Affairs of the Nation

Alan Campbell

Affairs of the Nation

MI5, BBC, KINCORA … AND COVER-UPS

IN FEBRUARY 2016 Dame Janet Smith published a 700-page report into sexual abuses by Jimmy Savile at the BBC. “The culture of the BBC enabled Savile to go undetected for... Read more »
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

MAX BARRETT’S BOOK

GOLDHAWK WONDERS how much the Red Cross will make out of sales (at a mere £95 a pop) of a book by Judge Max Barrett, The Art and Craft of... Read more »
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

IAN CURLEY’S MANSIONS

IT WILL not have gone unnoticed that St Ann’s, a posh pile overlooking Killiney bay, has just gone on the market for a whopping €7.5m. It turns out that the... Read more »
Francesca McDonagh

Affairs of the Nation

FRANCESCA’S RUTHLESS STREAK

AS GOLDHAWK noted recently (see The Phoenix 25/3/22), Francesca McDonagh’s €1m pa CEO role in Bank of Ireland (BoI) was “the ideal platform for her to position herself nicely” for... Read more »
George Orwell

Affairs of the Nation

‘IRISH TIMES’ ATTACKS NATO!

MOST PEOPLE probably think that because of recent clear-cut poll conclusions, the Russian inspired debate about neutrality is over and that the good guys won, ie, the government will drop... Read more »
Peter Fitzgerald

Affairs of the Nation

RANDOX’S TESTING TIME

LAST WEEK, the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) reported that it had received 1,450 complaints in 2021 in relation to more than 900 advertisements. More recent complaints include ones... Read more »
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

IRISH MEDIA’S METHODS

‘IRELAND FOR UKRAINE’ describes itself as “a united response from Irish media organisations to harness the generosity of the Irish public and ensure it reaches those who need it most”.... Read more »
Kevin Cahill

Affairs of the Nation

‘ANOTHER’ PRESIDENT HIGGINS?

FOREIGN MINISTER Simon Coveney and various New York-based Irish officials heaved sighs of relief last St Patrick’s Day but one (2021) when New York attorney general, the formidable Letitia ‘Tish’... Read more »
Pat Hayes

Affairs of the Nation

PAT HAYES’S HORSEPLAY

WITH THE crowds back at Punchestown and Gordon Elliott passing the 2,000 winners mark, the general consensus was that the trainer is now fully over that dead horse photo controversy... Read more »
General Philip Breedlove

Affairs of the Nation

FROM RATHGAR WITH LOVE

‘DR STRANGELOVE’ lives, it appears, with former Nato Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Philip Breedlove doing a more than passable imitation of the hawkish US commander as depicted in the... Read more »

Goldhawk's New Blog

Pillars of Society

Mick Wallace & Clare Daly

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: CLARE DALY AND MICK WALLACE

THE DEMONISATION of Clare Daly and Mick Wallace is essentially a political witch-hunt but the media has created the impression of a political Bonnie... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Laura Bonner

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: LAURA BONNER

AS THE millennial chief executive of the Muff Liquor Company (geddit?), Laura Bonner’s biggest skill lies with saying the right things. She has been... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Daniel Kinahan

Fit to Print?

‘STAR’ KOs KINAHAN

BELATED VINDICATION accrued to the Irish Daily Star recently when the US of A led the western world in turning against the Kinahans and mercenaries everywhere scrambled for the bounty... Read more »
Danny McConnell Sindo O'Connor Mediahuis Stephen Collins Book Justine McCarthy Rewriting the Troubles Lynn Ruane Sinn Féin

Fit to Print?

IAN HYLAND’S AWARDS

A WARM glow descended on the grandiose awards ceremony run by Business & Finance magazine when it came to the special TK Whitaker Award which went to the late John... Read more »
Nadia Dobrianska

Fit to Print?

AZOV HUMAN RIGHTS

IRISH-SPEAKING Nadia Dobrianska works for a human rights organisation in her native Kyiv and has become quite the Irish media darling. Dobrianska works for ZMINA, which “aims to promote human rights,... Read more »

Goldhawk's New Blog

Last Refuge

Leo Varadkar

Last Refuge

VARADKAR, DPP AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

WHAT A speedy riposte came from the Irish Times last week to the Sunday Independent’s unnerving front page story that said the DPP would not have decided on whether to... Read more »
Micheál Martin Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald

Last Refuge

COALITION SQUEEZE

RECENT POLLS have given some encouragement to Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil as they draw much closer to Fine Gael. Although the latter is still a handful of points ahead... Read more »
Helen McEntee

Last Refuge

McENTEE’S SOFT FOCUS MEDIA PITCH

JUSTICE MINISTER and Fine Gael leadership aspirant Helen McEntee made a rather obvious sales pitch for the post in the Irish independent last Saturday – on the best sales day... Read more »
Sharon Keogan

Last Refuge

ABOLITIONIST SENATOR SHARON KEOGAN

INDEPENDENT SENATOR Sharon Keogan is ‘provocative … speaks her mind … tells it like it is’ etc, but despite her feminist and left-wing critics she has stuck to her principles... Read more »

Hush Hush

Andrew Parker

Hush Hush

THE POWER OF BABEL

AFTER THE death of George Floyd two years ago, protests erupted all over the USA, which police were barely able to contain. Curfews were introduced in more than 200 cities... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘HOW MANY JUDGES I KNOW’ DONAGH CALLANAN (52) of Toames West, Macroom, Cork, appeared before Cork District Court in relation to an incident in February 2022. Gda Thomas McKenna told... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Michael McDowell

Fowl Emissions

VARADKAR WINDS UP PARTY TDs

WHILE YOU wouldn’t think it based on the tone of the recent public debate, there is, in fact, a solid majority of Irish people who favour banning peat. Almost seven... Read more »
Data Centre Carbon Emissions Conor Skehan Chris Hazzard

Fowl Emissions

GERRY MURPHY’S FORECAST

MET ÉIREANN has been doing some media outreach of late, with forecaster Gerry Murphy in studio with Claire Byrne on RTÉ radio to talk about a weather phenomenon called ‘la... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Mark Little

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

He is someone who obviously bends reality to his own will, whether it’s gravity or launching electric cars. Mark Little on Elon Musk, Morning Ireland RTÉ Radio 1, submitted by... Read more »

High Society

Charles Talbot

High Society

CHETWYND-TALBOT’S TROUBLES

OH DEAR, Goldhawk is rather taken aback that his esteemed and noble friend Charlie Talbot is in a spot of bother over his commercial activities. Charlie is better known in... Read more »
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

IRISH TIMES CHOICES

THE INCREASINGLY eclectic selection of personalities for the obituary page of the Irish Times saw a thousand words devoted last month to one Mary Taylor Walton Curley (who she? –... Read more »
Ossie Kilkenny

High Society

SELLING SLEVOIR HOUSE

A CO Tipperary pile is on the market with a hefty asking price. It has had some interesting previous owners, some of whom came unstuck. The sprawling Slevoir House in... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Cecilia Ahern

Behind the Scenes

CECELIA’S REVIEWS

IT HAS been a busy few weeks for scribbler Cecelia Ahern, whose short story collection, Roar, has been adapted for Apple TV+. Not everybody is impressed with the results, however.... Read more »
Kerlin Gallery Creative Ireland Section 481 Christine O’Donovan RTÉ Storyland NMI Board Vacancies IASCA Ossie Kilkenny RTÉ Original Programmes

Behind the Scenes

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S CARBON CALCULATOR

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S Screen Ireland is developing something of an addiction to policy papers. Earlier this year, it told Goldhawk that its report on the “cultural dividend” generated by the film... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Ado McGuinness Shamrock Thoroughbreds

Sport of Kings

THIRTY-FIRST TIME LUCKY

WHEN THE Ado McGuinness-trained Lariat won a low-grade handicap at Bellewstown recently, it was the horse’s first victory in a two-year period during which Lariat has been at the centre... Read more »
John ‘Shark’ Hanlon

Sport of Kings

SHARK ATTACK

KILKENNY TRAINER John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has already achieved the remarkable feat by winning a Grade 1 race with a Willie Mullins-trained cast-off when £600 purchase Skyace won at Fairyhouse last... Read more »
Paul Hensey Irish National Hunt Horse-racing Doping Paddy Walsh Tom Kelly Suspension

Sport of Kings

MULLINS RIDES ON

PUNCHESTOWN CLEARLY hasn’t lost its appeal from a social point of view, with more than 40,000 racegoers cramming the enclosures last Friday and owners and trainers still craving a winner... Read more »
Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum

Sport of Kings

MAGNIER VS MAKTOUM

LAST WEEKEND’S Guineas Festival at Newmarket signalled the return in force of the European flat season and judged on the brilliant one-two in the 2000 Guineas for the Charlie Appleby-trained... Read more »

Reviews

none of this is serious

Books

NONE OF THIS IS SERIOUS – CATHERINE PRASIFKA

THE POST-PANDEMIC fiction sub-genre (aka ‘Trinlit’) continues to grow, with this debut novel about the impact of social media on young people’s lives. It was always likely that Catherine Prasifka... Read more »
Paula Malcomson

Reviews

REDEMPTION – VIRGIN MEDIA ONE

WITH INTERNATIONAL co-productions trending during the streaming boom, TV producers are having to devise ever-more-elaborate ways for police officers to enter different jurisdictions. The ham-fisted way this aspect is handled... Read more »

Moneybags

Eamonn Crowley

Moneybags

CROWLEY PUSHING PTSB BUT SHARES LOOK PRICEY

UNDER THE leadership of Francesca McDonagh, Bank of Ireland (BoI) has seen its share of the Irish mortgage market shrink from 25% to 20%. At Permanent TSB (PTSB), where Eamonn... Read more »
Michael Carvill

Moneybags

KENMARE RESOURCES FINDS ITSELF IN A SWEET SPOT

LAST YEAR (see The Phoenix 7/5/21), Moneybags noted that investors in heavy sands mine operator Kenmare Resources would be “happy to sit tight for the next 12 months awaiting the... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Tyrone McKillen

The Hot Water Brigade

TYRONE MCKILLEN MOVIE PLOT

GIVEN THE number of different players now getting into the high-stakes film studio business in Ireland, it is perhaps not surprising that one of the projects – James Morris and... Read more »
John Moore

The Hot Water Brigade

JOHN MOORE’S PORTUGUESE ADVENTURE

INTERESTING to see that colourful entrepreneur John Moore has switched address from D4 to Lisbon. It is not clear if the change of surrounding is tax-driven on foot of the... Read more »
hot-water-brigade def

The Hot Water Brigade

MORE LOVE LOST

THIS WEEK’S liquidation of Blackpool Developments represents the second significant setback for Cork merchant prince Clayton Love and Neill Love and Sarah Cronin, in the space of a year. The... Read more »
Barry Connolly

The Hot Water Brigade

BARRY CONNOLLY’S KINDER SURPRISE

WHILE THE confectionery multinational Ferrero was in the news for all the wrong reasons last month due to the Salmonella outbreaks linked to its Kinder chocolate products, there was a... Read more »