Affairs of the Nation

Michael McDowell

Affairs of the Nation

McDOWELL PLOTS NEW DÁIL FORCE

REGARDLESS OF the referendum results this week, the stand-out personality in an otherwise boring campaign was senator Michael McDowell, former justice minister and attorney general, who is determined to return... 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

FINGLETON’S FANS

THE SINDO’S Liam Collins was waxing lyrical last month in an article headlined, “Fingers Fingleton rode to my rescue: 40 years later I’m finally free”. The piece recalled how Irish... Read more »
Bill McCabe

Affairs of the Nation

BILL McCABE’S BREAST IMPLANTS

IT HAS been a rough few months for veteran investor Bill McCabe, who had pumped big bucks into the listed Irish medtech business, HealthBeacon, which collapsed from a market capitalisation... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

David Nally

Affairs of the Nation

RTÉ NALLY FIASCO: EPISODE 37

TIRED JOKES about RTÉ repeats have been enlivened by the two-year sitcom based on the rise and exit of RTÉ’s former head of current affairs, David Nally, whose career was... Read more »
Catherine Day Linda Farren-O’Shea

Affairs of the Nation

NUI CHANCELLOR CONTEST

THE CONTEST to succeed that most magisterial of political and academic mandarins, Maurice Manning, as National University of Ireland (NUI) chancellor could well see a woman take this post for the... Read more »
Terence O'Rourke

Affairs of the Nation

CATHERINE MARTIN’S NEW CAST

WITH FORMER chief KPMG number-cruncher Terence O’Rourke preparing to take charge of the RTÉ board, one of the first big tasks will be to examine the external review on corporate... Read more »
Mardi Kennedy SWAI

Affairs of the Nation

HELEN McENTEE’S MANOEUVRE

IT IS highly unlikely that the Sex Workers Alliance Ireland (SWAI) is banking on a positive outcome from the long-delayed review of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, following... Read more »
Richard Lindzen BPM

Affairs of the Nation

GLOBAL WARMING: ‘NO BIG DEAL’

A relatively new farmers’ lobby group, styling itself Beef Plan Movement (BPM), is pushing for full official recognition this year as a stakeholder organisation and to have a say in... Read more »
An SAS soldier

Affairs of the Nation

IS THE SAS IN GAZA?

Last October there was a flurry of articles in the British media about the deployment of the SAS to Cyprus. The regiment was reported as being on standby in case... Read more »

Pillars of Society

John McGuirk

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: JOHN MCGUIRK

THE EDITOR of Gript.ie, John McGuirk, has managed to look both foolish and incompetent in two legal stand-offs recently, just as his particular brand... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Jenny Maguire

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: JENNY MAGUIRE

JENNY MAGUIRE is a familiar name around the city, both inside and outside of Trinity’s campus. A co-organiser of Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin,... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Ben Scallan

Fit to Print?

‘GRIPT’ GIFT TO EU RIGHT

A SPAT between Gript correspondent Ben Scallan and Leo Varadkar at the end of a recent Government press conference led to a focus on Gript Media’s finances. Vlad had ignored... Read more »
Laura Slattery Siún Ní Raghallaigh

Fit to Print?

BOG STANDARD ‘IRISH TIMES’ BEHAVIOUR

WHAT COMMONSENSE Irish Times media columnist Laura Slattery dispensed recently when deriding “everybody involved in RTÉ’s rolling crisis” as having “lost the plot”. According to Slattery, media minister Catherine Martin... 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’ BOTTLENECK

A RECENT SPECIAL by David McWilliams in the Irish Times Weekend Review told readers: “In Dún Laoghaire a battle for the heart and soul of the town is ongoing.” This... 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?

U2 WINS AWARD SHOCK!

ON THURSDAY March 7 U2 are to receive this year’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize for Classic Irish Album for their 1991 album Achtung Baby, with the Vicar Street event being... Read more »

Last Refuge

Lisa Chambers

Last Refuge

MARTIN’S FEMALE FAVOURITES

ONE ASPECT of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s new way has been the electoral emphasis on young, middle-class females and prominent among these has been senator Lisa Chambers, former TD... Read more »
Sean Kelly EPP

Last Refuge

VARADKAR’S EU JOB ENDANGERED

WHEN THE support of Fine Gael MEPs ensured the passage of a key stage of the Nature Restoration Law (NLA) in the European Parliament last December – in defiance of... Read more »
Mari Hurley

Last Refuge

RTÉ’S SENIOR HURLEY DIRECTOR

VERY LITTLE attention has been paid to the political affiliation of Mari Hurley, RTÉ’s new chief financial officer appointed last week, although her financial and corporate pedigree – including positions... Read more »
Clare Daly GUE/NGL

Last Refuge

IRELAND’S EU LEFT-OVERS

WITH THE elections for the European Parliament to take place in early June, much speculation has focused on the prospects of the far right, with headlines predicting big gains for... Read more »

Hush Hush

David Irving

Hush Hush

IRVING IN A STATE OF DENIAL

THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY there were reports that convicted Holocaust denier David Irving, who dismissed the Auschwitz gas chambers as a “fairy tale”, had fallen ill. Then in late February it was... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘Stranger than FICTION’ A driver maintained that a breath sample he gave to gardaí, which showed he was over the drink-driving limit, was invalid as the arresting garda gave him... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Lorna Bogue A5

Fowl Emissions

ROAD TO GOD KNOWS WHERE

It’s hard to find anything that unites the political parties north and south but a love of new roads is one such unifier. This national obsession was celebrated recently when... Read more »
Luke Holland Climate Denial John Fagan Wolf Europe David Quinn Duncan Stewart Data Centre Carbon Emissions Conor Skehan Chris Hazzard

Fowl Emissions

MICK O’LEARY’S OWN GOAL

Michael O’Leary is supposedly a PR genius, but a recent series of opinion polls that Ryanair conducted on X crashed and burned. Each poll began with an attack on the... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Jennifer O'Connell

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

When in this country did the ‘common good’ ever mean anything other than the good of men? Jennifer O’Connell, Irish Times Charting the Scylla of draconian defamation laws and the... Read more »

High Society

High Society

John Morehart

High Society

JOHN MOREHART’S ‘REMEDY’

HAVING PURCHASED the splendid Palladian mansion Bellamont House, which stands on a thousand acres outside Cootehill in Co Cavan, Yank lawyer John Morehart has... 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

BACKING DERMOT SMURFIT

NO DOUBT Dermot Smurfit – son of Dermot Smurfit Snr and nephew of Monaco-based Mick Smurfit – was happy with the Indo’s positive spin... Read more »

High Society

Waverley in Foxrock

High Society

DAVID SHARKEY’S €1.7M DISCOUNT

AN ADVERT from Sherry FitzGerald on the front page of the Irish Times property section last month featured a rather nice-looking pile called Waverley, which is located off Westminster Road... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Siún Ní Raghallaigh

Behind the Scenes

IN PRAISE OF SIÚN

THERE HAS been an awful lot of praise heaped on recently resigned RTÉ chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh, with TV and movie producers lobby group Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) quick to... Read more »
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

MICK HEANEY ON SARAH MCINERNEY

FANS OF Goldhawk will be aware of Irish Times radio reviewer Mick Heaney’s drooling admiration of Drivetime presenter Sarah McInerney (see The Phoenix 26/2/21). He was back in fawning form... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Cathal Beale

Sport of Kings

CATHAL BEALE’S NEXT MOVE?

THE TENURE of Cathal Beale as boss of the Irish National Stud (INS) looks set to end in July this year, having been seven years in situ. It will be... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Tony Smurfit

Moneybags

SMURFIT KAPPA INVESTORS TO SUFFER FROM WESTROCK DEAL

IT IS always a little odd when a share price rises on the back of poor results. In the case of Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG),... Read more »

Moneybags

Michael Carvill

Moneybags

‘IN PLAY’ KENMARE RESOURCES WORTH $¾BN

ALTHOUGH NOT normally an activist shareholder, rather late in the day JO Hambro (which has a 5% stake in Kenmare Resources) has run out... Read more »

The Hot Water Brigade

Brendan McDowell

The Hot Water Brigade

BRENDAN MCDOWELL’S AWARD

CONGRATULATIONS TO cosmetics czar Brendan McDowell, who landed the Entrepreneur of the Year award at Ali Ryan’s Gossies bash in the RDS last weekend. There were plenty of B and... Read more »
Ramona Nicholas Cara Pharmacy

The Hot Water Brigade

EXPENSIVE MEDICINE AT CARA

AFTER THE rescue of the Cara Pharmacy group of companies back in 2020, the latest figures for the new holding company suggest it may be some time before the backers... Read more »
Brendan Morriseey

The Hot Water Brigade

BRENDAN MORRISSEY’S UPS AND DOWNS

TECH INVESTOR Brendan Morrissey suffered a setback in the High Court last week when Judge Denis McDonald confirmed a €1m judgment against the Kilkenny-based “serial entrepreneur” and his Malta-registered investment... Read more »
Conor Clarkson Nathan McDonnell

The Hot Water Brigade

HANDICAPPING MCDONNELL AND CLARKSON

THERE HAS been heavy going lately for a couple of businessmen who happen to be fans of the turf – Nathan McDonnell and Conor Clarkson. Both boys have been under... Read more »