Behind the Scenes Archives - The Phoenix Magazine

Behind the Scenes

WAITING AT IMMA

June 30, 2022
BRIAN MACCRAITH was highly critical of the delay by the minister for media etc, etc, Catherine Martin, in publishing the Future of Media Commission... Read more »

BRIAN MERRIMAN’S GOOD NEWS

June 30, 2022
CONTRATULATIONS ARE in order for Brian Merriman and his crew at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF), who clearly have been receiving rather... Read more »

STANLEY’S DIVIDENDS

June 16, 2022
THIS WEEKEND sees the return of the Body & Soul festival at Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, which, according to the Irish Times, provides “the... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S DELAYED RELEASE

June 16, 2022
FANS OF Goldhawk will recall that Désirée Finnegan’s Screen Ireland had quietly commissioned a €75,000 ‘inaugural’ report into the cultural impact of the Section... Read more »

BRIAN MERRIMAN’S BAD REVIEW

June 2, 2022
THE REJECTION by the Arts Council appeals panel of a funding application from Brian Merriman’s International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF) probably came as... Read more »

CATHERINE MARTIN’S LA STORY

June 2, 2022
PRESUMABLY Leo Varadkar et al were envious of Catherine Martin’s recent LA junket, the purpose of which would have been to reassure the moguls... Read more »

NETFLIX’S LOBBYING

May 19, 2022
IT IS something of a paradox that, under legislation intended to bolster local and European culture against globalised mass media, the Irish taxpayer shells... Read more »

ANDREW NOONAN’S NEW MENU

May 19, 2022
AMONG THE number of festivals lined up for a presumably pandemic-free 2022 is the music/food mishmash that is the Big Grill Festival, now an... Read more »

CECELIA’S REVIEWS

May 5, 2022
IT HAS been a busy few weeks for scribbler Cecelia Ahern, whose short story collection, Roar, has been adapted for Apple TV+. Not everybody... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S CARBON CALCULATOR

May 5, 2022
DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S Screen Ireland is developing something of an addiction to policy papers. Earlier this year, it told Goldhawk that its report on the... Read more »

WRITERS CENTRE’S WINNING PLOT

April 20, 2022
NEXT WEEK sees the launch (online, natch) by the Irish Writers Centre (IWC) of the 2023 Novel Fair, which promises to introduce 12 lucky... Read more »

LUVVIES ARE REVOLTING

April 18, 2022
THE BOLSHY spear carriers at Irish Equity, the union representing assorted luvvies, clearly boosted by Gerry O’Brien sharing his contract from 1984 for a... Read more »

KIERAN’S CORRIGAN’S NAN

April 7, 2022
BACK IN 2019 Catherine Tate’s The Nan Movie was shot in Ireland with Goldhawk’s old pal Kieran Corrigan handling the €1m-€2m tax credit bounty... Read more »

PAT KIELY’S BIG DEAL

April 7, 2022
CONGRATULATIONS ARE in order for ex-Virgin Media television boss Pat Kiely, whose decision to go it alone is paying off. Kiely is a well-known... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE’S TOP-UPS

March 24, 2022
SCREEN IRELAND (SI) funding offers in the last quarter of 2021 are curiously low rent compared with previous awards. Presumably, the state agency, headed up... Read more »

CLOSING DATE FOR NCAD CHAIR

March 24, 2022
THIS WEEK sees the closing date for a vacancy on the board of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), with the successful... Read more »

MCD’S RIGHT NOTES

March 10, 2022
LAST MONTH concert promoter extraordinaire Denis Desmond announced that it was “great to be back open”, promising to sell around 1.7 million tickets this... Read more »

GERRY O’BRIEN’S GRIPES

March 10, 2022
THE ACTORS keep threatening to act up as evidenced by a cross border union initiative this week. Whether a predictable ending is in store... Read more »

JIMMY CARR’S TIMING

February 24, 2022
THE ARTS Council may be wondering if it is a case of when rather than if it will be dragged into the increasingly febrile... Read more »

RAINBIRD’S SUCCESSOR?

February 10, 2022
FANS OF Goldhawk will not be surprised to see that arts minister Catherine Martin continues to allow the board of the National Gallery of... Read more »

DÉSIRÉE’S ‘DIVIDEND’

February 10, 2022
IT IS 30 years since Michael Twee Higgins launched the film and TV tax break, now known as Section 481. The scheme is supposedly... Read more »

COLM TÓIBÍN GETS THE GIG

January 27, 2022
THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the Arts Council of scribbler Colm Tóibín as the new Laureate for Irish Fiction is unlikely to surprise too many people... Read more »

GER CONNOLLY’S HEADACHE

January 27, 2022
THERE WAS a bit of a plot twist for Ger Connolly, director of the Irish Film Classification Office, whose operation has suffered an income... Read more »

ABBEY’S ‘NEW’ CAST

January 13, 2022
THE ABBEY Theatre has started the new year with its board no longer limping along on one leg, thanks to some late-in-the-day appointments immediately... Read more »

CULTURAL DIVIDENDS

January 13, 2022
JUST A week before Christmas, Screen Ireland (SI) announced that three new “regional film and TV crew hubs” were joining a new “national talent... Read more »

DECLAN MCGONAGLE’S NEW SEAT

December 16, 2021
THERE IS a new face on the board of the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, where fresh blood has been in short supply in recent... Read more »

GALWAY’S CREW HQ

December 16, 2021
THE FORMER Redemptorist monastery Cluain Mhuire is Galway Mayo Institute of Technology’s (GMIT) campus closest to the centre of Galway. It is due for... Read more »

NATIONAL GALLERY GLITCH

December 2, 2021
IT LOOKS like, surprise, surprise, there will be a bunch of empty seats at the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) board meetings, as the... Read more »

LARRY BASS’S GOOD NEWS

December 2, 2021
SCREEN IRELAND’S third quarter ‘loans’ for producers popped up online last week and one of the winners is Larry Bass, who exited the RTÉ... Read more »

FILLING THE ARTS COUNCIL

November 18, 2021
WITH THE terms about to expire for half a dozen members of the Arts Council, minister Catherine Martin will be preparing to unveil the... Read more »

CECELIA’S COMPANIES

November 18, 2021
SUPER SCRIBBLER Cecelia Ahern is set to make yet more dosh, with Nicole Kidman having signed up to produce a TV series based on... Read more »

ANNUAL 2021: BEHIND THE SCENES – 2021: MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

November 18, 2021
THE SECOND year of the pandemic brought its own problems to the arts and culture sectors but money was not one of them. Truckloads... Read more »

THE ABBEY’S CASTING CALL

November 4, 2021
THE ABBEY Theatre has advertised to fill no less than four vacancies on its depleted board. One of those who might consider throwing in... Read more »

CATHERINE TATE’S TAX BREAK

November 4, 2021
ONE OF the more venerable companies to benefit recently from the latest round of the lucrative Section 481 tax break for film and TV... Read more »

LIR’S ROONEY BOUNCE

October 21, 2021
WHILE NOVELIST Sally Rooney has been generating headlines over her stance on Israel, her influence is also being felt in Trinity College Dublin, where... Read more »

SUSAN BERGIN’S STRATEGY

October 21, 2021
WHEN SCREEN Ireland (SI)chair Susan Bergin and chief executive Desiree Finnegan launched the agency’s strategy, ‘Building for a Creative Future 2024’ earlier this month,... Read more »