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September 8 – September 21, 2017
Affairs of the Nation
LEO VARADKAR’S PR DANGER
WITH exquisite irony Leo Varadkar has managed to turn a concerted PR initiative into a PR disaster with the distinct image now emerging of a Taoiseach obsessed with style rather... Read more »
TOUGH LESSONS FOR TEACHING COUNCIL
FUN AND GAMES at the Teaching Council of Ireland (TCI) where the chief executive’s reappointment has caused ructions and has led to the chairman stepping down. Tomás Ó Ruairc was... Read more »
Pearse Phelan’s prescription
THE LIQUIDATION of the Fitzwilliam Private Clinic Ltd has just been completed and it turns out there is not a cent for the unsecured creditors, who were owed around €½m.... Read more »
Sponsored Content
Bank of Ireland: Supporting Farmers Through Wet Weather Challenges
As the wet weather persists Bank of Ireland is encouraging under-pressure farmers to swiftly engage with their accountants, financial advisers or banks to explore the range of flexible financing... Read more »
Niall O’Connor’s political bombshell
JUNIOR finance minister Patrick O’Donovan is still wiping egg off his face after his blunder in naming the IRA as perpetrators of the Dublin-Monaghan bombing. But did Irish Independent political... Read more »
FINE GAEL’S TRANSPARENCY ROW
THE Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has launched an inquiry into the procurement of contracts at the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) following an audit of its... Read more »
The Yeats Family Collection
NEXT WEEK, over 200 items from the Yeats Family Collection will go on display at Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin before being shipped to London for the Sotheby’s auction that... Read more »
Pillars of Society
Profile: Fintan O’Toole
IRISH Times writer Fintan O’Toole is regarded as the media’s pre-eminent political intellectual and literary critic. Globally he is certainly the best known Irish... Read more »
The Young Bloods
Young Blood: Frankie Gaffney
IS NOVELIST and academic Frankie Gaffney (36) his own worst enemy? Recently landing himself in the centre of a high profile and toxic row... Read more »
ESB: Reducing Energy Costs for Your Business
ESB’s Smart Energy Services are driven by the belief that electricity holds the key to a brighter, more sustainable future. Its mission is to create a brighter future, powered... Read more »
Fit to Print?
WHO WILL BUY ‘IRISH EXAMINER’?
THE Sunday Business Post’s recent report that a bid by The Irish Times Ltd to buy the Irish Examiner is virtually a done deal indicates that Post owners Key Capital... Read more »
John Burns’s Hard Neck
IS Sunday Times associate editor John Burns beyond embarrassment? Just a wet week or so after ST columnist Kevin Myers – whose outpourings he used to edit – was defenestrated... Read more »
RINGER’S WESTERN SPIN
MINSTER for Rural Development Michael Ring is at least as conscious of PR and media manipulation as his new boss, Leo Varadkar, and his latest appointments to the Western Development... Read more »
Last Refuge
CABINET PENSION CALCULATIONS
THE delicate political calculations about when Leo Varadkar might call the next general election will be determined by a number of fluctuating circumstances – the budget, the polls, the opposition’s... Read more »
Mary Hanafin’s last shot
THE mother of all Fianna Fáil faction fights is gearing up in Dún Laoghaire where ex-minister, now humble councillor, Mary Hanafin, is preparing to run in her sixth general election... Read more »
SOC DEMS ‘NO’ TO LABOUR
THAT recent two fingers from the Social Democrats to the Labour Party’s pleas for unity was especially hostile and was accompanied by withering denunciation of Labour’s record and its current... Read more »
UKIP’s Anne Marie Waters
A PECULIAR spin-off of Brexit has been the implosion of UKIP, the militant Little Englander group that now sees Irish woman Anne Marie Waters bidding for its leadership. But Anne... Read more »
Hush Hush
BRITISH AGENTS IN IRELAND
THE meeting in the European Parliament hosted by Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan this week about the activities of British undercover police in Ireland and across Europe is partly an... Read more »
TJ McINTYRE’S SETBACK
WHILE the ID cards issue has pushed the State’s use (or misuse) of personal data to the front pages in recent weeks, the overall matter of data retention by the... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
COVENEY BOWS TO THE DUP
SIMON COVENEY was in Belfast on Tuesday listening to the local parties to assess whether there was any point in convening a new round of talks. It was another opportunity... Read more »
Wigs on the Green
BIG TOBACCO, BIG LEGAL THREATS
IT will be interesting to see if Big Tobacco now proceeds to carry out its threats of shock and awe legal action against the government when plain packaging legislation takes... Read more »
Foreign Frolics
THE DAESH STORY IS NOT ENDING
By Ramzy Baroud IRAQ’S second largest city, Mosul, has been reduced to rubble. It has been finally conquered, snatched back from the notorious group, Daesh, after months of merciless bombardment... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
I as a philosopher am qualified to say that her argument isn’t well reasoned. Tweet by Irish Times scribe and “philosopher” Laura Kennedy Mr Buckley who ran the AGM with... Read more »
High Society
PAT DOHERTY’S PAINTINGS
WHILE PROPERTY developer Pat Doherty is probably best known for his ambitious Titanic Quarter scheme in Belfast and for being one of Nama’s biggest clients, the Donegal man is also... Read more »
Paddy McKillen’s Hotel Headache
BAD NEWS for Irish entrepreneur Paddy McKillen whose involvement with the Qatari-owned Maybourne hotel group in London (made up of Claridge’s, the Berkeley and the Connaught hotels) has dragged him... Read more »
TAX RELIEF AT HARRISTOWN DEMESNE
LAST WEEKEND the Sunday Business Post published a feature, “Houses fit for the sport of Kings”, that examined the stud farm market in Ireland in light of the recent €8m... Read more »
Experience Unmatched Luxury at Centara Reserve Samui, Thailand
Embark on a journey of modern sophistication amidst an idyllic tropical haven at Centara Reserve Samui in Thailand, where unforgettable stories come to life. As the inaugural gem... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
HUNT ON AT the HUNT MUSEUM
AT LONG last, the job of director of the Hunt Museum in Limerick has been advertised (in the Limerick Leader). This process has somehow taken 15 months to put in... Read more »
NEW FACES AT CRAFTS COUNCIL
THE MINISTER for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald, has just appointed two new members to the board of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI). The two new... Read more »
MORGAN O’SULLIVAN’S GERMAN PROBLEM
THE PUBLICATION of the 2016 accounts for Octagon Films Ltd reminded Goldhawk of the ongoing legal tango in the Four Goldmines between Octagon directors Morgan O’Sullivan and James Flynn, and... Read more »
Sport of Kings
SEAN DOYLE’S BIG SPENDING
WEXFORD TRAINER Sean “Farmer” Doyle is back in the crosshairs of the Turf Club team of inspectors following a routine inspection carried out in February that has lead to the... Read more »
SEAN MULRYAN’S SECOND ROUND
SEAN MULRYAN’S tentative move back into racehorse ownership has got off to a positive start. His City Ballerina, which runs in the colours of Mulryan’s wife, Bernardine, made a pleasing... Read more »
BALLYDOYLE’S TROJAN WORKERS
WITH ALL the media focus on those overworked hapless grooms in Ballydoyle, it is perhaps surprising that nobody has mentioned any of the horses. Readers might spare a thought for... Read more »
BRYAN COOPER’S DILEMMA
BRYAN COOPER is experiencing a bad run of luck that has seen him struggling badly to pick up rides. Will he cross the Irish Sea? In the last two weeks... Read more »
Reviews
SCHEDULES WAR – RTÉ v TV3
OUTDATED IDEAS, over-familiar faces and second-hand formats dominate the autumn schedules recently unveiled by RTÉ television and TV3. A shortage of fresh thinking is par for the course among domestic... Read more »
Books
MARRIED QUARTERS – SHANE CONNAUGHTON (DOUBLEDAY IRELAND)
SET IN the fictional border town of Butlershill, this sequel to Connaughton’s 1989 short story collection, A Border Station, offers a revealing portrait of rural life in the late 1950s.... Read more »
Moneybags
Paddy Power Betfair no sure thing
IN The Phoenix 20/5/2016 Moneybags warned that Paddy Power shares at €113 were trading on a pro forma p/e multiple of 50 – “a rating that is simply unsustainable”. Breon... Read more »
Frothy Diageo shares set to go flat
SHARES IN Diageo are flying high following a nice bounce courtesy of the recently published June 2017 results. But the truth is, the lofty share rating is misleading, with much... Read more »
Is Gold Too Expensive For Investors?
Dave Russell, CEO, GoldCore Ltd In March, the gold price surpassed €2,000 for the first time. It has left many wondering if it is now too expensive. First, we... Read more »
The Hot Water Brigade
Stressful times for David Ingram
MORE on Galvanic Ltd, the intriguing Dublin company that successfully petitioned the High Court to appoint an examiner last month. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that the outfit makes a... Read more »
Trevor Daly is Lovin the new gig
EXCITING times at Niall Harbison’s Lovin media group, which is set to expand operations by opening up franchises in some far-flung places. Maybe this means the struggling outfit – where... Read more »
Francesca McDonagh’s headache
INTERESTING to see chief executive of Bank of Ireland Private Banking (BoIPB) Ltd Mark Cunningham announce his departure last week, just a month after the High Court ordered the merger... Read more »
Ian Hyland ‘reaches out’
GOLDHAWK’s old pal Paddy Cosgrave popped up last week to announce part of the line-up for his next Lisbon Web Summit. Meanwhile Ian Hyland – the man trying to plug... Read more »
Doug Minihane’s one-way ticket
SPARE a thought for the owners of Cork company Ticketscan Security Services (TSS) Ltd, which has just been put into liquidation. The principals here are listed as Cork businessmen Doug... Read more »
Spunout’s funding worries
THERE are rumblings of discontent coming from Spunout.ie after a former editorial staff member took to social media last week to complain about a recent round of redundancies at the... Read more »
Juice Store’s unhealthy numbers
GOLDHAWK spotted a troubling set of accounts recently filed by a company called The Organic Cold-Pressed Juice Company Ltd. This was the outfit behind Sinful Foods and the Juice Store... Read more »
AINTREE ANTICS
WHILE ZILLIONAIRE Geneva tax resident JP McManus won his third Aintree Grand ...
KILLIAN POYNTON’S HIGH NET WORTH CLIENTS
GREEN BIRD Ltd, a company catering to the needs of so-called “high ...
SMOCK ALLEY’S BAD REVIEW
WITH DUBLIN City Council (DCC) preparing to take over Smock Alley Theatre ...
APPEALING BEHAVIOUR
THE REVELATION last month that the IHRB had been described by consultants ...
EN POINTE!
THE DECISION by Anne Maher’s Ballet Ireland (BI) to withdraw a piece ...
CORRECTING CHRISTINE DAVIES
THERE WAS some bad news for the glamorous Christine Jane Davies, owner ...
MARK GALLAGHER’S €10M MANSION
THE ADVERTISING by Sherry FitzGerald of a redbrick pile on leafy Ailesbury ...
SEAMIE HEFFERNAN DISMOUNTS
MEYDAN RACECOURSE Dubai was the location on Saturday afternoon where the spotlight ...
LYRA V BEYONCÉ
IT HAS been hard to avoid Irish singer Laura McNamara (aka Lyra) ...
JOHN MAGNIER’S CEREMONY
THE ASSOCIATION of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) has just published its annual ...