Affairs of the Nation

Simon Coveney

Affairs of the Nation

GOVERNMENT’S GAZA VERBIAGE

As the Israeli slaughter in Gaza reaches genocidal proportions, the disconnect between the Irish Government’s rhetoric and the reality of its commercial actions in recent years could hardly be starker.... Read more »
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

JOHN MCGUIRK’S STRATEGY

WHILE right-wing commentator and Gript editor John McGuirk has now been named as the defendant in the libel action filed by the man claiming he was wrongly identified as the... Read more »
Katherine Drohan and Jane Murphy

Affairs of the Nation

TAX-FREE ‘TOY SHOW’ TREATS

WHILE MOST of the fall-out from last week’s media committee hearings into the antics at RTÉ concerned golden handshakes for former executives, one aspect of payouts slipped under the radar.... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Dame Richardson Brendan Simms

Affairs of the Nation

RICHARDSON: DAME OR IRISH COMMONER?

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin would have been reassured to learn that the person chairing the neutrality session at the Munich conference last week was Dame Louise Richardson,... Read more »
Ian Kehoe

Affairs of the Nation

IAN KEHOE’S NO-SHOW

IT IS worth quoting The Currency website’s “over-arching philosophy”, which founders Ian Kehoe and Tom Lyons proclaim as “journalism that is fearless, focused and always interesting” and is also free... Read more »
Naoimh McNamee Glencree Centre

Affairs of the Nation

CONCERNS OVER GLENCREE CENTRE

THERE IS not much sign of reconciliation between the worthies at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Co Wicklow and their paymasters in Micheál Martin’s Department of Foreign... Read more »
Anne Rabbitte SJOG

Affairs of the Nation

JUDGING JOHN OF GOD

DISABILITIES MINISTER Anne Rabbitte expressed her “incredible disappointment” at the stand-off between Saint John of God (SJOG) and the HSE, which was caused by last week’s announcement of the former’s... Read more »
Barrie Gane

Affairs of the Nation

BRITISH ‘DIPLOMACY’ AT WORK

BARRIE GANE CMG OBE, of MI6, born on September 19, 1935, died of a stroke on December 10 last. His official resumé alleges that he was a “diplomat”, a description... Read more »
Anthony Hart MI6

Affairs of the Nation

MI6 HONEY TRAPS

In 2016, an anonymous MI6 officer swore under oath to Judge Anthony Hart that MI6 had never engaged in sexual blackmail. This delicate piece of perjury was uttered during Hart’s... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Mary Lou McDonald

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: MARY LOU MCDONALD

DESPITE THE recent triumph in the north for Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill, it’s been a bad 12 months or so for party president... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Doireann O’Leary

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: DOIREANN O’LEARY

THE MEDIA-FRIENDLY Cork-based GP, Doireann O’Leary, has positioned herself as quite the expert on health matters and is a regular on RTÉ’s Today show, The Last Word on... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Fintan O'Toole Irish Times Catholic

Fit to Print?

RELIGIOUS CENSORS AT ‘IRISH TIMES’

THE CENSORSHIP continues of letters and submissions to the Irish Times that challenge the newspaper’s view of unique Catholic repression and abuse in Irish society. The new year has seen... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

GUINNESS GUFF

THE SPECIAL pleading from Diageo against the imminent banning of its five-axle lorries from the city centre has the finger prints of a particularly experienced PR handler all over the... Read more »
Brenda Power

Fit to Print?

MIRIAM AND BRENDA SOCK IT TO THOMAS

IRISH TIMES columnist Miriam Lord gave Fianna Fáil minister Thomas Byrne, the party’s leader on the referendums, a good talking to recently and applauded Sunday Times columnist Brenda Power for... Read more »

Last Refuge

Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

Last Refuge

JETTISONING JOSEPHA

THE FINE GAEL establishment and supporters of junior minister Josepha Madigan received a shock following senator Regina Doherty’s victory at the convention for the party’s Dublin EU candidate last Sunday.... Read more »
Leo Varadkar

Last Refuge

BEWARE MINISTERS BEARING GIFTS

FURTHER EVIDENCE of the growing rift on Gaza between Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin emerged last week when the Taoiseach joined with Spain to urge recognition of Palestinian statehood while... Read more »

Hush Hush

Nigel Farage Tommy Robinson

Hush Hush

BRITISH AND IRISH RIGHT WING

When the notorious British far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) arrived in Ireland in February last year, he caused a significant amount of rancour and tension among Ireland’s... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘FATHER TED & DOUGAL’ Clonakilty District Court heard the case of Gavin Sexton (47) of Carhue Timoleague, who was charged with engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour towards gardaí who... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Michael O'Leary Business Post

Fowl Emissions

MEDIA CLIMATE CALL

In recent years, the Business Post had developed a reputation as a broadly progressive publication on many hot-button issues, including climate and environment. Notwithstanding the regular presence of hard-right commentator... 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

MATT O’KEEFFE’S CLIMATE CALL

Irish Times readers were recently treated to a glossy 32-page magazine insert, titled The Climate Call. According to the cover, it was about a “sustainable future” and “green efforts”. Published... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Dakota Johnson

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I worked with Paul Mescal, and he’s a really good friend of mine. I saw him speaking Irish and that blew my mind. Dakota Johnson, Irish Independent With Sara Greavu... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Portrait of Marian Keyes

High Society

‘DONATING’ MARIAN KEYES

HUGELY SUCCESSFUL scribbler Marian Keyes was “bowled over” following the commissioning by the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) of her portrait, which was unveiled... Read more »

High Society

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

CATCHING UP IN BRITTAS

INTERESTING TO see a truckload of documents filed in the Companies Registration Office (CRO) in recent months relating to Ballinacarrig Park Club (BPC), a... Read more »

High Society

Jack Cantillon

High Society

JACK CANTILLON’S ‘RE-IMAGINING’

“THIS ISN’T the same old boring news of a stallion retiring, this is a re-imagining of what a stallion deal should look like for the benefit of breeders” was the... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Margaret Kelleher MoLI

Behind the Scenes

HOLY MOLI!

PERHAPS PREDICTABLY, a fledgling Irish cultural entity finds itself in a financial mess. This time it is the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), which has struggled to carve out an... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Shane Donohoe

Sport of Kings

DONOHOE’S MITIGATION

THE REFERRALS committee of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), chaired by legal eagle Robert Dore, recently convened to consider matters arising from a stable visit to the premises 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

MOLONEY’S ADVENTURES

AN INCIDENT at Cork racecourse between well-known trainer and breeze-up consignor Thomand O’Mara and IHRB clerk of the course Paul Moloney recently went before the board’s referrals committee. Moloney alleged... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Peter Jackson

Moneybags

FLUTTER SHARES COULD HIT £300 IN NEXT TWO YEARS

IT IS quite jaw dropping to delve into the remarkable figures being delivered by gambling behemoth Flutter Entertainment. The company’s market capitalisation is almost... Read more »

Moneybags

Eddie O'Connor

Moneybags

TAPPING INTO NORWEGIAN ENERGY

IT IS hard to overestimate the impact Eddie O’Connor has had on the renewable energy sector, which is attracting increasing interest from shareholders as... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Colm Wu

The Hot Water Brigade

COLM WU’S TAXING TIMES

THINGS ARE clearly not getting much better for Goldhawk’s favourite hotelier Colm ‘Bo Vision’ Wu (aka Guoqing Wu), with the dreaded Revenue moving to wind up one of his many... Read more »
Grant Ashton Akya

The Hot Water Brigade

GRANT ASHTON’S ADVENTURES

A RATHER interesting business that had been involved in cutting-edge integrated circuit technology architecture – and featuring a rather exotic shareholder base – was quietly wound up last month. The... Read more »
Bernard Caldwell ISSA

The Hot Water Brigade

BERNARD CALDWELL’S MEMBERS

THERE WAS some off-track activity in the horseracing world this month, with Bernard Caldwell’s Irish Stable Staff Association (ISSA) holding its AGM last week in the Trim Castle Hotel. Interestingly,... Read more »
Ard Aoibhinn Ciaran Rowsome

The Hot Water Brigade

CLOCK TICKING FOR FLEXTIME

THERE WAS a suitably glowing write-up in the Indo’s property pages last week featuring a house called Ard Aoibhinn in Dundrum, south Co Dublin, which has gone on the market... Read more »