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RTÉ’S BOARD VACANCIES

Date: July 24, 2025 -

AT LONG last, culture and media minister Patrick O’Donovan has got around to advertising for expressions of interest in filling a ministerial vacancy on the board of RTÉ. Given the level of scrutiny the directors will be under in the coming years, as the public broadcaster undergoes its post-Tubs ‘transformation’, the position may prove less… Read more »

BRITANNIA RULES THE RIGHT

Date: July 24, 2025 -

A year on from the European and Local Government elections Ireland’s emerging right wing networks are still desperately trying to establish a united political party that can have an impact electorally. However, these efforts have recently been dogged by controversy due to the involvement of British right wing figure Jim Ferguson in the ‘unity’ process…. Read more »

NAIRAC AGAIN …

Date: July 24, 2025 -

All the portents are that Operation Denton’s report into the crimes of the UVF’s Glenanne gang, will paint a double coat of whitewash over the roles played by MI5, Capt. Robert Nairac and the RUC special branch, in control of the gang. However, a detailed account of many of the more egregious offences  of the… Read more »

LIFE ON THE RIGHT

Date: July 24, 2025 -

HOW COULD it be controversial for the Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin to participate in an anti-abortion march? Well the matter in question for the Archbishop arises from the new-right wing organisations he chooses to march alongside. The recent All-Ireland Rally for Life organised by the Life Institute and Precious Life which Archbishop… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: July 24, 2025 -

While the government is maybe the head and brain of the country, the presidency is more about the heart of the country and you are a man with a huge heart. Brendan O’Connor’s forensic interview with potential presidential candidate Michael Flatley, RTE Radio 1 Rather than feel the pressure of expectation from the huge partisan… Read more »

STARMER’S LEGACY

Date: July 24, 2025 -

Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to deal with the north’s intractable disputes about security force killings in the north are under attack on several fronts. The British Labour party’s manifesto promised to repeal the Conservatives’ 2023 Legacy Act which no one but the Conservatives supported. Easy to promise, but what do you replace it with? It’s… Read more »

IIEA SPLIT ON ISRAEL?

Date: July 24, 2025 -

FEW PEOPLE would regard the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) as a front for Hamas, but neither is it a cheer leader for Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF in Gaza, despite its Europhile outlook. However, not all institute members share the Irish empathy with Palestinians and one of these, Dan O’Brien, who glories… Read more »

DPP V DPP

Date: July 24, 2025 -

MUCH CRITICISM was levelled at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by various media and others for failing to prosecute the late Ian Bailey for Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s murder in 1996. Now there is something of a spat going on between the DPP and the official assigned to the murder file… Read more »

SHANE ROSS’S RECOMMENDATION

Date: July 24, 2025 -

SHANE ROSS comes over as the essence of sweet reason these days as exemplified by his proposal in the Sindo last weekend that Micheál Martin, should put the chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, Maurice Cohen, into the Seanad. Ross praised Cohen’s moderation, relative to Alan Shatter’s “over-the-top script” as the two attacked… Read more »

JAMES CONNOLLY IS ALIVE AND WELL!

Date: July 24, 2025 -

IT IS hard to say what Labour’s policy on neutrality and EU militarisation actually is given the confusion in the anti-war movement about the party’s stated position when compared to its absence from planning meetings and protest rallies (see The Phoenix, 16/5/25). But its sole MEP, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, appears to be quite certain that… Read more »

RTÉ’S NEUTRALITY

Date: July 24, 2025 -

WESTERN CLICHÉS about Orwellian media bias in Russia and other ‘bad‘ countries could well describe RTÉ and Coimisiún na Meán’s (CnaM) response to a complaint about alleged “false … misleading” and “wholly untrue” statements in an RTÉ Prime Time report recently. A complaint from viewer Stephen Kelly (he subsequently became chair of the Peace and… Read more »

‘GOOGLE IT’

Date: July 24, 2025 -

IRiSH TIMES group MD, Deirdre Veldon, welcomed aboard the paper’s newly appointed director, David Martin — former senior director at Google — saying “It’s a good time to introduce innovative thinking and digital expertise to the Irish Times to help us navigate this dynamic landscape”. What Deirdre meant was that it’s late in the day… Read more »

SINGER NOT THE SONG

Date: July 24, 2025 -

A MOST mannerly, intellectual exercise of the sort that can, some say, lead to blindness, has been arranged involving mutual participants, Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride. The college debating device whereby well-spoken young fogeys choose sides to argue issues whether or not they agree with the motion chosen will be played out by the two… Read more »

NANCY HARRIS’S REVIEWS

Date: July 24, 2025 -

IT HAS been a smooth run in recent times for playwright and TV screenplay writer Nancy Harris (daughter of Anne and Eoghan Harris), who is probably best known for the RTÉ comedy-drama series The Dry. Earlier this month, Harris was the subject of a wide-ranging interview by Dónal Lynch in the Sindo, ostensibly to mark… Read more »

STILL PURRING ALONG

Date: July 24, 2025 -

THE AMENDED result of Down Royal’s Laura Nicholas Handicap last month raised a few eyebrows and, not surprisingly, there was quite the kerfuffle online, which appears justified by a subsequent appeal outcome. The second-placed horse Bamako, trained by Andy Oliver, was promoted ahead of the original winner, Purring Along, trained by Pat Fahey, by the… Read more »

COLIN KEANE’S ROUGH RIDE

Date: July 24, 2025 -

JUDDMONTE’S NEW retained rider Colin Keane was the latest rider to fall foul of the British Horseracing Authority’s whip review committee, resulting in a 14-day suspension. The ban means Keane will miss the ride on the odds-on favourite for the Goodwood Sussex Stakes Field Of Gold, a horse he described as “the best” he’d ever… Read more »

DARRAGH O’LOUGHLIN’S ‘ACTIONS’

Date: July 24, 2025 -

IRISH HORSE Racing Regulatory Board (IHRB) chief executive Darragh O’Loughlin has revealed in the 2024 IHRB annual report that “significant actions” have been taken to improve the financial governance procedures on foot of the high-profile investigation carried out by Forvis Mazars. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 22/9/23) that the investigation followed the transfer… Read more »

KEVIN DUNDON’S RECIPE

Date: July 24, 2025 -

CELEBRITY CHEF and Dancing With The Stars alumnus Kevin Dundon continues to expand his menu, most recently popping up with co-presenter Sunday Worst journo Caoimhe Young on the Indo’s ‘Under the Grill’ podcast. This is “where Irish celebs dish up their food memories with some saucy chats and dollops of nostalgia”. No doubt, it is… Read more »

DATALEX SHAREHOLDERS CONTINUE TO LOSE ALTITUDE

Date: July 24, 2025 -

THIS YEAR Datalex is 40 years old and still losing money, airborne only thanks to Dermot Desmond’s decision to back the venture all the way. The good news is that a positive bottom line is targeted for 2025, but will any change in the flight path boost the price of a stock that has suffered… Read more »

RYAN MURPHY’S CHOPPY WATERS

Date: July 24, 2025 -

JUST A month after the Murphy family featured prominently in RTÉ’s well regarded four-part documentary series on the lives of fishermen and women in Ireland, Tarrac na Farraige, a company controlled by Ryan Murphy, skipper of the MVF Menhaden, is to be wound up. The Murphys have been fishing for over 50 years, starting with… Read more »

STARWOOD’S VAULTS

Date: July 24, 2025 -

A COMPANY called Starwood Imports Ltd has popped up in Stubbs Gazette as a result of a third judgment being registered against it by South Dublin County Council (SDCC) last month. The listed principal here turns out to be one Harish Bansal, with an address in The Gallops, Leopardstown, Co Dublin, who has featured in… Read more »

DISNEY’S DEFENCE

Date: July 24, 2025 -

A MEMO of entry of appearance has now been lodged in Four Goldmines by the defendants in the legal action initiated by former IRA member Marian McGlinchey on foot of the broadcasting of the TV series Say Nothing on streaming channel Disney+. The filing means that the Disney group intends to defend the action. The… Read more »

BACKING CILLIAN MURPHY AND KNEECAP

Date: July 24, 2025 -

MAYBE A slow news day, but there was plenty of coverage of the publication of the annual report for Ciarán Kissane’s Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO), with the hacks focusing on the fact that two Irish films cracked the top 25 list at the Irish box office in 2024. Small Things Like These came in… Read more »

NEATLY PACKAGED

Date: July 24, 2025 -

GOLDHAWK RECENTLY reported on the ownership of a Shrewsbury Road pile in the heart of D4, which was put on the market without any price tag attached. One party who, presumably, will be interested to see what it eventually fetches is next door neighbour Ursula Dowling. Ursula was married to packaging moneybags Jimmy Dowling, who… Read more »

O’DONOVAN V KENNELLY

Date: July 10, 2025 -

WHILE FORMER Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly is no longer in office as a result of culture minister Patrick O’Donovan’s tough stance on the €7m “business transformation project” debacle revealed by Goldhawk (see The Phoenix 19/4/24), the battle between the two sides has continued to play out behind, and in front of, the scenes, with… Read more »

PROFILE: SEÁN KELLY

Date: July 10, 2025 -

IS NEWS about the €800,000-plus EU expenses and rent on her own property that Mairead McGuinness accrued as an MEP a game changer in the battle for Fine Gael’s presidential nomination with Seán Kelly MEP? It is unlikely in the overall scheme of things but… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: DEAN KEATING

Date: July 10, 2025 -

A group of college graduates headed by Trinity alum and former Ógra Aontú chair Dean Keating (now going by Céitinn) have founded Breaking Point, a self-styled “Irish forum”, to fill what they see as a gap in the nation’s discourse. They believe progress in Ireland is being stifled by the culture within the national media… Read more »

STEFAN KLINCEWICZ’S STARRING ROLE

Date: July 10, 2025 -

Beat The Lotto has been generating acres of glowing coverage across the Irish media thanks to the film’s tale of derring do by the lotto syndicate that scooped the bank holiday jackpot back in 1992. The starring role is played by so-called ‘lotto guru’ Stefan Klincewicz, but the documentary leaves out some of his most… Read more »

VERONICA GUERIN AND THE ‘SINDO’

Date: July 10, 2025 -

FORMER SUNDAY INDEPENDENT editor Anne Harris’s recent article in the Currency, about the murder 29 years ago of Sindo star journalist Veronica Guerin, lists various contributing factors surrounding her murder. None of them points the finger at decisions made by management at the newspaper. Harris blames what she calls the “grim realisation [that] our sense… Read more »

CIRCLING 6 SHREWSBURY ROAD

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THERE IS certain to be plenty of interest in a Shrewsbury Road property that has been put on the market by joint agents DNG and Hamptons International. There has been plenty of movement on the ownership register on the exclusive D4 road in recent times, with the houses trading in the mid-to-high millions of euros…. Read more »

BARONET BEVAN’S SECOND SHOT

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THERE HAS been what looks like a dramatic drop in the asking price for the impressive Fortwilliam Estate on 220 acres outside Lismore, Co Waterford, which was initially put on the market a year ago in a different form with a chunky €12m price tag. Now agents Knight Frank are seeking just under €7m, which… Read more »

QANON COMES TO CORK

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE SIGHT of a massive tricolour banner at the head of the anti-immigration protest in Cork City last month was not a major surprise for observers. But the fact that “WWG1WGA -48.17.45.46.47.107.109.A1.116” was scrawled across the white vertical band of the tricolour left many onlookers scratching their heads. Bizarrely the answer is that the hundreds… Read more »

JOHN KEEGAN DIGS DEEP

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE LEGAL activity continues apace in the intriguing case featuring environmental campaigner Kieran Cummins and minted quarry owner John Keegan – an action that has attracted the interest of Michel Forst, UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders. Legal eagle Cummins has long been active in this field and is also one of the directors, along… Read more »

VOL 43 NO 14

Date: July 10, 2025 -

LISTOWEL FESTIVAL’S FRIEND

Date: July 10, 2025 -

GOLDHAWK IS most impressed by the speed with which culture minister Patrick O’Donovan moves when the opportunity arises. As fans of Goldhawk are aware, the Limerick TD is a big fan of Listowel Writers’ Week, down the road from his own constituency. It fell foul of the Arts Council in 2022 when a restructuring saw… Read more »

IRANIAN DISSIDENTS AND FIANNA FÁIL

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE VIRTUAL black-out, political and media, on the links between a sinister anti-Iranian-government movement with a paramilitary wing and TDs and senators, mainly from Fianna Fáil, is strange indeed. In May seven FF TDs and senators attended the annual meeting in Paris of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) along with delegates from… Read more »