Affairs of the Nation Archives

AFFAIRS OF THE NATION

ALL ABOUT EVA

August 11, 2022
HEALTH GURU Eva Orsmond (previously of Operation Transformation fame) was back on RTÉ this week with the second series on her attempt to open... Read more »

FRANCES RUANE’S SHORT RUN

August 11, 2022
AS GOLDHAWK predicted (see The Phoenix 17/6/22), former economist Frances Ruane has been given just a two-year extension to her initial five-year term as... Read more »

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

FRANC’S UKRAINIAN BONUS

August 11, 2022
GOLDHAWK’S favourite wedding planner, Peter Kelly, aka ‘Franc’, has been doing rather better out of the State coffers this year than was the case... Read more »

MORGAN O’SULLIVAN’S CAST

August 11, 2022
THERE HAS been an immediate reaction from the Irish Film Workers Association (IFWA) to a piece in the Sunday Times on disputes at the... Read more »

CHECKING THE FACT CHECKERS

August 11, 2022
‘FACT CHECKING’ has become a virtuous activity of liberal and not-so-liberal agencies (in the West) fighting “misinformation” (in the East) and one of the... Read more »

GREAT GREEN GAS WARS CONTINUE

August 11, 2022
AS IRELAND struggles to decarbonise its energy system in line with ambitious 2030 targets and in light of the deteriorating international energy landscape, a... Read more »

MI6, BORIS AND THE LEBEDEVS

August 11, 2022
Once upon a time, Britain’s Independent newspaper was owned by Sir Tony O’Reilly, Thatcher’s favourite Irishman. Then it was a platform to question the... Read more »

RUSH TO ARMS

July 28, 2022
THREE POLLS on Irish neutrality since the Russian invasion of Ukraine have disappointed the dogs of war in government and the Defence Forces who... Read more »

Nóirín Hegarty Sunday Times Staff Cuts Jobs

MURDOCH’S DAYS OF CARNAGE

July 28, 2022
WHAT HACKS at Sunday Times Ireland and Times Ireland called ‘days of carnage’ came to an end last week with more than a dozen... Read more »

SIMON COVENEY’S MEDIA FUND

July 28, 2022
ONE HIGHLY publicised element of the report by Brian MacCraith’s Future of Media Commission was the rejection of the recommendation that the licence fee... Read more »

ENDA KENNY’S ENERGY SHARES

July 28, 2022
WHILE IT may be assumed by many that Enda Kenny is taking things easy these days, apart from hosting the odd sleepy RTÉ documentary... Read more »

COLM O’GORMAN’S LEGACY

July 28, 2022
GOLDHAWK’S favourite charity executive, Colm O’Gorman, is now settling in as a senior director at the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative. Given that it is... Read more »

HELEN MCENTEE’S CRITIC

July 28, 2022
JUSTICE MINISTER Helen McEntee came under fire this month when shutting down visa exemption rules for refugees travelling to Ireland from other European countries.... Read more »

GARRY O’SULLIVAN’S MAMMON

July 28, 2022
WHILE THE poor old print media has been under severe pressure in recent years as the digital giants like Google and Facebook hoover up... Read more »

AGRI-CATASTROPHE

July 28, 2022
Hysteria has this week been dialled up to 11 as the agri-industrial sector went into full scale panic mode in a last gasp effort... Read more »

SECRET DIPLOMAT’S KIDNAP FILES

July 28, 2022
FOREIGN AND Commonwealth Office (FCO) files have just been released which shed some light on the IRA kidnapping of Germany’s Consul in Belfast, Thomas... Read more »

NETFLIX’S NEW DRAMA

July 14, 2022
IT CAN be hard to escape the name of Ian Bailey these days after the gardaí reopened the infamous Sophie Toscan du Plantier case,... Read more »

SPOOKS DO FOR BORIS

July 14, 2022
HOW FASCINATING it is to note that two and more of the senior British civil servants that downed British PM, Boris Johnson, have links... Read more »

PETER FITZGERALD’S RANDOX TESTING BONANZA

July 14, 2022
LAST WEEK, the Advertising Standard Authority of Ireland (ASAI) issued its latest bulletin on complaints received over advertisements alleged to be misleading or offensive.... Read more »

NGI NEW BOARD

July 14, 2022
THE NATIONAL Gallery of Ireland (NGI) is looking for four new board members. Presumably, by the time they are in situ, we will know... Read more »

MARTIN SHANAHAN’S SURPRISE EXIT

July 14, 2022
THERE WAS plenty of praise for outgoing IDA Ireland boss Martin Shanahan, who surprised everyone by calling it a day at the state agency... Read more »

SOPHIE’S COLD CASE REVIEW

July 14, 2022
WHAT IS the real motivation behind the cold case review and reopening of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 26... Read more »

ISRAEL MONITORS THE IRISH

July 14, 2022
IN MARCH this year, Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, had a pop at Irish parliamentarians – during a UN... Read more »

IIEA NEW MANDARIN: DAVID O’SULLIVAN

July 14, 2022
THE NEW director general of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), David O’Sullivan, has been quick to use the institute’s favourite platform,... Read more »

MUTINOUS NOISES

July 14, 2022
THE MOST interesting thing about that internal, unpublished government Defence Forces report on the state of relations between the Defence Forces and the defence... Read more »

MARY AIKEN’S PALS

June 30, 2022
WITHOUT DOUBT, the most interesting of the women conferred with the freedom of Dublin City last month is Mary Aiken (whose latest gig is... Read more »

MALIGN MISSION

June 30, 2022
THE IRISH Times reported last week that the government is reconsidering its military mission in Mali, due mainly to security issues; human rights violations... Read more »

NOEL SMYTH’S WUFF RIDE

June 30, 2022
THIS WEEK will see the next chapter in the ongoing saga of a potential sale by the Irish Kennel Club (IKC) of its valuable... Read more »

PAUL WARD’S €15M JUDGMENT

June 30, 2022
THE HIGH Court has just awarded a hefty €15m judgment against cinema magnate Paul Ward as a result of a legal action taken by... Read more »

COLIN HUNT’S PRESIDENCY

June 30, 2022
THERE WERE eyebrows raised last week when it emerged that AIB’s Colin Hunt is to receive the Ireland-US Council’s 2022 Global Business Leadership award... Read more »

IN PRAISE OF GERALDINE BYRNE NASON

June 30, 2022
Quite a few diplomatic and political eyebrows were raised last week by the Business Post’s breathless account of how a civil servant, our woman... Read more »

WHY WAS DE RÓISTE FRAMED?

June 30, 2022
53 YEARS is a long time to wait for justice if you were forced to ‘retire’ and had your life ruined for no apparent... Read more »

FRANCES RUANE’S AUDITION

June 16, 2022
INTERESTING TO see that former ESRI director Frances Ruane resigned last month as a director of the registered company behind the Abbey Theatre. Her... Read more »

MARIA STEEN’S MAMMON

June 16, 2022
WITH A substantial pile on leafy Raglan Road on the market for an optimistic €5.2m (see p19), this could be a big year, property... Read more »

CONOR CLARKSONS TAX BILL

June 16, 2022
FORMER RACEHORSE owner Conor Clarkson has suffered something of a setback just as he returns to the track. The dreaded taxman has registered a... Read more »

MARTIN RULES OK!

June 16, 2022
AT 69 YEARS Willie O’Dea appears to be the only so-called dissident in Fianna Fáil with the energy and ability to stand up to... Read more »