Behind the Scenes Archives - The Phoenix Magazine

Behind the Scenes

LEO’S HOLLYWOOD LUVVIETHON

October 16, 2019
WITH LAST month’s coast-to-coast luvviethon in the US – which saw Leo Varadkar hobnobbing with Jimmy Fallon and NBC/Universal in New York and then... Read more »

LABHRÁS Ó MURCHÚ’S NARROW ESCAPE

October 16, 2019
ALTHOUGH MINISTER for Culture Josepha Madigan was happy to boast after the Budget of a €5m hike in funding to €80m for the Arts... Read more »

TAXING MATTERS AT VISUAL IN CARLOW

October 16, 2019
WHAT ON earth is going on at VISUAL, the multi-million euro contemporary arts centre in Carlow? The board has lost eight directors and there... Read more »

THE ABBEY’S CASTING CHALLENGE

October 3, 2019
STILL NO sign of a new board member at the Abbey Theatre, where there is a vacancy for someone who knows how to write... Read more »

BROWN BAG FIGURES

October 3, 2019
CONGRATULATIONS to Brown Bag studios founder Cathal Gaffney, who is in the middle of a purple patch. Figures just filed by a company called... Read more »

GOOD TIMES AT THE GATE

September 19, 2019
THERE HAS been a cast change at the Abbey where its head of producing, Sarah Lynch, has decided to exit stage left after barely... Read more »

RUTH MCGOWAN’S SPONSOR

September 19, 2019
WHILE THE Dublin Theatre Festival is yet to kick off, Ruth McGowan’s Dublin Fringe Festival is just winding up its 25th hooley. She will... Read more »

JOHN CRONIN’S NEW ROLE

September 19, 2019
THERE IS a new cast member at the Dublin Theatre Festival (which kicks off next week) in the form of high-flying legal eagle John... Read more »

JOSEPHA’S FAMOUS FIVE

September 5, 2019
LAST WEEK, culture minister Josepha Madigan announced the first €20,000-a-head winners of the Markievicz Awards – the minister’s new bursary scheme to commemorate the... Read more »

BREXIT’S NO-DEAL HORROR PLOT

September 5, 2019
THE LIKELY ‘no-deal’ Brexit scenario is a horror plot for the Irish film and TV industry, since a high proportion of the players depend... Read more »

ARTS COUNCIL VACANCIES

September 5, 2019
MINISTER FOR Culture Josepha Madigan is finally to get around to filling those empty Arts Council seats, given that the closing date for applications... Read more »

EUGENE DOWNES’S LOW-HANGING FRUIT

August 22, 2019
WITH THE 2019 Kilkenny Arts Festival (KAF) having just finished, it was the first outing for the new director, Olga Barry. Her predecessor, Eugene... Read more »

ADDING UP AT KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL

August 22, 2019
THE 2017 loss at the Kilkenny Arts Festival (KAF) led to a number of steps being taken to bring the festival back into the... Read more »

KEEPING UP WITH JOHN McDONOUGH

August 8, 2019
INFORMATION is fairly thin on the ground at the Department of Culture when it comes to discussing the filling of the €100,000 pa approx... Read more »

JOHN HEDIGAN’S REPORT

August 8, 2019
WITH A new Director soon to head up the National Archives of Ireland, it is to be hoped that whoever does land the five-year... Read more »

O’DONOGHUE DELIVERS FIRST REPORT

July 25, 2019
THE CASH-STRAPPED Irish Heritage Trust (IHT) is advertising for a general manager at one of the handful of properties for which it is responsible... Read more »

NGI SEEKS NEW FACES

July 25, 2019
TWO SEATS on the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) board are up for grabs and would-be directors have until August 15 to apply for... Read more »

JOSEPHA MADIGAN’S UPLIFTING TIMES

July 25, 2019
JUST AS culture minister Josepha Madigan was emerging unscathed from swing-gate, a happy distraction arrived in the form of a nihil obstat from the... Read more »

EUGENE DOWNES’S NEW GIG

July 11, 2019
GOOD NEWS for fans of Irish cultural promotion abroad. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has finally offered the new position of... Read more »

SHARON ALSTON’S ANIMAL CHARITY

July 11, 2019
THE MUSIC festivals just keep coming and there is now fierce competition for music fans’ moolah. While Electric Picnic is still going strong, other... Read more »

BRENDAN HALLIGAN’S CHINESE FRIENDS

July 11, 2019
THE RECENT debut of the China Ireland International Film Festival – which took place at assorted Dublin cinemas as well as the UCD Confucius... Read more »

KEVIN RAFTER’S BAPTISM

June 27, 2019
LAST WEEK, the new chair of the Arts Council, Kevin Rafter, oversaw his first meeting of the board – a bruising two-day annual session... Read more »

SCREEN IRELAND’S DISTRIBUTORS

June 27, 2019
FINANCIAL hand-outs in Screen Ireland’s 2017 annual report will no doubt be of interest to incoming boss Désirée Finnegan, who replaces James Hickey. Distribution... Read more »

JENNIFER ZAMPARELLI’S REVIEW

June 12, 2019
THE NEW look 2FM has been attracting mixed reviews following its makeover, but one of the players, former Breakfast Republic co-presenter Jennifer Zamparelli, might... Read more »

KATIE HOLLY’S IMPRESSIVE CUT

June 12, 2019
IS THERE any state agency, aside Screen Ireland (chaired by Annie Doona), where some 8% of its ‘loan’ budget is mopped up by interests... Read more »

PETER AIKEN’S CHARGE

June 12, 2019
WITH THE musical festival season in full flow post-Slane, the focus now moves to other big shindigs such as Electric Picnic, Body and Soul,... Read more »

SHARON HORGAN’S LATEST PAYDAY

May 29, 2019
AS THE annual Cannes film junket (which featured a rare Irish success) came to a close on Sunday, it coincided with the arrival of... Read more »

PAT MOYLAN’S GRANT

May 29, 2019
CONGRATULATIONS to former Arts Council chair Pat Moylan who is again to tour her smash hit show, Angela’s Ashes The Musical, two years after... Read more »

SELINA CARTMELL’S OLD SHOWS

May 29, 2019
NEXT WEEK sees the return to the Gate of the hit show at the northside theatre, Roddy Doyle’s The Snapper. Given it had a... Read more »

RTÉ’S COMPLIANCE CONCERNS

May 16, 2019
FANS OF Irish daytime TV will be familiar with Today with Maura and Daithí, fronted by the dream team of Maura Derrane and Daithí... Read more »

SARAH DURCAN’S NOMINATION

May 16, 2019
GOLDHAWK was recently perusing the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Abbey Theatre and spied a regulation that could be interpreted to cause... Read more »

SARAH DILLON’S €2M FUND

May 16, 2019
FANS OF Goldhawk will be aware of the Western Region Audiovisual Producers (WRAP) Fund thanks to the nascent body’s first funding decision – €200,000... Read more »

KEVIN RAFTER’S CV

May 2, 2019
NOT TOO late in the day, Blueshirt Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan has appointed Kevin Rafter as Sheila Pratschke’s replacement in the chair of... Read more »

BILL SHIPSEY’S AMNESTY

May 2, 2019
GOOD NEWS for top barrister Bill Shipsey, whose Art for Amnesty (AfA) vehicle has been restored to the Companies Register, seven months after it... Read more »

NEIL JORDAN’S ‘LUDICROUS THRILLER’

May 2, 2019
NEIL JORDAN’S latest opus, Greta, opened to predictably ‘mixed’ reviews over the Easter weekend. The Financial Times’s opening salvo referred to the “ludicrous thriller”... Read more »

ABBEY BOARD’S SCRIPT

April 18, 2019
GOLDHAWK was interested to know how the Abbey board reacted to last year’s decision by the Arts Council to withhold a chunk of funding... Read more »