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September 05 - September 18, 2025
Affairs of the Nation
BILLY KELLEHER’S ATTEMPTED PUTSCH
THE SIGHS of relief from Fianna Fáil’s Mount Street HQ could be heard all the way to Cork this week, where Billy Kelleher’s rebel plotters were concentrated as the tide... Read more »
GAVIN’S MEDIA FANS
THE DIFFERENCE between the Indo and Irish Times’s coverage of Fianna Fáil’s Jim Gavin v Billy Kelleher presidential contest was startling in its emphasis and analysis. The day after the... Read more »
RYAN’S NEW POST
FORMER ENVIRONMENT minister Eamon Ryan’s new grace-and-favour gig as EU “housing tsar” kicks off in earnest this month in apparently straight-faced celebration of the resounding success of Irish housing policy.... Read more »
SINN FÉIN TO SUPPORT CONNOLLY?
AFTER MUCH agonising and ideological debate about downgrading the central demand for a united Ireland, Sinn Féin’s ard chomhairle (AC) is likely to endorse the left unity campaign of Catherine... Read more »
ALAN ‘AK47’ KELLY MISFIRES
THE SPECTACLE of Alan Kelly being brought to heel by Labour leader Ivana Bacik, not to mention the brazen, public defiance by him of the leadership and a democratic party... Read more »
COURAGEOUS CIARA KELLY
NEWSTALK PRESENTER Ciara Kelly last week promised Independent readers that her column that day defending U2’s disingenuous statement on Gaza would be “OUTRAGEOUS” (her emphasis), code for brave, provocative etc.... Read more »
REDRESS FOR CATHOLICS ONLY
AN INTERESTING article in the Belfast News Letter in June by a Church of Ireland cleric, Canon Ian Ellis, has been brought to Goldhawk’s attention. It deals with the attitude... Read more »
GENERALISSIMO SEÁN CLANCY
MOMENTUM BEHIND the militarisation of the EU has not abated. While there has been some comment in Ireland’s media about removal of the triple lock, there has been little or... Read more »
BURYING MI5 TRUTH
Kincora’s Lost Boys: The Truth MI5 Buried (KLB), written by an anonymous author, went on sale via Amazon a few months ago. It purports to delve into the Kincora child... Read more »
Fit to Print?
MEDIAHUIS WARNING
A SOMBRE if little noticed announcement from Mediahuis Ireland last week contained some rather bleak, if understated, commentary about the future of the European publishing group as well as a... Read more »
GAZA JOURNALIST IN US COURT
The Palestine Chronicle – whose editor Dr Ramzy Baroud’s family has suffered many, many fatalities in Gaza since October 2023 – is facing proceedings in a federal US court that... Read more »
MAJOR TOM McDOWELL LIVES ON
WAS IT the memory of the exposure of the Irish Times’s long-time chief executive, Major Tom McDowell, as an MI5 agent years ago that inspired the newspaper’s most sycophantic tribute... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
BOG CUTTINGS
LEGLESS AND SHOELESSBANTRY DISTRICT Court heard the case of a young woman who engaged in abusive and threatening behaviour towards a garda during an incident in Bantry on October 28... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
SDLP MUDDIES WATER
LOUGH NEAGH has emerged as the number one late-summer destination for the north’s political leaders, with high-profile visits in recent days by the Alliance Party’s agriculture, environment and rural affairs... Read more »
GARDA COLONISE NORTH
IN ANTICIPATION of public order (and public relations) problems caused by a planned protest against a proposed gold mine near Greencastle in Co Tyrone, Canadian mining company Dalradian Gold has... Read more »
High Society
O’CALLAGHANS GET BACKSIDES KICKED
The loaded O’Callaghan family of Tally Ho Stud opted for a high-profile gamble with one of their racehorses in the Coolmore Wootton Basset Nunthorpe Stakes in York – but failed... Read more »
BEACON HOSPITAL PROFIT
Accounts have just been filed by a company called Barrelridge Ltd, revealing the scale of the killing made by investors in Denis O’Brien’s Beacon private hospital in Sandyford, which was... Read more »
RONAN RYAN’S NEW MENU
IT HAS been a while since the name of one-time ‘celebrity chef’ Ronan Ryan came to Goldhawk’s attention but it turns out the controversial character has started a new project.... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
DIVERSITY DRAMA
THERE MUST have been a little discomfort at the Irish Times when hacks covered the latest adventures of scribbler John Boyne, whose presence on the longlist for the Polari prizes... Read more »
SINEAD O’CONNOR BIOPIC
ANTICIPATION ABOUT an impending biopic of Sinéad O’Connor was boosted when Variety reported a line-up of producers in the UK joining with the BBC to back a script commissioned from... Read more »
Moneybags
HOSTELWORLD GETS SET FOR PEACE DIVIDEND
IN ITS ongoing recovery from the hugely impactful pandemic, Hostelworld Group’s operating profit more than doubled to €11.3m in 2024, so it came as a real shock last month when... Read more »
TIMING OF DATALEX’S ROUTE CHANGE IS BAFFLING
DERMOT DESMOND has had to endure an awful lot of bad press as a result of his long involvement in Datalex and he is probably relieved that the company is... Read more »
Brief Cases
JOORABCHIAN’S PRIVATE EQUITY BACKERS
IRANIAN-BORN multi-millionaire ‘football agent’ Kia Joorabchian has been making headlines again. Last month he continued where he had left off last autumn, by smashing the auction price record at the... Read more »
KIA JOORABCHIAN’S BACKERS
THE FRENCH thoroughbred racehorse breeding outfit that sold the record-breaking €3m filly to Kia Joorabchian at the Arqana sale last month turns out to now have an Irish link. Earlier... Read more »
BRENDAN MCDOWELL’S INFLUENCERS
GOLDHAWK WAS not too surprised that Brendan McDowell’s remarkably profitable BPerfect Cosmetics operation did not respond to communications from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The company has form in this... Read more »
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