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KATE NEGOTIATES ELECTORAL RETURN

Date: October 3, 2024 -

THE ASCENSION of Simon Harris to the Taoiseach’s job and leader of Fine Gael was supposed to mean that one of his most ardent supporters, former TD Kate O’Connell, would be imposed on the party’s Dublin Bay South (DBS) general election ticket alongside current Dublin lord mayor, James Geoghegan. However, protracted negotiations at national leadership… Read more »

JOHN NAGLE BOUNCES BACK

Date: October 3, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO former bankrupt John ‘Payzone’ Nagle, who hasn’t let the dreaded taxman cramp his style too much. Nagle was one of the poster boys of the boom times until his Alphyra (later Payzone) got disconnected by the crash and the investors all ended up screwed. Nagle’s own interest had been valued at over €100m…. Read more »

FEAR AND LOATHING AT GLENCREE

Date: October 3, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with the carry-on in Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, where peace-building has been noticeably absent in recent times (see The Phoenix 23/3/24). The worthy conflict resolution charity has witnessed a remarkable level of turnover on the board as a result of a complete breakdown… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 20

Date: October 3, 2024 -

PAUL ANDERSON’S €20M HOUSES

Date: October 3, 2024 -

FANCY DUBLIN 4 houses coming on the market with seven-figure price tags barely raise an eyebrow these days but this is not the case when there are eight-figures involved. Hence, there has been a lot of chatter since Lisney Sotheby’s International launched a pair of adjoining properties in the heart of Ballsbridge last month. The… Read more »

IRISH ‘DIPLOMACY’

Date: October 3, 2024 -

A RECENT Irish Times article about the Spycatcher court case in Australia, which so embarrassed British cabinet secretary Robert Armstrong in 1986, was the pretext of a generous letter to the newspaper by former Irish diplomats Sean Donlon, Noel Dorr and Michael Lillis. Being the three surviving members of the team that negotiated the Anglo-Irish… Read more »

MEDIA BUDGETARY ECHO CHAMBERS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

Hats off to the Government handlers who secured fawning coverage of the budget long before Jack Chambers uttered a word last Tuesday. The media fanfare has been like no other. Just over a week out and all matters budgetary were already at a boil. The daily Indo splashed with the fervid plans of Fianna Fáil… Read more »

BARKING MAD!

Date: October 3, 2024 -

WITH THE ban on importing, selling and rehoming XL bully type dogs kicking in this week, the level of protest from the various lobby groups reached a crescendo, with familiar names like celebrity vet Peter ‘Pete the Vet’ Wedderburn and assorted charities maintaining the ‘deed not breed’ mantra to the end. The question now is… Read more »

DUBLIN-MONAGHAN BOMB FILES MISSING

Date: October 3, 2024 -

FORMER BRITISH ARMY officer Colin Wallace worked as a psychological operations officer at the army’s HQ in Lisburn in the 1970s. He rubbed shoulders with MI5, MI6 and military intelligence officers on a daily basis. He became privy to many unpleasant secrets. Shortly after the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, he learned the names of nine of the… Read more »

DECLAN POWER’S LEGITIMATE TARGETS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

DESPITE Ireland’s new right recent poor performance at local and European elections, these movements remain a potent force on the streets and online. Also, in contrast to the failures at the ballot box, Ireland’s new right has made significant progress in developing a network of intellectuals to frame the discourse and activities of this milieu…. Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: October 3, 2024 -

I would have been better off earnings and pension-wise if I had gone into the civil service. I’m doing OK but I think I would have a much bigger pension now if I was in the civil service. Sean O’Rourke’s regrets, Sunday Independent Life Magazine The menswear has developed into a foundation for the Irish… Read more »

FARM MEDIA PR FANTASIES

Date: October 3, 2024 -

Behind the media and marketing façade of Irish agriculture being all about traditional family farming that is uniquely clean, green and sustainable, there lies a dense web of vested interests colluding to sell this fantasy. At the centre of the labyrinth is the powerful agribusiness sector, comprising billion-euro PLCs whose sole interest is in maximising… Read more »

PARKED!

Date: October 3, 2024 -

Months of bitter opposition by city centre business interests, backed by Ibec and junior FG minister Emer Higgins, to extremely modest proposals to reduce private car numbers driving through the city narrowly failed to have the plan cancelled, amid apocalyptic warnings on what would happen as a result. In the few weeks since it was… Read more »

NORTH HARMONY?

Date: October 3, 2024 -

The north’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, gave the Sinn Féin ard fheis a glowing report on the Stormont executive. She said the four executive parties were “working together with a unity of purpose and we are determined to deliver good public services, good governance, economic growth and strong communities that we all depend on”. It’s… Read more »

VARADKAR OUT TO EMBARRASS MARTIN

Date: October 3, 2024 -

FORMER TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar’s call for all political parties to declare during the general election that a united Ireland is an “objective, not an aspiration”, and for them to back the creation of a New Ireland forum to plan for Irish unity was assumed by some to be an indirect effort by Fine Gael to… Read more »

MARY LOU’S BACK YARD

Date: October 3, 2024 -

IF MARY Lou McDonald’s presidential speech sounded a bit flat, it is because she had to search hard-to-find, dramatic attack points against the Government given the daily stream of ‘good news’ budget leaks before, during and after the Sinn Féin ard fheis. Now it’s back to basics of a different sort as she squares up… Read more »

ENRIGHT QUELLS KERRY REVOLT

Date: October 3, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK WROTE last August how Fine Gael members in Kerry and in Dublin HQ were in disarray over how to replace former minister Brendan Griffin at the general election given the absence of a convincing candidate. At one point Griffin came up with the whizz idea of running his cousin, councillor Tommy Griffin, for the… Read more »

HERITAGE COUNCIL’S CHEAP SEATS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

HOUSING AND heritage minister Darragh O’Brien has sought expressions of interest in two vacancies on the Kilkenny-headquartered Heritage Council as a result of the early exit of the chatelaine of Castle Leslie, Sammy Leslie, and John Patrick Greene, the recently retired director of the EPIC Irish emigration museum. Chaired by former Louth and Galway county… Read more »

PAY DAY!

Date: October 3, 2024 -

THOSE UNFAMILIAR with Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde’s Tailored Films will be interested to know that “the company’s vision is to be renowned for creating edgy film and TV content, which is underpinned by a strong societal message and engages audiences worldwide”. Presumably, the decision-makers at Coimisiún na Meán were impressed with the global ambitions… Read more »

POOR FORM FOR RICH RACES

Date: October 3, 2024 -

ONLY 14 went to post last weekend for Europe’s most lucrative race for two-year-olds – the Goffs Million – which saw the Joseph O’Brien-trained Apples and Bananas narrowly defeat Antelope Canyon, trained by his dad, Aidan. The winner had to survive a stewards’ enquiry, when the Laurence McFerran-chaired panel enquired into possible interference inside the… Read more »

WATSON’S WOES

Date: October 3, 2024 -

ARMAGH TRAINER Keith Watson and his son and assistant, Marshall, have questioned the reasoning behind the decision of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) to prevent their Springfield stable in Killylea running horses in class five and six handicaps in Britain. Although based in the north, the Keith Watson stable is licensed through Horse Racing Ireland… Read more »

DEREK ICETON’S DISMOUNT

Date: October 3, 2024 -

MINTED RACEHORSE owner/breeder Steve Parkin has effectively ended his interest in Ireland, following his break up with former adviser Joe Foley. A local player also exiting the market here is Derek Iceton of the venerable Tara Stud in Co Meath, which is currently for sale. Yorkshire moneybags Parkin recently dropped the asking price for his… Read more »

HERITAGE TRUST SEATS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

THE ESB announced a significant plan to develop a museum at 12 Fitzwilliam Street, adjacent to its expensive HQ, where it will partner with the Irish Heritage Trust (IHT) on the project. Throwing in their tuppenceworth will be any new directors that the IHT appoints on foot of it recent advert. The trust has a… Read more »

MINCON’S MYSTERIOUS REVERSAL OF FORTUNES

Date: October 3, 2024 -

IT WAS quite the setback last year for the now 86-year-old founder of Mincon, Paddy Purcell, who saw his company suffer a serious reversal, one that has continued into 2024. In the first six months of this year, Mincon just broke even at the operating profit level but suffered a near €1m loss at the… Read more »

POST-GRENFELL KINGSPAN’S PERFORMANCE LOOKING OMINOUS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

IN THE immediate aftermath of last month’s Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase two report, Kingspan’s PR spinners were quick out of the blocks to advise: “The principal reason for the fire spread was PE ACM cladding, which was not made by Kingspan.” The Murray Consultants-drafted statement added: “Kingspan has long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historic failings that… Read more »

CORMAC LOHAN’S VAT BILLS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend, Athlone legal eagle Cormac Lohan, has suffered yet another setback, this time in the Court of Appeal courtesy of a ruling by Judge Senan Allen. Lohan, who practises as Lohan & Co Solicitors, had appealed a High Court ruling by Judge Garret Simons delivered a year ago that granted summary judgment for… Read more »

FRANK CARROLL’S FURNITURE

Date: October 3, 2024 -

THE APPOINTMENT last month of Joe Walsh of JW Accountants as interim examiner at swanky furniture manufacturer Alfrank Designs follows AIB’s taking over of the company’s debts from Ulster Bank after the latter exited the Irish market. The sole shareholder here is co-founder Frank Carroll but many moons ago the company boasted quite the colourful… Read more »

BUDGET PLOT

Date: October 3, 2024 -

THE LOBBYING by film and TV interest groups in the run-up to this week’s budget has been escalating since June, when Susan Kirby’s Screen Producers Ireland lobby group launched the first salvo. This was followed by the likes of Sarah Glenane’s Screen Composers Guild, Torlach Denihan of Ibec’s Audiovisual Ireland, Ronan McCabe’s Animation Ireland and… Read more »

WAREHOUSING AT THE ‘BIZ POST’

Date: October 3, 2024 -

AS BEFITS the parish newsletter of the SME community in Ireland, the Business Post has been blasting out articles for much of this year warning about the looming deadline for the Revenue’s pandemic debt warehousing scheme. The paper clearly knows what it was talking about. On January 24, for example, it warned about new figures… Read more »

STEPHEN DONNELLY’S SAVINGS

Date: October 3, 2024 -

IT WILL be recalled (see The Phoenix 12/7/24) that Goldhawk was curious about a restaurant company called Castleknock Hospitality Ltd (CHL) that had quietly ceased trading and, although employees had been told the firm was to be wound up, there was no sign of any activity. The ‘good news’ is that insolvency specialist extraordinaire PJ… Read more »

APPLE TAX LAWYERS’ PRIVATE FEES

Date: September 19, 2024 -

IT IS hard to think of a story whose publication could be more in the public interest than the multi-billion-euro Apple tax charade, involving as it does enormous sums of taxpayers’ money. Ministers and other ‘responsible’ titans of industry are already sermonising against profligate demands to actually spend the dosh on trivial matters such as… Read more »

PROFILE: BRIAN POLLY

Date: September 19, 2024 -

MOST OBSERVERS were shocked at the revelations to the Committee for Public Accounts (PAC) by Darragh O’Loughlin, CEO of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), regarding questionable financial practices in the agency that oversees the regulation of the sport of horse racing. You would, however, get pretty long odds that former IHRB steward Brian Polly… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: JOHN CUMMINS

Date: September 19, 2024 -

CAN 36-YEAR-OLD senator John Cummins win back a seat for Fine Gael in Waterford, after the party’s wipe-out there in 2020. Heavy transfers from a phenomenal performance from Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane saw the Green Party’s Marc Ó Cathasaigh and Independent Matt Shanahan leapfrog two FG candidates and edge the party out. FG is leading… Read more »

DREW HARRIS AND MI5

Date: September 19, 2024 -

DREW HARRIS became Garda commissioner in 2018, having served as deputy chief constable of the PSNI, 2014-18. His RUC/PSNI duties once involved liaison with MI5. The selection committee for his appointment included the interim chief constable of the Scottish police, Iain Livingstone. In 2011, a report by the Historical Enquiries Team raised concerns about the… Read more »

GRÁINNE SEOIGHE’S RIVALS

Date: September 19, 2024 -

WHILE THE media fawn over broadcaster Gráinne Seoighe, who is the new Fianna Fáil Dáil candidate in Galway West, rumblings of discontent abound in the party organisation, from Connemara hopefuls who were ignored and activists in the east of Galway city who see the whole eastern part of the constituency being left without a party… Read more »

JOHN MCGUIRK V THE BROGANS

Date: September 19, 2024 -

THE HEATED reaction to the housing of ‘unvetted military-aged men’ has reached fever pitch in recent months, spearheaded by a few key personalities on social media. One such maven of the new right is John McGuirk, whose Gript news website got its knickers in a twist last month when reporting on Dundrum House in Tipperary,… Read more »