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April 7 - April 20, 2023
Affairs of the Nation
OFFICER CLASS IN RETREAT
THE SPECTACLE of Defence Forces Chief of Staff (c/s) Seán Clancy being pilloried for denying he had encountered any abuse issues as highlighted by the Independent Review Group (IRG) is... Read more »
CIARA FLOOD’S BANKERS
AS THE dust settles on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), assorted Irish customers with loan facilities are breathing a sigh of relief that HSBC came to the rescue.... Read more »
JAY BOURKE’S STORIES
GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend Jay Bourke addressed the AGM of the insolvency specialists’ representative body, Restructuring and Insolvency Ireland (RII) last month. Judging by a report in the Irish Times, bankrupt... Read more »
Sponsored Content
Enterprise Ireland Empowering Irish Businesses: The Crucial Role of Research and Innovation
Irish businesses are competing in a rapidly changing world and are increasingly focusing on Research and Innovation (R&I) to help improve productivity, grow revenues, and build sustainable growth. R&I... Read more »
GERRY O’CARROLL’S CRI DE COEUR
WITH EACH staging post along the 40-year-old Kerry Babies saga, the prevailing view is that several gardaí were involved in a travesty in which six members of Joanne Hayes’s family... Read more »
CLAIRE BYRNE’S ‘SUPER AGENT’
WITH THE clock ticking in the search for the new host of The Late Late Show (TLLS), there are those wondering if agent Noel Kelly can make it a hat-trick,... Read more »
MI5’s BENIGN ROLE IN IRELAND
THE NEW book by veteran British author and broadcaster Peter Taylor, Operation Chiffon, has much to say about MI5’s activities in Ireland. It also includes a claim by one spook,... Read more »
ELLIE KISYOMBE KEEPS BUSY
NO DOUBT one-time Social Democrats local election candidate Ellie Kisyombe was breathing a sign of relief last month when she was given just a caution at Blanchardstown District Court for... Read more »
MARC GODART’S TENANTS
FANS OF Goldhawk will have recognised the name of landlord extraordinaire Marc Godart on the front page of the Irish Times earlier this week when he was ordered to cease... Read more »
NATIONAL PARTY ON THE RUN
After the fracas in Fermanagh, when antifascists confronted National Party (NP) members at their ard fheis in November, Goldhawk wonders whether, despite fighting talk, they have thrown in the towel.... Read more »
ONLY OUR RIVERS RUN FREE
A PLANNING row that began in 2012 over an Athlone marina has turned into a major confrontation involving Waterways Ireland (WI), Westmeath County Council, litigation and hearings at the Oireachtas... Read more »
Pillars of Society
PROFILE: BARRY CONNELL
SINCE THE beginning of this year, racehorse trainer Barry Connell had been telling everyone who would listen that his horse, Marine Nationale, would win... Read more »
The Young Bloods
YOUNG BLOOD: PÁDRAIG O’SULLIVAN
WITH FIANNA FÁIL continuing to lag in the polls and its support among young people at catastrophic levels, the party is hoping its young... Read more »
Innovating Business Support: Virgin Media’s Backing Business Community Boosts Irish SMEs
Virgin Media Business is not just expanding its network but also intensifying its dedication to SMEs with the Backing Business Community. This initiative is designed to tackle the specific... Read more »
Fit to Print?
‘EXTENSIVE’ CUTS AT MEDIAHUIS
THE JOB cuts and restructuring announced last week by Mediahuis editor-in-chief Cormac Bourke and chief executive Peter Vandermeersch gave quite a different vision of the future of Irish newspapers’ than... Read more »
JODY CORCORAN CALLS IT
BLOODY POLLS. They can make whizz psephologists such as the Sunday Independent’s Jody Corcoran look positively foolish, with banal stats that take no account of profound insights into the body... Read more »
‘IT’ GOES PALE GREEN
IT IS only fair and fitting that long-time news editor of the Irish Times, Mark Hennessy, should be succeeded in that onerous post by one Simon Carswell. Not only has... Read more »
Last Refuge
NEUTRALITY: THE FINAL PUSH
THE GOVERNMENT has finally decided to launch a ground offensive against neutrality with a series of discussions or “forums” on the issue later this year led by the foreign and... Read more »
FREE FRANCE!
FORMER BRITISH Labour MP, now Baroness Kate Hoey (courtesy of then UK prime minister Boris Johnson in 2020) has enraged even those who normally agree with her hard-line unionist views.... Read more »
POLLS SPELL DISASTER FOR FF
ONCE AGAIN, the media fixation on the latest poll is on how Sinn Féin compares with both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. But the existential competition between the latter two... Read more »
BERTIE TO FIX IT FOR SF/FF COALITION?
WHAT SCHEMING object has the most cunning one in mind when he tells Fianna Fáil and its leader, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, that he should accept not only a coalition deal... Read more »
Hush Hush
NEW IRA HASN’T GONE AWAY
In the last few years, a number of militant dissident republican groups have announced ceasefires or merely faded away. The Republican Network for Unity, Republican Sinn Féin and 32 County... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
‘SUCK MY DICKIE DICKIE’ SKIBBEREEN DISTRICT Court heard the case of Patrick O’Driscoll (38), who was accused of behaving in a lewd manner toward gardaí while intoxicated on St Patrick’s... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
ROUND UP THE USUAL LOBBYISTS
‘ROUNDUP’ SEASON is approaching – that time of year when Ireland’s verges, parks, playgrounds and farmland are doused in toxic chemicals that trash biodiversity, reduce insect numbers and cause cancer... Read more »
TECH ENERGY CUTS?
“We have placed Amazon in energy sobriety because we are looking for billions to finance pensions and we believe this money is there.” So said Claude Etchelamendy of French trade... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
THE HOT AIR BRIGADE
What I can say is that it’s indeed the preparation of what we call here the newsroom of the future. How Mediahuis Ireland CEO Peter Vandermeersch explains the redundancies being... Read more »
High Society
ELECTIONS AT MILLTOWN
IT’S NEVER all that easy to secure membership of the more sought after golf clubs, especially those in and around south Co Dublin. One... Read more »
JOHN THOMAS GALLAGHER’S €10M PILE
GOLDHAWK’S EYE was caught by a puff piece in the Irish Times last week about a property outside Kilrush, Co Clare, that has just... Read more »
Innovating Wellness with Cutting-Edge Technology
Eden One, Dublin’s premier health club and spa located on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, is an elite destination redefining wellness. It seamlessly integrates cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art equipment, and meticulously curated... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
CHASING ‘BACHELOR’S WALK’
DOCUMENTS RELEASED to Goldhawk reveal the pressure arts minister Catherine Martin came under in 2021 to come up with the readies to enable the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) to... Read more »
SUSAN BERGIN’S WINNING BOARD MEMBERS
AT LAST, the 2021 annual report of Susan Bergin’s Screen Ireland (SI) board has appeared in a discreet corner of the agency website. In her introduction, Susan Bergin refers to... Read more »
Sport of Kings
AINTREE’S GREEN TINGE
IRISH-TRAINED horses have won the last four runnings of the Aintree Grand National and it looks short odds that they will make it five in a row in the world-famous... Read more »
NO LIFE IN THE PARK
THE INCONSISTENCY of race-day stewards was evident again recently after a valuable Grade 3 novice chase in Limerick. The race in question was won by the 11/8 favourite Thedevilscoachman, trained... Read more »
ITHAKA’S GAMBLE
WITH RONAN McNally’s imminent appeal hearing over his 12-year suspension, an ex-horse of his, Ithaka, landed a tidy gamble in England recently. The horse is now in the care of... Read more »
O’LEARY’S NAMING GAME
MICK O’LEARY performed a U-turn last year by investing in some young national hunt horses to be trained by Willie Mullins, one of which was a three-year-old gelding by Blue... Read more »
Movies
GOD’S CREATURES
FITTINGLY FOR a movie set in a rural fishing village, God’s Creatures arrived on a tidal wave of hype now standard for any Paul Mescal film. This time, the golden... Read more »
Moneybags
FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT’S DANGEROUS US BET
PETER JACKSON is preparing to seek an additional listing for Flutter Entertainment (owner of Paddy Power) in the US, with a view to eventually... Read more »
KENMARE RESOURCES SHARES COULD RISE TO €20
TWO YEARS ago (see The Phoenix 7/5/21), Moneybags noted that Kenmare Resources shareholders should be happy to “sit tight for the next 12 months... Read more »
Protecting Your Wealth with Merrion Gold
Used to store value and as currency for thousands of years, gold has consistently provided long-term returns for investors looking to protect their wealth. In recent years, many have... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
MICHAEL WOODLOCK’S WOES
GOLDHAWK WAS interested to see his old pal, Michael Woodlock (whose brother-in-law was former Fianna Fáil North Tipp TD Michael O’Kennedy), generating headlines last month. The Clonmel-based businessman was fined... Read more »
MARISSA CARTER’S GLOW-UP
IT HAS been a busy few months for Marissa Carter, who was chosen as Newstalk’s Eversheds Sutherland-sponsored ‘Business Person of the Month’ for March. She also launched her budget cosmetics... Read more »
GOD’S FEATURES
FOLLOWING THE Oscars hype in Ireland, man of the moment Paul Mescal pops up on screen again with God’s Creatures (see review p22), the latest release to benefit from Irish... Read more »
GALLAGHER’S INTERNATIONAL FLAVOUR
ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p18) Goldhawk examines the story behind a remarkable property on the Clare coast on the market with a near €10m price tag. It is owned... Read more »
Luxury Meets Sustainability: The NEAT Fusion Automated Gate System
In an era where sustainability and luxury are no longer mutually exclusive, NEAT Gates has seamlessly combined the two with their revolutionary NEAT Fusion automated gate system. Located in... Read more »
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