Affairs, 1 February 2022

WHEN IS a scoop about scoops not much of a scoop at all? Reporting at the Irish Independent went on a journey this week over the issue of TD’s pints. A headline in Monday morning’s print edition brought news that the “Dáil bar tills kept on ringing as much of the hospitality sector remained shut”…. Read more »

Affairs, 1 February 2022

HOW DISAPPOINTING to see the Irish Times join the gutter press in its coverage of champagne popping civil servants. What columnist Fintan O’Toole believes is no less than “one of the most civilised newspapers in the world” stuck dutifully to its high standards throughout most of the controversy, declining even to publish the offending photograph… Read more »

Affairs, 27 January 2022

GOLDHAWK will never fail to marvel at the arguments encountered each and every time conflict looms. Sometimes sophisticated, often absurd, war will always produce unrivalled creativity in its propaganda. The public are subject to unfamiliar faces from even more unfamiliar organisations spinning simple tales of heroes and villains. An interesting case this week on ‘Brainstorm’,… Read more »

Affairs, 27 January 2022

SPOILS FROM the Green Party war remain reserved for the victors. In ministerial appointments, Seanad nominations and other gifts, leader Eamon Ryan has rewarded loyalty to the exclusion of others. Announcing her intention to contest the Seanad by-election, former councillor Sadhbh O’Neill adopts the language of social justice, telling the Irish Times that “our economic… Read more »

Affairs, 27 January 2022

MAWKISH STATEMENTS in the Dáil on Wednesday night will have done little for the nation’s mental well-being. TDs were responding to a report which found that at least 221 children have been exposed to risk or harmed while accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Kerry. Four years after concerns were first raised… Read more »

Affairs, 27 January 2022

THE FUTURE of the Science Gallery has turned into an amusing game of pass the parcel and it looks like Trinity’s experiment will yield positive results for the time being. There was surprise and disappointment in October when it was reported that the college planned to close the facility as no longer financially viable. Staff… Read more »

Affairs, 27 January 2022

ANTON SAVAGE is the latest of several columnists to take on the begrudgers. It is remarkable just how many media voices have promoted the same message in recent weeks. Every major newspaper, several political journalists, the national broadcaster, the Tánaiste and the Finance Minister have all pushed a variation of “yes, we have problems, but..”… Read more »

Affairs, 27 January 2022

RETIRED AMATEUR jockey Nina Carberry’s hoofing skills are currently getting top marks from the judges as she gallops around the dancefloor in RTÉ’s Dancing with the Stars. She also has a business called Nina Carberry Racing, but her accounts are not quite as glittering as her dancing prowess on the Sunday night filler show. She… Read more »

Affairs, 19 January 2022

IT IS hard not to sympathise with any young Irish author emerging in the shadow of Sally Rooney. The next hot property on the literary scene, Catherine Prasifka, who signed her debut work to Scottish publishers, Canongate, last February, will be fending off the lazy comparisons more than most. Not only has Prasifika trodden the… Read more »

Affairs, 19 January 2022

HOW APPROPRIATE to see the very hubris that drove the state’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council again threatens the downfall of Simon Coveney. William Shakespeare would be impressed with the troubles of Cork’s own prince. While it is becoming unpopular to acknowledge the mere existence of political elites, there is no… Read more »

Affairs, 19 January 2022

GIVEN THE Government’s agonising over making good on its promise of new public holidays, it is unsurprising that events this weekend passed without much in the way of popular celebrations. Largely a ceremonial affair even in its centenary, what is dubbed “Ireland’s Independence Day” in recent commentary has nothing of the fanfare officially encouraged in… Read more »

Affairs, 14 January 2022

ONE COULD be forgiven for thinking that the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) was the first occasion in which the cost of gargle increased. After almost two decades of debate in Leinster House, the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill finally became law in 2018. A young Micheál Martin was Health Minister when the first tentative… Read more »

Affairs, 14 January 2022

THOSE RESPONSIBLE for leaking the Mother and Baby Homes Report can sleep easier a year into the Government’s rigorous investigation. Cabinet whispers in the Zappone affair were enough to prompt amateur sleuthing and recriminations within Fine Gael. The entire Government has more than once restructured its business in effort to prevent Nphet speaking to the… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2022

MARY LOU McDonald’s remarks on public sector reform have stirred wider feelings and some surprising outcomes. The prevailing narrative that Sinn Féin in power would be a disaster for the country is giving way to the novel sight of right-thinking people agreeing with the party leader’s analysis, at least when it comes to the wheels… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2022

STRANGE TO see Fionnán Sheahan do down the work of a fellow journalist. A column in Monday’s Irish Independent seems to turn reality on its head, erasing the reporting of a rival newspaper in the process. Anyone who hoped a new year might see the Indo move on from some of its go-to clichés will… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2022

A YEAR to the day since the Government released its final report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, Roderic O’Gorman emerges with the long promised Birth (Info & Tracing) Bill. If the timing indicates an attempt to turn the page on eight years of criticism in handling this delicate saga, the Children’s Minister has… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2022

RTÉ’S RECENT broadcast of a documentary on Donie O’Sullivan provided a useful portrait of the intrepid reporter’s journey from Cahersiveen to the US Capitol. The CNN Correspondent has been written about in gushing terms here at home since rising to prominence last year and the film followed this same pattern of journalists talking among themselves…. Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2022

GENEROUS OF the Irish Times to offer Johann Hari another step on the road to redemption. The controversial journalist, once a darling of liberal Britain, has been eking his way back to prominence after a number of scandals in the early part of the last decade. The former London Independent columnist at one point commanded… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2022

SUE GRAY, the ‘senior civil servant’ delegated to inquire into the non-party at 10 Downing Street that Boris Johnson invited 100 guests to in May 2020, knows all about the difference between a drinks session and serious business. The BBC did not give much away about Sue today describing her thus: “an employee of the… Read more »

Affairs, 7 January 2022

WITH THE Christmas break out of the way, political theatre resumed with a bowel movement on Wednesday following an Irish Examiner interview with Mary Lou McDonald. Outlining some of the priorities her party may tackle on entering Government, the Sinn Féin leader told Elaine O’Loughlin that “there is immense talent in our civil service, our… Read more »

Affairs, 5 January 2022

ONE MAN who will be cheerful despite much uncertainty is the new author Mark Henry, whose book, In Fact: An Optimist’s Guide to Ireland at 100, filled many influential stockings over Christmas. Though released in Autumn, the book and its message became inescapable throughout December and this was not the usual seasonal marketing campaign. In… Read more »

Affairs, 20 December 2021

IT WAS a lucky escape for fintech challenger Revolut during this year’s Late Late Toy Show, with publicity disaster averted by the deep pockets of founder, Vlad Yatsenko. Attaching the banking and payments app to Ryan Tubridy’s annual feel-good event was certainly a clever move in the context of Revolut’s overall Irish strategy, even if… Read more »

Affairs, 17 December 2021

ONE OF the lower profile diplomatic style sinecures is that of honorary consul, the small cohort who represents around 40 countries here. They have a quasi diplomatic role but also essentially promote business ties between the countries. Sometimes, however, what seems like a cosy enough arrangement can get a little bit tricky, as is the… Read more »

Affairs, 11 December 2021

“VICIOUSLY EXTORTIONATE” was how Fintan O’Toole described the terms of the “ransom note” imposed on Ireland a decade ago when Troika heavies rolled into town. Days after taking to the stage to act as master of ceremonies for an ICTU demonstration against the austerity plan in Dublin, the Irish Times columnist wrote that “Ireland has… Read more »

Affairs, 11 December 2021

FEW MATTERS more than citizenship underline the true reality of the political project underway in Britain. It is impressive, almost, how the right wing press have drummed up a contrived outrage about so-called cancel culture, while in the background the Tory Home Office carries on its effort to strip people of a right to live… Read more »

Affairs, 11 December 2021

THE NEWS is not good for the party of law and order. A climbdown from Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys in her appeal against the Data Protection Commission (DPC) sees her party concede at last that successive Fine Gael governments have been acting flagrantly outside the law, across a number of departments and over several… Read more »

Affairs, 11 December 2021

INTERESTING TO see Jon Williams take on the critics. In the Sunday Times, RTÉ’s Director of News and Current Affairs responds to Declan Lynch, who in a recent Sindo column argued that the media should at this stage question its motives for giving airtime to figures to like Nigel Farage. Williams counters this by insisting… Read more »

Affairs, 10 December 2021

IRISH CUSTOMERS have recently encountered problems with further verification requirements in the online shopping process. Following months of scam phone calls, the banks have added what they call “an extra layer of security.” The same principle has been applied to public health as the Government face down unwanted communications of their own. Members of Nphet… Read more »