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VOL 43 NO 05

Date: March 6, 2025 -

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OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR!

Date: March 6, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK CANNOT recall any political campaign more hysterical, ill-informed and downright dishonest than that which in recent years has sought to drag Ireland into a hugely expensive and highly dangerous scenario. This would also bury our reputable tradition of non-aligned neutrality. Normally grounded Irish journalists and academics have aped the war hysteria engulfing London, Bonn… Read more »

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A DOG’S LIFE

Date: March 6, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

THE TIMING of last week’s High Court win for the six animal charities that have opposed the ban on the dangerous XL bully breed of dog could hardly have been worse, given a tragic death just 24 hours earlier across the Irish Sea. Having obtained an initial temporary stay on the seizure and euthanasia of… Read more »

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LARA MARLOWE’S MESSAGE

Date: March 6, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

LARA MARLOWE is the doyen of Irish foreign correspondents so her utterances on world matters of the moment must be taken seriously, yes? In a column in last Saturday’s Irish Times, she gave credence to the claim that the KGB recruited Donald Trump in 1987. She added: “No evidence was offered for the allegation but… Read more »

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IRELAND’S MEGA CLIMATE DEBT

Date: March 6, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

This week’s bombshell report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) shows Ireland to be the worst-performing EU country per capita in terms of emissions reductions. The state now faces up to €26bn in EU fines for failing to meet our mandated targets. This is potentially double the entire massive Apple tax windfall and amounts… Read more »

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JAMES BROWNE’S KILLARNEY HOUSE

Date: March 6, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

THE NEWLY appointed housing and heritage minister, James Browne, has bigger fish to fry but there are begrudging noises coming from Killarney with the appointment of Shane Treacy – son of Marcus Treacy, Killarney accountant and a member of the town’s leading hotel families – to the top management job at Muckross House, where last… Read more »

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MI5/6 AND THE DUB-MON BOMBS

Date: March 6, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

DESPITE GOVERNMENT pledges to assist the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, two UK-based inquiries into the UVF’s Glenanne gang – Operation Denton and that of the Police Ombudsman NI – are still waiting for the Irish Government to hand over files that the gardaí hold on them. The Glenanne gang carried out the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan (D-M) bomb… Read more »

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THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: March 6, 2025 - The Hot Air Brigade

I’m lucky enough to have a job in a workplace that prizes flexibility and understands that its employees are humans, with full lives and obligations beyond the workload. Tanya Sweeney, on the challenges for working women, makes an exception for her wonderful employers, Mediahuis, Irish Independent A party. I can’t say that… I was approached…. Read more »

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CLIMATE: NEW ERA

Date: March 6, 2025 - Fowl Emissions

WITH COLOSSAL EU fines of €26bn coming down the tracks, it is at least comforting to look across the Atlantic at Elon Musk’s maniacal assault on government and to give thanks that profit-hungry tech billionaires aren’t dictating national policy over here. Or are they? The capture of Ireland’s state agencies and advisory bodies by Big… Read more »

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Climate Disinformation Coillte Climate Action EU Livestock NDC Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

JOHN WILSON’S TOAST

Date: March 6, 2025 - Fowl Emissions

In 2019 Leo Varadkar was rightly mocked for saying climate change had “benefits” as well as “downsides”. An early contender for this year’s Varadkar Award for a Glass-half-full Approach to Climate Change is Irish Times wine critic John Wilson. Under the headline “Could climate change see wine being produced in Ireland?”, Wilson brought us the… Read more »

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PARAMILITARIES RULE OK?

Date: March 6, 2025 - Northwind

The north’s Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) published its seventh report on February 25. It said the same as it has done every year since Dublin and London set it up in 2017 to monitor paramilitaries. “Paramilitary groups continue to exist and exert coercive control over some communities… including intimidation, financial extortion, sexual exploitation.” Everyone knows… Read more »

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CATHAL CROWE’S STEPPING STONE

Date: March 6, 2025 - Last Refuge

WHAT A dramatic speech, full of resonance with modern Irish history, Clare Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe made last week during a Dáil session to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Crowe described how “800 years of invading forces and plantations” was followed by the War of Independence, civil war and creation… Read more »

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IRON LADY’S GAME PLAN

Date: March 6, 2025 - Last Refuge

IRISH TIMES diarist Miriam Lord must have good sources in the health department or perhaps in health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s retinue. Last week Lord wrote in some detail about Thatcher MacNeill’s visits, past and present, to various hospitals around the country – some of them unannounced. The article also told how Independent Ireland TD… Read more »

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Janice Boylan Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

NASON BYRNE’S DIPLOMATIC GAFFE

Date: March 6, 2025 - Last Refuge

A RECENT Sunday Times article on Alex Nason, son of top Irish diplomat Geraldine Byrne Nason – Irish ambassador to Washington – debated the pros and cons of young Nason’s strong political ties and activism on behalf of the Democrats. The newspaper did this from the viewpoint of Irish diplomacy and in particular Nason Byrne’s… Read more »

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MARTIN’S NON-NORTHERN POLICY

Date: March 6, 2025 - Last Refuge

THE SPLENDIDLY titled Ireland and Britain editor of the Irish Times, Mark Hennessy, told readers last November that Irish unity would occupy much greater attention from politicians in the new Dáil. Writing under the headline, “Irish unity quietly becoming more significant for Dáil parties”, Hennessy wrote that “voters are not talking about it, but it’s… Read more »

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GLOBAL TITLES FIGHT

Date: March 6, 2025 - Fit to Print?

THE HEAVYWEIGHT title contest between various media combatants will take place in London next month at the 2025 Newspaper Awards – open to UK and Irish print titles – and Mediahuis management, CEO Peter Vandermeersch in particular, will see this as a return bout after some disappointing verdicts in past contests. So vexed was Vandermeersch… Read more »

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Ivan Yates Nell McCafferty RTÉ Lord Laird Intro Matchmaking NewsBrands Martin McGuinness Dún Laoghaire Pat Leahy Cormac Lucey John Cooney Irish Journalism Awards Steve Aiken Anton Savage John Downing Lucinda Creighton Marina Sologub Eilis O'Hanlon Ian Kehoe Danny McConnell Sindo O'Connor Mediahuis Stephen Collins Book Justine McCarthy Rewriting the Troubles Lynn Ruane Sinn Féin

GARY MURPHY’S HISTORY LESSON

Date: March 6, 2025 - Fit to Print?

AMIDST AN avalanche of war cries from otherwise sober columnists and academics about the need for Ireland to tool up and join the big boys in EU rearmament, some pretty ludicrous rhetoric has been disgorged. One stand-out comment was the derision heaped on Irish neutrality by the eminent DCU professor of politics, Gary Murphy, who… Read more »

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BOG CUTTINGS

Date: March 6, 2025 - Bog Cuttings

REPEAT DEMANDS Drogheda District Court heard the case of a woman who was twice found drunk and disorderly in Drogheda last year. Sergeant John O’Hehir told the court that on April 1 gardaÍ encountered a visibly intoxicated Caroline McDonagh, of Bride Street, Dundalk, on Shop Street, Drogheda. When the officers approached, the 47-year-old defendant became… Read more »

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PAMPERED POOCHES

Date: March 6, 2025 - High Society

IT TURNS out that some people spend an eye-watering amount of money on their pets these days, including, for example, €9,000 to have your dog sit alongside you when travelling on UK-based K9 Jets. Closer to home, one of those who has targeted this burgeoning market is Coralee Freeney, who in 2022 founded The Paw… Read more »

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SLEVOIR’S LOW-KEY OWNERS

Date: March 6, 2025 - High Society

A RECENT update to the Land Registry records show that the impressive listed Slevoir House near Terryglass, Co Tipperary – which featured on Selling Ireland’s Dream Homes on RTÉ 2 back in December 2022 – was purchased by low-profile couple Robert and Scharleen Ramsden. The UK-based new owners are well known in equestrian circles and… Read more »

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ACTING THE MAGGOT

Date: March 6, 2025 - Behind the Scenes

AS ALWAYS, the Oscars garnered plenty of media attention for the stars and producers but on this side of the Atlantic, at least, there was little to be said about the unfair remuneration policies so often applied to performers. There has been something of a plot twist, however, although just how significant remains unclear. For… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

SCANNER? WHAT SCANNER?

Date: March 6, 2025 - Behind the Scenes

GOLDHAWK IS struck by the way the annual reports of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) – like those of the Arts Council – managed to avoid any reference to its X-ray machine debacle. Certainly, both the director and chair of the heavily publicly funded national cultural institution had sod all to say in their… Read more »

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ICY’S INSIGHTS

Date: March 6, 2025 - Sport of Kings

ONLINE PUNDIT Icy – aka Gearoid Norris – recently held court through his Point Blank Sunday podcast with on-course bookmaker Colm White. Thousands of punters signed in to hear their opinions on topics of interest but were no doubt surprised to hear discussions on horses allegedly not being allowed to run on their merits both… Read more »

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SMURFIT WESTROCK ON ROCKY GROUND

Date: March 6, 2025 - Moneybags

It looks like a case of steady as she goes if you judge Tony Smurfit’s performance based on the share price of Smurfit Westrock (SWR) since it migrated its listing to New York. In reality, the company is entering choppy waters with increased competition in Europe, tariffs in the US, and a price/earnings multiple so… Read more »

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JENNI TIMONY’S SALES PITCH

Date: March 6, 2025 - Brief Cases

GOLDHAWK spotted an old friend popping up in Letterkenny at a Mum Talks event (for women looking “to feel inspired”) at the Castle Grove Country House Hotel. For just €25 a head, assorted mums were inspired by Jenni Timony, the founder and face of the Fit Pink athleisure brand who has managed to get the… Read more »

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MICK SMURFIT’S FAMILY TIES

Date: March 6, 2025 - Brief Cases

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p18), Goldhawk looks at the latest adventure by Sharon Smurfit, daughter of moneybags Monaco resident Mick. She has just acquired the golfing free sheet Talk Golf Ireland and although there is no sign of daddy as an investor, he has previously dug deep to back Moocall, a Dublin-based company that… Read more »

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REVENUE’S SURGICAL STRIKE

Date: March 6, 2025 - Brief Cases

THE TAXMAN has secured the winding up of a company called Vesalius (EU) Ltd, which turns out to have links to one Stephen Carway, son of Goldhawk’s very old pal – the Conman of Killaloe, John Carway. Last week, insolvency expert Thomas Musiol of Musiol Advisory was installed by the High Court as liquidator. Vesalius… Read more »

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CARTON HOUSE HANDICAP

Date: March 6, 2025 - Brief Cases

CARTON HOUSE golf club in Co Kildare has been busy in recent months as host of the KPMG Women’s Open, where the organising committee includes Róisín Lyons, (lady captain from 2020-2021). Róisín also got a glowing review in September in the Indo golf pages in an article extolling the virtues of the Carton Cup, a… Read more »

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MAYHEM ON MERRION SQUARE

Date: February 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

AT LONG last the media (and Government) have caught up with Goldhawk’s investigation into the near €7m splurge on a useless information and communications technology (ICT) project (see The Phoenix 19/4/24) and attempts to keep the story under wraps (see The Phoenix 10/1/25). Now the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) beckons and the civil servants are… Read more »

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PROFILE: VOGUE WILLIAMS

Date: February 20, 2025 - Pillars of Society

WITH HER autobiography, Big Mouth, due out in May and a live show in Vicar Street scheduled for the same month, Vogue Williams’s professional and personal life has undergone a remarkable volte-face in recent years. The 39-year-old from Howth has gone from working as a DJ and model – where she stood on Grafton Street… Read more »

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YOUNG BLOOD: PAUL LAWLESS

Date: February 20, 2025 - The Young Bloods

AS THE Aontú party began a small but steady rise in the opinion polls throughout last year, the election to the Dáil in November of 28-year-old Paul Lawless from Mayo gave the party a chance to escape its one-man-band perception and present itself as a real party and a player with skin in the game…. Read more »

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TRINITY COLLEGE LOWERS THE TONE

Date: February 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (TCD) authorities will feel satisfied that it recently handled some ‘legacy’ racism in a deft manner. In 2022 students agitated that George Berkeley, after whom TCD’s modernist library was named, owned slaves and advocated slavery. Berkeley fell in the wake of ‘Rhodes must fall’ demonstrations in Oxford as well as moves against… Read more »

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SNUBBING CILLIAN MURPHY

Date: February 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE MAY have been some surprised cinephiles when the Bafta winners were announced last weekend. Where were the gongs for Small Things Like These, produced and starring one Cillian Murphy? What filmgoers may have been unaware of is that Small Things Like These had not even got itself a nomination under any of the Bafta… Read more »

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HUNTING THE MI5 MOLE

Date: February 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

IT WILL soon fall to new Fianna Fáil justice minister Big Jim O’Callaghan to fully commence the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, 2024. It assigns to An Garda Síochána the task of “protecting the State” from “espionage” and “unlawful acts that subvert or undermine… parliamentary democracy” and “acts of foreign interference that are, or… Read more »

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KEVIN MYERS LIVES

Date: February 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

In recent years Goldhawk has been able to reveal the central role that Irish journalists have played in new media projects launched in Brussels that are linked to both Viktor Orbán and a longtime strategist for his Fidesz party, Patrick Egan. The fact that Kevin Myers has now joined this crusade against political correctness demonstrates… Read more »

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SELLING GUINNESS MAKES SENSE ONLY FOR DEBRA CREW

Date: February 20, 2025 - Moneybags

The buzz in London last month concerned the potential offloading by Diageo of its iconic Guinness brand. Although surprising to some, this is a proposition that has been floated over the last couple of decades on the basis that beer and spirits are apparently not a great business cocktail. What is different today is that… Read more »

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