RÓISÍN INGLE’S ROCKY TAKE
Affairs, 18 November 2022
HAD THERE been a category for ‘Misstep of the Year’ at yesterday’s national journalism awards, Róisín “Bungle” Ingle is likely to have snatched the prize at the very last minute.
The schadenfreude emanating from the Irish Times writer’s ill-judged take on the Blackrock College sexual abuse scandal has not impressed readers.
Having a pop at the “richer, posher and more privileged” past pupils of the fee-paying school was a rather unconvincing attempt by Bungle to portray herself as coming from the wrong side of the tracks.
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CETA COLUMN
Affairs, 18 November 2022
THERE WILL surely have been some discomfort in the Irish Times office on Wednesday as one of their own columnists castigated the Government over its handling of CETA. The gloves are off for Michael McDowell, who writes that “Fine Gael should bow its collective head in shame for that repugnant attempt to abuse parliament and… Read more »
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PENSION PLANS
Affairs, 18 November 2022
THE ONTARIO Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) is nursing its wounds with the potential to lose up to $95 million in the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange. In the statement published on Friday, the company assured the public that the investment “represents less than 0.05% of our total net assets.” Elsewhere, the OTPP is part of a… Read more »
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JAMIE OLIVER’S CHEQUERED REVIEWS
Affairs, 17 November 2022
SEVERAL IRISH restaurant reviewers won’t be on Jamie Oliver and Gerry Fitzpatrick’s Christmas list this year, having written some naughty and not very nice reviews of their newly-opened Chequer Lane restaurant.
The exception is the Sindo’s Lucinda O’Sullivan, whose glowing review stood in stark contrast to the much harsher ones given by her fellow scribes in the Business Post, Irish Times and Indo.
The critics were at odds before they had even touched a morsel of grub.
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RTÉ’S BLACK FRIDAY
Affairs, 17 November 2022
AN INTERVIEW with Jim Jennings, RTÉ’s director of content, earlier this year shed grim light on how commercial interest dictates the calendar. Speaking to the Irish Times in August, Jennings lamented the challenges facing broadcasters this year with the World Cup – an advertising bonanza in its own right – muscling in on the Christmas… Read more »
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SHARON KEEGAN’S AMBITION
Affairs, 11 November 2022
OPENING A three-month pop-up shop in Dundrum is the latest step in Sharon Keegan’s quest for world domination in the area of gym leggings and hoodies. The ambitious Dubliner is not shy of making grand claims and has proven pretty adept at keeping her Peachylean brand in the news. She boasted last year that the… Read more »
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EU ARMY MANOEUVRES
Affairs, 9 November 2022
THE BEST generals know when to change tactics but ironically this lesson is lost on advocates of Irish militarism. Voters remain committed to neutrality despite the best efforts of senior politicians and media this year. The Government is quietly pressing on with policy in this regard, with plans to tweak its public messaging at a… Read more »
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RTÉ CLIMATE DRIVE
Affairs, 9 November 2022
THE COP27 Summit topped the main evening bulletins on Monday night, with Sharon Ní Bheoláin reporting “blistering warnings of a planet approaching tipping point.” Having been reminded during the news that “we are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing”, RTÉ viewers were then treated to an hour at various second-hand car… Read more »
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VIRGIN MEDIA MOVES
Affairs, 8 November 2022
THE GAME of musical chairs continues at Virgin Media Television with Martin King moving from The Six O’Clock Show to replace Simon Delaney on Ireland AM at weekends. Although Elaine Crowley has been paired with Paul Ryder and Suzanne Kane in recent months, King will now present the weekend show along with Crowley and Katja… Read more »
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ELON MUSK, INTERNET LANDLORD
Affairs, 4 November 2022
REPORTS THAT Elon Musk plans to halve the global staff-count at Twitter Inc. will be a source of alarm in Dublin. Just how the South African plutocrat will act as new internet overlord is anyone’s guess but his existing operations in this country do provide some clues on the real approach to business behind the… Read more »
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GRAINNE SEOIGE’S WOES
Affairs, 3 November 2022
IF RETURNING to RTÉ is on Gráinne Seoige’s wishlist, telling the Sindo that she left CrimeCall for her “own self-respect” over the rate she was being paid is unlikely to have endeared her to head honchos at Montrose. This explanation contradicts the report by Niamh Horan in the Sindo in 2019, describing how Seoige was… Read more »
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WAR COMES HOME
Affairs, 2 November 2022
IF THE political row over refugee accommodation appears unedifying now, then prepare for the situation to get much worse. It was inevitable that the Government’s grand rhetoric at the outbreak of Russia’s invasion would soon perish upon dealing with the outcome on these shores. Having already passed 50,000, the number of Ukrainians arriving in Ireland… Read more »
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MURDOCH’S STANDARDS
Affairs, 2 November 2022
THE NEWSPAPERS are not known for self-awareness so it was interesting to read a small gesture of reflection in the Sunday Times. In the opinion pages, Conor Brady takes the English media to task in a column noting how standards of political coverage have declined in parallel to the antics of the Conservative Party. While… Read more »
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RTÉ’S FAVOURITE FILLIES
Affairs, 25 October 2022
WHILE STILL promoting Doireann Garrihy for all it’s worth, RTÉ is also trying to mould former jockey Nina Carberry into a media personality. Having bagged the Dancing with the Stars trophy earlier this year, Carberry has now replaced Derval O’Rourke on the coaching panel of the annual autumn filler, Ireland’s Fittest Family. Carberry triumphed in… Read more »
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MAIRÉAD RONAN’S FIT FINANCES
Affairs, 25 October 2022
MAIRÉAD RONAN gave an interview recently where she said she quit her radio show as she didn’t want to be “working 10 jobs.” Her moneybags husband. Louis Ronan, obviously doesn’t feel the same way as he has set up four new companies in recent months, and is now a director of 16 companies. He owns… Read more »
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DOUBLE STANDARDS
Affairs, 21 October 2022
IT HAS certainly been a vintage week for double standards in Irish politics. The government remains up in arms on behalf of Shane Ross in his efforts to promote a book on Mary Lou McDonald, though this time two years ago it was a very different story. When the very same author published a book… Read more »
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BOUCHER HAYES DONS THE RTÉ WELLIES
Affairs, 21 October 2022
IT IS not often that RTÉ produces an intriguing shake up among its “on-air talent”. Long-time broadcaster Damien O’Reilly is off to Brussels to look after the interests of the Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society. He is only the latest journalist to turn industry lobbyist though few will be too surprised in this instance, given the… Read more »
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A WIKI MYSTERY
Affairs, 20 October 2022
GOLDHAWK IS interested to see that the Wikipedia page for “Shoneenism” has been updated considerably in recent days. While just over a week ago the entry contained a brief five sentence overview on the subject, the page has since swelled to include a potted history of British colonial crimes in Ireland and now devotes considerable… Read more »
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EPP PULLED RIGHT?
Affairs, 13 October 2022
LEO VARADKAR and Georgia Meloni lead what are among a very select group of political parties. Today the vast majority of far-right groups on the march across Europe are mere pretenders. That is, from Sweden to Hungary the parties taking power are better understood as tribute acts. The new fascism looks with envy upon Fine… Read more »
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ENOCH BURKE’S CRUSADE
Affairs, 13 October 2022
GIVEN THE sniffiness apparent among some Irish journalists in recent years, it has been interesting to watch how the case of Enoch Burke was handled to date. It is one thing when stories ebb and flow here domestically, but, once news breaks out abroad, there is often a disquiet about how foreign media handle the facts…. Read more »
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MARGRETHE VESTAGER’S VISIT
Affairs, 11 October 2022
EUROPHILES WILL have been gratified to be in the company of Margrethe Vestager during her visit to Dublin as EU Commission Vice President last week. It is not long since Ireland was cruelly consigned to the “periphery” during the Troika years, so there is always a certain validation when a big European cheese arrives in… Read more »
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RTÉ FAVOURITE
Affairs, 11 October 2022
RTÉ HAS been very good to Alastair Campbell and few figures from British politics have enjoyed such an afterlife on these shores. Fewer still who did not serve as elected representatives, and it would certainly be a case of availability rather any great clamour or affection among viewers here that the New Labour spin doctor… Read more »
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NEW RELATIONSHIPS?
Affairs, 8 October 2022
ONE OF the long unspoken fears in Irish political life is seeping into the daylight.
Retired RTÉ host Seán O’Rourke was on hand this week to launch the new book by Shane Ross, the former TD, senator and cabinet minister though above all a fellow journalist. To top off this cliché, the scene takes place where else but Doheny & Nesbitt’s public house and there could hardly be a better set up for the punchline to come.
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TOMMY BOWE’S BUSINESSES
Affairs, 6 October 2022
ACCOUNTS FILED this week showed that it has been a game of two halves on the business front for former Irish rugby international and Ireland AM presenter Tommy Bowe. Blue Bridge Management Limited, the company he co-owns with his wife Lucy, reported a profit of €200,000 during the year ending March 2022, and its accumulated… Read more »
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ROB KENNY’S FLATTERY
Affairs, 4 October 2022
PUBLICIST AND influencer Rob Kenny gives online “masterclasses” for €60pp to those hoping to break into the PR industry. His recent piece certainly was included for RTÉ’s website on the ‘most stylish Irish people to follow online’ was certainly a lesson in how to win friends and influence people. Irish designer Audrey Hamilton made the… Read more »
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POOH-POOHING AOIBHÍN GARRIHY
Affairs, 3 October 2022
IF THE coverage given to a poetry anthology compiled by eldest sister Aoibhín is anything to go by, the Irish media’s love-in with the Garrihy sisters shows no sign of abating. Congratulations must go to Ireland AM’s Tommy Bowe and Muireann O’Connell for soldiering through Garrihy’s rendition of a poem written by her father Eugene… Read more »
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BONO PR
Affairs, 30 September 2022
WITH BONO busy promoting his memoir and other interests, the U2 PR machine is a thing to behold. The frontman kicked off the month in TIME Magazine with a book extract on “his friend, Mikhail Gorbachev”. Then, another teaser in New Yorker Magazine, with stories from his childhood that were swiftly reproduced on front pages… Read more »
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GREEN BOLSHEVIKS?
Affairs, 30 September 2022
CRYSTAL BALL gazing around Sinn Féin takes amusing and even contradictory forms as the party edges toward government. In the Irish Times, Stephen Collins warns that the latest disaster unfolding in Britain is what awaits Irish voters should they fail to recognise and reward the work of the current administration. This in itself is a… Read more »
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SITESERV SINKS IRISH WATER
Affairs, 28 September 2022
THE ANNUAL Saint Patrick’s Day tour of America proved to be more trouble than it was worth for Enda Kenny’s government in 2012, a saga which took another, long awaited, turn this month.
Flanked by some of the nation’s best and brightest, An Taoiseach, fresh from his White House visit, appeared at the New York stock exchange on the morning of March 19. Under prominent branding of “Ireland Inc”, Kenny rang the bell in a less than subtle signal that his own “best little country” was now open for business.
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DATA MYTHS
Affairs, 27 September 2022
SCRATCH THE surface of numerous stories presented as global issues and it does not take long to find the more familiar Irish property speculation in play. In the war over data centres, advocates in politics, industry and the media have done a fantastic job mystifying an argument in which concern from the public has been… Read more »
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POLICE LINE
Affairs, 27 September 2022
THE GARDA obsession with smartphones and social media continues. Responding to events in Cherry Orchard, former assistant commissioner John O’Driscoll provided a rather curious take for RTÉ Radio. On one hand the retired chief acknowledged on Morning Ireland that scenes like this have not been uncommon since the 1980s. At the same time, he suggests… Read more »
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SINDO’S GLORIOUS PLUGGING
Affairs, Media, 23 September 2022
ALTHOUGH THE Sindo’s arts and culture supplement is on its third editor in as many years, one constant is the ample plugs given to books written by one of its own hacks, Emily Hourican. The reins of the supplement were taken over this summer by Liz Kearney, a former denizen of the Indo parish, who… Read more »
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FRANK FEIGHAN’S FESTIVAL
Affairs, 20 September 2022
WHEN IT comes to the HSE’s own drugs policy, it seems that the Government does not know whether to tune in or drop out. Though often characterised by an institutional inertia, the health service has taken a lead in recent years, edging toward what many increasingly believe to be a more enlightened outlook on harm… Read more »
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SCENE + HEARD NO MORE
Affairs, 19 September 2022
THE MEAN old Arts Council is getting the blame for the ending of the Scene + Heard festival, which showcases emerging artists and creators of new work across various performance genres. Being denied Arts Council funding has brought the festival to an end, according to Caoimhe Connolly and Cliona Dukes, who have been behind it… Read more »
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DONOHOE CLINGS TO EUROPE
Affairs, 16 September 2022
POOR FECKLESS Paddy is forever disappointing his betters on the continent. Abroad in Brussels the view has taken told that Ireland is once again failing to appreciate the expectations and delicate protocol without which the European Union would surely not survive. At least, this is the impression given in some recent newspaper reports. Fionnán Sheahan… Read more »
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MINIMUM WAGE WOES
Affairs, 15 September 2022
SPARE A thought for Paul Kelly in his efforts to clean up the image of a battered hospitality trade. The Fáilte Ireland CEO launched a new “Employer Excellence Initiative” on Monday, which, it is hoped, will “reposition the industry as an appealing place to work.” A €700,000 marketing campaign to fight back against negative perceptions… Read more »
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