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THE ABBEY’S ‘SENSE OF RELIEF’

Date: September 5, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO the board of the €8.5m per annum Abbey Theatre, which pulled off quite the media coup in light of some damning findings in a corporate governance review carried out by Crowe-Ireland (CI). A summary of 12 findings was released last week and the… Read more »

EDDIE HOBBS’S SOUR TREAT

Date: September 5, 2024 -

THE OFFICIAL end is nigh for one of the various businesses that financial adviser Eddie ‘Rip Off Republic’ Hobbs has backed over the years. Treatdrop Ltd is an e-commerce company co-founded by Hobbs in 2012. This was a few years before the implosion of the Brendan Investments Pan European Property vehicle he launched. It raised… Read more »

HEAVY GOING FOR THE COMERS

Date: September 5, 2024 -

BOTH LUKE Comer senior and junior, in the space of just six weeks, have had their racehorse training licences revoked by the Bowler Hats in the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB). The billionaire family may be starting to feel that they can’t catch a break. It was only in July this year that Monaco-based property… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 18

Date: September 5, 2024 -

MICHAEL MULCAHY’S MANY HATS

Date: September 5, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK’S POST-Sunday-lunch indigestion was exacerbated by the work involved in deciphering the Sindo’s exciting tale of regrets, recriminations, homophobia and padel tennis last week. The good news is that “Cork PR guru” Michael Mulcahy, who now “deeply regrets” promoting the padel tennis business run by former tennis coach Mark White, is opening one of his… Read more »

ODDS ON FOR IRTA

Date: September 5, 2024 -

NINE MONTHS after a devastating court of appeal ruling in a defamation case, the odds on the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) – whose directors include the likes of Aidan O’Brien and Gordon Elliott – falling at the next hurdle are shortening. A High Court action was taken against IRTA by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory… Read more »

PEACE-WASHING CAPTAIN NAIRAC

Date: September 5, 2024 -

EVERY TIME the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) makes an initiative, behind the scenes ‘sources’ swing into action with stories depicting British Army undercover operative Robert Nairac as a most virtuous man – a latter day ‘Gentle Black and Tan’. Now that the ICLVR is hinting that it has located Nairac’s… Read more »

NUI CHANCELLOR ELECTION

Date: September 5, 2024 -

THE PATRICIAN Seanad may be under threat from a vulgar populism in these menacing times but standards have been maintained in academia where a small portion of the 250,000 or so graduates of UCD, UCC, UofG, Maynooth University, the RCSI and the IPA will next month vote for the sixth chancellor of the National University… Read more »

PÓGING THE THÓIN!

Date: September 5, 2024 -

I strongly suspect that everyone’s favourite peacemaker – Bono – also played a part. He’s thick as thieves with Noely G and his son Elijah Hewson is best friends with Noel’s daughter, Anaïs. The pair grew up together, nepo babying around the south of France. Elijah is a bona fide musician in his own right… Read more »

NATO CODS IRELAND

Date: September 5, 2024 -

WHEN IRELAND concluded its individually tailored partnership programme (ITPP) governing continued co-operation with Nato under Partnership for Peace from 2024 to 2028 in February, protection against threats to undersea infrastructure was floated as central to the logic of the agreement. The argument was that the undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in… Read more »

MI5 BOSS: ‘I KNOW NAWTHING’

Date: September 5, 2024 -

Freddie Scappaticci was the UK’s most lethal mole in the IRA. His codename was Stakeknife. Last March the interim report of Operation Kenova concluded that a string of murders he perpetrated “could and should have been prevented [but] were allowed to take place with the… Read more »

RIGHT-WING DIVISIONS

Date: September 5, 2024 -

With the general election imminent, Ireland’s new-right candidates are frantically trying to finalise preparations for their campaigns. Throughout August, however, internal divisions and the not-so-veiled threats of Justin Barrett to sabotage an electoral alliance have undermined any progress that had been made. In the aftermath of the Irish Freedom Party (IFP) ard fheis in August,… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: September 5, 2024 -

How are we to capture the memories that are supposed to sustain us between now and the spring after a summer of protracted sensory deprivation?… Will those days ever come back, or is this our lot now on this patch of our perishing planet? Justine McCarthy’s summer blues, Irish Times Can I talk a little… Read more »

POST HOT AIR

Date: September 5, 2024 -

Kudos to the Business Post for once again fearlessly standing up for the right of the highly polluting aviation sector to enjoy untrammelled expansion in the teeth of a climate emergency. A recent edition featured a triple sandwich comprising front-page lead story, inside editorial and back-page comment piece, all decrying the “complacent inertia” and “rank… Read more »

REDUNDANT PARTIES

Date: September 5, 2024 -

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and SDLP have both reached the point of no return. Three elections – assembly, council and British general elections – in two years have cruelly exposed the parties’ shortcomings. In large parts of the north, neither party has any organisation nor members and it shows. They can’t canvas or even… Read more »

SF REP RESIGNS OVER TRANS POLICY

Date: September 5, 2024 -

THE RESIGNATION of Sinn Féin’s long-standing Laois councillor, Aidan Mullins, has raised questions as the party wrestles with various policy issues and just what is meant by returning to basics in terms of policy. The Portarlington-based representative, who has been a member of SF since 1973 and a councillor since 2014, has criticised the party’s… Read more »

CRUCIAL WEEKS FOR SINN FÉIN

Date: September 5, 2024 -

These are crucial weeks for Sinn Féin (SF), as its revival in the polls remains partial and its future, pre-election polling trend is difficult to assess. Certainly, the recent level of 18% and 19% support is barely more than half that of two years ago, as is noted and emphasised by a jubilant media with… Read more »

LABOUR FACING VIRTUAL WIPE-OUT

Date: September 5, 2024 -

POLLING ANALYSIS tends to focus on which of the bigger parties will be in government post-election but mournful commentary from the Irish Times last weekend posited difficulties for Labour in retaining three of its seven seats – Wexford, Dublin Bay North and Cork East. ‘Difficult’ is an understatement of the electoral problems facing Labour in… Read more »

TICKING OFF TIKTOK

Date: September 5, 2024 -

WITH THE ongoing saga of justice minister Helen McEntee’s on again, off again hate speech bill – or, to give its formal title, the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 – there is effectively a free for all online. With Coimisiún na Meán, the new regulator of broadcasters and… Read more »

McCAFFERTY TRIBUTES

Date: September 5, 2024 -

GUSHING TRIBUTES to the late Nell McCafferty from most media were carefully phrased to avoid referencing her instinctive Republicanism. But RTÉ was especially disingenuous in its rhetorical flourishes about Nell McCafferty. The station recorded its own Miriam O’Callaghan bidding “farewell to a true feminist icon with endless courage… an incredible interviewee I was lucky enough… Read more »

ABUSE STORIES CENSORED

Date: September 5, 2024 -

When Greystones native Simon Harris was elected Taoiseach, former residents of the town’s Protestant Westbank Orphanage asked him to accept a twice-expressed Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation (MBHCI) recommendation that Westbank should be on the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) list. That way former residents could receive abuse compensation. Ignoring the commission, the… Read more »

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: September 5, 2024 -

GOREY GRIPE THERE WAS no luck for Deon Griffiths of 23 Forest Park, Courtown, after he appealed a District Court finding. In the Circuit Court, Judge Cormac Quinn heard that Griffiths was seen shouting at a garda, who described him as being “fully intoxicated and drinking a pint of Guinness”. When officer Adam Lally approached,… Read more »

MICHAEL WALL’S BAD REVIEW

Date: September 5, 2024 -

ONE ASPECT of Crowe-Ireland’s review of the corporate governance farce at the Abbey Theatre that has not got its fair share of attention is the starring role played by high-flying legal eagle and culture vulture Michael Wall. The question is, should he now step down from the board. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix… Read more »

HICKEY’S PROSPECTS

Date: September 5, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK PREVIOUSLY reported on the career trajectories of siblings Jack and Lara Hickey (see The Phoenix 19/4/24) and it looks like we are set to hear a lot more about Jack. The siblings are the children of James Hickey, the high flyer who was formerly chairman of MOP legal eagles and chief executive of Screen… Read more »

GETTING UP FOR DOWN UNDER

Date: September 5, 2024 -

RICH RICCI’S rarely seen bonce got an outing at York when the moneybags’s hat took flight in the windy parade ring before the Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup Stakes (Group 2). Happily his charge, Vauban, also took flight inside the final furlong to beat Elbashir Salem Elhrari’s Al Nayyir by a short head to land the… Read more »

ED DUNLOP’S BRIGHTON KNOCK

Date: September 5, 2024 -

NEWMARKET TRAINER Ed Dunlop has been handed a suspended one-year period of disqualification from racing after his charge, Lucidity, tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine when a beaten favourite at Brighton last year. Punters with long memories will be familiar with Dunlop’s previous encounter with the racing authorities, involving the great Snow Fairy, who… Read more »

COOLMORE AND MORE

Date: September 5, 2024 -

A MOST impressive pair of racehorses trained by Aidan O’Brien – City of Troy and The Lion in Winter – each excelled at the big York meet last month and the former is now preparing to head to sunny Del Mar, California for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. For John Magnier, this represents his 17th attempt… Read more »

ROSEMARY COLEMAN’S SKINCARE EDIT

Date: September 5, 2024 -

LAST WEEK RTÉ’s Prime Time caused a bit of a stir when it examined the surge in young children following advanced skincare routines, which regularly involve anti-ageing and exfoliating products as part of a rapidly expanding children’s personal care market. One of those giving her tuppenceworth was Dr Rosemary Coleman, who seems to have a… Read more »

TIME FOR FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT TO DIVERSIFY

Date: September 5, 2024 -

FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT – operating mainly through FanDuel – is now the dominant betting platform across the Atlantic, with gross turnover last year of $4.5bn, having more than doubled since 2021 ($1.9bn), with 3.2 million players and a 43% market share of US online sports betting (although the online gaming share is only 26%). While growth… Read more »

CONROY GOLD SHAREHOLDERS FEEL THE PAIN

Date: September 5, 2024 -

IT MUST have come as a shock to Conroy Gold and Natural Resources shareholders that, after spending €5.65m drilling the Conroy Gold Irish properties in Cavan and Monaghan, Turkish mining group Demir Exports AS decided to pull out three months ago. It is not that the exploration programme executed under Demir was a complete failure… Read more »

LEGAL EAGLES FLY THE NEST

Date: September 5, 2024 -

LAST WEEKEND the Business Post property editor Tina-Marie O’Neill waxed lyrical about the impressive Argyle at Ballybride Manor in the Dublin mountains, which has just gone on the market with a €2.75m price tag. The “beautifully presented home with stunning garden that should tick all the right boxes for high-end buyers” turns out to be… Read more »

NELL MCCAFFERTY’S SHARE TIPS

Date: September 5, 2024 -

THERE WERE, unsurprisingly, many heartfelt tributes last month to the irrepressible Nell McCafferty, with contributors highlighting her significant impact on Irish society and the no-nonsense personality that won the Derry woman so many admirers. But Nell was not just a feminist firebrand, republican and social critic. Goldhawk was disappointed that some space was not given… Read more »

MARY ROBINSON’S MAKE-OVER

Date: August 22, 2024 -

WHO KNEW that Mary Robinson was so impressionable, as indicated in a recent all-holds barred Irish Independent interview with the former president as well as an Irish Times paean of praise that would make even Mary’s toes curl. It’s all part of the publicity campaign leading up to the release of the documentary, Mrs Robinson,… Read more »

PROFILE: MACDARA KELLEHER

Date: August 22, 2024 -

THE NEWS that the 2002 Roy Keane/Mick McCarthy Saipan bloodbath is being brought to the big screen is set to bring some added attention to one of the more retiring of Ireland’s film and TV producers, Macdara Kelleher, who has been performing at the higher levels of the business for some years now and has… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: HAZEL DE NORTÚIN

Date: August 22, 2024 -

THE RETIREMENT of People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith has posed an obvious question about whether her would-be successor, councillor Hazel de Nortúin, can hold the group’s Dáil seat in Dublin South Central. As with other left radical candidates, her fate is tied up with the rise or fall of Sinn Féin. In the 2020… Read more »

AIDAN CORLESS’S UNFORTUNATE TENANT

Date: August 22, 2024 -

AIDAN CORLESS is a busy man, juggling his roles as software company boss and charity chairman with overseeing a sprawling rental empire in Dublin (although he also has properties in London). Coincidentally, in recent weeks two of his concerns have ended up in front of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), for very different reasons. Of… Read more »