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September 23 - October 6, 2022
Affairs of the Nation
MYSTERY IT CRASH AT AER LINGUS
THE COMPUTERISED IT system at Aer Lingus suffered a significant crash on Saturday September 10, from 9am to 5.30pm. The disruption caused the airline to cancel more than 50 flights... Read more »
NEW CHAIR FOR RTÉ
NEXT WEEK is the closing date for applicants seeking to land the plum job of chairperson of RTÉ. There should be plenty of interest given the perks. The post was... Read more »
CLEVER TREVOR’S SPEAKERS
INTERESTING TO see who is speaking at the upcoming ‘Icon’ series at the Little Museum of Dublin, where director Trevor White has signed up historians Patrick Geoghegan (sometimes speech writer... Read more »
LIZ TRUSS’S ‘ETHICAL’ SPYMASTER
British teasock Liz Truss appears determined to maintain his majesty’s ship of state on a collision course with the EU. If she hopes to grab any sort of a Brexit... Read more »
RYANAIR’S BUSINESS CLASS
THERE WAS A bumpy landing for those financial hacks who booked their tickets for the Ryanair AGM in north County Dublin last week. The question is, what were they doing... Read more »
KING CHARLES AND THE IRISH
THE MEDIA seemed to be competing with their British counterparts when it came to recording the devotion of the British royals’ would-be subjects in this part of the world over... Read more »
SHE LOVED US, SHE LOVED US NOT
YOU HAVE to hand it to the late Queen Elizabeth, whose act in coming over all friendly toward Ireland in recent years was consummate, due largely to her usual willingness... Read more »
BILL SHIPSEY’S ART WORK
IT WAS surprising to see former barrister Bill Shipsey caught in the crosshairs last week, when Amnesty International (AI) commenced legal proceedings against him linked to the work he has... Read more »
GERRY O’BRIEN’S BUDGET PLOT
IN A flurry of recent social media publicity on Facebook and Instagram, Gerry O’Brien, the president of the Irish Equity actors and performers union, has upped the ante in his... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: FRANCES BLACK
CIVIC GROUP Ireland’s Future may still be a little hazy and fraught with antagonism from most unionists and southern partitionists, but south it is... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOOD: ROZ PURCELL
BEING PLACED in the top 10 at the Donald Trump-owned Miss Universe contest in 2010, the career of all-round media darling Roz Purcell has... Read more »
Fit to Print?
‘IRISH TIMES’ RUNS FROM ESB
THE ESB got both barrels in a recent Sunday Independent article about the “Georgian pastiche façade” to its former HQ, which was derided as an “elaborate cloak for a shameful... Read more »
JUSTINE MCCARTHY’S NEW GIG
McCarthy has fared rather better than some of her journalist colleagues at Murdoch’s Aawrish edition of the newspaper and has landed on her feet with a weekly column at the... Read more »
‘IT’ EDITORIAL FACTIONS
THE EDITORIAL view of some journalists at the Irish Times is that the newspaper is conventional (ie right-wing), overtly pro-business, partitionist and old fashioned, and the next editor should revert... Read more »
Last Refuge
HAS FF TURNED A CORNER?
FIANNA FÁIL ministers and TDs – and not just Micheál Martin loyalists – will be heartened to see the two most recent poll results, which show the party’s constant trailing... Read more »
CATHERINE MURPHY’S CRUSADE
YOU HAVE to hand it to Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy for sheer chutzpah in the face of the embarrassing conclusions in Justice Brian Cregan’s report into the IBRC sale... Read more »
MARTIN’S SHARED FUTURE
FIANNA FÁIL’S ard fheis next weekend is just one of several meetings that could affect Micheál Martin’s future as party leader. A large rally is expected on the same weekend,... Read more »
McDOWELL TO TAKE OUT RYAN IN DBS?
GREEN PARTY leader and climate minister Eamon Ryan has been roughed up by political hit man and ex-minister Michael McDowell, repeatedly in recent months. Senator McDowell’s invective is savage. “Piffle... Read more »
Hush Hush
IRELAND COMPLICIT IN MALI COUP?
IRISHMAN Rory Keane has risen to become head of the Brussels-based United Nations Liaison Office for Peace, which exists to improve UN co-operation with the EU, Nato and other multilateral... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
‘DO FOR TOILET PAPER’ CORK DISTRICT Court heard the case of one Timothy Hadfield who, when handed charge sheets after being arrested for disruptive behaviour at Cork Airport, said: “That... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
LIZ TRUSS’S FOSSIL FUEL FRIENDS
LIZ TRUSS didn’t waste much time in coming good for the fossil fuel donors who helped fund her Tory leadership campaign. Two days after being installed as prime minister by... Read more »
NET ZERO BIG ZERO
OIL GIANT Shell’s much-advertised commitment to a pathway to “net zero” emissions actually “has nothing to do with our business plans”, according to an internal company memo from 2020, one... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
We know her as an actor, writer, Instagram hoot, witty Tweeter, other half of rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll, mother of three, host of Mamia & Me, a podcast on the... Read more »
High Society
BEN DUNNE’S SHRINKING COLLECTION
CONGRATULATIONS TO the wily James Gormley et al at Gormley’s Fine Art on Dublin’s South Frederick Street, the boys scored quite the coup by landing the gig for the sale... Read more »
ASH QUINN MOVES ON
INTERESTING TO see the Sunday Times reporting on a move by glamorous Ash Quinn, daughter of footballer-turned-businessman Niall, to become a senior exec at Rónán Ó Dálaigh’s Thriftnifty online charity... Read more »
DAVID MURRAY’S TWO HOUSES
THERE WAS a predictably glowing profile in the Irish Times last week of Ingleside, a large five-bedroom house on the corner of Brennanstown Road and Glenamuck Road in south County... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
NCAD’S CHAIR
THIS WEEK sees the election of a new chair of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), following the recent vacancy on the board left by the retirement of... Read more »
SONGWRITERS’ SWAN SONG
THE FINAL creditors’ meeting has been held by the liquidator of the Irish Association of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (IASCA), which was set up in 2011 “to foster a community... Read more »
Sport of Kings
JP’S ROUGH RIDE
JP MCMANUS may well be the self-appointed patron saint of Irish racing courtesy of the millions he spends every year on training fees and buying horses. That status, however, does... Read more »
HUSBANDS’S HANDICAP
IRISH CHAMPIONS Weekend may have been a success from a racing point of view, with top-quality action over the two days at Leopardstown and the Curragh, but the event is... Read more »
EMPTY SADDLE AT AIR
ANOTHER SENIOR racing administrator has announced that he is to dismount. Paddy Walsh, chief executive of the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR), has signalled his intention to call it a... Read more »
O’LEARY SHAKING UP OWNERS’ CONTEST
AS HE does every year, Michael O’Leary offloaded a good few of his lesser-performing horses at a Goffs UK sale recently. The Ryanair supremo netted around €400,000 when he bade... Read more »
Reviews
NO WORRIES IF NOT! – RTÉ2
BATTLE-SCARRED survivors of RTÉ’s comedy output will have felt a cold shiver at the pitch for No Worries If Not!, which promised “quirky characters and off-the-wall sketches” featuring online “stars”.... Read more »
Books|Reviews
THE NIGHT INTERNS – AUSTIN DUFFY
THE DUNDALK author’s debut novel, This Living and Immortal Thing (2016), featured an Irish cancer researcher in a New York medical centre. Austin Duffy (who also works as an oncologist)... Read more »
Moneybags
MANIFOLD’S GLOBAL CRH STRATEGY DERAILED
ALBERT MANIFOLD took the top job at CRH in January 2014, having joined the firm as a 36-year-old accountant back in 1998. Despite being immersed in the company culture, he... Read more »
KIBO ENERGY SHARE COLLAPSE LOOKS OVERDONE
GALWAY-BASED Kibo Energy was founded 14 years ago by Irish geologist Noel O’Keeffe. There have been a number of developments since then, with complete shifts in sectoral focus ensuring investors... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
DORIAN’S GREY DAY
A CREDITORS’ meeting will be held next week to oversee the winding up of a Donnybrook, D4 restaurant/wine bar business that shut its doors after just a few months of... Read more »
BARRY O’CALLAGHAN’S HOSPITALITY
IT’S BEEN a busy few months in Waterford for tech moneybags Barry O’Callaghan, where he’s been ringing the changes at his swanky Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore. Baz is planning... Read more »
KEATING’S CREDITORS
DOCUMENTS FILED by joint liquidators Kieran Wallace and Andrew O’Leary reveal that the hapless unsecured creditors were owed a whopping €18m when Clare construction/civil engineering operation L&M Keating Ltd was... Read more »
NIALL QUINN’S SHOPPING LIST
AS NOTED elsewhere (see p18), Ash Quinn, the daughter of former Irish international striker Niall Quinn, has moved on from her chief executive role at online retail operation MoShoppa. Whoever... Read more »
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