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Liz Kimmins

UNAPPROVED BORDER ROAD

Date: July 10, 2025 - Last Refuge

SINN FÉIN TDs in Donegal, Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, issued a mournful statement following last month’s High Court ruling in Belfast that quashed the Stormont executive’s long-awaited cross-border A5 upgrade. They described it as a “devastating blow for the communities we represent” and listed the reasons for the upgrade – “it will save… Read more »

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Jim O'Callaghan

PUSHING MICHEÁL MARTIN

Date: July 10, 2025 - Last Refuge

WHICH MISCHIEVOUS Fianna Fáil minister, TD or spin doctor dreamed up the story about Micheál Martin being pressured to go for the presidency and then pitched it to the Irish Mail on Sunday last weekend? Martin has made it clear, in word and deed, that he intends to become taoiseach for the third time –… Read more »

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Frances Black

BACIK RETREATS FROM LEFT UNITY

Date: July 10, 2025 - Last Refuge

THE LABOUR PARTY appears to have backed off its initial proposal for left unity, touted originally in the form of a united left presidential candidate following the failure to create an alternative government after the general election. This was given extra impetus with the three-card trick dealt by card-sharp Michael Lowry, with his Government/opposition stunt,… Read more »

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Gary Hoy

BBC AND KINCORA

Date: July 10, 2025 - Fit to Print?

FOLLOWING THE Gerry Adams disaster, another distinction earned by the BBC in its coverage of the Troubles came with last month’s settlement of the case taken against the UK state by a resident of the notorious Kincora Boys Home in Belfast for an estimated six-figure sum plus legal costs. Former resident Gary Hoy sued the… Read more »

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LEO’S LINE

Date: July 10, 2025 - Fit to Print?

THE AAWRISH edition of the Sunday Times is usually kept on a tight editorial leash by the chaps (and gals) in London at London Bridge Street and Whitehall. So how come one of the new guest columnists in Dublin has been peddling a line that is definitely out of synch with HMG’s foreign policy at… Read more »

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Feargal O'Coigligh

O’DONOVAN’S ‘ACTING DIRECTOR’

Date: July 10, 2025 - Behind the Scenes

THE LATEST Oireachtas outing featuring the antics at the Arts Council took place before Alan Kelly’s art and media committee earlier this month and proved suitably entertaining. Of most interest to Goldhawk was the mention of an “interim director” at 70 Merrion Square. The Arts Council and its woes were highlighted in two consecutive committee… Read more »

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Brian Kavanagh

KAVANAGH’S POOL GAME

Date: July 10, 2025 - Sport of Kings

CURRAGH BOSS Brian Kavanagh was one of the few “delighted with the number of runners” in the recent Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby – “the largest number there has been in recent years”. A field of 10 runners, with no less than six of them supplied by John Magnier and his Coolmore crew, ensured there… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

WHIP (NOT) SMART

Date: July 10, 2025 - Sport of Kings

GROUP ONE winning jockey Gary Carroll was left in the doldrums after his Royal Ascot victory aboard the Joe Murphy-trained Cercene in the Coronation Stakes. The whip review committee found Carroll guilty of hitting of his filly eight times inside the final furlong and imposed a £5,800 fine and 14-day suspension. Unsurprisingly, the hapless Carroll… Read more »

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FAST CARS AND HORSES

Date: July 10, 2025 - Sport of Kings

SOME HEAVY going on the tarmac for a couple of Irish jockeys recently. Four-time UK champion jockey Oisín Murphy was fined £70,000 and disqualified from driving for 20 months after the Kerryman pleaded guilty to driving his A Class Merc into a tree while over the prescribed alcohol limit. On the same day, Northern Irish… Read more »

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Suzanne Nance

WEXFORD’S NEW STAR

Date: July 10, 2025 - High Society

THERE WILL be a new face at Wexford Festival Opera (WFO) next year following the appointment of Yank Suzanne Nance as the new executive director to replace Randall Shannon, who exited stage left in February this year after his initial contract ended. Nance’s arrival will mean that Ireland will have a bona fide musical power… Read more »

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Peter Jackson

FLUTTER’S BETS OUTSIDE AMERICA LOOK LIKE LONG-SHOTS

Date: July 10, 2025 - Moneybags

FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT boss Peter Jackson continues to splash out around the globe rather than focus on the rapidly evolving US market, a strategy that ignores the logic that America is the market that offers by far the greatest potential to boost the bottom line in the short term. Nevertheless, Moneybags’s prediction almost 18 months ago… Read more »

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Roger White

C&C MOVING FROM FLAT TO FIZZY

Date: July 10, 2025 - Moneybags

IN THE last five years the erratic C&C drinks business has boasted more CEOs than most companies experience in decades. The man in the hot seat now is Roger White and he has just published his first annual report, albeit covering 12 months where he had little impact whatsoever. The good news for White is… Read more »

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Geoff Waddell

BEER FACTORY FLOORED

Date: July 10, 2025 - Brief Cases

THE MOVE by the Revenue Commissioners to wind up Dublin Beer Factory Holdings Ltd (DBF) represents another setback for the backers here, including innovative Aussie bar owner and investor Geoff Waddell, founder of the Woolshed bar on Dublin’s Parnell Street. Waddell is one of the listed backers of DBF and was also company secretary here… Read more »

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Gezim Idrizi (r)

GEZIM IDRIZI’S FOOD FIGHT

Date: July 10, 2025 - Brief Cases

THE REVENUE Commissioners are heading to the High Court later this month to wind up two food companies that turn out to be owned by a familiar name – at least one familiar to Conor McGregor. Both Hoxha Foods Ltd and Gashi Foods Ltd are the subject of petitions from the taxman that are due… Read more »

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ZMG Cyril Murphy Newbridge College Peter Wilson Sporting Emporium Chris Wholey O'Kane God’s Creatures Film Tax Relief Anne Rossi Desmond Live Nation ESCADIA LTD Al Porter Comeback Gordon Elliott Clayton Love Ivan Wilde hot-water-brigade Parnells GAA Lawsuit

JOHNNY LEVINS’S FORM

Date: July 10, 2025 - Brief Cases

RACEHORSE TRAINER Johnny Levins has called it a day here and is heading across the Irish Sea. His going away party may have been spoiled somewhat by the registering of a tiny judgment against Levins’s company by those spoilsports in the Revenue Commissioners. Johnny is a well-known figure in Irish racing and has trained over… Read more »

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Gerard Craughwell

SENATORS POISED TO TAKE TEHRAN

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

THE IRANIANS will be relieved that field marshal Gerard Craughwell will not now be implementing his threat to inflict immediate and terrible rhetoric on the mullahs, a threat the senator delivered in the latest of several bellicose speeches in recent months. However, tentative truce moves by Donald Trump may have saved the Tehran clerics from… Read more »

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Paul Murphy

PROFILE: PAUL MURPHY

Date: June 26, 2025 - Pillars of Society

PAUL MURPHY recently returned from his attempted relief mission to Gaza, prompting a boorish comment from former foreign minister Charlie Flanagan, who said the TD needed history and geography lessons. Recently elected as chair of the Irish Red Cross, Flanagan quickly apologised for describing Murphy’s journey as a circus but the latter would have relished… Read more »

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Carl Mullan

YOUNG BLOOD: CARL MULLAN

Date: June 26, 2025 - The Young Bloods

Carl Mullan knew exactly what he was doing when he shared a clip of himself sitting in Joe Duffy’s usual seat in the RTÉ Radio 1 studio recently. Online “churnalists” rushed to crank out articles speculating that the 2FM presenter was in the running to take over Duffy’s Liveline show, particularly as Mullan also posted… Read more »

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TACKLING PADRAIC O’KANE

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

As the hype machine kicks in for the first ever ‘adult’ NFL game in Ireland – Minnesota Vikings v Pittsburgh Steelers at Croke Park in September – another American footie contest is a little closer in the diary. The brains behind the Aer Lingus College Football Classic is restaurateur Padraic O’Kane, who has been doing… Read more »

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Paul Williams

GRABBING GRAHAM DWYER

Date: June 26, 2025 - Behind the Scenes

GOLDHAWK WAS surprised to see that the headline-grabbing new documentary on the Graham Dwyer murder of Elaine O’Hara was produced not by an Irish company but by London-headquartered Wag Entertainment Ltd (WEL). There is, however, an Irish link of note. A guaranteed ratings blockbuster – given the BDSM elements, master and slave phones, happily married… Read more »

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Lord Bamford and Willie Mullins

WILLIE MULLINS’ NOBLE AMBITIONS

Date: June 26, 2025 - High Society

PERHAPS THE most eyebrow-raising outcome at Royal Ascot last week was the failure of big-spending Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing to have a single success during the meeting, despite the moneybags having lashed out tens of millions on bluebloods in recent seasons. Less surprising was the very high profile attained by trainer extraordinaire Willie Mullins, who… Read more »

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Jane Mahony

JANE MAHONY’S BOMBARDMENT

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

A LETTER published in the Irish Times last week attacked Trinity College in a no-holds barred manner over its decision to sever ties with Israeli academic institutions. The writer turns out to be Dr Jane Mahony, herself a visiting research fellow at the university and one half of a D6 power couple along with her… Read more »

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Darragh O'Brien

DARRAGH O’BRIEN’S DOPPELGÄNGER

Date: June 26, 2025 - Fowl Emissions

These are trying times for climate minister Darragh O’Brien, as his doppelgänger, transport minister Darragh O’Brien, continually tries to undermine his every effort at emissions reductions. Earlier this week, the Government published the findings of its latest Climate Conversations public consultation. It made for grim reading, with the majority of respondents expressing their sense of… Read more »

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David McWilliams

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE

Date: June 26, 2025 - Fit to Print?

DALKEY BOOK FESTIVAL, the ego-child of David McWilliams, came around this month with little danger of anyone in the literary and media establishment having a pop at the author’s limited self-esteem and his understated predictions. But Village Magazine proprietor and editor Michael Smith took off his kid gloves and slapped them across McWilliams’s face with… Read more »

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VOL 43 NO 13

Date: June 26, 2025 -

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WUFF JUSTICE

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

LAST MONTH Working Animals Guardians (WAG) secured an invitation to Leinster House to brief TDs and senators about the amendments required for Heather Humphreys’ XL bully breed ban. Among those facilitating the session were senators Chris Andrews (Sinn Féin) and Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats). WAG, it will be recalled, is one of six dog rescue… Read more »

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COUGHLAN’S CAUTION

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

That indefatigable political warrior, academic Anthony Coughlan, recently came up with what appears to be a strong argument against the abolition of the triple lock that has not yet entered the debate. He points out that Ireland made a solemn national declaration in 2002 to retain the triple lock in order to allay fears that… Read more »

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Fred Holroyd

DUBLIN/MONAGHAN INQUIRY SLOWS

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

WITH THE Omagh bombing inquiry already slowing under the weight of its initial disclosure, the inquiry into the other most deadly attack of the Troubles, the UK’s Operation Denton into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974, is also handicapped by its own omission. It is missing a golden opportunity to shine some light on… Read more »

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Liam Lynch

LIAM LYNCH’S IRISH GOODBYE

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

A CREDITORS’ meeting was held earlier this month for a company called Irish Studio Media Publishing Ltd (ISM), the outfit established here by New Jersey-based Irish-American moneybags Liam Lynch, which ended up owning 10% of the Business Post. It also ended up owing a fair few bob to its backers and even found itself on… Read more »

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Keir Starmer

DID MI5 MANIPULATE GROOMING GANGS?

Date: June 26, 2025 - Affairs of the Nation

SIR KEIR Starmer has reluctantly agreed to establish a statutory inquiry into the failure of the police and other state agencies in the UK to confront the crimes of grooming gangs in England and Wales. They ignored multiple reports of rape involving underage girls, some of whom became pregnant while residing in care homes. The… Read more »

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Derek Blighe

THE WHITE NORTH

Date: June 26, 2025 - Hush Hush

FOR OVER a week in early June the pogroms in Ballymena, Larne and elsewhere in the north grabbed media headlines, while dramatic broadcasts of immigrants being targeted and burned out were accompanied with sober analysis of the causes of these racist attacks. The violence did not materialise out of thin air. Many commentators focused on… Read more »

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Pippa O'Connor

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: June 26, 2025 - The Hot Air Brigade

I think it’s a bit of a superpower to be a little bit underestimated. Pippa O’Connor, Sunday Independent Life Magazine For Silver Light, think of rules that produce unpredictable outcomes. But think of those outcomes as being a microtonal fantasy world in which individual notes and unusual timbres can brush off each other to produce… Read more »

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Luke Holland Climate Denial John Fagan Wolf Europe David Quinn Duncan Stewart Data Centre Carbon Emissions Conor Skehan Chris Hazzard

OIL SPILL

Date: June 26, 2025 - Fowl Emissions

An Post garnered some soft PR for plans to reduce the carbon footprint of its fleet. Given the state company is already successfully operating 1,400 electric vehicles, it was hugely disappointing to see it touting the “transformative” use of hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) instead of diesel in its heavy goods vehicles. Experts are deeply sceptical… Read more »

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Leo Varadkar

VARADKAR V MARTIN AND DUP

Date: June 26, 2025 - Northwind

TAOISEACH Micheál Martin and the DUP’s deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, have at least one thing in common – neither of them wants to talk about a united Ireland. But Martin goes one step further than the DUP woman. He won’t let the words ‘united Ireland’ cross his lips. They were both asked last Friday… Read more »

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James Browne

BROWNE UNITES DUBLIN ON HOUSING

Date: June 26, 2025 - Last Refuge

THE FULL extent of the political crisis on housing was revealed at Dublin City Council (DCC) this month, when housing minister James Brown managed to unite not only Sinn Féin and the left against his latest proposals but also councillors from Government parties – Fine Gael, Independents and his own Fianna Fáil party. The immediate… Read more »

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Gareth Sheridan

PROXY FIANNA FÁIL ÁRAS CANDIDATE

Date: June 26, 2025 - Last Refuge

HAS THE dearth of persuasive Fianna Fáil candidates – apart, perhaps, from Bertie Ahern – persuaded some sneaking regarders of the ‘republican’ party that a surrogate candidate and organisation could do the trick? Irish multi-millionaire Gareth Sheridan from Terenure, Dublin – the founder of US pharma company Nutriband – is the latest name floating around… Read more »

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