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Hazel Chu

HAZEL CHU’S CUL-DE-SAC

Date: May 6, 2021 - Last Refuge

THE POINTED reference last weekend by Green councillor Claire Byrne to her status as “not a stranger” to the constituency was actually a dig at her party ‘colleague’ Hazel Chu, currently Dublin lord mayor and a rival for the Greens’ nomination at the Dublin Bay South byelection. Chu has only been politically active in Dublin… Read more »

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article-default

SHAUN MURPHY’S SNOOKERS

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

IRISH SPORTING heavyweights are rare enough these days and snooker supremo Shaun ‘the Magician’ Murphy has been claimed as an honorary Irishman. Earlier this week he narrowly lost out in the World Championships final at the Crucible but still landed a nice purse. It is not clear, however, where the Dublin-based potter puts his winnings…. Read more »

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Peter Vandermeersch

BELGIAN PETE SETS UP ‘INDO’ FACE-OFF

Date: May 6, 2021 - Fit to Print?

A KEEN rivalry has developed at Talbot Towers where editors of Mediahuis Ireland’s two main titles the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent – Cormac Bourke and Alan English, respectively – are now locked in competitive battle. This is natural and the fact that Bourke was pushed aside by new owners, Mediahuis, to make way for… Read more »

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GUNPLOT – RTÉ ONE

Date: May 6, 2021 - ReviewsTV

RTÉ HAS come to its ambitious Gunplot project bearing a horrendous burden of quisling-like reverence for the great political princes of the state. A good example was the head-down, backside-up coverage on Nationwide in 2017 of the centenary of Jack Lynch’s birth. In more recent times, as the world observed the shredding of Lynch’s reputation… Read more »

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Graham Spurling

GRAHAM SPURLING’S SCREENPLAY

Date: May 6, 2021 - Brief Cases

WITH CINEMAS having been rightly banjaxed by Covid-19, it is not surprising that there have been closures but Graham Spurling and his family look set to buck the trend, moving into the Tallaght multiplex vacated by giants Irish Multiple Cinemas (IMC). IMC Tallaght was one of the most high-profile casualties of the pandemic, shutting its… Read more »

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Macau Casino Club

FINBARR CORKERY’S BAD BETS

Date: May 6, 2021 - Brief Cases

GOLDHAWK SEES that one of the casino companies associated with his old pal, Cork-based Finbarr Corkery Jr, has been wound up. This should be a familiar feeling for him. Aungier Entertainment Ltd (AEL) was wound up at a creditors’ meeting on March 30, with John Healy of Kirby Healy installed as liquidator. Healy would be… Read more »

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Robert Watt

ROBERT WATT’S LOT

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

IF OPPOSITION politicians, the public and health service employees are aggrieved at the happy lot of mandarin extraordinaire Robert Watt, they can’t say they weren’t given due warning way back. Speaking to journalists at the MacGill Summer School seven years ago Watt, then secretary general of the department of public expenditure and reform, made clear… Read more »

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Mark O'Keefe

MARK O’KEEFFE’S TANGLES

Date: May 6, 2021 - High Society

DUBLIN STYLIST Mark O’Keeffe of Brown Sugar was given some space in the Sindo’s ‘Life’ magazine last month to hype up the hairdressing industry here and give himself a few pats on the back. There was no room, however, for any details about his failed… Read more »

George Lees

RTÉ AND ITS ‘COLD’ CLIMATE FORECAST

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE ARE, to say the least, some very mixed messages emanating from Montrose on climate change, a topic that has long been a problem child for the national broadcaster. Managing director of RTÉ News Jon Williams took to Twitter late last month to announce that the RTÉ website had added a ‘climate’ tab to its… Read more »

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Vol 39 No 09

Date: May 6, 2021 -

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Enda O’Coineen

ENDA O’COINEEN’S PARTNER

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

DOCUMENTS FILED in the Companies Office recently give an insight into the valuations attached to the Business Post, where flamboyant investor Enda O’Coineen rules the roost. The documents relate to share allotments. Last year a hefty €2m was invested by Dun Aengus Invest Unlimited, one of O’Coineen’s vehicles. He is not a director here himself… Read more »

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Eilis O'Hanlon

EOGHAN VS ÉILIS IN ‘SINDO’ BORDER SPLIT

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THE EFFORTS of Sunday Independent editor Alan English to soften the neo-unionist tone of the paper has caused convulsions within the camp. With the debate about a border poll hotting up, chief custodian of the old regime’s line on the north, Eoghan Harris, has failed to impose his line on all opinion formers and commentators… Read more »

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Gordon Elliott

GORDON ELLIOTT’S ALSO RANS

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

IT MAY have been just as well that Gordon Elliott wasn’t present in Punchestown last week when Willie Mullins was busy making hay. The Elliott team – currently under the stewardship of Denise ‘Sneezy’ Foster (who took the reins officially after that photo emerged) – had a miserable time, failing to pass the post first… Read more »

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Bertie Ahern

IRISH MEDDLE IN BRITISH POLITICS!

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

IN THE aftermath of the Scottish Independence and Brexit referendums there were calls by many British politicians for an investigation into Russian interference in both votes. Since then, an allegation has been made that an Irish political activist – accused of being a member of the ‘intelligence’ services – has also been involved in Brexit… Read more »

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article-default

VLAD’S THINK TANK CRITIC

Date: May 6, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

IT IS unusual to see the tánaiste responding to criticism by penning a letter to the Irish Times but that is exactly what Leo Varadkar did last month on foot of an article published by one Eoin Drea. It turns out the two boys have something in common. Drea’s piece in the IT the previous… Read more »

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letters to editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Date: May 6, 2021 - Letters to the Editor

SARAH McINERNEY ‘hitjob’ Dear Editor, I am disgusted and saddened by your misogynistic ‘hitjob’ on the journalist Sarah McInerney. You also managed to discredit and demean Mary Wilson, Claire Byrne and Miriam O’Callaghan in the same article. In a nutshell, you tried to reduce all of these highly accomplished, intelligent, articulate and popular women by… Read more »

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Caolan Robertson

IT’S A LONG WAY FROM KILKENNY

Date: May 6, 2021 - Hush Hush

WELL-TRAVELLED Kilkenny emigrant, young Caolan Robertson, has also had some interesting ideological journeys over the past decade as his recently launched media campaign explains. It has seen him interviewed by Cade Metz for the Irish Times, Sian Norris on Byline TV, Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk and Liveline’s Joe Duffy. Robertson acknowledges that he worked for… Read more »

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Jamie Dornan

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: May 6, 2021 - The Hot Air Brigade

And I think it’s easy to say this about work when you’re promoting it, that you’ve never read anything like it before, but I really hadn’t read anything like Wild Mountain Thyme before, and I think I speak for Emily [Blunt] when I say that too. Jamie Dornan on Wild Mountain Thyme, Irish Independent Gone… Read more »

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Edwin Poots

DUP EVANGELICALS RULE, OK?

Date: May 6, 2021 - Northwind

REGARDLESS OF whether it’s Edwin Poots or Jeffrey Donaldson who becomes DUP leader the result signifies a lurch backwards: the only difference between them is how far backwards. Donaldson is merely better at concealing his socially conservative, pro-Brexit, hardcore unionist sentiments than Poots. That’s why Donaldson is RTÉ’s favourite unionist. There’s no doubt Poots and… Read more »

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Kate O'Connell

KATE O’CONNELL COMEBACK?

Date: May 6, 2021 - Last Refuge

THERE IS a perception abroad that former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell is a busted flush and that any residual delusions of ministerial power or even a return to the Dáil backbenches that she once harboured had been consigned to the dustbin of history. The commonly held opinion is that Cllr James Geoghegan is a… Read more »

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Claire O'Connor

DUBLIN BAY SOUTH FF SHOOT-OUT

Date: May 6, 2021 - Last Refuge

THE REAL battle in the Dublin Bay South byelection will be the effort by Micheál Martin’s favoured candidate, barrister and councillor Claire O’Connor, to assert herself with a credible performance; especially as it will take place in the back yard of party leadership challenger Jim O’Callaghan TD. Winning the seat in DBS is out of… Read more »

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Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

BATTING FOR MOUNTBATTEN

Date: May 6, 2021 - Fit to Print?

MI5’S FAVOURITE newspaper, the Sunday Times, certainly confirmed its reputation recently with a story about Lord Mountbatten’s assassination, written by Andrew Lownie – author of The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves – shortly after the death of Prince Philip. The ST story, ‘Who really killed Mountbatten’, mentions various conspiracy theories about who was responsible and… Read more »

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Hans Kung

‘BACKWARD SECULARISM’

Date: May 6, 2021 - Fit to Print?

LETTERS TO the editors of the three main Irish newspapers from Brendan Butler, the well-known progressive Catholic activist, deploring their lack of coverage of the recent death of Hans Küng, the controversial Swiss theologian, went unpublished last month. Butler’s heartfelt tribute to Küng, who in earlier decades was the rebel hero of the Irish Catholic… Read more »

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Ciaran Fitzgerald

‘NATIONAL’ DAIRY COUNCIL’S PR FROTH

Date: May 6, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

IS IT a sign of growing confidence or blind panic that Ireland’s dairy industry has just unveiled yet another major marketing blitz to woo and reassure the increasingly wary public that its produce is wholesome and environmentally friendly? In 2017, the National Dairy Council (despite the official-sounding title, it is “a private, farmer-funded marketing agency”)… Read more »

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Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: May 6, 2021 - Bog Cuttings

‘KISS MY HOLE’ A young man who dropped his trousers on a snowy night, bared his backside to a garda and told him “you can kiss my hole” was told by Judge James Faughnan that he’d better have €500 with him the next time he appeared in court if he wanted to avoid going to… Read more »

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Wissam Al Mana and Janet Jackson

WISSAM’S GOOD PANDEMIC

Date: May 6, 2021 - High Society

QATARI MONEYBAGS Wissam Al Mana’s case against Facebook Ireland and a number of other defendants is back in the High Court next week. Meanwhile, Covid-19 turns out to have been good for one of his Irish businesses. Back in 2018, Al Mana’s name featured prominently in the celebrity gossip columns worldwide as a result of… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

JOHN MALONE’S BREEDING BILLS

Date: May 6, 2021 - High Society

THE BREEDING of thoroughbred horses is an expensive business, though this is not the sort of thing to concern the excruciatingly wealthy owner of Ballylinch Stud, ‘Cable Cowboy’ John Malone. The American billionaire picked up the stud in 2014, having also acquired Tony O’Reilly’s Castlemartin Stud. Malone retained Ballylinch operations manager John O’Connor to oversee… Read more »

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Catherine Martin

CATHERINE MARTIN’S COLLECTION

Date: May 6, 2021 - Behind the Scenes

THE ARTS minister Catherine Martin has added a “significant body of artworks” to the national collection, having allocated €1m to IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery to fund purchases directly for artists here. The moolah has been allocated to 70 artists; significantly, two-thirds are female. In total, 422 works have been acquired between IMMA and… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

ARTS COUNCIL TIGHTENS UP

Date: May 6, 2021 - Behind the Scenes

THE CHARITIES Regulatory Authority (CRA) has just published a notice relating to a move by the Arts Council to combine nine trust funds where it acts as trustee (having received bequests). This combining of trusts is known as a Cy-Pres scheme. In 2018 – the last year for which the Arts Council published an annual… Read more »

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Rock of ages

RO’CK OF AGES – ROSS O’CARROLL KELLY

Date: May 6, 2021 - BooksReviews

LAST MONTH, Paul Howard did a very clever thing. He beat his critics to the punch. In an article in the Irish Times, he wrote about his near quarter century of writing as Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, the fictional south Dublin rugby jock. The author chided himself over “a false beat” in a storyline from 2007, and… Read more »

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Amer Abdulaziz

ABDULAZIZ’S IRISH FRIENDS

Date: May 6, 2021 - Sport of Kings

THE CONTROVERSIAL Phoenix Thoroughbreds CEO Amer Abdulaziz has quite the neck and the Bahraini came out fighting again after the group saw all the prize money it earned in Australia frozen by the different racing authorities Down Under. Australia has been where Abdulaziz has pumped most of his cash over the past two years, following… Read more »

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MAHON’S HEAVY GOING

Date: May 6, 2021 - Sport of Kings

IT LOOKS like Stephen Mahon’s often turbulent career as a trainer may be coming to the final fence. Now based in Galway, it has been reported that the trainer has had his licence suspended by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) with immediate effect after a number of issues arose following an inspection at his… Read more »

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Regina Byrne

OWNERS ON THE OUTSIDE

Date: May 6, 2021 - Sport of Kings

WITH THE country gradually opening up, there seems to be only radio silence when it comes to the matter of getting racehorse owners back onto the racecourse. Having made a brief return to tracks last autumn, owners have since been confined to watching television when their horses run, unlike in Britain where up to six… Read more »

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Betting ring at the Curragh

PLACE YOUR BETS

Date: May 6, 2021 - Sport of Kings

WHEN THE pandemic recovery gets going, it is clear that some things may never return to the old ways. The betting landscape has already changed drastically in the past 10 years with both on-course bookmakers and the Tote struggling to maintain dwindling relevance and market share in a sector dominated online by a few betting… Read more »

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Rita Rose Gagne

HAMMERSON SHARES GROSSLY UNDERVALUED

Date: May 6, 2021 - Moneybags

THE GIANT British Hammerson retail property group – the largest such investor in Ireland, controlling the biggest shopping centre here (Dundrum Town Centre) – has been blitzed by the impact of the pandemic of closures on rent collections and increasingly jittery investors. The new management has adopted a predictably conservative debt reduction approach that will… Read more »

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Michael Carvill

KENMARE RESOURCES NOW A CASH MACHINE

Date: May 6, 2021 - Moneybags

THE NEW Sultan of Oman, Haitham Bin Tarik Al Said, must be pleased with Kenmare Resources, which was saved from going under in July 2016 when the State Reserve Fund of the Sultanate of Oman acted as the lead investor in a $255m equity raise for an effecting controlling 29% stake at €2.40 a share…. Read more »

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