Affairs of the Nation

leo Varadkar

Affairs of the Nation

VARADKAR’S VBFS

HOW PIQUANT that Leo Varadkar should have made cronyism such a strong part of his political profile when he began his bid for leadership of party and country a decade... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

SIMONE ROCHA’S PEARLS

FASHION DESIGNER Simone Rocha recently launched her Spring 2021 ready-to-wear collection ‘in the flesh’, eschewing the online Zoom-type events that are increasingly familiar. Under pandemic protocols, the designer’s 10 models... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

MARGARET SWEENEY’S €1M PA

FORMER DUBLIN Airport Authority boss Margaret Sweeney landed herself a 42% pay hike at the listed property giant I-Res Reit, where her total remuneration topped a cool €1m last year.... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Paddy Cosgrave

Affairs of the Nation

DOCTORS DIFFER

THE LIST of characters in Leo Varadkar’s ‘confidential’ leak story includes the tánaiste himself, web summit guru Paddy Cosgrave, GP union head Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail and medical professional Chay... Read more »
Leo Varadkar

Affairs of the Nation

DR VARADKAR’S DILEMMA

TÁNAISTE DR Leo Varadkar’s medical interactions have seen him don scrubs and present as Joseph Lister in the first phase of Covid-19 last April and, more recently, as a Machiavellian... Read more »
Nichola Mallon

Affairs of the Nation

SDLP FRACKING DILEMMA

NORTHERN CONTROVERSIES only attract media attention if they concern Sinn Féin, which might help to explain why the SDLP’s Nichola Mallon, Northern Ireland’s infrastructure minister, has escaped mainstream media criticism... Read more »
Dermot Lacey

Affairs of the Nation

DERMOT LACEY’S STRANGE APPOINTMENT

EYEBROWS WERE raised recently when education minister Norma Foley quietly made her three appointments to the governing authority of UCD. One of the faces did not quite fit, as Dublin... Read more »
Declan Kelly

Affairs of the Nation

DECLAN KELLY’S PREDICTIONS

NO DOUBT corporate strategist extraordinaire Declan Kelly was keeping a close eye on the US election results this week given his company’s strong links to the Democrats. Closer to home,... Read more »
Gemma O'Doherty

Affairs of the Nation

GEMMA’S BRITISH COMRADES

GEMMA O’DOHERTY is positioned distinctly to the right on the political spectrum, but her rallies and those of other anti-immigrant ‘Irish patriots’, like the National Party, increasingly see followers waving... Read more »
Siún Ní Raghallaigh

Affairs of the Nation

OOPS! THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN

AN IRISH animated film topped the UK box office charts last month, offering another potential big pay day for Siún Ní Raghallaigh and Moe Honan’s Galway-based animation company, Moetion Films. Unfortunately, there... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Peter Vandermeersch

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: PETER VANDERMEERSCH

BUYING A large newspaper group – Independent News & Media (INM) – just as print media looks to be in the final stage of terminal... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: EMER MCLYSAGHT AND SARAH BREEN

THEY’VE PUBLISHED three bestselling books, are working on the screenplay for their character’s film debut and won the 2019 Popular Fiction award at the... Read more »

Fit to Print?

John Burns

Fit to Print?

NEW EDITOR FOR ‘ST’

Frank Fitzgibbon’s resignation as editor of the Aawrish edition of the Sunday Times leaves the gate open for John Burns, the man who has been aching to succeed Fitzgibbon for... Read more »
Micheál Martin

Fit to Print?

MARTIN’S ‘SHARED’ HISTORY

AN TAOISEACH Micheál Martin developed his shared-island theme with the Guardian last week in an exercise in historic revisionism that will have fazed even Eoghan Harris and Charlie BlackandTanagain. With... Read more »

Last Refuge

Elisha McCallion

Last Refuge

GOVERNMENT SEANAD PACT

SINN FÉIN senator Elisha McCallion’s resignation from the Seanad has done both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil a big favour, producing a political scenario beyond irony for all political parties... Read more »
Una Mullally

Last Refuge

ALAN KELLY REINVENTS HIMSELF

LABOUR LEADER Alan Kelly and his handlers have been busy with a relentless campaign to replace AK-47’s image with a brand new persona since he took the party leadership. Gone... Read more »
Eamon Ryan

Last Refuge

RYAN’S VICTORY

THE SURPRISING thing about the recent exodus of some of the more forceful radicals in the Green Party is that leader Eamon Ryan came within a few dozen votes of... Read more »
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Last Refuge

BLUESHIRT ORDER

FINE GAEL’S Dún Laoghaire constituency chairman, Edward Kennedy, may have delivered the last of his portentous letters to members, depending on the imminent result of the tight election for chair... Read more »

Hush Hush

Pat Finucane

Hush Hush

‘BEATING’ THE IRA

Successive governments in the Irish republic bear the brunt of responsibility for the IRA’s ‘insurgency’. That’s one of the core accusations from former Special Branch (SB) officer William Matchett, whose... Read more »
HushHush-def

Hush Hush

JON BOUTCHER’S BLUSHES

The ‘Stakeknife’ spy charade was exposed to further ridicule last week when state prosecutors ruled there is no hard evidence that Fred Scappaticci is in fact “the agent called Stakeknife”.... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘WANKERS!’ A man who was abusive towards gardaí has been given the chance to have his case struck out if he makes a donation to the Garda Benevolent Fund. Terry... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Ursula von der Leyen

Fowl Emissions

CAP SELL-OUT

“Today the European Parliament will vote on how we produce our food for the next seven years,” tweeted Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan. “The decisions MEPs make will intrinsically impact on our... 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

VEGGIE DISTRACTION

Veggie discs for dinner, anyone? Vegan tubes for lunch? These are the names we almost got for meat-free burgers and sausages, in an anti-vegetarian proposal cooked up by Europe’s meat... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Rachel Allen

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

If you have any leftover zabaglione, try folding into it chunks of broken meringue and crushed berries for an Italian take on the classic Eton Mess. Rachel Allen, Sunday Independent’s... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Rebecca O'Byrne

High Society

DANIELLE RYAN’S STYLISH COUSIN

NEXT MONTH will see the release in the US of the film Wild Mountain Thyme. It should coincide with the release of the latest... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

VIP’S RED INK

THERE IS no end to the flow of stories about Irish ‘celebrities’ that feature in VIP magazine (this week: ‘Darren Kennedy talks cocktail making... Read more »

High Society

Ozzie Kheir

High Society

OZZIE KHEIR’S COOLMORE COUP

IT’S NOT everyday that John Magnier’s Coolmore operation gets its eye wiped, but flash Australian racehorse owner Aziz ‘Ozzie’ Kheir earned a major pay day at the expense of the... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Lily-Rose Depp

Behind the Scenes

FUNDING LILY-ROSE DEPP

THERE’S LITTLE doubt Irish film and television producers are having a bad year, but at least they (and their international cast members) continue to draw succour from the public purse.... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

PAT MOLLOY’S SUCCESSOR

STILL NO sign of the 2018 accounts at Dublin’s Hugh Lane, where there is finally to be a change at the top, with ex-banker Pat Molloy preparing to step down... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Johnny Murtagh

Sport of Kings

JOHNNY MURTAGH’S SECOND CHANCE

ON THE back of his best ever year as a trainer, Johnny Murtagh received another major boost with the news that he is set to join Dermot Weld and Michael... Read more »
Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

Sport of Kings

NO MERCY FROM IHRB

DENIS EGAN’S Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) wielded its axe in no uncertain terms recently when disciplining little-known trainer Alan Wells. The handler, who appears never to have trained a... Read more »

Reviews

In Bed with the Blueshirts

Books

IN BED WITH THE BLUESHIRTS SHANE ROSS (ATLANTIC BOOKS)

POLITICAL REMINISCENCES in Ireland are invariably boring, free of interesting information and full of self-justification presented with no context (or purpose). But this book is different. It actually tells you... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Michael Cawley

Moneybags

WHEN WILL HOSTELWORLD SHARES HIT BOTTOM?

IN LATE 2015, the hostel-focused online booking platform Hostelworld was floated off in Dublin at €2.70 a share, raising €184m in fresh equity. Since... Read more »

Moneybags

Michael Carvill

Moneybags

WHAT IS MICK CARVILL’S NEXT MOVE?

MICK CARVILL has been running Kenmare Resources for 36 years, having being drafted in as CEO by his father, Charlie. He survived early setbacks... Read more »

Briefcases

Pat Byrne

Briefcases

PAT BYRNE’S RUCKING

NICK WEBB, the Sunday Times business columnist, spotted something of a pattern amid all the gloom of Ireland’s depressing defeat in Paris last week. Two of the new faces on... Read more »
Ken Murphy

Briefcases

LAW SOCIETY ‘EXTRAVAGANCE’

WITH THE long-time director of the Law Society preparing to step down in March next year after 26 years in situ in Blackhall Place, there is bound to be quite... Read more »
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Briefcases

FAST EDDIE’S COURT DATE

SOUTH DUBLIN car dealer and high-profile rally enthusiast Eddie Peterson could be running out of track, with Wicklow County Council having initiated legal action over what it describes as unauthorised... Read more »
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Briefcases

KIERAN GANNON’S LATEST SETBACK

MORE BAD news for Kieran Gannon, who has once again struck out on a planning application for his ambitious plans for the old Smurfit printworks in Glasnevin. It’s been a... Read more »
Dermot Cox

Briefcases

DERMOT COX’S BARGAIN

WITH THE examinership of Vernon Foods wholesale fruit operation completed, it looks like the new controlling shareholder, retail king Dermot Cox, may have got a pretty good deal. The long-established... Read more »
WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Briefcases

RICHARD SPENCE’S DIGITAL CLINIC

A COMPANY called Digex Ltd has surfaced with one Richard Spence as a director. He previously made his mark with Beutifi, the beauty business technology outfit that was to “revolutionise”... Read more »