Affairs of the Nation

Irish Judges Dubai

Affairs of the Nation

DUBAI JUDGES: WHO KNEW AND WHEN?

SABINA HIGGINS’S public spat may have helped to obscure not so much the appointment of heavyweight Irish judges Frank Clarke and Peter Kelly to the feudal state of Dubai’s financial... Read more »
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

FRANC’S UKRAINIAN BONUS

GOLDHAWK’S favourite wedding planner, Peter Kelly, aka ‘Franc’, has been doing rather better out of the State coffers this year than was the case for his wedding operation during the... Read more »
Eva Orsmond

Affairs of the Nation

ALL ABOUT EVA

HEALTH GURU Eva Orsmond (previously of Operation Transformation fame) was back on RTÉ this week with the second series on her attempt to open a “health hotel” in sunny Portugal.... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Frances Ruane

Affairs of the Nation

FRANCES RUANE’S SHORT RUN

AS GOLDHAWK predicted (see The Phoenix 17/6/22), former economist Frances Ruane has been given just a two-year extension to her initial five-year term as chair of the Abbey Theatre. Generally,... Read more »
Morgan O'Sullivan

Affairs of the Nation

MORGAN O’SULLIVAN’S CAST

THERE HAS been an immediate reaction from the Irish Film Workers Association (IFWA) to a piece in the Sunday Times on disputes at the Vikings: Valhalla and Kin productions, which... Read more »
Alexander Stubb Fake News Ireland

Affairs of the Nation

CHECKING THE FACT CHECKERS

‘FACT CHECKING’ has become a virtuous activity of liberal and not-so-liberal agencies (in the West) fighting “misinformation” (in the East) and one of the chief protagonists against this ‘fake news’... Read more »
Green Gas Production Eamon Ryan

Affairs of the Nation

GREAT GREEN GAS WARS CONTINUE

AS IRELAND struggles to decarbonise its energy system in line with ambitious 2030 targets and in light of the deteriorating international energy landscape, a veritable scramble to move toward “clean”... Read more »
Boris Johnson Lebedev

Affairs of the Nation

MI6, BORIS AND THE LEBEDEVS

Once upon a time, Britain’s Independent newspaper was owned by Sir Tony O’Reilly, Thatcher’s favourite Irishman. Then it was a platform to question the veracity of British intelligence whistleblowers such... Read more »
Archbishop Eamon Martin

Affairs of the Nation

BISHOPS CENSORED!

THE NORTHERN Ireland Equality Commission is mulling over a request for “advice” from an unusual quarter – the Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin. It follows the refusal... Read more »

Pillars of Society

John Burns Irish Newspaper Archives Problems

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: JOHN BURNS

THE CLEAR OUT of Sunday Times journalists leaves the Irish edition of that august institution in the last-chance saloon under the tutelage of current... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Darren O'Rourke

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOODS: DARREN O’ROURKE

WITH OPINION polls showing Sinn Féin knocking on the door of government, attention is turning to who its ministers might be and how they... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Sabina Higgins Yuriy Filatov

Fit to Print?

MEDIA TAKES ON HIGGINS — AND LOSES

THE IRISH TIMES got out of jail a fortnight ago courtesy of Russian ambassador Yuriy Filatov, who opportunistically embraced Sabina Higgins’s letter to the newspaper criticising its failure to advocate... Read more »
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?

CATCHING UP WITH HENRY MCDONALD

IT WILL be interesting to see just what the book released this week – Rewriting the Troubles: Ireland/Algeria – says about the Workers’ Party and some former members and journalists,... Read more »
Kevin Myers Anti-Semitism

Fit to Print?

KEVIN MYERS’S ‘SCUM’

IN ALL the analysis of the crisis at the Sunday Times Irish edition, perhaps the most poignant was an article arguing that what really happened was the Murdoch-owned operation never... Read more »

Last Refuge

Michael Higgins Labour

Last Refuge

DOGS THAT DIDN’T BARK

WHERE WERE the radical opposition parties when the Government let slip the dogs of war from among their favourite media servants against Sabina Higgins – if only to try and... Read more »
Sabina Higgins

Last Refuge

SABINA HIGGINS’S CRITICS

WHAT AN interesting group of politicians vied with each other to stick it to Sabina Higgins over her outrageous suggestion that negotiations for peace should replace the Russian invasion and... Read more »
Norma Foley Leaving Cert

Last Refuge

NORMA FOLEY’S SCHOOL RUN

While Government party leaders and whips worked frenetically to fend off a no-confidence vote just before the Dáil broke for its summer recess, some backbench TDs found more amusing ways... Read more »
Micheál Martin Allies

Last Refuge

MARTIN’S LOYAL MINISTERS

WHAT A curious story the Irish Mail on Sunday published last weekend, headlined “Martin’s loyalists hit back at rebels” and spread over the front page and two pages inside the... Read more »

Hush Hush

Simon Coveney Syria

Hush Hush

PEACE IN COVENEY’S TIME?

DESPITE CHAMPIONING armament for the Irish Defence Forces, foreign minister Simon Coveney has been central to a strategy of appeasement by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in relation to... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘I’LL DO WHAT I WANT’ JARED SHERLOCK (19) of 40 Clonmich Wood, Tullamore, appeared before Tullamore District Court to plead guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour toward... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Frank Mitloehner Irish Farmers’ Association Emissions

Fowl Emissions

JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE PARANOID…

DID YOU know that attempts at regulating agriculture pollution are really part of a sinister globalist plot being co-ordinated by communists under the guise of protecting the environment and tackling... Read more »
Luke Holland Climate Denial John Fagan Wolf Europe David Quinn Duncan Stewart Data Centre Carbon Emissions Conor Skehan Chris Hazzard

Fowl Emissions

SF’S HAZZARD WARNING

“If I had a De Lorean, I’d go back in time and ban sheep and sitka spruce.” The would-be time traveller is south Down Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard, who... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Áine Moriarty

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

You have to watch this film to really appreciate it. Áine Moriarty, chief executive of IFTA on An Cailín Ciúin, Morning Ireland What matters is that Ó Broin handled the... Read more »

High Society

Robert O'Byrne Left Without a Handkerchief

High Society

LAFFAN V O’BYRNE

PRESUMABLY THE tweedies in the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) were suitably entertained by a scathing review in the Sunday Times of Robert O’Byrne’s book on the burning of Irish country... Read more »
Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

CONSUELO’S REIGN

SO IT’S farewell then to Consuelo O’Connor, who has just officially stepped down from the board of the Beit Foundation, a whopping 46 years after she was first appointed a... Read more »
Caroline Campbell New NGI Director

High Society

NEW WOMAN AT THE GALLERY

AT LONG last the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) has got around to appointing its new €130,000 pa director. It is perhaps not surprising that the board has gone with... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Rose McHugh Crawford Art Gallery

Behind the Scenes

ROSE McHUGH’S THREE SEATS

LAST WEEK was the closing date for receipt of expressions of interest in (unremunerated) vacancies on the Rose McHugh-chaired board of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, with three seats... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

CASTING GROUCH

INTERESTED PARTIES are running the abacus over the spat between RTÉ and its non-staff contractors on the one hand and Revenue and the Department of Social Protection on the other... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Bernard Caldwell ISSA AGM

Sport of Kings

CALDWELL’S HEAVY GOING

WITH THE Irish Stable Staff Association (ISSA) having generated headlines last month by delaying racing at Kilbeggan racecourse due to a protest over the failure to provide free bottles of... Read more »
Ed Dunlop David Dunsdon Sarah Lynam Rebecca May Wayne Hassett Eoin O'Brien Michael Burke Aine O’Connor Ashroe Diamond Thomand O’Mara Peter Keatley Timmy Hyde Coolmore All About Sunday Colin Keane Ronan Whelan JP McManus Jessica Harrington Dundalk Racecourse Paul Hensey Irish National Hunt Horse-racing Doping Paddy Walsh Tom Kelly Suspension

Sport of Kings

TOM KELLY’S SECOND CHANCE

HERE WAS good news for jockey Tom Joseph Kelly last month when his appeal against a further three years of suspension proved successful. Kelly had ridden five winners before testing... Read more »

Reviews

Louise O'Neill New Book

Books

IDOL – LOUISE O’NEILL

SINCE HER 2018 adult fiction debut Almost Love, novelist Louise O’Neill has focused on writing about topical feminist themes (and more recently in her media columns) – particularly exploitative obsessive... Read more »
Emer Reynolds Director

Movies

JOYRIDE – DIRECTOR: EMER REYNOLDS

IT’S A year since Goldhawk reviewed first-time writer/director Dave Minogue’s Poster Boys, an odd-couple road movie made on the hoof without the benefit of public funding and released in 12... Read more »

Moneybags

BÓRD GÁIS PRICE INCREASE

Moneybags

BORD GÁIS OWNER CENTRICA PLAYING WITH FIRE

WHEN BORD Gáis Energy (BGE), where Dave Kirwan calls the shots, announced a price increase of 29.5% for its 513,000 customers in March this year, there was an outcry. The... Read more »
James Menton Providence Share Price

Moneybags

HAS GOODMAN GOT HIS TIMING RIGHT IN PROVIDENCE?

THE MUSICAL chairs continue at Providence Resources, with the latest face popping up being beef baron Larry Goodman, who now holds a 16.1% stake. His most recent buy-in was the... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

What's Hozier Doing Now

The Hot Water Brigade

HOZIER’S HITS

THE FOG-HORN voiced Hozier – formerly known as Andrew Hozier-Byrne, until he was championed and molded by music supremos Caroline Downey and Denis Desmond – has weathered the pandemic and... Read more »
Profilo Smart Liquidation

The Hot Water Brigade

DOWN THE TOILET FOR LUCA MAMMI

THE PANDEMIC has claimed another victim with the upmarket bathroom business Profilo Smart, owned by Dublin 6-based Italian designer Luca Mammi, entering liquidation. Profilo built up a reputation for delivering... Read more »
Anne Davy Childcare Dublin

The Hot Water Brigade

ANNE DAVY BOUNCES BACK

IT’S BEEN a rocky few years for Anne Davy, the majority owner of the controversial Hyde and Seek childcare chain in Dublin. At least the numbers are looking up. Earlier... Read more »
Conor McCarthy

The Hot Water Brigade

FLIPDISH V AMAZON

THERE HAS been much drooling by business hacks over the fundraising exploits of Conor and James McCarthy, the Dublin-based brothers behind Flipdish, an online directory of restaurants and food businesses... Read more »
Niall Harbison Now

The Hot Water Brigade

NIALL HARBISON’S DOGGY TREAT

WHAT A surprise it was to see Goldhawk’s old pal, Niall Harbison, pop up in the Irish Times last month. Now living in Thailand, the founder and former boss of... Read more »