Affairs of the Nation

John Magnier

Affairs of the Nation

JOHN MAGNIER’S CREDIBILITY PROBLEM

JOHN MAGNIER is having a dreadful year in the Four Goldmines, with not just one but two High Court judges getting stuck into him. The high-profile (ie expensive) legal proceedings... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

NETFLIX AND BILL

EARLIER THIS year, culture and communications minister Patrick O’Donovan appeared to nix an attempt to introduce a levy on the giant streaming companies, known as the ‘Netflix levy’. A revolt... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

ALAN HAUGH’S SETBACK

POPULAR BARRISTER Alan Haugh BL got plenty of support from the media for his criticisms of the decision by Peter Burke’s Department of Enterprise not to reappoint the legal eagle... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Michael Gove

Affairs of the Nation

MICHAEL GOVE V KINGSPAN

IT’S BEEN a year since former judge Martin Moore-Bick issued his report on the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower tragedy and Kingspan boss Eugene Murtagh could be forgiven for thinking... Read more »
Gareth Sheridan

Affairs of the Nation

GARETH SHERIDAN’S SUPPORTERS

GARETH SHERIDAN’S presidential nomination campaign brought together unlikely allies. Fresh from winning a 18-14 nomination from Kerry County Council on September 15, the 36-year-old multi-millionaire came up short the same... Read more »
General Robert Ford

Affairs of the Nation

BLOODY SUNDAY: THE REAL STORY

Anyone hoping that the full truth about Bloody Sunday will emerge from the trial of Soldier F is likely to be disappointed. The official narrative, outlined in Lord Saville’s 2010... Read more »
Marie Anderson

Affairs of the Nation

PSNI’S ABSENT OMBUDSMAN

AS IF the doubts about British PM Keir Starmer’s willingness to reform Britain’s Legacy Act were not alarming enough, the “temporary leave of absence” of Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Marie... Read more »
Pat Finucane

Affairs of the Nation

PAT FINUCANE: COLLUSION INQUIRY

SIR GARY HICKINBOTTOM, chair of the Finucane Inquiry, is in consultation with northern secretary Hilary Benn to agree his terms of reference. The inquiry is to report on accusations of... Read more »
Kate Hoey

Affairs of the Nation

WILLING TAOISEACH

WHEN OUR willing Taoiseach Micheál Martin strides across the world stage, as he recently did with a message to the Coalition of the Willing (COTW) in support of Ukraine, he... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Heather Humphreys

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: HEATHER HUMPHREYS

FINE GAEL’S presidential candidate, Heather Humphreys, has been packaged by the party and its media supporters as a no-nonsense, can-do matriarch, whose Protestant background... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Maisie Hall

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: MAISIE HALL

UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY (formerly known as NUIG) Students’ Union (SU) has a new president, Maisie Hall. Hailing from Dingle, Co Kerry, and born to... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Peter Shirlow

Fit to Print?

LOYALIST SCHIZOPHRENIA

SOUTHERN MEDIA continue to treat the black north like some unexplored 19th-century colony, with wildly different takes on sectarian attacks on Catholics and immigrants there – that’s if they bother... 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?

SPY GAMES

HOW FASCINATING to read in the Sunday Times – MI5’s favourite newspaper – that ex-taoiseach Leo Varadkar knew the Brits were capable of tapping Irish government phones during Brexit negotiations.... Read more »
Vladimir Putin

Fit to Print?

UKRAINIAN DEMOCRAT’S MURDER

THE IRISH and European media constantly deride the Russian media as Putin’s obedient mouthpiece – quite unlike the free western media, which does not simply regurgitate their government’s line in... Read more »

Last Refuge

Micheal Martin

Last Refuge

DANGEROUS MOMENTS FOR MICHEÁL MARTIN

WITH FIANNA FÁIL back bench TDs now getting the bit firmly between their teeth in the revolt against Micheál Martin’s Brezhnev behaviour in the selection of their presidential candidate, there... Read more »
Bob Geldof

Last Refuge

BOB GELDOF’S MASTER PLAN

THE MYSTERY of why Bob Geldof should want to be president of a nation whose 1916 origins he despises and whose leaders, Pearse and Connolly, he has traduced has become... Read more »
Janice Boylan 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

VIKTOR ORBÁN SNUBBED

HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER Viktor Orbán cut a lonely figure, politically and diplomatically speaking, at the Ireland v Hungary soccer match in Dublin this month. He was not accompanied by any... Read more »
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Last Refuge

CRUELLA MACNEILL DEVOURS HEALTH OFFICIAL

FOLLOWING HER long-range sniper shot at party leader Simon Harris, appropriately enough at Béal na Bláth last month, news emerged of health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s metaphorical assassination of distinguished... Read more »

Northwind

Emma Little-Pengelly

Northwind

TOXIC STORMONT

At the beginning of the month the Stormont assembly returned from the long – many say too long – summer recess. It held its first executive meeting on September 4,... Read more »

Hush Hush

Malachy Steenson

Hush Hush

HARD-RIGHT DISUNITY

The series of anti-immigration rallies that brought thousands on to the streets over the spring and summer months in Grand Old Duke of York fashion have petered out in recent... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

A ‘CERTAIN VIEW’ A man charged with engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour towards gardaí appeared before Letterkenny District Court. Sergeant Jim Collins told the court that on August 23... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Darragh O'Brien

Fowl Emissions

DARRAGH O’BRIEN’S FLIGHTS OF FANCY

There is something almost nostalgic to see a north Dublin Fianna Fáil TD engaging in the kind of cute hoorism around climate change that was the political trademark of Squire... 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

FISHY KILL

State agencies are being remarkably coy about who is likely responsible for the massive fish kill along a 40km stretch of Cork’s Blackwater river. Ella McSweeney reported in the Irish... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Caitriona McLaughlin

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

As a result the play leans heavily into dream logic. “Are we our soul or our body? Is the soul older than the body?” McLaughlin asks in a playful tone.... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Úna Kearns

High Society

KEARNS SIBLINGS’ LEGAL LESSON

GOLDHAWK SPIES an interesting-looking case filed in the High Court, with two unlikely named unlimited companies – Unifield and Minervavig – suing recruitment consultants... 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

JOE LEWIS’S TACTICS

CONTROVERSIAL BILLIONAIRE Joe Lewis – familiar in these parts thanks to his close connections to fellow moneybags Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier... Read more »

High Society

Jenny Keane

High Society

JENNY KEANE’S OH! MOMENT

GOLDHAWK’S FAVOURITE “trail-blazing holistic sex educator”, Jenny Keane, was generating media attention again ahead of the latest live show, the Orgasm Tour. This follows on foot of a rebrand by... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Moling Ryan

Behind the Scenes

MOLING’S MISSION

AS REVEALED by Goldhawk (see The Phoenix 25/7/25), culture minister Patrick O’Donovan has installed his department’s favourite troubleshooter, Moling Ryan, as the interim director of the Arts Council. He replaces... 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

DECLAN RYAN’S DISCOUNT

GREAT NEWS for fans of saunas and minted publishers. One of the (two) books published to date by Irelandia Press is now being offered for sale with a very generous... Read more »

Sport of Kings

JP McManus

Sport of Kings

JP McMANUS’S BAD DREAM

GENEVA-BASED JP McManus’s dream of winning the Club Godolphin Cesarewitch with his 10/1 second favourite, A Dream To Share, has turned into something closer to a nightmare. The John Kiely-trained... 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

BEACH BODIES

LAYTOWN RACES’S September beach race day featured some popular winners this year. Owner James McAuley and his Hilltop Racing entourage returned from a self-imposed sabbatical to again team up with... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Ger Rabbette

Moneybags

UNIPHAR’S SHARE PRICE BASED ON AN AWFUL LOT OF OPTIMISM

UNIPHAR has been generating glowing tributes in the media and the marketplace this year on foot of the impressive performance of its shares on... Read more »

Moneybags

Nik Jhangiani

Moneybags

QUESTIONS OVER CALIBRE OF DIAGEO’S BOSS-IN-WAITING

THE INSTALLING two months ago of Nik (Manik) Jhangiani as the interim CEO at Diageo has attracted plenty of glowing headlines but, while the... Read more »

Brief Cases

Conor McGregor

Brief Cases

CONOR MCGREGOR’S MMA SHARES

CONOR McGREGOR has had his hands full over the last few weeks, between seeking a nomination for the presidency, announcing an MMA bout on the White House lawn next summer... Read more »
Ciaran Rowsome

Brief Cases

ROWSOMES RUN OUT OF TIME

JUST FIVE months after the directors signed off the 2024 accounts, stating in a note that they had “a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue in... Read more »
Ciaran Fitzgerald

Brief Cases

CIARÁN FITZGERALD’S HARVEST

GOLDHAWK’S FAVOURITE agri-industry economist/consultant, Ciarán Fitzgerald, has just wound up his profitable company, Ciarán Fitzgerald Consulting Ltd (CFC). Fitzgerald is well known in the agriculture sector and has written extensively... 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

LISA JORDAN’S MILLION QUID

CONGRATULATIONS TO social media influencer and businesswoman Lisa Jordan (aka Just Jordan), who continues to deliver a fashionable bottom line. She has two brands, LUNA by Lisa (makeup and hair... Read more »
Lisa Duffy

Brief Cases

LISA DUFFY’S TINY TAX BILL

SOME BAD news for another high-profile red carpet designer, Instagram influencer and fashionista Lisa Duffy, who has been off the radar for a while. Formerly a humble social care worker... Read more »