BALLINACURRA’S BALANCE SHEET
Affairs, Behind the Scenes, 19 March 2021
THOSE WITH a cool €6.35m to spare may be interested in purchasing Ballinacurra House in Kinsale from Des and Lisa McGahan, having seen it profiled in the Irish Times. The Georgian estate dates back to 1770, and it rents out to the glitterati for approximately €40,000 per week. It has hosted King Willem-Alexander of the… Read more »
TV REVIEW: TODAY ST PATRICK’S DAY SPECIAL (RTE ONE)
Affairs, Behind the Scenes, 19 March 2021
AS IF the past year hasn’t been sufficiently dystopian, hapless RTE viewers have had to endure an avalanche of light entertainment “content” (ie fillers) from the national broadcaster. Apparently assembled by a Montrose programming algorithm, the Today St. Patrick’s Day Special may well represent the nadir of this unwelcome trend. As ever, Dáithí Ó Sé’s… Read more »
ANOTHER LAST STAND
Affairs, 18 March 2021
THE LABOUR Party continues to keep its promises. Despite initially assuring us that his Irish Stand PR wheeze would be wound down upon Donald Trump’s departure from office, it seems now that Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is still searching for gold at the end of this particular rainbow. The Dublin TD scored a win of sorts… Read more »
COMMON GROUND
Affairs, 18 March 2021
THE IRISH Times tip-toed back into the fractious transgender debate last week with a column from author and academic, Emer O’Toole. The Montréal based Galway native warns of what she says are attempts by some British activists to recruit Irish based feminists in their efforts to undermine the Irish Gender Recognition Act, a trend flagged… Read more »
BRESSIE SINGING THE BLUES
Affairs, 18 March 2021
WITH HIS solo music career on hold since 2014, it’s been quite a while since Niall “Bressie” Breslin’s name was up in lights at the Olympia Theatre. This is about to change as he has announced a set of live podcast tour dates across Ireland and the UK in October 2021. Given that the country… Read more »
SF’S TWO POLICES
Affairs, 16 March 2021
SINN FÉIN marched straight into a communications failure on Monday and could be some time repairing the damage. Legislation tabled in Stormont this week seeks to limit access to abortion services in the North, where the issue remains high on the agenda. Despite Westminster eventually coming around to decriminalising terminations in the North in 2019… Read more »
BYRNE’S BETTING
Affairs, 16 March 2021
THOSE SPOILSPORTS at RTÉ cast a shadow over the fun ahead of preparations for this year’s Cheltenham Festival. In a segment on Claire Byrne Live with former All Ireland winner and recovering gambling addict Oisín McConville on Monday night, it was the found that viewers were exposed to 219 betting promotions over the course of… Read more »
STONE FAMILY’S MIXED FORTUNES
Affairs, 16 March 2021
THE TRIUMPH of influencer Michelle Ragazolli Stone at this year’s Gossies was surely welcome news for the Stone family, which has hit the limelight lately for less positive reasons. “Mrs Makeup” won the awards for “Best Celebrity Makeup Artist “ and “Girl Boss of the Year” at the awards – run by Ali Ryan’s Goss.ie… Read more »
CANCELLING CIARA KELLY
Affairs, Media, 15 March 2021
CIARA KELLY’S husband has become the latest person to incite the wrath of the Twitter “wokerati,” with his valiant endeavours to defend the Newstalk presenter’s honour. Whether Eoin O’Mahony is doing Kelly any favours by jumping in whenever she is mentioned in relation to Linda Hayden is another thing. Then again, it must be hard… Read more »
MEDIA GUARDIANS
Affairs, Media, 15 March 2021
UNSPOKEN AGENDAS have become a hot topic in recent weeks, culminating on Sunday with Alan Rusbridger’s departure from the Future Media Commission. The former Guardian editor has been subject to barrage of criticism in the fall out from the controversy surrounding journalist Roy Greenslade and there was no shortage of column inches devoted to questioning… Read more »
PUBLICANS EYE THE SEANAD
Affairs, 15 March 2021
TWELVE MONTHS on from the closure of pubs nationwide, the industry is aiming to step up pressure on the Government. In a sign of the times, this usually conservative lobby has latched onto remarks made by Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Blisss, during an interview with the Six O’Clock Show on Virgin Media last month. While… Read more »
CHU FROZEN OUT
Affairs, 15 March 2021
HAZEL CHU’S Oireachtas ambitions have been firmly put on hold once again as Queensbury rules neatly line up with the interests of party leader Éamon Ryan. The Green Party chair made an impressive breakthrough in the 2019 local elections when she topped the poll in the Pembroke electoral area, scoring a massive 33% of the… Read more »
JOHN MALONE’S UK FRIENDS
Affairs, 12 March 2021
IN THE aftermath of Piers Morgan’s characteristically low-key exit from ITV’s Good Morning Britain, there has been considerable speculation linking the egotistical pundit with Andrew Neil’s GB News, the soon-to-be launched conservative TV channel positioning itself as a Brit answer to Fox News. One of the titans of the Irish media market is a player here. It… Read more »
DAVY’S GOOD GOVERNANCE
Affairs, 11 March 2021
WOUNDED DAVY executives could do worse than look to the Good Governance Awards as the disgraced stock brokerage battles to salvage its reputation. The charity world has taken a similar beating with headline grabbing controversies threatening the goodwill on which many services rely for donations and volunteer effort. Recognising that “public trust in the sector… Read more »
MORE RULE BRITANNIA AT THE IT
Affairs, Media, 10 March 2021
HAS THE Irish Times finally scraped the bottom of the historical barrel? Recent months have seen the paper print a stream of unhinged columns of a British and Unionist perspective. Moderate voices be damned and Goldhawk wonders if presenting its readers with increasingly the most extreme and one dimensional expressions of British identity is not… Read more »
VLAD’S SECTARIAN HEADCOUNT
Affairs, 10 March 2021
LEO VARADKAR’S eagerness to shoehorn criticism of Sinn Fein into every opportunity backfired following an RTE interview on Wednesday. During an appearance on the News At One, the Tánaiste claimed that SF are “sectarian, very anti-British” and that the main opposition party has “no Protestant TDs, MLAs or Senators.” This insinuation was met with a… Read more »
MERCOSUR MOVES
Affairs, 10 March 2021
AMIDST MUCH high-minded posturing over the CETA vote, it looks like it’s the turn of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to feel the heat. Both parties have chastised those wishy-washy Greens for their reluctance to line up behind the EU-Canada trade agreement, but may have less to say with the Mercosur deal hovering back into… Read more »
IMAGE PUBLICATIONS’ STRATEGY
Affairs, Media, 10 March 2021
HAVING PUT its print titles on hiatus last March, Image Publications is now hoping to entice readers to part with dosh to read its online articles. Its nascent digital offering was launched with typical Image hyperbole, promising “a new website, a new team, new faces (as well as lots of the ones you already know… Read more »
LUCY KENNEDY’S SHUFFLE
Affairs, Media, 9 March 2021
WITH THREE radio show changes on the horizon, can we expect to see new life breathed into the morning breakfast show landscape, or will it be more of the same? Classic Hits revealed this week that it will be swapping its breakfast team of PJ Gallagher and Jim McCabe for Radio Nova’s Colm Hayes and… Read more »
CONOR MCGINN’S HOLIDAY
Affairs, 5 March 2021
GOLDHAWK was pleased to see his old friend Conor McGinn take umbrage with Pontin’s blacklisting of Irish tourists. The Labour Party MP for St Helen’s was surprised to see his own surname on a secret list kept by the British holiday chain, which was intent on excluding bookings by the Travelling Community. “Irony: Pontin’s recently… Read more »
HOT PRESS AWARDS FLOP
Affairs, 5 March 2021
THE ABSENCE of even the usual Z-list award ceremonies in recent time has seemingly not led to much enthusiasm for what remains on offer. Louise McSharry was less than impressed to find herself in line for a most protogeneous accolade this week. On Twitter, the 2FM radio DJ explained that she “just got an e-mail… Read more »
RUSSIAN RETREAT
Affairs, 5 March 2021
THE RESTLESS Eoghan Murphy has resumed his campaign against COVID-19 as his impatience has the Dublin TD looking East. In the Dáil on Thursday, the former housing minister noted that Slovakia has taken delivery of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, with the Czech Republic and Austria soon to follow. Murphy is calling on the government… Read more »
TV REVIEW: GOODBYE HOUSE (RTE ONE)
Affairs, Behind the Scenes, 5 March 2021
WHILST THE country may be in the midst of a housing crisis, independent production companies can always find a home for their property show pitches on RTE. The Montrose obsession with the genre knows bounds: now in its second series, Goodbye House is preceded on Thursday nights by Channel 4 buy-in Grand Designs, while similarly themed shows in… Read more »
RTÉ’S SUSSEX KERFUFFLE
Affairs, Media, 5 March 2021
WHILE THE Brits are duking it out over the rights and wrongs of Oprah’s forthcoming interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, a right royal rumpus has erupted over here too. The decision by the national broadcaster to show the interview on RTÉ 2 on Monday, the day after it airs on CBS in the… Read more »
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Affairs, 4 March 2021
CULTURE WAR at the Irish Times has taken an interesting turn in recent weeks, even if the underlying agenda remains unchanged. The paper has tried to position itself as a pole of reason and moderation against what it believes are the potential excesses latent in the so-called decade of centenaries. The Irish Times especially acts… Read more »
VLAD’S BEEF BLUSTER
Affairs, 4 March 2021
TÁNAISTE Leo Varadkar’s vigilance against the threat of class politics has reached amusing levels. Fine Gael’s ‘posh boy’ image remained a stubborn liability last year and the party suffered a second general election drubbing, largely due to perceptions that Leo’s team are out of touch. Ahead of last February’s vote, Micheál Martin joined the action,… Read more »
TV REVIEW: EATING WITH THE ENEMY (VIRGIN ONE)
Affairs, 4 March 2021
AT THE best of times, Virgin has the feel of a channel curated by Alan Partridge, and its trashy aesthetic is once again front and centre courtesy of the hyped Eating With The Enemy. Only marginally more sophisticated than a Jerry Springer episode, the concept sees a variety of ‘odd couples’ argue about their sociopolitical differences… Read more »
SWELLING RTÉ’S STAFF
Affairs, Media, 4 March 2021
IS THE world of media about to receive a wholesale shake-up in relation to its relationship with freelancers and self-employed contractors? Many journalists will be interested in reports that RTÉ has offered staff contracts to 81 people, after the Revenue Commissioners raised concerns over their trading relationship with the station. This followed its analysis of… Read more »
ANDREA ROCHE’S BUZZ
Affairs, 3 March 2021
IT ISN’T just Andrea Roche’s stable of influencers that are flat out flogging their own product lines, as the former Miss Ireland also has her own brand of cosmetics called Aliso Organic Beauty. Happily for Roche, her products have been heavily promoted on the social media feeds of various people she represents, with several knocking… Read more »
INDO THUMPS THUGS
Affairs, 3 March 2021
GOLDHAWK is relieved to see the Irish Independent condemn the blight of disinformation this week. The editorial on Monday took a hard line with the “deluded thugs” at Saturday’s demonstration who it says have “rightly been utterly condemned by all mainstream political groups”. The paper also takes aim at tech giants, writing that “again, we… Read more »
GARDA BACKLASH
Affairs, 3 March 2021
THE GARDA COMMISSIONER’S blunder in claiming that there was a left wing element to violent scenes on Dublin has caused all sorts of trouble. Drew Harris later retracted his comments, clarifying that “despite initial indications, following further investigation, there is no corroborated evidence of extreme left factions being involved.” Harris drew criticism, first as the… Read more »
RAYMOND GROARKE SADDLES UP
Affairs, Racing, 3 March 2021
IN WHAT has been a most turbulent week for racing, support and sympathy for amateur jockey Rob James is going to be in short supply. There is no doubt the Cheltenham Festival winning jockey will pay a hefty price over his idiotic actions that were caught on video, but he has been spared the brunt… Read more »
DAVID O’SULLIVAN’S CREDENTIALS
Affairs, 2 March 2021
WITH CETA likely to be approved with or without the support of sceptical Greens, opponents of the EU-Canada trade deal might feel as if they are being goaded at this point. The Irish Times yesterday published a column by former Irish and EU bureaucrat, David O’Sullivan, who warns that failure to ratify the deal would… Read more »
GRACE MONGEY’S DEFECTION
Affairs, 2 March 2021
The news that popular blogger, Grace Mongey, has signed up with a newly-launched UK talent agency is likely to send shivers up the spine of Irish agencies. Mongey, who operates under the moniker, Faces by Grace, has signed to the Matchstick Group, which launched this week with 26 clients and is founded by entrepreneur, Max… Read more »
PRIVACY PANDEMIC
Affairs, 1 March 2021
PRIVACY SEEMS to be a buzzword at the moment, even when it comes to people who have high-profiles, with appeals for confidentiality attached to three recent cases before the courts. Attorneys for JP McManus’s son John are currently fighting to keep his late wife Emma’s toxicology and autopsy reports kept private, resulting in a coroner’s… Read more »
BALLYMALOE’S BURST BUBBLE
Affairs, Beyond the Pale, 1 March 2021
BALLYMALOE COOKERY SCHOOL hit the spotlight recently with Gardaí launching an investigation into potential breaches of Level 5 Covid-19 restrictions. The situation occurred because the school was found to be running classes for nine international students during lockdown. According to its co-founder, Darina Allen, the situation arose because the students arrived in Ireland at the… Read more »
