Article Category: Affairs of the Nation

MICK O’LEARY’S OIL BILL

December 17, 2015
HOW IRONIC it was to see Mick O’Leary popping up at the annual Dublin Chamber of Commerce Christmas lunch last week claiming that Ryanair... Read more »

RUNNING RINGS AROUND DRINK BILL

December 17, 2015
ARE Fine Gael and sport minister Paschal Donohoe having a laugh with the minister’s recent statement that he was handing over responsibility for submissions... Read more »

ANN REIHILL’S REDUCED IMAGE

December 17, 2015
ALMOST FORTY years after the magazine first appeared, these are interesting times at Image Publications. There has been a complex restructuring of the shareholders... Read more »

ALAN KELLY’S PARIS EMISSIONS

December 17, 2015
“CRAZY” and “frankly not sane” were among the words used by Alan Kelly in Paris last week in relation to Ireland’s beef sector in... Read more »

‘MING’ FLANAGAN’S FACEBOOK POST

December 17, 2015
COMBATIVE MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is no slouch when it comes to a legal row and lodged High Court proceedings against The Irish Times... Read more »

MARY ROBINSON’S EXPENSIVE ARCHIVE

December 4, 2015
THE NEWS from the west of Ireland last week was that the Mary Robinson Centre (MRC) in Ballina is set to open in 2017.... Read more »

FIONA’S FOOT IN THE DOOR

December 4, 2015
ONE Dáil candidate who cannot be described as a token female selected to fulfill the gender quota is Fine Gael’s Fiona McLoughlin Healy in... Read more »

Exotic Alliance adds another specimen

December 4, 2015
LORD Ross’s Independent Alliance becomes more exotic and eclectic by the hour and the latest target for his parliamentary grouping is Sinn Féin TD,... Read more »

Henderson’s Ham-Fisted HR Hiccup

December 4, 2015
EVEN though the Irish Daily Mail’s flamboyant MD Paul Henderson hasn’t previously been shy about putting journalists’ noses out of joint, it appears that... Read more »

BANG BOYS GO BUST

December 4, 2015
A LITTLE late in the day, the Taxman has registered a judgment of €236,000 against ‘delinquent director’ Simon Stokes, whose restaurateur family previously ran... Read more »

VARADKAR’S ABORTIVE MOVES

December 4, 2015
WHAT an unusually moderate and discreet stance Leo Varadkar took during Fine Gael’s abortion row last week. That row was triggered by James Reilly’s... Read more »

DERMOT DESMOND’S BAD BET

December 4, 2015
DERMOT DESMOND is digging in his heels in an attempt to stymie the proposed merger of betting giants Ladbrokes and GalaCoral. Behind his public... Read more »

DAVID AGAR’S SEMI-D

December 4, 2015
  THINGS are looking bleak for poor David Agar, the auctioneer and property developer who hit the headlines following a prescient interview in 2012,... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S ‘NO’ TO GOVERNMENT

December 4, 2015
THAT disavowal of coalition government by Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher is as devious as it is amusing. FF talking about rebuilding the party from... Read more »

JUDICIOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS

November 20, 2015
ONE of the things that the eagerly awaited Judicial Council – which has been long-fingered by successive governments – may wish to consider is... Read more »

MAHON TRIBUNAL’S TANGLED WEB

November 20, 2015
GOOD to see the media catching up with developments in the Mahon Tribunal (see The Phoenix 23/10/15 and passim), but it’s high time environment... Read more »

DAVID DAVIES’ GEORGIAN CREDENTIALS

November 20, 2015
GOLDHAWK understands that the next president of the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) is set to be the super wealthy David Davies, a Welsh moneybags... Read more »

BRENDA POWER FOR DPP AGAIN?

November 20, 2015
SUNDAY TIMES columnist Brenda Power distinguished herself last month with a searching analysis of Travellers in the aftermath of the Carrickmines fire tragedy that... Read more »

HUGH LEWIS’S ALLEGATIONS

November 20, 2015
THERE WERE frantic scenes at Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (DLR) Council last month, when a heated debate on alterations to the Draft Development Plan featured... Read more »

COVENEY’S MILITARY SPENDING PLANS

November 20, 2015
DEFENCE minister Simon Coveney gave little away in answer to a parliament question about the protection of Irish sovereign airspace from foreign aircraft put... Read more »

Madigan’s Steamy Briefs

November 12, 2015
FINE GAEL councillor and general election candidate Josepha Madigan has a knack of generating publicity, good and bad. The recent halting site tragedy involving... Read more »

REBALANCING MICHAEL DWYER

November 6, 2015
ALTHOUGH the story has not been receiving much media attention of late, RTÉ opted to broadcast a new documentary on the subject of the... Read more »

DERMOT BANNON’S COURT DATE

November 6, 2015
DUBLIN architect Dermot Bannon has made a name for himself through the RTÉ programme, Room to Improve, in which the affable architect helps punters... Read more »

BAILING OUT LELIA DOOLAN

November 6, 2015
FOLLOWING a meeting of Galway City Council earlier this month, the expensive end credits are now rolling for Lelia Doolan’s ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’... Read more »

SF AND FF IN GOVERNMENT?

November 6, 2015
THE notion that Sinn Féin would form a coalition government with Fianna Fail was raised this week in the book, Power Play: The Rise... Read more »

DERMOT DESMOND’S DATA DISCRETION

November 5, 2015
IS there no limit to the financial and legal resources that billionaires like Denis O’Brien and Dermot Desmond will expend to battle those sections... Read more »

ISRAELI ARMY START-UPS

November 5, 2015
THE new Dublin Startup Commissioner is get-up-and-go-girl, Niamh Bushnell, who has been getting a lot of airtime recently on RTÉ, Newstalk and so on.... Read more »

JOHN McCANN’S “ASTUTE” PURCHASE

November 5, 2015
THERE WAS plenty of focus last week on Tom O’Gorman’s audacious plan to ‘flip’ the sprawling Kilcooley estate in Co Tipperary for €8m, having... Read more »

DENIS O’BRIEN IN CRISIS?

November 5, 2015
HAS Denis O’Brien completely lost it? Launching a lightning legal assault against a relatively inconsequential PR and lobbying consultancy, following on from his efforts... Read more »