Affairs of the Nation

Paul O'Neill

Affairs of the Nation

BETHANY HOME AND THE ‘IRISH TIMES’

TWO MONTHS ago The Phoenix published a special investigation into the Irish Times’ suppression over many years of information about ill-treatment of children in Protestant mother and baby homes, despite... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

HARVEY BOULTER’S MURDER CHARGE

GOLDHAWK WONDERS what impact a startling development may have on the plaintiff in High Court proceedings faced by his old friend, investor extraordinaire Graeme de Renzy. The case, featuring a... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

IAN BLACK’S PAC GRILLING

THERE WERE fun and games at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this month, when the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) faced a grilling. It was set up by... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Leon Black

Affairs of the Nation

APOLLO’S QUARANTINE SHOT

WITH THE hospitality sector in tatters, the landing of the state’s quarantine accommodation contract represents a real fillip for the Tifco Hotels group. The big winner is owner US investment... Read more »
Siobhan Stack

Affairs of the Nation

JUDGE HUMPHREYS’ PEERS

THE ELEVATION recently of Siobhán Stack SC to the High Court bench will have been welcomed by her Law Library colleagues and also members of the bench. However, there may... Read more »
Ken Murphy

Affairs of the Nation

KEN’S LONG GOODBYE

THE LIFE and times of retiring Law Society director general Ken Murphy were shared, last Friday, with lucky past presidents of the society “by Zoom in the valedictory event for... Read more »
Eoghan Harris

Affairs of the Nation

EOGHAN HARRIS’S SLEEPERS

THE MOST brazen aspect of the weekend’s Eoghan Harris column in the Sindo was not the cartoon’s sexist barb at the witch-like Mary Lou McDonald, but rather the assertion by... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Gordon Elliott

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: GORDON ELLIOTT

WHEN THAT photograph emerged featuring top trainer Gordon Elliott astride a dead racehorse, the sport – and the Harry McCalmont-chaired Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Violet Anne Wynne

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: VIOLET ANNE WYNNE

SINN FÉIN’S breakthrough in February last year to become the leading party in Irish politics came as a terrible shock to establishment politicians and... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Joe Brolly

Fit to Print?

SINDO v BOBBY SANDS

A RECENT tweet sneering at Bobby Sands’ hunger strike and death from Sindo sports writer Tommy Conlon has caused a furore on social media. But this is just the latest of several... Read more »
Miriam O'Callaghan

Fit to Print?

MIRIAM O’CALLAGHAN’S HOUSE

A PALATIAL pile, combining space and location, is up for sale in Grosvenor Road, D6, where number 45 is – the Irish Times property section hints –perhaps available for a... Read more »
Arthur Beesley

Fit to Print?

BEESLEY TICKLED PINK BY ‘IT’ RETURN

THE Financial Times is looking for an Ireland Correspondent to replace Arthur Beesley who has returned to his editorial alma mater, the Irish Times.  Showing an appreciation of things Irish that eludes most British media,... Read more »

Last Refuge

Jim O'Callaghan

Last Refuge

O’CALLAGHAN GIRDS HIS LOINS

THE BATTLE for the Fianna Fáil leadership went transatlantic and even to the southern hemisphere in the last week as Micheál Martin and Jim O’Callaghan laid out their stalls in... Read more »
Leo Varadkar

Last Refuge

MICHEÁL AND LEO v THE MEDIA

IT MAY be that in the absence of his golden source at the top level of Fine Gael – Big Phil Hogan – that the Irish Independent Ireland correspondent Fionnan Sheahan has become alienated... Read more »
Liadh Ni Riada

Last Refuge

SINN FÉIN’S AMBITIOUS PLANS

ANGUISHED NOISES from Sinn Féin general election candidate Séighin Ó Ceallaigh, about the imposition of a male gender ban in his constituency, Limerick County, are a sign of things to... Read more »
John McGuirk

Last Refuge

MCGUIRK AND RTÉ

RIGHT-WING commentator John McGuirk railed against RTÉ for paying out €20,000 recently to several charities nominated by left-republican group Éirígí on foot of McGuirk’s incorrect remark that it was responsible... Read more »

Northwind

Michelle O'Neill

Northwind

NORTHERN ABORTION CHAOS

ALL THE parties in the north tied themselves in knots in the past fortnight about abortion legislation, none more so than Sinn Féin. First, the assembly was faced with a... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘His Hands Down His Jocks’ Brian Butler (38) of Wyattville Park, Loughlinstown, was handed a three-year suspended sentence in Dublin Circuit Court for threatening a security guard at a supermarket.... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Joe Biden Russian Orwell Road

Fowl Emissions

RYAN BIDENS HIS TIME

JOE BIDEN is enjoying a reputation as something of an environmental hero, and to a degree this is merited – in the opening weeks of his presidency he has been... 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

VLAD’S TRAFFIC PLAN

IF ANYTHING is guaranteed to arouse the irrational fury of the residents of Dublin’s leafier boroughs, it is proposals to take road space from cars and give it to cyclists... Read more »

Clerical Errors

Mary McAleese

Clerical Errors

MARY NOT QUITE SO CONTRARY?

MARY MCALEESE’S robust dismissal of a decree from the Vatican Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, (CDF), which forbids priests blessing same-sex couples, constituted an escalation in her crusade to... Read more »

Clerical Errors

SLOWLY DOES IT AT TENI

THE CULTURE war surrounding self-identification for transgender people continues to stir up strong emotions, most recently in the letters pages of the Irish Times, where a debate has been raging... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Rosita Boland

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I’d so wanted a Simone Rocha x H&M capsule piece. They weren’t just clothes. They were hope. Rosita Boland, Irish Times, submitted by reader The late and greatly lamented Ballymaloe... Read more »

High Society

High Society

9 Belgrave Square

High Society

LADY MARY’S £42M SALE

ACROSS THE Irish Sea, trouble is brewing for billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, whose massive steel empire is creaking, with demand for the product having... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

GUY O’CALLAGHAN’S NEW STUD

THE SALE of a prime stud property on the Curragh sees the blueblood O’Callaghan bloodstock clan adding another asset to the empire. The reported... Read more »

High Society

Mark Kennelly

High Society

IN THE BUNKER AT DRUIDS GLEN

WHILE IRELAND’S golf fairways are quiet, there is plenty of action at Druids Glen resort in Co Wicklow where a former member, Niall Barry, has initiated two sets of legal... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Catherine Martin

Behind the Scenes

CATHERINE MARTIN’S ADDRESS

IT WAS interesting to see arts minister Catherine Martin taking time out earlier this month to “address female representation and equality in Ireland’s arts, culture, sports and media sectors”. According... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

ED GUINEY’S ‘FESTIVAL’

WHILE ALL eyes where on Cheltenham, another festival of sorts was under way in the digital sphere, featuring free Irish films being offered “with the support of Screen Ireland” (SI)... Read more »

Sport of Kings

David Mullins

Sport of Kings

BACKING DAVID MULLINS

DAVID MULLINS, who surprised many in racing by announcing his retirement from the saddle at the tender age of 24, has embarked on his first public venture off the saddle... Read more »
Oisin Murphy

Sport of Kings

MURPHY’S FALSE START

AFTER SERVING a three-month ban for testing positive for metabolites of cocaine, champion jockey Oisin Murphy was chomping at the bit to get back in action in March but he... Read more »
Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

Sport of Kings

BYRNE HITS THE JACKPOT

WHEN YOUNG Dublin racehorse-owner Paul Byrne acquired the seemingly well-exposed horse, The Shunter, from Kilkenny trainer John Clifford last year for (presumably) relatively small money, nobody could have predicted the... Read more »
Rachael Blackmore

Sport of Kings

CHELTENHAM GREENWASH

THOSE GRIM days in the late 1980s and 1990s, when Ireland might only muster up one or two winners at the Cheltenham festival are long gone, with the Brits now... Read more »

Reviews

THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL - NEIL JORDAN

Books

THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL – NEIL JORDAN

THE BOOM in historical fiction continues with this new account of the odd friendship between Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his African-American manservant, Tony Small. The result is far from convincing.... Read more »
NO ONE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE EXCEPT FOR YOU - LAURA WHITMORE

Books

NO ONE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE EXCEPT FOR YOU – LAURA WHITMORE

READERS HOPING that Laura Whitmore’s debut might give them an inside track into her life as a TV and radio presenter may be in for disappointment. The book, which gets... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Dermot Crowley

Moneybags

EXPOSED DALATA BANKING ON TOURISTS’ QUICK RETURN

WITH CEO Pat McCann announcing his intention to resign after “a period of transition” as he reaches the 70 mark, he is leaving Dalata... Read more »

Moneybags

Francesca McDonagh

Moneybags

MCDONAGH FAILS TO CLOSE THE GAP WITH AIB

BANK OF Ireland CEO Francesca McDonagh showed her ruthless side by taking the scalpel’s knife to the group’s branch network, announcing the closure of... Read more »

Brief Cases

Gerry Gannon

Brief Cases

JOHN O’SULLIVAN’S CRASH LANDING

A COMPANY that provided car-parking facilities at Dublin airport has just gone into liquidation. Parkfly Ltd, where the principal is John O’Sullivan, has suffered badly during the pandemic while deteriorating... Read more »
Tony Walshe

Brief Cases

TONY WALSH’S THEATRICAL EXIT

AN IMPRESSIVE pile off Sweetmount Avenue in Dundrum – Churchtown House – is on the market with a near €3m price tag. There have been some big winners and losers... Read more »
Tony Wright

Brief Cases

LEX GREENSILL’S IRISH CUSTOMERS

THESE ARE nervous times for businesses that have links to the giant UK-based Greensill Capital firm that collapsed into administration earlier this month. Founded by larger-than- life Aussie financier Lex... Read more »
WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Brief Cases

FAILED BID

WHILE THERE has been plenty of grumbling about Dún Laoghaire by local business types in recent years, it seems the best efforts of the local business improvement district (BID) scheme... Read more »