Affairs of the Nation

Mark Mellett

Affairs of the Nation

TANKS, NOT HOUSES

LAST CHRISTMAS Goldhawk wrote that a planned reform of the Defence Forces would result in two things: the end of Irish neutrality and serious investment in military hardware (see The... Read more »
Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

AIRO’S HEAVY GOING

THE GOING at the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) continues to be heavy. Chairman Brian Polly and member James Gough are already suing the organisation in the High Court,... Read more »
Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

MOYA DOHERTY’S LEGAL ADVICE

THE PLOT thickens at RTÉ, where four vacancies on the board remain unfilled for months and now the legal eagles have been called in. It will be recalled (see The... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Stephen Evans-Freke

Affairs of the Nation

EVANS-FREKE’S ESCAPE

GOLDHAWK’S favourite millionaire Wall Street banker, Stephen Evans-Freke, has had plenty to celebrate in recent weeks. First a plan for some houses near his splendid Castel Freke in Co Cork... Read more »
Daniel McConnell

Affairs of the Nation

POL CORRS SPLIT ON BELARUS

THE ETHICAL antennae of Irish political correspondents rarely twitch when members of their own peer group fall foul of the law as evidenced by the loud silence when film makers... Read more »
Frances Black

Affairs of the Nation

ISRAEL: WHAT NEXT?

LITTLE OR no attention was paid by the media to a widely circulated video of the raising of the Irish flag to the sound of our national anthem – in... Read more »
Jimmy Menton

Affairs of the Nation

JIMMY MENTON’S MEDICAL RECORD

THE LATEST arrival on the board of exploration company Providence Resources is James ‘Jimmy’ Menton, the former number cruncher who has played a central role in the proposed move of... Read more »
Heather Humphries

Affairs of the Nation

JERUSALEM OR JERUSALEMA?

HORIZON 2020 is an EU scheme to stimulate economic growth as well as create jobs… “to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation” and so on. With €8bn... Read more »
Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

CATHERINE MARTIN’S FILM CREDIT

CONGRATULATIONS TO communications minister Catherine Martin, who successfully shoe-horned herself into the PR blitz around the quarterly dishing out of funds to film and TV companies by the Broadcasting Authority... Read more »
Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

PADRAIG HIGGINS’S TANGLE

A HAIR salon business part-owned by Cork number cruncher Padraig Higgins has just been wound up but, it turns out, he is also involved in movie business financing. Higgins incorporated... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Ivana Bacik

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: IVANA BACIK

FEAR STALKS the Fine Gael heartlands of Dublin 2, 4 and 6 as the Dublin Bay South byelection looms and with it the unthinkable... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Niall Horgan

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: NIALL HORGAN

AS THE chief executive of trendy athleisure brand Gym+Coffee, Niall Horgan’s most impressive achievement in business has been to persuade millennials and yummy mummies... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Barra McGrory

Fit to Print?

DEFAMING THE NORTH’S DPP

MANY RTÉ listeners might wonder why the Today With Claire Byrne programme asked a British defence correspondent to ruminate about the recent acquittal of two parachute regiment soldiers accused of murdering Official IRA... Read more »
Ivan Yates Nell McCafferty RTÉ Lord Laird Intro Matchmaking NewsBrands Martin McGuinness Dún Laoghaire Pat Leahy Cormac Lucey John Cooney Irish Journalism Awards Steve Aiken Anton Savage John Downing Lucinda Creighton Marina Sologub Eilis O'Hanlon Ian Kehoe Danny McConnell Sindo O'Connor Mediahuis Stephen Collins Book Justine McCarthy Rewriting the Troubles Lynn Ruane Sinn Féin

Fit to Print?

SUING THE SUNDAY TIMES

FOLLOWING AN incorrect report in the Sunday Times last March that the Smithwick Tribunal had found that a garda sergeant in Dundalk had colluded with the IRA to kill senior... Read more »
Ger Colleran

Fit to Print?

‘DAMNING JUDGMENT’ IN KERRY

‘KERRY’S EYE’ editor Ger Colleran is not the sort of person to gloat in victory but his reporting of a win at the Press Council – in an appeal against... Read more »

Last Refuge

James Geoghegan

Last Refuge

GEOGHEGAN’S MEMORY LAPSES

FINE GAEL’S perfectly modelled candidate in the Dublin Bay South byelection, James Geoghegan, has had the shine taken off him since declaring his intention to succeed resigning housing minister Eoghan... Read more »
Brian Fitzgerald

Last Refuge

MEATH MINUTES UNDER LOCK AND KEY

A STAND-OFF between elected councillors and executive officials in Meath could be heading for an embarrassing public confrontation. Seven Independent councillors, as well as a Labour councillor and one from... Read more »
John Paul Phelan

Last Refuge

JOHN PAUL PHELAN’S ANGST

JOHN PAUL PHELAN certainly has a way with words. His description of Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney bluffing their way through a Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last February with... Read more »

Northwind

Edwin Poots

Northwind

IS PAISLEYISM DEAD?

LENIN SAID “There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen.” The sudden transformative upheaval in the famously uncommunicative and disciplined DUP fits that pattern. As... Read more »

Hush Hush

Simon Coveney

Hush Hush

THE EU AND AFRICA: BACK TO THE FUTURE

GIVEN ITS capacity for Orwellian speak, the EU’s unveiling of something called the European Peace Facility (EPF), should make one sit up and pay attention. Finally signed off in March,... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘DODGY CIGARETTES’ Kevin Doherty (45) of Fern Park, Derry, pleaded guilty in Derry Magistrates’ Court to the fraudulent evasion of customs duty charges on goods for selling ‘dodgy cigarettes from... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Dr Faith Birol

Fowl Emissions

OIL INDUSTRY SURRENDERS?

FOR DECADES, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has been the de facto voice of the global fossil fuel industry. Just last July, it warned that the resurgence of Covid-19 was... Read more »
Luke Holland Climate Denial John Fagan Wolf Europe David Quinn Duncan Stewart Data Centre Carbon Emissions Conor Skehan Chris Hazzard

Fowl Emissions

TIM CULLINAN’S MINIMUM TARGET

THE COMMON Agriculture Policy “is a tumour in the EU’s body politic”. This is the considered view of the distinctly right-of centre Economist magazine, which explained how 20% of the... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Kit Kemp

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

It is so important when dressing or designing any room to have a chat with it first. Designer Kit Kemp, Irish Examiner, submitted by readers Some of them have been... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Belinda Kieswetter

High Society

KIESWETTERS’ STUD FEES

RACING IS not for the faint-hearted, at least in financial terms, and the relatively new bloodstock business based out of Barnane Stud in Co... Read more »

High Society

IHT CHL The Lion in Winter Racing Royalty Le Brocquy City of Troy Fitzwilliam Square AIRO Dermot Smurfit Ballinacarrig Park Club Cosgrave Fitzpatrick Keith Jameson National Gallery Collection Marissa Carter VG Tom Higgins Neil Jordan Laura Bonner Paul Ward Variety Jones Dtat Eathos Sharon Keegan Angela Scanlon Desmond Canouan Bellair Estate Bobby Flay John O’Conor Portrait of Omai Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile Wedding NGI Board Rachel Flynn JP McMahon Ash Quinn Pamela Laird Abdullah Al Naboodah Boundless Ocean

High Society

ALISON’S ORANGERY

A PLANNING application has been lodged to convert a substantial Ballsbridge property back to residential use. It was lodged in the name of one... Read more »

High Society

Bernie Gallagher

High Society

BERNIE GALLAGHER’S BATHROOMS

THERE IS trouble brewing in leafy Herbert Park, Ballsbridge, where a substantial plan to revamp a protected house has elicited some strong opposition from neighbours and An Taisce. The couple... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

The Strypes

Behind the Scenes

LIQUIDATING THE STRYPES

THE STRYPES, like a succession of Irish bands, were once (not so long ago) the next big thing but announced their break-up in 2018. More recently, they appeared together as... Read more »
Tailored Films Screen Ireland Perspectives DCCI Crescine Tarka Russell Lara Hickey Reality Check Sarah McInerney Irish Movies Paul Murray Arts Council Dublin Theatre Festival TWU Macdara Kelleher Richard Boyd Barrett DADC Cillian Murphy Terry McMahon Media Commission Ireland Kerlin Gallery Creative Ireland Section 481 Christine O’Donovan RTÉ Storyland NMI Board Vacancies IASCA Ossie Kilkenny RTÉ Original Programmes

Behind the Scenes

SCREEN IRELAND MOOLAH

SCREEN IRELAND has announced its funding decision for the first quarter of 2021. The loans are the first to be published since the recently appointed chair designate, Susan Bergin, and... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Ger Lyons

Sport of Kings

HUNTING LOGO HUNTER

RACEHORSES CAN make fools of even the top players in the game – think of Willie Mullins selling subsequent Grade 1 winner Skyace for a mere £600 to John ‘Shark’... Read more »
Kenny Alexander

Sport of Kings

KENNY’S KEBAB WOES

FORMER SENIOR gambling suit Kenny Alexander has become used to seeing his name in the headlines – linked to his star racing mare Honeysuckle (Champion Hurdle winner at Cheltenham) –... Read more »
Valerie Moran

Sport of Kings

BANKING ON THE MORANS

GORDON ELLIOTT and his team at Cullentra House will be crossing their fingers that there will be no loss of racing focus by the yard’s major investors – Noel and... Read more »
Philip Rothwell

Sport of Kings

PHILIP ROTHWELL’S BAD DAY

WICKLOW TRAINER Philip Rothwell enjoyed his best year for a long time last season, which included training three winners at the Punchestown festival. But, he endured a frustrating day at... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Maurice Healy

Moneybags

GLANTUS BOTTOM LINE HIT BY PUNITIVE INTEREST RATES

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT companies can prove irresistible to investors, who love nothing more than a ‘platform’ to throw their money at, despite the setbacks experienced... Read more »

Moneybags

Michael O'Leary

Moneybags

RYANAIR SHARES OVERVALUED WHEN COMPARED WITH IAG

FLYING HIGH these days is the Ryanair share price despite the very evident turbulence. For some reason the airline is valued not far off its... Read more »

Brief Cases

Lucinda Kelly

Brief Cases

LUCINDA KELLY’S POP-UPS

WHAT POPS up must fall down, it appears. Popertee Ltd, the business set up by Lucinda Kelly six years ago, before attracting significant state backing, is being wound up at... Read more »
Emma Lucy O'Brien

Brief Cases

VISUAL’S POOR PICTURE

THINGS AREN’T looking any better at the VISUAL arts centre in Carlow, where the colour red still dominates the accounts. The good news is that at least a little problem... Read more »
ZMG Cyril Murphy Newbridge College Peter Wilson Sporting Emporium Chris Wholey O'Kane God’s Creatures Film Tax Relief Anne Rossi Desmond Live Nation ESCADIA LTD Al Porter Comeback Gordon Elliott Clayton Love Ivan Wilde hot-water-brigade Parnells GAA Lawsuit

Brief Cases

LUNDIN’S €50M

A BLAST from the past with the winding-up of a company called Lundin Mining Ltd. The Lukas Lundin-chaired Canadian mining giant has operations around the globe, from Europe to South... Read more »
ZMG Cyril Murphy Newbridge College Peter Wilson Sporting Emporium Chris Wholey O'Kane God’s Creatures Film Tax Relief Anne Rossi Desmond Live Nation ESCADIA LTD Al Porter Comeback Gordon Elliott Clayton Love Ivan Wilde hot-water-brigade Parnells GAA Lawsuit

Brief Cases

KING OF THE CASTLE

THERE WAS good news for former Wall Street banker Stephen Evans-Freke recently, when a proposed property development near his Co Cork castle got the thumbs down. Evans-Freke, son of Peter... Read more »
Starverse

Brief Cases

BIROL NADIR’S PATIENT BACKERS

STILL NO sign of Birol Nadir’s long-awaited platform “on which real fans can interact with real stars and engage with others who share their interests and passions!” Meanwhile the losses... Read more »