Affairs of the Nation

VAT Newspapers Paschal Donohoe

Affairs of the Nation

VAT RELIEF ONLY FOR ‘GOOD’ MEDIA?

FINANCE MINISTER Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil in his Budget 2023 speech that he was reducing VAT on newspapers from 9% to zero. The minister was doing this, he explained... 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

PATRICIA MADDEN’S EXIT

BARRISTER AND long-time member and officer of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) Patricia Madden has exited her position on the board. It remains to be seen if any issues around... 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

THE ABBEY’S WHISTLEBLOWER

THERE IS little sign of the drama waning at the Frances Ruane-chaired Abbey Theatre, with Goldhawk hearing that a dreaded ‘whistleblower’ has been looking to shine a spotlight on the... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

High Court Judges David Barniville

Affairs of the Nation

MUTINOUS JUDGES

THE WHIFF of mutinous protest pervades the courts and even the judiciary at present, with elders among them trying hard to restrain the resentment felt by many judges, especially in... Read more »
SAJM Fiona O'Leary

Affairs of the Nation

TRESPASS IN CHURCH CHARGE

THE SOCIETY of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary (SAJM) has been busy eschewing the links a number of its flock once had with the traditionalist Catholic group SSPX Resistance... Read more »
Escort Ireland Bruno Binda De Souza

Affairs of the Nation

ESCORT IRELAND’S FOREIGN FROLICS

IN TRUE tabloid style, the Sunday World last week ran the grim story of Bruno Binda De Souza, a transexual prostitute who was recently released from prison after serving a... Read more »
Deirdre Conroy

Affairs of the Nation

DEIRDRE CONROY’S DAY IN COURT

NEXT WEEK will see Fianna Fáil councillor, barrister and failed by-election candidate Deirdre Conroy finally get into the High Court, where she is looking to prove the personal injuries negligence... Read more »
Ireland Mali Leo Varadkar

Affairs of the Nation

FRENCH PERFIDY IN MALI?

IN 2018, with champagne corks popping in the background, the Department of Foreign Affairs issued a press release announcing Ireland’s election to the UN Security Council that was rich in... Read more »
Lord Mountbatten Kincora

Affairs of the Nation

MOUNTBATTEN QUERY

RESEARCHERS INTO the squalid Kincora scandal – authors Andrew Lownie and David Burke – have asked gardaí to release the logs made by the unit assigned to protect Lord Mountbatten... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC

“HONOURED… DELIGHTED” and “beyond proud” to have been appointed editor of the Irish Times was how Ruadhán Mac Cormaic expressed himself on landing what... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Lorraine Hall

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: LORRAINE HALL

Leo Varadkar’s astute outflanking of Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil on the national question continues apace with the elevation of 41-year-old Dún Laoghaire councillor... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Newsbrands Ireland Journalism Awards Peter Vandermeersch

Fit to Print?

MEDIAHUIS AWARDS NOMINATIONS SOAR

WHAT A hugely enhanced performance has taken place in the standard of journalism at Mediahuis – the largest publishing stable in the country north and south, which includes the Sunday... 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?

IT V SF

AMID THE welter of media hit jobs on Sinn Féin in the last fortnight, the most surprising such assault came from accomplished Irish Times journalist Simon Carswell, who was a... Read more »
Damien O'Reilly

Fit to Print?

COLD MESS

IRELAND’S LOSS is Europe’s gain, as Damien O’Reilly trades in his gig as presenter of RTÉ radio’s Countrywide to head up the Brussels office of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society... Read more »

Last Refuge

Micheal Martin

Last Refuge

MARTIN WANTS FOREIGN POST

IN THE increasingly fevered world of ministers obsessed with and angling for preferment in the December change-over and reshuffle, the word is that outgoing Taoiseach Micheál Martin wants and has... Read more »
Northern Ireland Executive Naomi Long

Last Refuge

THE NORTH IS A FAILED ENTITY

SINCE JANUARY 2017 the executive and assembly of the supposed state of Northern Ireland have only functioned for 18 months. Before that, the system operated in fits and starts. The... Read more »
Attorney General Paul Gallagher

Last Refuge

WILL GALLAGHER BE REPLACED AS AG?

DUE TO a mixture of Fianna Fáil domination and coalition formation, Fine Gael legal eagles have provided just one attorney general in the last 25 years and then only for... Read more »
Micheál Martin Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald

Last Refuge

FF LEADER EYES UP COALITION WITH SF

ONE WISHFUL scenario being propagated by the media, and by the Irish Times in particular last week, is that even if Sinn Féin is the largest party by far after... Read more »

Hush Hush

Stephen White RUC

Hush Hush

OOH AH, UP THE RUC

ALMOST 25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, you might be surprised to discover that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), to use a rather hackneyed phrase, hasn’t... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK DROGHEDA DISTRICT Court heard the case of a 22-year-old woman who pleaded guilty to charges of public intoxication, engaging in abusive behaviour towards gardaí and refusing... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Ireland Livestock Emissions Martin Heydon

Fowl Emissions

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

FOR DECADES the fossil fuel industry has avoided regulation by systematically misrepresenting the science around climate change. To maintain the illusion of credibility, Big Oil often funnels cash into front... 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

LESS THAN FRANK

ALONG WITH developing dubious narratives around meat and nutrition, the livestock sector has also invested heavily in spinning away the huge climate impact of methane from cattle. The go-to guy... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Bono

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

The book is deeply personal, searingly honest and at times laugh-out-loud funny. It reads like an anatomical lesson; he cuts himself open for all to peer inside. Simon Carswell on... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Liz Oakes

High Society

LIZ OAKES’S RESOMARIUM

YOU’VE GOT to hand it to eyebrows queen Liz Oakes – the multi-talented businesswoman sure knows how to generate media attention. In the last... 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

CATHERINE MARTIN’S SHORTLIST

AS THE National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) hits the one-year mark for limping along with a board full of ministerial vacancies, the good news... Read more »

High Society

Valerie Moran

High Society

THE MORANS’ RETENTIONS AND LOSSES

RACEHORSE-LOVING Noel and Valerie Moran have continued to splash their cash, with a new hotel in Co Meath their most recent undertaking. It turns out that the pair of moneybags... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

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

RTE’S DIVERSITY

CONGRATULATIONS TO the three writers of the 25-minute dramas being broadcast on RTÉ 2 under the ‘Storyland’ banner. Certainly, the selection represents a vote of confidence in female talent. The... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Emmet Mullins

Sport of Kings

PAUL BYRNE’S NEW NAG

WHEN TRAINER Emmett Mullins teams up with owner pal Paul Byrne for a horse deal, punters tend to take notice. They pulled off an almighty coup last year when selling... Read more »
Joe Keeling

Sport of Kings

KEELING’S PLAN STUMBLES

WHEN MONEYBAGS Joe Keeling and his ‘Friends of the Curragh’ proposed to boost the prize money to €600,000 for the Irish Cesarewitch at the track in September, the move was... Read more »
John Shark Hanlon

Sport of Kings

SHARK’S YANKEE DOLLARS

NOT ONLY did John Shark Hanlon plunder America’s most prestigious jumps contest when his bargain buy, Hewick, landed the $250,000 American Grand National at Far Hills in New Jersey, but... Read more »
Andrew Hogan

Sport of Kings

ANDREW HOGAN’S HEAVY GOING

THE PROPOSED all-weather track development at Tipperary racecourse has suffered a potential setback in the form of a spanner lobbed into the planning works by two local residents. Having been... Read more »

Reviews

all-the-broken-places

Books

ALL THE BROKEN PLACES – JOHN BOYNE

BACK IN 2006, John Boyne’s young-adult novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, focused on the story of Bruno, the son of an Auschwitz SS officer who befriends Shmuel, a... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Sean Coyle

Moneybags

ORIGIN SHARE PRICE FAILS TO REFLECT PERFORMANCE

ORIGIN ENTERPRISES doesn’t often make headlines. As a supplier of agronomy services and agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and seed, the significant inflation in... Read more »

Moneybags

Ivan Menezes

Moneybags

DIAGEO’S MENEZES NEEDS TO EARN HIS BIG BUCKS

READING THE analysis of Diageo’s very well paid CEO, Ivan Menezes, investors could imagine that the group had a fantastic year in the 12... Read more »

Brief Cases

Ronan Healy Gavin Fogarty

Brief Cases

EVENT ARMY SUFFERS DEFEAT

THE DEFICIT at the online talent sourcing operation Event Army Ltd (EAL), which had traded as Mustard, could turn out to be pretty hefty judging by the figures revealed in... Read more »
John Moore

Brief Cases

JOHN MOORE SPLASHES THE CASH

NOW BASED in sunny Lisbon in Portugal, self-described “rebel entrepreneur” and “concerned citizen” John Moore has been chucking his money around here, as evidenced by some interesting filings last month.... Read more »
Center Parcs Ireland Colin McKinlay

Brief Cases

COLIN MCKINLAY’S ASBESTOS PROBLEM

IT’S BEEN a difficult few years for Center Parcs Ireland (CPI). No sooner had the group opened its expensive holiday village in Co Longford than it was shut down thanks... 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

GORDON ELLIOTT’S NEW WINNER

HIGH-PROFILE horseracing trainer Gordon Elliott has just filed some figures for his latest corporate entity. The Master of Cullentra remains the most likely jumps handler to take the champion trainer’s... Read more »
Peter Smyth Noonan Services

Brief Cases

NOONAN FAMILY CLEANS UP

A COMPANY with the rather boring name of NNF Services Ltd has just been wound up and it turns out there is quite a lot of moolah sloshing around. This... Read more »