Article Category: Affairs of the Nation

DAVID WHELAN’S DANCE MOVES

January 11, 2024

THERE WAS the usual hype in the run-up to last weekend’s launch of the latest season of Dancing With the Stars on RTÉ... Read more »

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NO DRAMA AT THE IRISH TIMES

January 11, 2024
THIS IS the time of year when the Irish Times announces the various luvvies who have been shortlisted for the annual IT Theatre Awards.... Read more »

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PRINCESS COLONNA’S NEIGHBOUR

January 11, 2024

FANS OF Goldhawk with long memories will recall that the Clonmannon retirement village in Ashford, Co Wicklow was bought out of liquidation in... Read more »

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MARY LOU BETS THE HOUSE ON IT

January 11, 2024

THE MOST interesting item in last weekend’s Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll was not the 1% rise in those who prioritised immigration but... Read more »

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DONALDSON RETREATS AGAIN

January 11, 2024
THE BACKLASH over the Irish Government’s case against the British government’s legacy act began with ex-northern secretary Brandon Lewis making a full-frontal assault against... Read more »

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BLOODY SUNDAY: KITSON AND WILFORD

January 11, 2024
COL DEREK WILFORD, the commander of 1 Para in Northern Ireland in 1972, died last November. His former superior, Brigadier (later, General) Sir Frank... Read more »

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LINDA MARTIN’S PUPPY LOVE

December 14, 2023

CHRISTMAS CAME early for Linda ‘Eurovision’ Martin, whose move into the business end of animal welfare has landed her a juicy gig from... Read more »

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JUDGE HUMPHREYS AND JAMIE BRYSON

December 14, 2023
WHAT AN intriguing coupling Judge Richard Humphreys and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson make in their collaboration on the recently published Constitutional Balance, the Acts... Read more »

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GAYLE KILLILEA AND DER KAISER

December 14, 2023
FOLLOWERS OF the entertaining X account of Gayle Killilea saw her react in characteristic fashion to a two-page spread in the Indo about her... Read more »

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DAVID NORRIS’S ‘MILLION POUNDS’

December 14, 2023

FANS WHO managed to stay up (awake?) for RTÉ’s The Week In Politics programme last weekend were treated to an interesting titbit from... Read more »

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BONO’S WINDFALL

December 14, 2023
THE PEACE message frequently peddled by Bono has invariably been aligned with a western political agenda but a recent move by the singer saw... Read more »

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UKRAINE DEFEAT LOOMS

December 14, 2023
THE ISRAELI horror show in Gaza cannot hide for long the uncomfortable fact – for Nato and the West, including Ireland – that Ukraine... Read more »

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RTÉ’S FOUR SEATS

December 14, 2023

AS GOLDHAWK revealed (see The Phoenix 1/12/23), the premature exit of Connor Murphy from the RTÉ board created a second vacancy for media... Read more »

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ARMS TO GAZA (VIA UKRAINE)

December 14, 2023
THE ARMS industry makes a big deal of end-use certificates, which identify a government agency of the importing state that will use their weapons.... Read more »

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MAURA DERIVAN’S SETTLEMENT

December 14, 2023

THE SETTLING this week of circuit court defamation proceedings by number-cruncher Bobby Fitzgerald against outgoing Law Society president Maura Derivan and her hubby,... Read more »

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ED HONOHAN AND THE VULTURE FUNDS

December 14, 2023

FORMER MASTER of the High Court Ed Honohan has been on the rampage in the US in recent weeks, with dramatic allegations against... Read more »

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DAME LOUISE RICHARDSON: NO TRIPLE LOCK

November 30, 2023
ANTI-TERRORIST EXPERT Dame Louise Richardson was hand-picked by Tánaiste and foreign minister Micheál Martin, to chair his forum on defence and security policy and... Read more »

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RTÉ BOARD’S EMPTY SEATS

November 30, 2023

FOLLOWING IAN Kehoe’s decision not to seek a second term on the beleaguered RTÉ board, there is a second man overboard as a... Read more »

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LAURIE MANNIX’S STAR SIGNING

November 30, 2023

CONGRATULATIONS TO Laurie Mannix and her team at lobbying and PR firm MKC Communications, which has landed former secretary general of the Department... Read more »

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MARY MacMAHON’S HEADACHE

November 30, 2023

WHILE THE president of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) should be focusing her energies on the publication by Darragh O’Brien last month of... Read more »

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CHARLIE MCCONALOGUE’S EXTENSIONS

November 30, 2023

THERE HAS been some odd behaviour by agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue in relation to vacancies on the board of the Irish National Stud... Read more »

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FF DUBS OUT TO GET McENTEE

November 30, 2023
MORE THAN one media reference last weekend to Fianna Fáil backbenchers’ anger at Helen McEntee spells internal coalition trouble for the justice minister, especially... Read more »

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FIGHTING EXTREMISM

November 30, 2023
THE Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) presents as a welcome antidote to all things extreme. It also claims to be “fiercely independent” in the... Read more »

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STANDING BACK AND STANDING BY

November 30, 2023

FAR-RIGHT activists have been accustomed to the policy of Drew Harris for the gardaí to stand back as they have not only pushed... Read more »

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FRANCES RUANE’S REPORTS

November 30, 2023

GOLDHAWK PRESUMES there will be little enough Christmas spirit on show between the Arts Council (AC) and the Abbey Theatre this month as... Read more »

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POOR FARMERS SHOCK!

November 30, 2023

Despite the constant moaning and demands for bailouts coming from the sector, overall agriculture incomes have improved in recent years. However, according to... Read more »

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FIANNA FÁIL BACKS ISRAEL

November 15, 2023
THE HAND-WRINGING about divisions within EU states over the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza is one thing. But there has also been a... Read more »

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DERMOT DESMOND’S CELTIC CROSS

November 15, 2023

DERMOT DESMOND will be looking forward to the end of this year, as his control of Glasgow Celtic continues to deliver defeats both... Read more »

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LUCY IN THE SKY WITH ISRAELIS

November 15, 2023
A FAVOURITE tactic of western militarist think tanks, PR firms and lobbyists is to present as centre ground moderates that oppose extremism of the... Read more »

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NEALE RICHMOND’S FORUM

November 15, 2023

WHILE THERE wouldn’t be oodles of interest in a worthy sounding body such as the Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum (EDAF), the imminent appointment... Read more »

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MARTIN MOVES EARLY

November 15, 2023

CONGRATULATIONS ARE in order for arts and culture minister Catherine Martin, who recently advertised for would-be board members for the National Gallery of... Read more »

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NAZI REGALIA

November 15, 2023

SHOCKED AND perplexed observers of National Party leader Justin Barrett turning up to an anti-immigrant protest last week dressed in an SS overcoat... Read more »

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THE COUNTER-RESTORATION

November 15, 2023

DESPITE THE very best efforts of the European agri-industrial lobby and its allies on the political right, the EU’s Nature Restoration Law (NRL)... Read more »

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ANNUAL 2023: GOLDHAWK’S AWARDS FOR THE PASSING PARADE 2023

November 15, 2023

DEE FORBES THERE WAS only ever one real contender for the 2023 Where’s Wally TV Drama Award. The biggest hit show this summer... Read more »

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‘A EUROPEAN ARMY — GETTING CLOSE’

November 2, 2023

A DEAFENING silence from the media and its normally enthusiastic security correspondents surrounds the European Union’s first ever live military exercise – near... Read more »

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SIGHTS SET ON STRASBOURG

November 2, 2023

THE FIRST ever female president of the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR), Síofra O’Leary, was the subject of a glowing profile in... Read more »

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