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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 Kelly will certainly have been encouraged in his quest for… 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 »

ANOTHER SCRAP AT THE GPO

Date: July 10, 2025 -

HAS MICHEÁL MARTIN jumped the mauser, so to speak, with his statement in advance of the Government’s proposals, and also Sinn Féin’s, on the redevelopment of the historic GPO? Martin had no need to spell out the private enterprise element of the Government’s intentions here but he insisted on stating that the transformed GPO would… Read more »

MI6 BOSS’S NAZI GRANDAD

Date: July 10, 2025 -

Britain’s overseas intelligence service, MI6, has announced the appointment of its new chief, Blaise Metreweli. Aged 47, she is the first woman to lead the organisation in its 116-year history. Ms M has an intriguing family background, as had her predecessor, Richard Moore. In Moore’s case, his grandfather, Jack Buckley, was an IRA veteran of… Read more »

IRISH RIGHT’S FOREIGN FRIENDS

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE DEBATE about whether the Alternative for Germany (AfD) should be banned has intensified. A visit by prominent National Party (NP) member Keith Woods (the pseudonym of Keith O’Brien from Roscommon) to Potsdam to meet with AfD representatives saw him blunder into this controversy. In Germany’s general election in February the AfD garnered 20.8% of… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: July 10, 2025 -

I said, Geldof, this is gonna hurt but it’ll help, and scratched his back like a maniac. It gave him a sexual identity with the girls. BP Fallon, who else? Irish Independent Obviously, I couldn’t go on that protest, but I painted every single placard that was used in that protest that day. Joe Duffy… Read more »

ALAN CLANCY’S HOSPITALITY HEADACHES

Date: July 10, 2025 -

WHAT ON Earth is going on with Alan ‘House’ Clancy’s sprawling bar and club empire? Having attracted the attention of the dreaded taxman (see The Phoenix 13/6/25), which petitioned the High Court to wind up one of his loss-making vehicles – Honsun Ltd – more Clancy operations have now fallen foul of the Revenue Commissioners…. Read more »

ÁRAS CANDIDATES CLIMATE CHECK

Date: July 10, 2025 -

Environmentalists may have breathed a small sigh of relief at Joe Duffy’s announcement last weekend that he would not be running for the presidency. Only a small sigh, mind you, as the crowded field of prospective candidates is still riddled with climate sceptics and mockers of environmentalism. Duffy repeatedly used his influential Liveline platform to… Read more »

SEAN SWEENEY’S MOTOR

Date: July 10, 2025 -

Goldhawk was bemused to read that Sean Sweeney, the new head of Dublin’s long-awaited MetroLink, makes the two-minute journey from his home to his office by car. The New Zealander dislikes Dublin’s public transport, describing the Luas as “a great place to catch a cold”. Hopefully, before the opening of the MetroLink draws near, Sweeney… Read more »

ONE COMMUNITY, ONE VOICE

Date: July 10, 2025 -

OF DUP ministers in the Stormont executive, current education minister Paul Givan used to be northern nationalists’ bête noir. Many would say his abrupt Christmas cancellation of a Líofa grant for children to spend time in the Donegal Gaeltacht was the final straw that collapsed the executive in 2016. With the return of Stormont in… Read more »

HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI, IRISH ROULETTE

Date: July 10, 2025 -

PERHAPS THE most unctuous words that Taoiseach Micheál Martin has ever uttered were delivered during his visit to Hiroshima last week, where he said: “I am going there in all solemnity to reflect our commitment to nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.” He also said Ireland would continue to promote nuclear non-proliferation at the United Nations…. Read more »

UNAPPROVED BORDER ROAD

Date: July 10, 2025 -

SINN FÉIN TDs in Donegal, Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, issued a mournful statement following last month’s High Court ruling in Belfast that quashed the Stormont executive’s long-awaited cross-border A5 upgrade. They described it as a “devastating blow for the communities we represent” and listed the reasons for the upgrade – “it will save… Read more »

PUSHING MICHEÁL MARTIN

Date: July 10, 2025 -

WHICH MISCHIEVOUS Fianna Fáil minister, TD or spin doctor dreamed up the story about Micheál Martin being pressured to go for the presidency and then pitched it to the Irish Mail on Sunday last weekend? Martin has made it clear, in word and deed, that he intends to become taoiseach for the third time –… Read more »

BACIK RETREATS FROM LEFT UNITY

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE LABOUR PARTY appears to have backed off its initial proposal for left unity, touted originally in the form of a united left presidential candidate following the failure to create an alternative government after the general election. This was given extra impetus with the three-card trick dealt by card-sharp Michael Lowry, with his Government/opposition stunt,… Read more »

BBC AND KINCORA

Date: July 10, 2025 -

FOLLOWING THE Gerry Adams disaster, another distinction earned by the BBC in its coverage of the Troubles came with last month’s settlement of the case taken against the UK state by a resident of the notorious Kincora Boys Home in Belfast for an estimated six-figure sum plus legal costs. Former resident Gary Hoy sued the… Read more »

LEO’S LINE

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE AAWRISH edition of the Sunday Times is usually kept on a tight editorial leash by the chaps (and gals) in London at London Bridge Street and Whitehall. So how come one of the new guest columnists in Dublin has been peddling a line that is definitely out of synch with HMG’s foreign policy at… Read more »

O’DONOVAN’S ‘ACTING DIRECTOR’

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THE LATEST Oireachtas outing featuring the antics at the Arts Council took place before Alan Kelly’s art and media committee earlier this month and proved suitably entertaining. Of most interest to Goldhawk was the mention of an “interim director” at 70 Merrion Square. The Arts Council and its woes were highlighted in two consecutive committee… Read more »

KAVANAGH’S POOL GAME

Date: July 10, 2025 -

CURRAGH BOSS Brian Kavanagh was one of the few “delighted with the number of runners” in the recent Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby – “the largest number there has been in recent years”. A field of 10 runners, with no less than six of them supplied by John Magnier and his Coolmore crew, ensured there… Read more »

WHIP (NOT) SMART

Date: July 10, 2025 -

GROUP ONE winning jockey Gary Carroll was left in the doldrums after his Royal Ascot victory aboard the Joe Murphy-trained Cercene in the Coronation Stakes. The whip review committee found Carroll guilty of hitting of his filly eight times inside the final furlong and imposed a £5,800 fine and 14-day suspension. Unsurprisingly, the hapless Carroll… Read more »

FAST CARS AND HORSES

Date: July 10, 2025 -

SOME HEAVY going on the tarmac for a couple of Irish jockeys recently. Four-time UK champion jockey Oisín Murphy was fined £70,000 and disqualified from driving for 20 months after the Kerryman pleaded guilty to driving his A Class Merc into a tree while over the prescribed alcohol limit. On the same day, Northern Irish… Read more »

WEXFORD’S NEW STAR

Date: July 10, 2025 -

THERE WILL be a new face at Wexford Festival Opera (WFO) next year following the appointment of Yank Suzanne Nance as the new executive director to replace Randall Shannon, who exited stage left in February this year after his initial contract ended. Nance’s arrival will mean that Ireland will have a bona fide musical power… Read more »

FLUTTER’S BETS OUTSIDE AMERICA LOOK LIKE LONG-SHOTS

Date: July 10, 2025 -

FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT boss Peter Jackson continues to splash out around the globe rather than focus on the rapidly evolving US market, a strategy that ignores the logic that America is the market that offers by far the greatest potential to boost the bottom line in the short term. Nevertheless, Moneybags’s prediction almost 18 months ago… Read more »