VARADKAR’S RURAL HEARTBEAT
Affairs, Beyond the Pale, Fowl Emissions, 23 January 2020
FINE GAEL LAUNCHED its election showcase for rural Ireland on Wednesday with Varadkar announcing that “agriculture in many ways is the heartbeat of the Fine Gael party particularly in rural constituencies”. A steady slew of stories about these communities on life support, however, has kept pulses racing within the party. When FG trumpeted its last… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
FINE GAEL JITTERS
Affairs, 23 January 2020
THIS WEEK’S DISMAL POLL figures may not have come as a total surprise for Leo Varadkar who has just seen almost 20% wiped off his approval rating since October. Vlad will have had some difficulty in acquiescing to the party producing election materials which feature Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney just as prominently as the leader himself…. Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
FASCIST FAILURE
Affairs, 23 January 2020
LOOKS LIKE FURTHER bad news for the far-right following Goldhawk’s recent report that some of its Irish adherents are currently doing time at her majesty’s pleasure (See The Phoenix 10/1/20). The Identitarian Movement GB & Ireland (formerly known as Generation Identity UK & Ireland) is set to dissolve itself and “ruminate on its failures”. Former… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
SINN FÉIN’S DEBATE GAMBLE
Affairs, 23 January 2020
SINN FÉIN’S CAMPAIGN for inclusion in head to head television debates has proven to be an effective rallying cause. Fighting a parallel battle away from the election proper has done no harm for the party’s image and keeps the narrative on a terrain more comfortable than selling policies and defending the finer points of budgets…. Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
PROFILE: FEARGAL PURCELL
Affairs, 23 January 2020
Goldhawk was surprised to see his old pal Feargal Purcell on the panel for analysis of last night’s TV debate. Enda Kenny’s former press officer now works as a lobbyist for the likes of Airbnb, KBC Bank and Pfizer but still, it seems, finds time to go to bat for Fine Gael. PROFILE: FEARGAL PURCELL… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
REPEAL AND THE ELECTION
Affairs, 22 January 2020
THIS ELECTION marks the first major vote since the Eighth Amendment was repealed in 2018. That long and arduous process saw much agonising on the part of politicians but will any of it have an impact come the day of reckoning? The memory of culture wars past had left a deep apathy in Leinster House…. Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
FINE GAEL GOES TRUMP
Affairs, 22 January 2020
Goldhawk was amused to read an internal Fine Gael memo in which director of elections in Dún Laoghaire, Paddy Hayes, complains of the media’s alleged opposition to giving his party “a fair crack of the whip”. RTÉ News are “institutionally opposed to government” according to Hayes and “orchestrated attacks on Frances Fitzgerald to destroy her… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
PADDY COSGRAVE’S “THIN LAYER OF SCUM”
Affairs, 21 January 2020
PADDY COSGRAVE FIRED off some typically restrained political analysis this week when he said that a vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil is “voting for the guaranteed continuance of the indefensible privileges” enjoyed by “the thin layer of scum that sits atop Irish society”. It was not until he turned his attention to journalism,… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
VARADKAR’S POLL SHOCK
Affairs, 21 January 2020
TREMORS OF DREAD ran through the Fine Gael membership on Sunday as opinion polls showed an ominous seven percent wiped off their support. Coveney, Donohoe and other senior figures put on a brave face and spoke of “motivation” but morale will not have been improved by Monday’s Irish Times poll confirming similar levels of discontent…. Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
MING AND MCHUGH
Affairs, 21 January 2020
THE SIGHT of Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan spending the weekend canvassing with Green Party candidate, Saoirse McHugh, has raised eyebrows all round. On one side, Ming will not have endeared himself to farmers in the West where perception of the Greens as a high tax anti-rural party runs deep. On the other, bike riding urban liberals… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
ARLENE’S LEGACY
Affairs, 21 January 2020
MONDAY SAW publication of new rules for ministerial advisors in Belfast as Stormont braces itself for conclusion of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) inquiry and likely endgame in the so called ‘cash for ash’ scandal. In future, Ministers will be directly responsible for the “conduct and discipline” of their staff, who will now be expected… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
ALAN ENGLISH MOVES TO THE SINDO
Affairs, 21 January 2020
CONGRATS TO Alan English for landing the Sunday Independent editor’s job, confirming Goldhawk’s report last week (see The Phoenix, 17/1/20). For the full background to office/editorial politics at Independent House involving former INM group editor, Fionnan Sheahan, ex-Sindo and current Indo editor, Cormac Bourke and new owners, Mediahuis see The Phoenix, 1/11/19 and 20/9/19). ‘SINDO’ INSIDERS ‘SWOTTED’ ASIDE A MOOD of rejection and… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
HOW THE WESTON FAMILY MADE THEIR FORTUNE
Affairs, 21 January 2020
No surprise to see Hilary and Galen Weston et al at the top of the growing list of ‘Irish’ billionaires, with a guesstimate of their family’s wealth put at almost €12bn. Moneybags examined the business model for the Weston-controlled conglomerate Associated British Foods in the article below (25/07/19) and recommended that it is time for… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
YOUNG BLOOD: SARAH DURCAN
Affairs, 20 January 2020
First time Social Democrat candidate Sarah ‘Waking the Feminists’ Durcan has some interesting cultural credentials, most notably as a member of the board of the beleaguered Abbey Theatre, which has made more headlines for the ongoing drama offstage than anything on. In the hotly contested Dublin South Bay constituency, Durcan (daughter of the colourful and… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
WILL DROGHEDA BECOME YET ANOTHER BYWORD FOR CRIMINALITY?
Affairs, 19 January 2020
THIS TIME FOUR YEARS AGO, armed gardaí were posted on every corner in Dublin’s inner city. The Regency Hotel shooting became an opportunity for an unprecedented and highly visible performance of police might. In the media, hacks battled to outdo one another with the darkest of speculation and hyperbolic prose. Each eruption framed as more… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
EOGHAN MURPHY’S BAD WEEK
Affairs, 19 January 2020
GOLDHAWK WOULD LIKE to have been a fly on the wall when Eoghan Murphy’s team were alerted to photos of the minister beaming down on the scene where a homeless man had suffered “life changing injuries”. Expressing how “saddened” he was by the incident, Murphy assured the public that the offending election poster had been… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
PADDY HOLOHAN DERAILS SINN FÉIN
Affairs, 19 January 2020
THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN went off script again on Thursday as Sinn Féin faced pressure over some seriously dubious remarks from Paddy ‘hooligan’ Holohan. After much toing and froing the party eventually announced that their newly elected councillor has been “suspended with immediate effect”. The party were slow to act, not least in the midsts of… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
AODHÁN Ó RÍORDÁIN’S LABOUR AMBITIONS
Affairs, 17 January 2020
Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is hoping to claw his way back into the Lower House by contesting the 2020 election in Dublin Bay North. He narrowly lost out on the constituency’s fifth and final seat to retiring Independent TD and Minister Finian McGrath in 2016. Here (12/6/19), Goldhawk posits Ó Ríordáin’s real and more ambitious… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
TP O’REILLY’S CAMPAIGN
Affairs, 17 January 2020
Vlad’s visit to a forklift factory in Cavan as part of the first days of the election trail inadvertently created some pretty bad optics. He was photographed sitting in a combilift soon after it emerged that a homeless man was seriously injured by industrial machinery as a result of a DCC canal clean-up. Leo and… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
YOUNG BLOOD: PADDY HOLOHAN
Affairs, 16 January 2020
SINN FÉIN councillor, Paddy Holohan, has managed to come across as homophobic and racist in just a few words, referring to Varadkar’s India background, and saying the Taoiseach should be a ‘family man’ with kids. Expulsion, rather than apology, would be more appropriate. Readers may be interested to read Goldhawk’s previous Young Blood profile on… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
YOUNGBLOOD: PAUL MCAULIFFE
Affairs, 16 January 2020
Who is Fine Gael’s most vulnerable TD in Dublin, if not the country? Answer: Noel Rock in Dublin North-West. Who is poised to take Rock’s seat, at the general election? Answer: Fianna Fail’s Dublin Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe. Who did Taoiseach Leo Varadkar call out on the issue of the homeless man crushed along the… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
VLAD’S FALSE START
Affairs, 16 January 2020
LEO VARADKAR met his election target date, but the manner of its announcement was belated and cack-handed. Fine Gael’s delicate political choreography came undone a week ago as plans to call the election last weekend had to be aborted due to adverse political and PR conditions. Storm ‘Charlie’ had a lot to do with it,… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
TRUMP CARD FOR EU ARMY
Affairs, 16 January 2020
THOSE MODERATE Irish Europhiles who are so aghast at Donald Trump’s belligerent foreign policy have managed to use his latest excess against the Iranians as another argument to create an EU army. Some 24 hours after a US drone killed Iran’s General Qassem Suleimani, an Irish Times column by EU proselytiser Professor Brigid Laffan told… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
SINKING SOC DEMS
Affairs, 16 January 2020
THE SOCIAL Democrats might be staring into the abyss at this election. The centre-left group, headed by TDs Catherine Murphy and Roísin Shortall, had pretensions of replacing the moribund Labour Party. Now Labour, the resurgent Green Party and even Fianna Fáil threaten to put the kibosh on that Soc Dem breakthrough. The party’s best chance… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
YOUNGBLOOD: SAOIRSE MCHUGH
Affairs, 16 January 2020
Will Achill Island native Saoirse McHugh be able to ride the ‘green wave’ all the way to a seat in the Dáil? Rural Mayo is hardly a hotbed of climate change activity. But the environmentalist, who recently announced her candidacy in the 2020 general election, wants to promote more radical measures to address the global… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
DONNELLY’S DIAGNOSIS?
Affairs, 15 January 2020
THE STAGE IS SET for an intriguing battle in Wicklow where Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly has announced his desire to become the new Minister for Health. An ambition not lost on the present incumbent and constituency rival, Simon Harris. Donnelly had has plenty of opportunity to get stuck in as FF health spokesman since 2018… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
BOOZY BATTLES
Affairs, 15 January 2020
SOZZLED READERS of the Irish Times will surely raise a glass to Mark Paul for his spirited defence of industry funded alcohol awareness campaigns. The business hack suggests that Simon Harris is “drunk on power” for questioning the advice peddled by DrinkAware, which is jointly funded by Diageo and Heineken. The health minister’s warnings may… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
VARADKAR TO BOW OUT OF POLITICS?
Affairs, 14 January 2020
THIS ELECTION IS NOT just the most important of Leo Varadkar’s career but quite possibly the last. Despite his relative youth, Vlad has already spent longer in politics than most. After joining Fine Gael while in still secondary school, he later described the party’s youth wing as his “main social outlet” during studies in Trinity… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
THE BATTLE FOR TAOISEACH
Affairs, 14 January 2020
THE COMING GENERAL ELECTION will mark the first in over a decade in which the next Taoiseach is not yet a forgone conclusion. While Fianna Fáil’s recovery remains still a shadow of the days when they would claim to be the “natural party of government”, it is, at last, finally in a position to challenge… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
BRUTON’S ECO SPIN
Affairs, 10 January 2020
WILL FINE GAEL’S INTEREST in climate ever extend beyond PR? It is no accident that Richard Bruton lined up the Climate Action Bill as government’s first media splash of the new year. At present the legislation exists only in draft form, however, and government’s ambition for this crucial long term framework be sufficiently wrapped up… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
BANGED UP ABROAD
Affairs, 10 January 2020
IT WAS PORRIDGE at Christmas dinner for some of Ireland’s far-right provocateurs. Dale Lutton of Portadown and Belfast born Deirdre McTucker (sometimes Damhnait McKenna), who attended UCD and resides in Loughlinstown, were each convicted of violent disorder following farcical scenes in a Kent carpark. The pair became involved in a brawl with protesters outside Marks… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
MAURA HOPKINS BOWS OUT
Affairs, 10 January 2020
FITTING that Maura Hopkins would announce her decision not to contest the general election in the week that childcare workers escalate concerns over underfunding. In a statement, the Fine Gael Senator said that as a new mother it would not be possible to balance the responsibilities and demands of personal and professional life. It is… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
SHANNON ESCALATION
Affairs, 10 January 2020
THE DRUMS OF WAR can only mean busy times for Shannon Airport. A steady stream of US military have passed through Ireland on route to Kuwait since the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Friday. On Monday, Varadkar said that government are “very much concerned about any escalation of tensions in the Middle East”… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
CHASING JULIAN
Affairs, 10 January 2020
NEWS THAT Julian Smith hosted a reception with leading loyalists received little interest in newspapers south of border. Representatives and organisations linked to the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando were invited to the Secretary of State’s official residence at Hillsborough after Christmas to outline concerns about Brexit and what the Tory government has now… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
WILLIE WALSH’S STERLING RECORD AT IAG
Affairs, Finance, 10 January 2020
The decision by Willie Walsh to parachute out of IAG (09/01/2020) will leave a pretty big space in the cockpit. As noted by Moneybags last year (see below, originally 24/01/2019), he has managed to turn IAG into the most profitable airline in the world and in particular, Aer Lingus is the most profitable airline in… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
VARADKAR’S PAN-NATIONALISM
Affairs, 8 January 2020
THE OUTCOME of December’s Westminster election in Northern Ireland brought further recrimination and debate about a border poll. In response to the defeat of Nigel Dodds in North Belfast, Arlene Foster suggested simply that “the demography just wasn’t there” and that “the pan-nationalist front has come to fruition again”. A most gracious statement given this… Read more »
This content is only available to Phoenix subscribers.
