

GENE MURTAGH’S GONG

CONGRATULATIONS to Gene Murtagh, who has won the Irish Times’s Business Person of the Month Award for having “outperformed market expectations despite Covid-19”. As the IT breathlessly recounted, “While the... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

Red Card Michael Lyons of Stoneyview, Knockbrack, Burnfort, Cork, appeared before Cork District Court after abusing a referee during an under-age football match. The defendant, who supported the home team,... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Eamon Ryan

Fowl Emissions

PREDATORY FRACKERS

At first glance, John Mullins’s journey from his €400,000-a-year job as head of Bord Gáis to running his own renewable energy company, Amarenco Solar, sounds like a story for our... Read more »
Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

Fowl Emissions

RYAN LEAVES DOOR OPEN

A law to ban new oil and gas exploration licences “would be a historic change” and an inspiration “for the rest of the world”, Eamon Ryan told a rally outside... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Amanda Byram

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Every morning, when you get out of bed, stand in front of a full-length mirror and give yourself some unconditional love: say out loud three times,“Damn, girl! You are one... Read more »

High Society

Jessica Harrington

High Society

MATT DEMPSEY’S HEADACHE

THE CHAIRMAN of the Irish National Stud (INS), Matt Dempsey, and his €140,000 pa chief executive, Cathal Beale, will have been chuffed at last weekend’s Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot... Read more »
Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

CHARLES COLTHURST’S NEIGHBOURS

THE SQUIRE of Blarney Castle, Charles St John Colthurst, has been kicking up about a proposed housing development not too far from his famous pile. Unfortunately for Charlie, if the... Read more »
Niall McFadden

High Society

NIALL McFADDEN’S OPTIMISM

AN IMPRESSIVE house on the Mount Juliet estate has gone on the market with a near E2m price tag. It turns out that this is one of a number of... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Nuala O'Connor

Behind the Scenes

NUALA O’CONNOR’S NEW GIG

THE APPOINTMENT of Nuala O’Connor to the government’s Future of Media Commission may draw some attention to one of the more successful production partnerships in the country. Until now, Dingle-based... Read more »
Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

ROSE MCHUGH’S GOOD NEWS

ROSE MCHUGH, Crawford Art Gallery chair, was smiling last month when the government finally put some real money on the table for the long-overdue upgrading of the building. The announcement... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Johnny Murtagh

Sport of Kings

CHAMPERS ALL ROUND

LUCK PLAYS a big part in the success or otherwise of horse racing, but one group of owners who must be pinching themselves are those involved in Fitzwilliam Racing. Set... Read more »
Henry Beeby

Sport of Kings

TOUGH GOING AT GOFFS

FEARS THAT the value of bloodstock would plunge due to the effects of Covid-19 (see The Phoenix 25/9/20) were justified when Goffs staged its annual Orby Yearling Sale at the... Read more »
Mick Bailey

Sport of Kings

OISIN MURPHY’S DRUG WAR

THE NEWS that racing’s latest poster boy, Oisin Murphy, tested positive for metabolites of cocaine at Chantilly in July could prove a major blow to the career of the Kerryman... Read more »
Aidan O'Brien

Sport of Kings

NO GAIN FOR AIDAN O’BRIEN

WITH HEAVY rain in Paris scuppering the participation of Aidan O’Brien’s main challenger, Love, in the Arc de Triomphe, a last minute scare involving a contaminated batch of horse feed... Read more »

Reviews

Champagne Football

Books

CHAMPAGNE FOOTBALL – MARK TIGHE & PAUL ROWAN 

GIVEN THE recent trend for behind-the-scenes football documentaries, ex-FAI boss John Delaney could probably have solved the association’s car-crash finances simply by agreeing to a reality series focusing on himself... Read more »
Burning Heresies

Books

BURNING HERESIES – KEVIN MYERS (MERRION PRESS)

WHEN IS a victim not a victim? Apparently not when they’re single mothers whose children are described as “bastards”. Or a Traveller derided as belonging to a “patriarchal, caste-based, dirty,... Read more »

Moneybags

Willie Walsh

Moneybags

WILLIE WALSH’S €2.7BN IAG LEGACY

WILLIE WALSH – the most admired airline executive in the world, according to Mick O’Leary – exited the IAG airline conglomerate (which owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Midland and... Read more »
Joe Purcell

Moneybags

MINCON BUCKS THE TREND

WITH MINING in the doldrums, the multinational Irish drilling equipment manufacturer Mincon should be really feeling the pinch, especially on top of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, it turns out... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Alison Canavan

The Hot Water Brigade

ALISON CANAVAN’S DREAM BUILDING

GOLDHAWK WAS interested to see that California-based model-turned-new-age-guru Alison Canavan has pulled the plug on her Irish wellness coaching business, Tinky Tock Productions. It turns out that the previous involvement... Read more »
Ian Drennan

The Hot Water Brigade

IAN DRENNAN’S LATEST RESULT

THE LATEST company director to come a cropper courtesy of Ian Drennan’s Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) is one Shane Murphy from Carrigaline, Co Cork. It is... Read more »
Beatrice Tollman

The Hot Water Brigade

BEATRICE TOLLMAN’S HOTEL BILL

WITH THE pandemic causing havoc in the hospitality sector – and little reason for believing things will change any time soon – it is not surprising that there are some... Read more »
Malcolm Denmark

The Hot Water Brigade

MALCOLM DENMARK’S METHODS

EARLIER THIS summer, the doughty old Munster Express, the grand old lady of The Quay in Waterford, celebrated the tremendous milestone of 160 years in print. Is a change on... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

KEATING’S PROBLEMS BUILDING

FANS OF Goldhawk will not be surprised to hear that established construction and marine/civil engineering powerhouse Keating construction has applied for the protection of the courts. The high-profile company behind... Read more »
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The Hot Water Brigade

BLUE DIAMOND BOUNCES BACK

GOLDHAWK WAS pleased to see the hard-working Boyle family at Dundalk Bureau de Change has bounced back from its little spot of difficulty in 2018. Terence Boyle and his son,... Read more »