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JOHN WILSON’S TOAST

Date: March 6, 2025 -

In 2019 Leo Varadkar was rightly mocked for saying climate change had “benefits” as well as “downsides”. An early contender for this year’s Varadkar Award for a Glass-half-full Approach to Climate Change is Irish Times wine critic John Wilson. Under the headline “Could climate change see wine being produced in Ireland?”, Wilson brought us the… Read more »

PARAMILITARIES RULE OK?

Date: March 6, 2025 -

The north’s Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) published its seventh report on February 25. It said the same as it has done every year since Dublin and London set it up in 2017 to monitor paramilitaries. “Paramilitary groups continue to exist and exert coercive control over some communities… including intimidation, financial extortion, sexual exploitation.” Everyone knows… Read more »

CATHAL CROWE’S STEPPING STONE

Date: March 6, 2025 -

WHAT A dramatic speech, full of resonance with modern Irish history, Clare Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe made last week during a Dáil session to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Crowe described how “800 years of invading forces and plantations” was followed by the War of Independence, civil war and creation… Read more »

IRON LADY’S GAME PLAN

Date: March 6, 2025 -

IRISH TIMES diarist Miriam Lord must have good sources in the health department or perhaps in health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s retinue. Last week Lord wrote in some detail about Thatcher MacNeill’s visits, past and present, to various hospitals around the country – some of them unannounced. The article also told how Independent Ireland TD… Read more »

NASON BYRNE’S DIPLOMATIC GAFFE

Date: March 6, 2025 -

A RECENT Sunday Times article on Alex Nason, son of top Irish diplomat Geraldine Byrne Nason – Irish ambassador to Washington – debated the pros and cons of young Nason’s strong political ties and activism on behalf of the Democrats. The newspaper did this from the viewpoint of Irish diplomacy and in particular Nason Byrne’s… Read more »

MARTIN’S NON-NORTHERN POLICY

Date: March 6, 2025 -

THE SPLENDIDLY titled Ireland and Britain editor of the Irish Times, Mark Hennessy, told readers last November that Irish unity would occupy much greater attention from politicians in the new Dáil. Writing under the headline, “Irish unity quietly becoming more significant for Dáil parties”, Hennessy wrote that “voters are not talking about it, but it’s… Read more »

GLOBAL TITLES FIGHT

Date: March 6, 2025 -

THE HEAVYWEIGHT title contest between various media combatants will take place in London next month at the 2025 Newspaper Awards – open to UK and Irish print titles – and Mediahuis management, CEO Peter Vandermeersch in particular, will see this as a return bout after some disappointing verdicts in past contests. So vexed was Vandermeersch… Read more »

GARY MURPHY’S HISTORY LESSON

Date: March 6, 2025 -

AMIDST AN avalanche of war cries from otherwise sober columnists and academics about the need for Ireland to tool up and join the big boys in EU rearmament, some pretty ludicrous rhetoric has been disgorged. One stand-out comment was the derision heaped on Irish neutrality by the eminent DCU professor of politics, Gary Murphy, who… Read more »

PAMPERED POOCHES

Date: March 6, 2025 -

IT TURNS out that some people spend an eye-watering amount of money on their pets these days, including, for example, €9,000 to have your dog sit alongside you when travelling on UK-based K9 Jets. Closer to home, one of those who has targeted this burgeoning market is Coralee Freeney, who in 2022 founded The Paw… Read more »

SLEVOIR’S LOW-KEY OWNERS

Date: March 6, 2025 -

A RECENT update to the Land Registry records show that the impressive listed Slevoir House near Terryglass, Co Tipperary – which featured on Selling Ireland’s Dream Homes on RTÉ 2 back in December 2022 – was purchased by low-profile couple Robert and Scharleen Ramsden. The UK-based new owners are well known in equestrian circles and… Read more »

ACTING THE MAGGOT

Date: March 6, 2025 -

AS ALWAYS, the Oscars garnered plenty of media attention for the stars and producers but on this side of the Atlantic, at least, there was little to be said about the unfair remuneration policies so often applied to performers. There has been something of a plot twist, however, although just how significant remains unclear. For… Read more »

SCANNER? WHAT SCANNER?

Date: March 6, 2025 -

GOLDHAWK IS struck by the way the annual reports of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) – like those of the Arts Council – managed to avoid any reference to its X-ray machine debacle. Certainly, both the director and chair of the heavily publicly funded national cultural institution had sod all to say in their… Read more »

ICY’S INSIGHTS

Date: March 6, 2025 -

ONLINE PUNDIT Icy – aka Gearoid Norris – recently held court through his Point Blank Sunday podcast with on-course bookmaker Colm White. Thousands of punters signed in to hear their opinions on topics of interest but were no doubt surprised to hear discussions on horses allegedly not being allowed to run on their merits both… Read more »

SMURFIT WESTROCK ON ROCKY GROUND

Date: March 6, 2025 -

It looks like a case of steady as she goes if you judge Tony Smurfit’s performance based on the share price of Smurfit Westrock (SWR) since it migrated its listing to New York. In reality, the company is entering choppy waters with increased competition in Europe, tariffs in the US, and a price/earnings multiple so… Read more »

JENNI TIMONY’S SALES PITCH

Date: March 6, 2025 -

GOLDHAWK spotted an old friend popping up in Letterkenny at a Mum Talks event (for women looking “to feel inspired”) at the Castle Grove Country House Hotel. For just €25 a head, assorted mums were inspired by Jenni Timony, the founder and face of the Fit Pink athleisure brand who has managed to get the… Read more »

MICK SMURFIT’S FAMILY TIES

Date: March 6, 2025 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p18), Goldhawk looks at the latest adventure by Sharon Smurfit, daughter of moneybags Monaco resident Mick. She has just acquired the golfing free sheet Talk Golf Ireland and although there is no sign of daddy as an investor, he has previously dug deep to back Moocall, a Dublin-based company that… Read more »

REVENUE’S SURGICAL STRIKE

Date: March 6, 2025 -

THE TAXMAN has secured the winding up of a company called Vesalius (EU) Ltd, which turns out to have links to one Stephen Carway, son of Goldhawk’s very old pal – the Conman of Killaloe, John Carway. Last week, insolvency expert Thomas Musiol of Musiol Advisory was installed by the High Court as liquidator. Vesalius… Read more »

CARTON HOUSE HANDICAP

Date: March 6, 2025 -

CARTON HOUSE golf club in Co Kildare has been busy in recent months as host of the KPMG Women’s Open, where the organising committee includes Róisín Lyons, (lady captain from 2020-2021). Róisín also got a glowing review in September in the Indo golf pages in an article extolling the virtues of the Carton Cup, a… Read more »

MAYHEM ON MERRION SQUARE

Date: February 20, 2025 -

AT LONG last the media (and Government) have caught up with Goldhawk’s investigation into the near €7m splurge on a useless information and communications technology (ICT) project (see The Phoenix 19/4/24) and attempts to keep the story under wraps (see The Phoenix 10/1/25). Now the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) beckons and the civil servants are… Read more »

PROFILE: VOGUE WILLIAMS

Date: February 20, 2025 -

WITH HER autobiography, Big Mouth, due out in May and a live show in Vicar Street scheduled for the same month, Vogue Williams’s professional and personal life has undergone a remarkable volte-face in recent years. The 39-year-old from Howth has gone from working as a DJ and model – where she stood on Grafton Street… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: PAUL LAWLESS

Date: February 20, 2025 -

AS THE Aontú party began a small but steady rise in the opinion polls throughout last year, the election to the Dáil in November of 28-year-old Paul Lawless from Mayo gave the party a chance to escape its one-man-band perception and present itself as a real party and a player with skin in the game…. Read more »

TRINITY COLLEGE LOWERS THE TONE   

Date: February 20, 2025 -

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN (TCD) authorities will feel satisfied that it recently handled some ‘legacy’ racism in a deft manner. In 2022 students agitated that George Berkeley, after whom TCD’s modernist library was named, owned slaves and advocated slavery. Berkeley fell in the wake of ‘Rhodes must fall’ demonstrations in Oxford as well as moves against… Read more »

SNUBBING CILLIAN MURPHY

Date: February 20, 2025 -

THERE MAY have been some surprised cinephiles when the Bafta winners were announced last weekend. Where were the gongs for Small Things Like These, produced and starring one Cillian Murphy? What filmgoers may have been unaware of is that Small Things Like These had not even got itself a nomination under any of the Bafta… Read more »

HUNTING THE MI5 MOLE

Date: February 20, 2025 -

IT WILL soon fall to new Fianna Fáil justice minister Big Jim O’Callaghan to fully commence the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, 2024. It assigns to An Garda Síochána the task of “protecting the State” from “espionage” and “unlawful acts that subvert or undermine… parliamentary democracy” and “acts of foreign interference that are, or… Read more »

KEVIN MYERS LIVES

Date: February 20, 2025 -

In recent years Goldhawk has been able to reveal the central role that Irish journalists have played in new media projects launched in Brussels that are linked to both Viktor Orbán and a longtime strategist for his Fidesz party, Patrick Egan. The fact that Kevin Myers has now joined this crusade against political correctness demonstrates… Read more »

SELLING GUINNESS MAKES SENSE ONLY FOR DEBRA CREW

Date: February 20, 2025 -

The buzz in London last month concerned the potential offloading by Diageo of its iconic Guinness brand. Although surprising to some, this is a proposition that has been floated over the last couple of decades on the basis that beer and spirits are apparently not a great business cocktail. What is different today is that… Read more »

FRANK MOLONEY’S JET TURBULENCE

Date: February 20, 2025 -

THE YEAR has started off with yet more turbulence for the Shannon-based private jet fleet operator Westair Aviation, which has been backed by heavy hitters such as former AIB chairman and Merrion Hotel co-owner Lochlann Quinn. Controlled by Frank Moloney through his Jets International vehicle, a number of backers have pumped moolah into Westair through… Read more »

ENGLISH THE LATEST IN ‘SINDO’ EXODUS

Date: February 20, 2025 -

THE ANODYNE clichés that departing Sunday Independent editor Alan English delivered to explain his sudden resignation, in a most accommodating interview with The Currency “chief executive” Tom Lyons, indicate a deeper reason than those outlined. English gave various personal reasons for his exit, including his co-living Dublin-Limerick arrangements and family circumstances. But the main reason… Read more »

VOL 43 NO 04

Date: February 20, 2025 -

PHILIP KING’S MUSICAL NOTES

Date: February 20, 2025 -

THE COMPANY founded by Philip King, South Wind Blows Ltd (SWB), best known for the RTÉ music series Other Voices, found itself in the spotlight last week. King’s company was identified as the recipient of a $70,000 grant from Washington for a so-called “DEI musical” that caught the attention of Elon Musk’s Doge crew. King… Read more »

CENTRAL BANK’S ISRAELI WAR BONDS

Date: February 20, 2025 -

ASTONISHINGLY, THE Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) is enabling the sale of Israel bonds in Europe. As David Landy of Jews for Palestine told a protest outside the CBI: “There is a straight line between the Central Bank and the genocide taking place in Gaza… Israeli war bonds have raised over €3bn since October 7th… Read more »

CHINESE ORDER

Date: February 20, 2025 -

MICHEÁL MARTIN made sure to get his mug in the papers this week when chumming up with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, who was here to discuss business with foreign affairs minister Simon Harris. Given the huge existing (and potential) trade relationship between the two countries, this fawning by both coalition party leaders is not… Read more »

EU WANTS WAR

Date: February 20, 2025 -

THE INSANE level of militarist, anti-Russian rhetoric that has engulfed EU states, including Ireland, is a classic case of decision makers believing their own propaganda. Worse, it could lead to the EU, again including Ireland, exacerbating relations with Russia and leading to further conflict, despite the end of Russia’s war with Ukraine. It is always… Read more »

BLIGHE AND DWYER VS THE LAW

Date: February 20, 2025 -

After his elimination at the European election count in June, a bullish Derek Blighe, leader of Ireland First (IF), declared: “This is only the beginning. We’re going to build on this.” Instead, in the months since this election, IF has lacked any coherent direction from the top while Blighe and Philip Dwyer have both been… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 20, 2025 -

As in the pantomime, we suggest that the developers are attempting to stuff an ‘Ugly Sister’s foot’ into Cinderella’s delicate slipper. Pat Kenny on Bartra’s plan to build a nursing home near his back yard, Sunday Independent We want to democratise oral hygiene. Burst Oral Care CEO Hamish Khayat, Business Post He could easily pass… Read more »

HERE COMES SUMMER

Date: February 20, 2025 -

“What’s summer anymore?” That’s the question posed by one of around 200 farmers who took part in a recent research project run by Teagasc, Ireland’s state agri research agency. The standard chorus emanating from farmer organisations and the agri press alike is to downplay the impact of climate change and treat climate policies as if… Read more »