Article Category: Affairs of the Nation

THE CONTINUITY UVF

September 21, 2017

WHAT’S to become of loyalist terrorist groups? They haven’t gone away you know. On the other hand, while they have lost their self-appointed... Read more »

Ross v Fine Gael

September 21, 2017

SHANE ROSS cannot decide whether he was blind sided by justice minister, Charlie Flanagan, justice officials or both by the inclusion in the... Read more »

WHITE HELMETS GET TIPP AWARD

September 21, 2017

MINISTER for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, was effusive in his recent congrats to the White Helmets, recipients of the Tipperary Peace Award, remarking... Read more »

Sarah Carey’s prescience

September 21, 2017

THE mystery of broadcaster Sarah Carey’s absence from Newstalk has been solved. Her transgression was to warn station management and owner Denis O’Brien... Read more »

LEO VARADKAR’S PR DANGER

September 7, 2017

WITH exquisite irony Leo Varadkar has managed to turn a concerted PR initiative into a PR disaster with the distinct image now emerging... Read more »

Pearse Phelan’s prescription

September 7, 2017

THE LIQUIDATION of the Fitzwilliam Private Clinic Ltd has just been completed and it turns out there is not a cent for the... Read more »

Niall O’Connor’s political bombshell

September 7, 2017

JUNIOR finance minister Patrick O’Donovan is still wiping egg off his face after his blunder in naming the IRA as perpetrators of the... Read more »

TOUGH LESSONS FOR TEACHING COUNCIL

September 7, 2017

FUN AND GAMES at the Teaching Council of Ireland (TCI) where the chief executive’s reappointment has caused ructions and has led to the... Read more »

FINE GAEL’S TRANSPARENCY ROW

September 7, 2017

THE Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has launched an inquiry into the procurement of contracts at the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training... Read more »

The Yeats Family Collection

September 7, 2017

NEXT WEEK, over 200 items from the Yeats Family Collection will go on display at Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin before being shipped... Read more »

Green Light for Robbo’s Shrine?

August 24, 2017

Mary Robinson NEXT MONTH could well see the go-ahead given by Mayo County Council for the multi-million euro Mary Robinson Centre (MRC) in... Read more »

Hanging Out Pat Carey

August 24, 2017

Pat Carey THE smearing of garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe has resulted in Judge Peter Charleton’s Commission of Investigation into the alleged behaviour of... Read more »

‘Vexatious’ Lay Litigants

August 24, 2017

The High Court THE legal establishment will be pleased with the crack down on lay or non-legal advisers who have become a feature... Read more »

Trina Vargo’s Hard Lesson

August 24, 2017

Trina Vargo TRINA VARGO, the bolshy founder and face of the US-Ireland Alliance (USIA), was throwing her weight around last week in light... Read more »

Leslie Buckley’s Big Day

August 24, 2017

Leslie Buckley THIS WEEK’S annual general meeting of Independent News & Media (INM) should be a sell-out affair but, unlike the McGregor-Mayweather bout,... Read more »

John Butler Yeats On The Block

August 24, 2017

John Butler Yeats WHAT AN inglorious fate for the self-portrait of John Butler Yeats, which he himself called his masterpiece, than to be... Read more »

Leo Varadkar’s Foreign Strategy

August 24, 2017

Leo Varadkar LEO VARADKAR’S intention to double Ireland’s international presence is only one part of the Taoiseach’s plan to involve Ireland in global... Read more »

They’re all against Myers… now

August 10, 2017

Kevin Myers THERE are multiple ironies in the reaction to Kevin Myers’s self immolation, not the least being that his offending article –... Read more »

Breon Corcoran’s next move?

August 10, 2017

Breon Corcoran THE NEWS that Breon Corcoran is exiting Paddy Power-Beftair has shocked the market and pushed the shares down. But in truth,... Read more »

WICKLOW COUNCIL’S ‘DISASTER FOR ALL’

August 10, 2017

Eddie Sheehy LITIGIOUS and financial exhaustion seems likely to see Wicklow County Council hoist the white flag following a High Court finding in... Read more »

LEO AND FINIAN LOVE-IN

August 10, 2017

Finian McGrath FINIAN McGRATH’S paean of praise this week for his new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was not delivered without motive and the super... Read more »

ED WALSH BIFFS BIFFO

August 10, 2017

Ed Walsh ED WALSH, former University of Limerick (UL) president, indulged in a spot of score settling with the return of his honorary... Read more »

DOCTOR In THE HOUSE

August 10, 2017

Thornhill THINGS haven’t gone so well for US import Dr Gerald Stephens who late last month lost an appeal against a 2015 High... Read more »

LUCINDA’S LUCRATIVE GIG

August 10, 2017

Lucinda Creighton LUCINDA CREIGHTON hasn’t gone away you know. In her latest guise as an EU consultant, the former Fine Gael Minister of... Read more »

Neutrality Ban

August 10, 2017

PRESIDENT of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Brendan Halligan, was recently given space in The Irish Times for yet another... Read more »

OPERATION SOPHISTRY AND NEUTRALITY

July 27, 2017

Paul Kehoe AS cynical political manoeuvres go, the government’s co-option of Ireland’s defence forces into Operation Sophia – touchingly named after a baby... Read more »

TRINA VARGO’S VENGANCE

July 27, 2017

Trina Vargo “MY EXPERIENCES with the Irish Film Board (IFB) are kind of like James Comey’s experiences with President Trump – I’ve learned... Read more »

Plutocrats’ Pow-Wow

July 27, 2017

Dermot Desmond MORE ON that strange plutocrats’ pow-wow at Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel last month, when Rupert Murdoch was in town for the launch... Read more »

QUINN NOW HEADS EURO QUANGO

July 27, 2017

Ruairi Quinn CHAIRMAN of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Brendan Halligan (81), has moved aside and has been bestowed with... Read more »

FF’s Friendly Faces

July 27, 2017

Lisa Chambers THERE have been silly season rumblings against FF’s communications director, Pat McParland. A particular grievance is the selection by McParland, guided... Read more »

KIERAN MULVEY’S FANCY FOOTWORK

July 27, 2017

Kieran Mulvey A RULING by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that the Irish governing body for tennis – Tennis Ireland (TI) – discriminated... Read more »

THE CASE AGAINST DPP CLAIRE LOFTUS

July 27, 2017

Claire Loftus SPARE A thought for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Claire Loftus, who finds herself targeted publicly in a way her... Read more »

VARADKAR AND THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL

July 13, 2017

THE unhealthy politicisation of the office of attorney general has been a hallmark of Fine Gael in government since 2011. And Leo Varadkar... Read more »

TROUBLE BREWING

July 13, 2017

HOW EMBARRASSING that the auditors of the company behind a state-backed craft brewery have found that it had contravened assorted Companies Act regulations... Read more »

PATRICK O’SULLIVAN V RICHARD CONROY

July 13, 2017

NEXT MONTH well known exploration entrepreneur Richard Conroy, executive chairman of Conroy Gold and Natural Resources, will go head to head with a... Read more »