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ANGER MOUNTS OVER GAA LINKS TO ISRAEL

Date: February 26, 2026 -

IF THE ceasefire in Gaza is a mockery then so, too, is the temporary halt to hostilities inside the GAA over its sponsorship by Allianz, a company listed in a United Nations report as financially assisting Israeli genocide in Gaza. No less than 10 GAA county boards sent motions to Croke Park in recent months… Read more »

PROFILE: PATRICK O’DONOVAN

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THE ARTS, culture, sport, Gaeltacht and media minister, Patrick O’Donovan, is a busy man, as his title indicates. But while his driven political style could be said to suit such a myriad ministerial workload, he is easily drawn into political conflict with those close to him, regardless of party allegiance. Some of these involve poorly… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: NADIA ADAN

Date: February 26, 2026 -

ASHFORD MOTORS founder Nadia Adan certainly knows how to put the phwoar into roar, routinely turning the sales of her high-end motors into headline-grabbing opportunities. She has turned social media into her main showroom and her PR strategy includes filming herself reviewing and selling cars and then posting the clips directly to Instagram and TikTok…. Read more »

HELEN McENTEE RUBS RUSSIA WRONG WAY

Date: February 26, 2026 -

WHETHER OR not Vladimir Putin is quaking in his boots after foreign affairs and defence minister Helen McEntee told a breathless RTÉ that she is considering boarding oil tankers belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the bold minister certainly rubbed the Russians up the wrong way. McEntee opined that Irish naval vessels could board such… Read more »

COLLISON’S CHEEKY PINT OR TWO

Date: February 26, 2026 -

The branding of Stripe co-founder John Collison’s Cheeky Pint podcast – in which he interviews “founders, builders and leaders” in the tech industry “over a pint” – is slick. The show is not only available across podcast apps, it also has its own YouTube channel and  Substack. And the high production values suggest that it isn’t… Read more »

MICK SMURFIT’S DISTINGUISED AWARD

Date: February 26, 2026 -

IN OCTOBER 2024 Tom Lyons of The Currency made the pilgrimage to sunny Monaco to pay homage to his “warm and gracious host”, Mick Smurfit, on board the Lady Ann Magee luxury yacht, moored in Port Hercule. As a gushing Lyons noted, Mick is “hands down, the greatest chief executive of his generation”. Last week,… Read more »

TROUBLE AT T’MILL, MR BAKHURST

Date: February 26, 2026 -

KEVIN BAKHURST and RTÉ executives may be miffed at the ingratitude of the Siptu proles at Montrose, who recently voted down their transformation strategy. But management’s own off-record briefings beforehand would have had much to do with the size of the vote, which was 89% in favour of the motion that rejected RTÉ’s strategy. Siptu… Read more »

GOODMAN JR’S SOLAR SALVO

Date: February 26, 2026 -

GOOD TO see that Larry Goodman Jr, who has been taking over the reins at the gigantic beef business run by his father, Larry Goodman Sr, still has the time to tend to matters on the home front. But it could well have the unfortunate effect of throwing the family – which owns the Barryroe… Read more »

CARROLL MACNEILL’S ‘BROKEN PROMISES’

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THE SITUATION in which health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill finds herself ensnared is beyond irony, given that she was recently accused of weaponising the same situation to damage her political target, Fine Gael leader and Tánaiste Simon Harris. Cruella MacNeill seized with breathless alacrity the invitation to speak at the Blueshirt Mecca, Béal na Bláth,… Read more »

VOL 44 NO 04

Date: February 26, 2026 -

DAMNED ENGLISHMAN

Date: February 26, 2026 -

Taoiseach Micheál Martin delivered 3,700 words last week to Cambridge University’s great and good. The assembled academics endured them since Martin simultaneously bestowed a whopping €4.5m on the university’s new Childers Chair in Modern Irish History, which Prof Alvin Jackson will occupy. This funding from the Department of Foreign Affair’s Ireland Reconciliation Fund dwarfs previous… Read more »

MINISTER O’DONOVAN V MAYOR MORAN

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THE BATTLE for ascendancy in the realm of Limerick city and county is more than a mere faction fight between local councillors and the directly elected mayor, John Moran, and it also involves Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media – along with everything else that breathes in this barony. Despite… Read more »

WHAT DID BROWN KNOW AND WHEN?

Date: February 26, 2026 -

Gordon Brown became a close ally of Britain’s intelligence community after assuming the role of prime minister in June 2007, a position he held until May 2010. It is beyond credibility that he was oblivious of reports about the exploitation of boys and girls in Kincora and Jeffrey Epstein’s world respectively. Brown relished chairing meetings… Read more »

ARSON ATTACKS LINKED TO STARMER

Date: February 26, 2026 -

In May 2025 several arson attacks targeted properties and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Three men are scheduled to stand trial next April, charged with conspiracy to commit arson. The investigation into these puzzling incidents is being led by counter-terrorism officers, although authorities have stated that the case is not being… Read more »

MAC OIREACHTAIGH’S HUNGARIAN ALLIES

Date: February 26, 2026 -

The recent visit by National Party (NP) youth wing leader Yan Mac Oireachtaigh to Budapest demonstrates just how extreme the party is. Mac Oireachtaigh visited the Hungarian capital to participate in a conference organised by Mi Hazánk Mozgalom (MHM). The right-wing scene in Hungary is quite entrenched and, in an effort to differentiate itself from… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 26, 2026 -

When they get to know me, they will realise they are dealing with a decent chap. Gerry ‘the Monk’ Hutch on what politicians would make of him were he elected to the Dáil, Irish Times The glamorisation of Irish criminality is something that actually disgusts me. Rex Ryan, writer and star of The Monk, Irish… Read more »

NIALL CUSSEN HOLDS BACK THE TIDE

Date: February 26, 2026 -

The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has been busy regulating councillors across the country who seem hell-bent on zoning flood plains for housing. On 288 occasions in the last six years, the Irish Times’s Caroline O’Doherty writes, councillors have attempted to rezone land at risk of flooding for housing development. Regulator Niall Cussen has… Read more »

SEAWEED WAR

Date: February 26, 2026 -

Murky waters surrounding the recent history of seaweed harvesting have seeped into the Galway West by-election. Every candidate worth their salt is standing with the Aran-jumpered men pulling bladderwrack out of the foreshore with their bare hands. But the Canadian company seeking to put them out of work, by acquiring state licences to mechanically harvest… Read more »

JON BOUTCHER’S RECRUITMENT ISSUE

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THE PSNI’s latest recruitment drive, which closed on February 11, received 4,104 applications but chief constable Jon Boutcher told the Policing Board that only 26.7% of applicants were from a Catholic background, the lowest percentage since 2013. The final outcome will be even worse because not all applicants are successful. Last year, when there was… Read more »

COUNCILS DEFEND TRIPLE LOCK

Date: February 26, 2026 -

WHILE THE Government declares itself determined to proceed with legislation to remove the triple lock – which currently ensures that any Irish military operations abroad operate solely under the auspices of the United Nations – the situation on the ground is becoming less favourable. The triple lock lays down that no more than 12 Irish… Read more »

ISRAELI FOOTBALL: HOME AND AWAY

Date: February 26, 2026 -

DESPITE TAOISEACH Micheál Martin’s strong words of encouragement to the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to go ahead and play their Uefa fixtures with Israel, the row over the issue looks as if it is getting worse. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a number of human rights’ NGOs have filed a complaint to the International… Read more »

CONRADH VOTES FOR IRISH UNITY

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THE INCREASING assertiveness of Irish-language activists, especially from the north, was very much in evidence at the recent Conradh na Gaeilge ard fheis in Belfast, when a contentious motion committing the organisation to work for a united Ireland was passed with a comfortable majority. Conradh na Gaeilge, especially under the guidance of general secretary Julian… Read more »

MURDOCH’S MEN TUTOR FIANNA FÁIL

Date: February 26, 2026 -

WHAT IS it about the tabloid media, the Irish Sun in particular, that appeals to Fianna Fáil and its leaders – currently Micheál Martin and before that Bertie Ahern? The latest FF recruit from News Corp’s tabloid title – owned by Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch – is the Irish Sun’s head of… Read more »

REX RYAN’S RUN

Date: February 26, 2026 -

ON THE basis that there is no such thing as bad publicity, presumably Rex Ryan and the Glass Mask Theatre Company board will have been delighted with the coverage of The Monk, his one-man show about Gerry Hutch, which has completed its sold-out run at the Ambassador Theatre in D1. It turns out that the… Read more »

LUVVIES LIG

Date: February 26, 2026 -

IN A year in which Ireland is set to bail out of the Eurovision Song Contest, RTÉ has a few bob to spare and, along with the upcoming Royal Television Society Ireland awards bash, last weekend viewers were treated to a one-hour Ifta highlights show, commissioned from Larry Bass’s Shinawil outfit. The TV coverage of… Read more »

BRAMLEY’S HOT TRANSFERS

Date: February 26, 2026 -

PATRICK MULLINS recently returned to Fakenham, the scene of his two January long odds-on flops, to partner the Faye Bramley-trained Stattler in the William Bulwer Long Memorial Open Hunters’ Chase. He had better luck on this occasion when steering the odds-on shot home to a comfortable success over Hollywood Harmon. Owned in partnership with Scottish… Read more »

KEATLEY’S NEAR MISS

Date: February 26, 2026 -

CLASSIC WINNING trainer Adrian Keatley narrowly failed in his recent attempt to set the outright modern-day record for nine consecutive handicap wins with his charge, Aisling Oscar, at Newcastle. Ridden by fellow Irishman Oisin McSweeney, the pair tried to make every post a winning one, until getting collared close to home by the Tony Carrolltrained… Read more »

FITZGERALD’S D6 DISCOUNT

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THERE WAS plenty of coverage this month of the centenary of the birth of former Fine Gael leader and taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. Another FitzGerald link Goldhawk spotted was the asking price for the Blueshirt’s former home on swanky Palmerston Road in Dublin 6. The impressive near-4,000 sq ft Victorian pile in Rathmines is now owned… Read more »

COY O’DONOVAN

Date: February 26, 2026 -

FANS OF Goldhawk are familiar with the delays at the Chester Beatty Library (CBL), where culture minister Patrick O’Donovan remains remarkably slow to fill the vacancies that are his responsibility. There has, however, been a recent change in the role of chair of the library. After The Phoenix had gone to print for the last… Read more »

ARKLE RESOURCES SHARE PRICE FAILS TO REFLECT EXCITEMENT

Date: February 26, 2026 -

WHEN John Teeling stood down from Clontarf Energy three years ago, installing long-term sidekick David Horgan as executive chairman, it looked as if this was the first step towards Teeling’s exit from the resource exploration game to concentrate on his whiskey business. Instead, at 80, Teeling has popped up to re-energise Arkle Resources by taking… Read more »

GREENCOAT RENEWABLES’ LOW ENERGY SHARE PRICE

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THERE IS change coming at the top of Greencoat Renewables as long-time chairman Ronan Murphy steps down. Investors will be hoping there will be some good news, as well as more clarity about the company’s current strategy, now that it has, surprisingly, sold out of some of its Irish assets. One big issue that needs… Read more »

EOIN MCGEE’S MOOLAH

Date: February 26, 2026 -

THE PUBLIC’S favourite financial and budgeting adviser, Eoin McGee, has just published yet another book on financial planning, which has been the subject of plenty of media coverage. Less attention has been paid to the publication of accounts showing that Eoin has really been cleaning up. Last year, McGee’s profile was boosted when he was… Read more »

TOM LYONS’S ‘BUSINESS POST’ PREDICTIONS

Date: February 26, 2026 -

LAST WEEK The Currency’s Tom Lyons got to break some exciting news about his former newspaper, the Business Post, when he wrote about who would be filling Sarah Murphy’s very large shoes as chief executive. Goldhawk reckons that whoever finally lands the gig should put sorting out the accounts to he top of the agenda…. Read more »

ST PATRICK’S PROCEEDINGS

Date: February 26, 2026 -

ÉILIS O’HANLON, the Sindo’s anti-woke agony aunt, got stuck into a bit of research about six months ago for one of her columns, but it has resulted in Mediahuis’s legal eagles being called in to defend an allegation of defamation. The research was for a piece she was writing about St Patrick or, more specifically,… Read more »

QUB AXES MITCHELL

Date: February 26, 2026 -

The latest spectre haunting Europe, that of the late Jeffrey Epstein, has so far only seen one head roll in Ireland. The bronze bust of former US senator George Mitchell has been removed from Queen’s University, Belfast. Current chancellor Hillary Rodham Clinton did not immediately respond to Goldhawk’s query as to whether the brass neck… Read more »

MANY EPSTEIN SPOILERS

Date: February 26, 2026 -

Lisa Phillips, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse victims, visited Dublin recently to investigate the case of a 13-year-old girl who was trafficked to Ireland for exploitation by “politicians and notable men.” The 13-year-old reported the abuse to the FBI as an adult and her account appears in the declassified Epstein files. Phillips, drawing on her… Read more »