RAY D’ARCY’S DOSH
Affairs, Media, 2 June 2022
NOW THAT RTÉ is “developing ideas” to replace Claire Byrne Live, will Ray D’Arcy finally be given a new TV programme? After his primetime Saturday night show was pulled at the end of 2019, D’Arcy’s TV time was reduced to a six-week run of The Den in November 2020 on RTÉ One. While he earned… Read more »
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CLAIRE BYRNE’S END
Affairs, 1 June 2022
GOLDHAWK SHUDDERS to think who among RTÉ’s “star talent” is next to receive their own current affairs vehicle following the demise of Claire Byrne Live. There was little left to scrape in the bottom of this particular barrel but the sudden departure poses a challenge for even the renowned efficiency at Montrose, which has less than… Read more »
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TV REVIEW: BRAINSTORM (RTE ONE)
Affairs, 1 June 2022
BRAINSTORM declared itself to be a “new series about new thinking” – so it’s clearly not going to be a documentary about RTE commissioning editors. Rather, it’s part of the Montrose’s so-called ‘Brainstorm initiative’, a strand of ‘content’ that in typical RTE fashion is a somewhat nebulous mishmash of science-themed programming. Its most recent manifestation,… Read more »
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JOHN BURNS VS THE PHOENIX
Affairs, 27 May 2022
STANDARDS HAVE fallen at The Phoenix if we are to believe the musings of Sunday Times journalist, John Burns. Goldhawk’s crimes amount to a failure to fall in behind efforts to undermine Ireland’s policy of neutrality and this magazine’s scrutiny of how the campaign of militarism has played out elsewhere in the Irish media.
As a frequent subject in our pages, a wounded John Burns might be forgiven for holding professional, even personal, animus toward the humble Phoenix, but our critic has the good grace to dress up any potential injury as a defence of the Irish Times – the newspaper which exhibited signs of extreme anguish when its own opinion polling last month revealed that voters remain unmoved in their attitude to war despite its best efforts.
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MADIGAN’S BACK TO SCHOOL BLUES
Affairs, 27 May 2022
GOLDHAWK IS flummoxed by Government plans to hive off some children into what are being called “special education centres.” With a long-anticipated shortage of classroom places looming this September, it is envisioned that some of those with intellectual disabilities are to be denied the opportunity of “mainstream” learning alongside their own peers, and will be… Read more »
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ELECTORAL REFORM
Affairs, 26 May 2022
IT IS interesting to consider the impetus fuelling some elements of the current zeal for political reform in Leinster House. The Government plans to overhaul the Electoral Acts, beefing up the law to reflect new challenges posed by the current political age. An amendment bill published by minister Darragh O’Brien seeks to regulate online advertising,… Read more »
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PAUL STENSON’S MOVE
Affairs, 25 May 2022
OUTRAGE MERCHANT Paul Stenson caused a predictable stir at the height of the pandemic by taking aim at those claiming Pandemic Unemployment Payments (PUP) for “sitting on their arses at home and living off taxpayers’ money.” Surprisingly, given this perspective, the Charleville Lodge Hotel, which is fronted by the loudmouth himself and home to his… Read more »
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GREEN GRENADES?
Affairs, 25 May 2022
REBEL GREEN Party TDs Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello are taking an interesting gamble in choosing to break ranks on the maternity hospital, expending whatever remaining leverage they might have on environmental concerns. With Mary Lou McDonald’s surplus expected to bring in a running mate in Dublin North Central, it is unlikely that both Neasa… Read more »
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SHELL GAMES
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 25 May 2022
“CONTRARY TO Shell’s public expressions around Net Zero, they are not winding down on oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract much more”, so says Caroline Dennett, a senior safety consultant who publicly ended an eleven year relationship with the company this week. In a video posted on Linkedin that calls upon 1,400… Read more »
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CHASING DIARMUID GAVIN
Affairs, 23 May 2022
WITH A new book out next week, fans can expect to see the green-fingered Diarmuid Gavin popping up all over the place on the PR trail. Clients hoping he will transform their gardens may be reassured that good things come to those who wait, if an account given by Francine Cunningham, wife of Mediahuis publisher… Read more »
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FILM REVIEW: AN CAILÍN CIÚIN
Affairs, 20 May 2022
ALL OVER this country, in housing estates and country lanes, there are houses that are unkempt and seem—by comparison with their neighbours—anachronistic. The paintwork is peeling, the hedges ‘leggy’ and sprawling, their gardens littered with broken things. Colm Bairéad’s An Cailín Ciúin – an adaptation of Claire Keegan’s internationally critically acclaimed novella Foster – begins… Read more »
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GOVERNMENT’S TEST RESULTS
Affairs, 19 May 2022
WHAT WILL it take for the Government to face up to its responsibilities on medical laboratory testing? Following unparalleled scrutiny of the state’s lab capacity on foot of a cancer screening scandal and a global pandemic, this week sees frontline workers striking over pay parity and what the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA) say is… Read more »
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NO ROOM AT THE INN
Affairs, 19 May 2022
WITH SUMMER upon us, the hospitality sector is facing pressures old and new. Though never short of complaints to fill media space, it seems that not all challenges emanate from outside the tourism business. The Restaurants Association and Vintners Federation are the latest to hit out at Airbnb, claiming that the dearth of accommodation is… Read more »
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MYSTERY FIANNA FÁIL ROBOTS
Affairs, 19 May 2022
PITY TO see a cloud left hanging over Fianna Fáil’s efforts to win the information war after Stephen Donnelly’s social media was turbo charged by robots. The minister, his party and the Department of Health have asked Twitter to investigate after a video from Donnelly’s account was shared hundreds of times in a matter of… Read more »
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PULLING THE PLUG ON PIPPA TV
Affairs, 18 May 2022
WITH PIPPA O’Connor’s entry into the alcohol market generating plenty of fuss and puff pieces, it’s a good time for one of her much-talked-about projects – Pippa TV – to quietly slither off into the ether. While the TV channel aimed to be a hub for “female-focused storytelling and film-making,” the company behind it, Bopoc… Read more »
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JIMMY MENTON’S MEDICAL RECORD
Affairs, 17 May 2022
LESS THAN 24 hours before cabinet proceeded to approve an unaltered agreement of ownership and governance at the proposed new National Maternity Hospital, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG) finally faced questions at the Oireachtas Health Committee on Monday. Judging by the sparks that continued to fly during the following day’s leader’s questions, the contributions from… Read more »
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KREMLIN TORIES
Affairs, 13 May 2022
THAT THE British property market, media and many of its high profile sporting corporates exist today as extensions of oligarchy – English, Australian, American, Arab, Russian or otherwise – has been well documented down the years but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has made it much more difficult to conceal that even the Conservative Party, gasp,… Read more »
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BONO VOX
Affairs, 13 May 2022
THE RELEASE of Bono’s memoir is “likely to be one of the big publishing events of the year” according to one Indo scribe and it will certainly be interesting to see how the U2 singer’s own efforts are received in comparison to the last serious book on the subject. Harry Browne’s 2013 polemic, The Frontman:… Read more »
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DONNELLY TRIES TO CLOSE THE DEAL
Affairs, 11 May 2022
TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has been most impatient as the opposition continue to ask unhelpful questions about the proposed new National Maternity Hospital. While leaders’ questions has been fraught on the topic, down in Committee Room 4 at least, it falls to Stephen Donnelly to put a more gentle face on efforts to push this arrangement… Read more »
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MEDIAHUIS’S CLEAN SWEEP
Affairs, 10 May 2022
GREAT NEWS for Mediahuis at the Travel Extra travel journalism awards this year, as it swept the board in all five of the print category awards. Its regular contributor, Catherine Murphy, also won the overall travel journalist of the year. The country’s largest newspaper group will have been mollified by the gongs, considering it was… Read more »
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A SHARED HEALTH SERVICE?
Affairs, 9 May 2022
WITH THE attention of the international media focused briefly on Assembly elections, the Dublin Government has been keen to stress that a border poll remains in the distance despite a nationalist victory. Three senior figures, Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, have each responded to the outcome by insisting voters have signalled that their… Read more »
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ELLEN COYNE’S HARD MEDICINE
Affairs, 6 May 2022
IRISH INDEPENDENT hack Ellen Coyne often appears as someone in conflict with a previous version of herself. It was greeted with considerable surprise in 2020 when the feminist firebrand announced that her debut book was to be a memoir centred on personal Catholic faith. This dichotomy certainly generated some welcome intrigue for publishers Gill, though… Read more »
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: LIAM KENNEDY
Affairs, 6 May 2022
A chara dhíl,
Goldhawk must have developed a squint. I did indeed write that the Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s should not be conflated with the Irish experience almost a century earlier. But this had absolutely nothing to do with President Zelenskyy’s address to Dáil Éireann, as wildly suggested by your scribe. It had everything to do with Paul Gillespie’s column in the Irish Times a few days earlier, drawing a superficial parallel between great famines in Ukraine and Ireland.
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PADDY COSGRAVE’S BRAZILIAN HEADACHE
Affairs, 5 May 2022
PADDY COSGRAVE’S battle against corruption and cronyism in Ireland continues apace. But will Brazil be next on the list of targets or will he keep his head down? The Twitter outpourings of the mouthy moneybags over the last few days feature plenty of his trademark ‘observations’. He has opined on subjects from the An Bord… Read more »
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AIRBNB’S REFUGEE SPIN
Affairs, 3 May 2022
READERS WILL have noticed a great deal of variety in the deluge of headlines regarding accommodation for Ukrainian refugees, with everything from military barracks to modular housing being floated as potential solutions. The reason for this, Goldhawk understands, is that panic has gripped the departments responsible for housing and integration, and indeed the Taoiseach’s office,… Read more »
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SINN FÉIN BOGGED DOWN
Affairs, 2 May 2022
WITH NORTHERN ASSEMBLY polling this week, Sinn Féin is campaigning on the line that “this election is about the future, about the next generation and what we can achieve if we work together.” Elsewhere, it is not just that Sinn Féin are indistinguishable from their Government rivals on the turf cutting issue, but the party’s… Read more »
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MALCOLM BYRNE’S MEDIA
Affairs, 2 May 2022
MEDIA DEBATES in Leinster House reliably provide an insight into the preoccupations of Oireachtas members, and the passage of the Online Safety and Media Regulations Bill will give TDs and Senators plenty of opportunity to vent their frustrations with political coverage. With a new Coimisiún set to replace the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Fianna Fáil’s… Read more »
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BRIAN DOWLING’S TURN
Affairs, 30 April 2022
WITH HIS husband, Arthur Gourounlian, recently installed as a judge on RTÉ’s Dancing with the Stars, Brian Dowling is the latest personality to find himself hosting Ireland AM. The former Big Brother winner also recently filled in on The Six O’Clock Show, continuing Virgin Media’s puzzling strategy of shoving a rotating cast of faces front… Read more »
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STEPHEN DONNELLY’S LAST LAP
Affairs, 29 April 2022
IS STEPHEN Donnelly’s effort to reassert himself a sign that political survival is not written off just yet? According to the Irish Examiner, the health minister intervened after his junior, Anne Rabbitte, was reportedly prevented by HSE officials from holding one to one meetings with local service managers. Rabbitte says that she sought monthly “on the… Read more »
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SINDO’S POWER STRUGGLE
Affairs, 29 April 2022
THE NEWS that Fran Power is departing the Sindo has come as a surprise to the denizens of Talbot Towers, coming a mere year 18 months after the launch of the supplement she edits. Hacks are now speculating about who might replace the outgoing editor of People & Culture, with suggestions like Barry Ego and… Read more »
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IRISH TIMES ‘RIGHT WING CHIC’
Affairs, 29 April 2022
WHILE RARELY original it can be illuminating at least to read what commentary from the international media (strictly anglophone) is reproduced for Irish audiences. Goldhawk frequently finds that some bright idea from the Economist, Spectator, Financial Times, etc, will appear a week or two later in the domestic opinion pages or weekend supplements, re-jigged and… Read more »
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MARY LOU VS RTÉ
Affairs, 28 April 2022
“EVERYBODY IS entitled to their good name” Micheál Martin told the Dáil last year as he played down the extraordinary duration that two investigations under his department (IBRC est. 2015, NAMA est. 2017) are taking to reach their conclusions. Sitting in the same spot this week, An Taoiseach was overheard making a curt remark about… Read more »
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WHAT NOW FOR THIS UNHAPPY PAIR?
Affairs, 27 April 2022
IT MAKES a change for the Happy Pear twins to take a pasting in the media, considering they normally get acres of free and flattering coverage when flogging their latest course/cookbook/food product or café. If criticism this week of their claim that people can reduce the risk of cancer through diet has an effect on… Read more »
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IRELAND’S TROPHY BECOMES MUSK’S PLAYTHING
Affairs, 26 April 2022
WITH THE stroke of a $44bn deal, the dynamic of Ireland’s relationship with plutocrat Elon Musk is about to change significantly.
Loss-making Twitter is not among the major contributors to corporation tax revenue, and, with less than 200 staff at its European HQ in Dublin, the company’s jobs’ footprint is dwarfed by the thousands employed at Apple, Google, Intel and other multinationals.
The presence of high profile Twitter is, however, considered to be crucial in attracting other investment, and, for all the criticism levelled at the social media platform internationally, it remains a prestige bauble in the sales pitch of Ireland Inc.
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HEGARTY’S DIGITAL HEADACHE
Affairs, 26 April 2022
AS SHE readies the troops for implementing the paper’s new digital-first strategy, Sunday Times editor Nóirín Hegarty is facing the biggest challenge of her six-month tenure to date. Naturally the decision to publish stories online in the week leading up to the appearance of said content in print on Sunday has left a cohort of… Read more »
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SHARON KEOGAN’S ‘FREE SPEECH’
Affairs, 26 April 2022
“WE HAVE suffered far too often from groupthink in this country” argues Daniel McConnell, who casts himself as the Irish Examiner’s answer to Voltaire. Groupthink certainly abounds, as McConnell is just one of a number of writers who have framed Sharon Keogan’s performance at the Oireachtas Committee on Surrogacy simplistically as a question of free… Read more »
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