Affairs of the Nation Archives

AFFAIRS OF THE NATION

IVAN’S SHY COLLEAGUES

November 27, 2025

IVAN YATES – pundit, broadcaster, spin doctor, political tutor, after-dinner speaker, former minister and ex-bookie, among other things – has received plaudits from... Read more »

CATHERINE HEANEY’S HEROES

November 27, 2025

FORMER BLUESHIRT big wig Simon Coveney recently popped up in the Irish Examiner, where he was waxing lyrical about life after politics. He... Read more »

BONO’S EXPENSIVE BOOZE

November 27, 2025

IT’S FULL speed ahead for the proposed Church of Oak whiskey distillery backed by Bono and Paddy McKillen Sr. A new chief executive... Read more »

SHARON MCCABE’S MOVE

November 27, 2025

NOT SURPRISINGLY, the judicial review proceedings lodged by 20 denizens of D6 against the €10bn MetroLink plan garnered plenty of headlines this week.... Read more »

MICHEÁL V BERTIE

November 27, 2025

AN INTERESTING take on why Micheál Martin was so anxious to block Bertie Ahern from becoming Fianna Fáil’s presidential candidate was published, not... Read more »

REPUBLICANS ATTACK NEW RIGHT

November 27, 2025

Over recent years there has been a rapid decline in punishment beatings and kneecappings north of the border. But a recent statement by... Read more »

ALLEGATIONS AND SECRET RECORDINGS

November 27, 2025

THE SETTLEMENT announced last week of the explosive High Court proceedings lodged by racehorse trainer Jim Gorman will have come as a relief... Read more »

BBC LIBERALS V TRUMP

November 27, 2025

THE BBC recently apologised to Donald Trump for its editing of footage of him on the day of the January 6 riots in... Read more »

GENERAL CLANCY’S FRONT LINE

November 27, 2025

FORMER Chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces, General Seán Clancy, now chair of the European Union Military Committee (EUMC), recently declared... Read more »

TWO FINGERS TO PRESIDENT CONNOLLY

November 12, 2025

THE STAND-OUT political stance of president-elect Catherine Connolly during the election campaign was neutrality and peaceful opposition to the militarisation of Europe. Conversely,... Read more »

ANTON SAVAGE ON IVAN YATES

November 12, 2025

YOU HAVE to hand it to PR consultant and Newstalk broadcaster Anton Savage, who maintained a poker player’s even tone while presenting his... Read more »

JIM GORMAN V LUKE COMER

November 12, 2025

NEEDLESS TO say there is a huge degree of interest in horseracing circles regarding the legal proceedings issued by trainer Jim Gorman against... Read more »

O’CALLAGHAN PASSES THE BUCK

November 12, 2025

FAR FROM being tightly controlled and operating secretively, as reported, the right-wing scene in Ireland is growing but is probably most dangerous because... Read more »

DUFFY’S NEW GIG

November 12, 2025

Paschal Donohoe’s 2020 Dublin Central Fine Gael running mate, Deirdre Duffy, has been appointed director of Friends of the Earth (FoE), following former... Read more »

RTÉ’S EMPTY SEATS

November 12, 2025

THERE IS an awful lot going on at RTÉ these days, from the high-profile radio schedule shake-up to dumping the documentary department and... Read more »

ANNUAL 2025: GOLDHAWK’S AWARDS FOR THE PASSING PARADE – 2025

November 12, 2025

CONOR MCGREGOR Under Tánaiste and foreign minister Simon Harris, the Government recently opened five new overseas missions through the Global Ireland programme as... Read more »

HOW LONG CAN MARTIN HOLD ON?

October 30, 2025

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S leadership currently survives because of the sullen toleration of most of his TDs and the reluctance of leader-in-waiting Jim O’Callaghan to... Read more »

KEVIN KIELY V PAUL DURCAN

October 30, 2025

THE IRISH ‘poetic community’ is a small one so it is not too surprising that there has been plenty of chatter about the... Read more »

DERMOT DESMOND V BRENDAN RODGERS

October 30, 2025

MOST OBSERVERS will have been surprised by Dermot Desmond’s uncharacteristic tactic of lunging two-footed at outgoing Glasgow Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers. This has... Read more »

IAN LAWLOR’S SHEKELS

October 30, 2025

IAN LAWLOR, of private equity development funder Round Tower Capital, has been very vocal lately about the housing crisis, most recently discussing the... Read more »

GLENCREE’S BAIL-OUT

October 30, 2025

GOOD NEWS for all the worthies in the Glencree Centre For Peace And Reconciliation. Despite the level of dysfunction exposed in the organisation... Read more »

SOLDIER F GOES FREE

October 30, 2025

SOLDIER F, recently acquitted of murder and attempted murder on Bloody Sunday, has returned to his comfortable life in England. He became a... Read more »

BACIK’S RIGHT CHOICE

October 30, 2025

FIANNA FÁIL’S latest poll rating of 17% has intensified Micheál Martin’s leadership crisis but another stat in the same poll is also linked... Read more »

DONOHOE CROSSES THE RUBICON

October 30, 2025

PRESIDENT-ELECT Catherine Connolly was accused by Fine Gael of insulting our allies in Europe by referring, accurately, to the military industrial complex in... Read more »

‘SPOIL THE VOTE’ PLAYERS

October 30, 2025

RTÉ was quick to publish an article online before the election count was completed. While 213,738 spoiled votes certainly warranted analysis, RTÉ’S online... Read more »

DENTON WHITEWASH FOR BRITS AND MI5

October 30, 2025

A leak from the upcoming Operation Denton report on the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings indicates that the inquiry will exonerate the British Army and... Read more »

CONNOLLY WON’T FIGHT BACK

October 16, 2025
SECTIONS OF the Catherine Connolly-led left alliance are frustrated at the genteel refusal of their candidate to respond in kind to what they say... Read more »

ROB KENNY’S MEAT DISH

October 16, 2025

WHILE THERE was plenty of media coverage of the new Dublin restaurant Entrecôte, which turned out not to be associated in any way... Read more »

TIARNAN O’MAHONEY’S ‘PASSION’

October 16, 2025

GOLDHAWK WAS surprised to see that one Tiarnan O’Mahoney has just been appointed a trustee of the Alfred Beit Foundation (ABF), which is... Read more »

SWAN DIVE

October 16, 2025

IT WAS reported earlier this month that the fraud squad has recommended to the DPP that the principals in a liquidated company called... Read more »

COSTS SLASHED IN MURDER ACQUITTAL

October 16, 2025

THE acquittal in January of law professor Diarmuid Phelan on a charge of murdering Keith Conlon, whom he shot on his Co Dublin... Read more »

MEEHAN V HANLEY

October 16, 2025

A PREDICTABLE response to the recent killing of two Jewish people at a Manchester synagogue was a Sunday Times article in which stressed... Read more »

NIAMH SWEENEY’S CV

October 16, 2025

THE OFFICE of the Data Protection Commission (DPC) now boasts a full squad after justice minister Jim O’Callaghan appointed Niamh Sweeney as the... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S HOUSING SCAPEGOATS

October 2, 2025

CONSIDER THE recent astonishing sequence of events in Brussels, Strasbourg, Ireland and New York, which will have a potentially multibillion-euro effect on housing... Read more »

SANCTUARY’S ROUGH RIDE

October 2, 2025

THERE WAS plenty of media interest last month in the colourful spat between international showjumper Michelle Kenny and her business partner, the wonderfully... Read more »

ZAPPER’S ZIGZAGS

October 2, 2025

FORMER MINISTER, TD and senator Katherine Zappone is one of the most accomplished operators that ever climbed the greasy pole into Cabinet. The... Read more »