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VOL 43 NO 07

Date: April 3, 2025 -

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PÁLÁS PLOT TWIST

Date: April 3, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

WHILE IT appeared that a final ‘cut’ had been called on Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe’s bijou Pálás cinema in Galway, the desire for a surprise ending remains, even if many believe this screenplay should never have got a green light. The latest unexpected script development is that a group has formed to resuscitate the… Read more »

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AZURE’S AMAZONIAN BOSS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

A RECENT Irish Times lecture about the shamefully inadequate state of Ireland’s security strategy referred to the “independent security think tank”, the Azure Forum. Independent of whom? A list of Azure’s activities, personnel and MO indicates a company very much linked to the western defence industry and also to the new Irish establishment’s demand for… Read more »

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TACKLING NEIL FRANCIS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

A RECEIVER has just been installed by one of the creditors of a company called KC Property Developments Ltd (KCP), where a 50% shareholder turns out to be rugby-player-turned-journalist-turned-businessman Neil Francis. The company has, however, now applied for an examiner to be appointed instead. Franno’s partner in KCP is Co Kildare engineer Chris Wholey, who… Read more »

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ANNE-MARIE O’BRIEN’S FORM

Date: April 3, 2025 - Brief Cases

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p5) Goldhawk examines the runners and riders in the recent annual general meeting of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association. While not a lot ended up being achieved at the meeting, one Anne-Marie O’Brien had already been nominated as the association’s nominee on the board of the state funding agency, Horse… Read more »

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MURDERED HACK WAS DOUBLE AGENT

Date: April 3, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK HAS for long been aware that the Sunday Times has excellent sources within British intelligence but never suspected that MI6’s top asset at the paper in the 1970s was in fact an MI5/KGB double agent. That is the conclusion of two ST writers, who have just published Murder in Cairo about the assassination of… Read more »

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BANG FOR OUR BUCKS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

Tánaiste Simon Harris recently speculated that Ireland’s military spending needed to expand rapidly and could soon reach €3bn annually. So it is worth looking at how much bang the Department of Defence (DoD) plans to get from our bucks. It is also worth considering whether this level of expenditure is likely to put a strain… Read more »

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JERUSALEM FAR-RIGHT FURORE

Date: April 3, 2025 - Hush Hush

ISRAELI PRESIDENT Isaac Herzog often refers to his Irish connections but, since the start of the war on Gaza, he has been quite vocal in criticising Irish policies and attitudes in relation to the conflict. Herzog, however, has become embroiled in a rather embarrassing fiasco due to the attendance of a large number of far-right… Read more »

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THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: April 3, 2025 - The Hot Air Brigade

Penta Group is at the forefront of using research and analytics to make a real impact, and I look forward to contributing to its innovative approach in helping global organisations navigate complexity with confidence. Leo Varadkar on his new employer, Penta’s website For almost two years it was also the Ground Zero for fear, the… Read more »

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‘LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD’

Date: April 3, 2025 - Fowl Emissions

“A victory for common sense over ideological dogma,” was Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher’s response to An Bord Pleanála’s recent decision to grant permission to Shannon LNG to build a 600MW gas-burning power station in north Kerry. Kelleher’s comment was a victory for easy soundbite over reality. Opposition to new gas infrastructure is firmly rooted… 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

NATURE RESERVED

Date: April 3, 2025 - Fowl Emissions

Coillte, the state forestry agency, has long been under fire for its dire environmental record and its focus on industrial conifer plantations that are biodiversity deserts. However, one part of the organisation that was doing some good work was Coillte Nature, set up in 2019 for nature restoration projects. But last week we learned that… Read more »

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NÍ GHÉILLFEAR!

Date: April 3, 2025 - Northwind

NEW GRAND CENTRAL station in Belfast, which opened last year, is the biggest transport hub on the island and cost a staggering £340m. To the great annoyance of Irish-language activists, the signage is in English only. The Sinn Féin minister at the Department for Infrastructure, John O’Dowd, said it “will be fixed”. But it had… Read more »

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LEFT UNITY ÁRAS CANDIDATE

Date: April 3, 2025 - Last Refuge

THE BIG question for Mary Lou McDonald and the Sinn Féin leadership in their tight, internal debate about who to run in the presidential election in November is just what outstanding-personality candidates does the party have – outside of strong front-bench TDs that are required to mount another bid for government. Alternatively, there are few… Read more »

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TWO FINGERS AGAIN FROM GOVERNMENT

Date: April 3, 2025 - Last Refuge

SINN FÉIN’S Gaeltacht and arts spokesperson, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, has discovered that the Government’s innovative approach to political democracy has spread beyond the Pale to the Gaeltacht. The Government and Gaeltacht minister Patrick O’Donovan are proposing that the re-introduction (after 15 years) of limited democracy to Údarás na Gaeltachta boards will see six out of… Read more »

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OPPOSITION SPLIT ON SPEAKING RIGHTS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Last Refuge

UNITY IN the opposition ranks may still be intact on the issue of speaking rights for the schizophrenic group of TDs led by Michael ‘Fingers’ Lowry – modern Parnellites of inestimable parliamentary calibre – but an issue of priority in the speaking rights of Labour and the Social Democrats is bubbling away while the main… 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

SECOND-GUESSING IRELAND FIRST

Date: April 3, 2025 - Last Refuge

WITH FURIOUS ‘debate’ recently about voting rights and the like, the Electoral Commission will have been fazed to receive a complaint from Dr Caoimhín Ó Maolchalann, a fretful observer of the new right. Ó Maolchalann told the commission he is concerned as he believes that Ireland First (IF) is out of sync with its own… Read more »

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ISRAELI SOLDIERS – THE REAL VICTIMS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Fit to Print?

THE WAVE of antisemitic terror sweeping across Ireland, which the Irish Times and other media have been courageously exposing, has reached appalling levels in Dublin City University. There, a recently formed group, Students Supporting Israel (SSI), has received an “outpouring of vile online hatred, with over 2,000 comments filled with insults of the worst kind,… Read more »

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EU WARRIORS ON THE RETREAT?

Date: April 3, 2025 - Fit to Print?

HAVE DIVISIONS among the European shock troops limbering up to confront Putin’s Russia caused some to have second thoughts? This disappointing retreat from where Hitler, Napoleon and others had to turn around and scuttle home has begun to dawn on even the bloodthirsty Irish media in recent weeks. On St Patrick’s Day the Irish Times… Read more »

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

VICTIMISING MUSK

Date: April 3, 2025 - Fit to Print?

Sir, I was disappointed to read your article in the Phoenix [March 21, 2025] titled “X marks the drop in standards” because I did not expect your magazine to take the side of de-platformers and Euro-censors. I cannot stand the smarmy Elon Musk, but to call X hateful or extremist, or a threat to Irish… Read more »

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BOG CUTTINGS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Bog Cuttings

RINGING BELLS Claire Gallagher appeared before Drogheda District Court after an incident last month in the town. Sergeant John O’Hehir told the court that gardaí responded to reports of an intoxicated woman causing a nuisance by knocking on doors, ringing doorbells and aggressively shouting in Drogheda. When they arrived, they discovered the 32-year-old defendant in… Read more »

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NIALL DOYLE’S NEXT GIG?

Date: April 3, 2025 - Behind the Scenes

AS GOLDHAWK revealed (see The Phoenix 7/3/25), Niall Doyle, the long-time head of music and opera at the Arts Council, is one of those who has decided to exit Merrion Square in recent times. That position has now been advertised by the council but what may be of more interest to Doyle will have been… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

MORE ARTS COUNCIL CONSULTANTS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Behind the Scenes

AS THE Arts Council prepares for an eventual outing before the Public Accounts Committee, it is business as usual on Merrion Square. A revamped website has been unveiled, which feels a bit like painting the Titanic as it drifts towards the iceberg, while a major survey of the council’s many hapless clients is now under… Read more »

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SEAN DAVIS’S DOUBLE

Date: April 3, 2025 - Sport of Kings

PART-TIME jockey and now trainer Sean Davis had waited more than two years to train his first winner but he landed a double last month with the well-punted pair, Venetian and Porsche Lad, both here and across the Irish Sea. Having been a significant eye-catcher when unplaced at Wolverhampton just two days prior to his… Read more »

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POOR PATRICK MULLINS

Date: April 3, 2025 - Sport of Kings

AMATEUR RIDER Patrick Mullins has had a few recent setbacks in his quest to ride a winner at every UK National Hunt course. The jockey looked set for certain victory on the Harry Derham-trained Kiwi Rush in Kelso’s Racing Post Go North Jodami Series Final Open NH Flat Race, only to be collared in the… Read more »

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MARY CANNON’S JOINT

Date: April 3, 2025 - High Society

AN IMPRESSIVE looking timber-clad pile on the salubrious Claremont Road in Howth has just gone on the market with a chunky €3m price tag. The house turns out to have been acquired back in 2004 by psychiatric heavy-hitters Mary Cannon and David Cotter and Goldhawk suspects the former did not tune in to watch Apple… Read more »

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IHT CHL The Lion in Winter Racing Royalty Le Brocquy City of Troy Fitzwilliam Square AIRO Dermot Smurfit Ballinacarrig Park Club Cosgrave Fitzpatrick Keith Jameson National Gallery Collection Marissa Carter VG Tom Higgins Neil Jordan Laura Bonner Paul Ward Variety Jones Dtat Eathos Sharon Keegan Angela Scanlon Desmond Canouan Bellair Estate Bobby Flay John O’Conor Portrait of Omai Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile Wedding NGI Board Rachel Flynn JP McMahon Ash Quinn Pamela Laird Abdullah Al Naboodah Boundless Ocean

KIERAN WALSH’S STYLE

Date: April 3, 2025 - High Society

LOADED COSMETICS entrepreneur Kieran Walsh was, er, made up recently when he landed a gong at the Cork Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, posting on Instagram that he was “over the moon” to win the “coveted award”. His post was immediately liked by assorted fans, including blogger/influencer/businesswoman Lisa Jordan who gushed: “You are outstanding in… Read more »

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SILVANA’S ‘HANDBAG INVESTMENTS’

Date: April 3, 2025 - High Society

CONGRATULATIONS TO Argentinian-Italian handbag queen Silvana Landa, who landed yet another big plug in the Business Post last month, just one year after she got to tell the same story to the readers. Silvana’s company, Landa Leather, has featured regularly in the Post’s fashion rag, Irish Tatler, and for example, a few months ago under… Read more »

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PAUL COULSON ROLLS THE DICE AT ARDAGH

Date: April 3, 2025 - Moneybags

LAST MONTH Paul Coulson was facing the possible collapse of the whole Ardagh Group glass and metal packaging outfit and he sought to put in place a capital restructuring as over $2bn in loan notes approached maturity. Unlike the situation that played out for Denis O’Brien when he found himself facing off against the bondholders… Read more »

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DALATA’S OVERSEAS SHAREHOLDERS KEEN TO CHECK OUT

Date: April 3, 2025 - Moneybags

IT IS hard to understand what Dalata Hotel Group CEO Dermot Crowley is hoping to achieve by calling in Rothchild & Co for a strategic review that could lead to “a formal sale” of the company. It looks like a coup by the big overseas shareholders. Crowley has been Dalata CEO since November 2021, when Pat… Read more »

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WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

CIAN DE BUITLÉAR’S HAPPY ENDING

Date: April 3, 2025 - Brief Cases

THE FILM company that previously owned movie and TV lighting equipment business Teach Solais Lighthouse is being wound up by its principal – cinematographer Cian de Buitléar – and the good news is that there is still a fair few bob in the bank, despite very generous payouts to the directors down the years. De… Read more »

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IAN HYLAND’S NEW PRODUCTION

Date: April 3, 2025 - Brief Cases

THE NEW owner of James Morris’s Windmill Lane Pictures (WLP) is Business and Finance Group boss Ian Hyland and Goldhawk hopes to see more activity than has been the case to date with his other ‘extracurricular’ investment, the small London publisher, Quartet Books. This latter deal was done in June 2022, when he proclaimed: “I… Read more »

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COALITION LEADERS’ TENSIONS ALREADY

Date: March 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

IT’S EARLY days but with Donald Trump creating a daily sense of geo-political crisis, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris are already competing with each other for public attention on such giant issues. As Martin is the Taoiseach (and the tetchiest politician in the western world), he is feeling more resentful than Harris, his… Read more »

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PROFILE: TOM CLONAN

Date: March 20, 2025 - Pillars of Society

FORMER ARMY officer, journalist, military analyst and Independent senator Tom Clonan is an unusual army vet. A strong advocate of neutrality, he has spoken out against the dogs of war that have colonised newspaper columns and broadcasting outlets in recent years. He is also a strong supporter of modernising the centuries-old culture that dominates the… Read more »

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YOUNG BLOOD: THALIA HEFFERNAN

Date: March 20, 2025 - The Young Bloods

Being a glamorous model who dates well-known men has garnered acres of column inches and newspaper supplement covers for Thalia Angel Heffernan, the 30-year-old daughter of former model Susan Ebrill and TV director Gerald Heffernan, who founded Frontier Films. Last week, the Sunday Times devoted three pages to the model, where she said little worth repeating as she… Read more »

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JENNIFER ZAMPARELLI’S BIG BUCKS

Date: March 20, 2025 - Brief Cases

IT HAS been hard to avoid the glamorous mush of Jennifer Zamparelli over the past week as the media went Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) crazy in the run-up to last weekend’s final. Now the show has ended its latest run, she has big plans. There was the cover of the RTÉ Guide (natch), as… Read more »

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RTÉ’S EMPTY CHAIRS

Date: March 20, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

WITH WEB Summit co-founder Daire Hickey kicking off a possible nine-week battle in the Four Goldmines with former pal Paddy Cosgrave this week, he clearly has a lot on his plate and a few weeks ago decided to step down early from his membership of the RTÉ board. There are now three vacancies on the… Read more »

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