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UNFULFILLED LEGACY

Date: September 19, 2024 -

Many people presume that the British government’s decision to repeal the 2023 Legacy Act, which halted Troubles-related inquests and inquiries, is a major success for the Government here, all northern parties, and victims’ groups and human rights organisations in the north. Not so fast. Northern secretary Hilary Benn maintains the curious position of keeping in… Read more »

JENNIFER BENDS THE KNEE TO MARTIN

Date: September 19, 2024 -

TÁNAISTE AND defence minister Micheál Martin has torn off the epaulettes and snapped the sword of Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, his junior officer or Minister of State at the Department of Defence. Control freak Martin, as some of his treasonous officers in Fianna Fáil describe him (out of earshot), had more than enough provocation to justify… Read more »

HARRIS TO WIPE OUT FF IN WICKLOW?

Date: September 19, 2024 -

INTERNAL CONVULSIONS in Wicklow Fine Gael, involving competition between two contenders for a place on the general election ticket with Taoiseach Simon Harris and resentment against Eoin O’Duffy-type discipline in the constituency organisation, led to a tense selection convention last weekend. Former poll-topping councillor Shay Cullen had been expected to put his name forward but… Read more »

WEAPONISING IRISH

Date: September 19, 2024 -

THE DUP has once again raised the charge that Sinn Féin is “weaponising” the Irish language, as Belfast City Council issues a draft language policy for consultation with the public. The draft includes proposals to allow for the use of Irish or English in correspondence with the council, along with Ulster Scots. It also sets… Read more »

ONLY CATHOLICS ABUSE CHILDREN

Date: September 19, 2024 -

MOST ABUSE survivors surely could not have been taken in by the restrictive terms of reference in the scoping inquiry to determine the form of a statutory investigation into abuse in schools run by “religious orders” – except those who do not realise that it is only Catholic clerics that are covered by the term… Read more »

FESTIVAL CASTING CALL

Date: September 19, 2024 -

AFTER 13 years at the helm, Willie White is stepping down as artistic director and CEO of Dublin Theatre Festival (DTF). Would-be applicants have until the day after the curtain comes down on this year’s shindig. The decision on the new festival boss will essentially be down to the DTF’s chairwoman, arts consultant and Arts… Read more »

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

Date: September 19, 2024 -

DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN’S Screen Ireland (SI) has just launched yet another funding initiative, Perspectives, which is intended to provide “a window into experiences and viewpoints that may not have been widely represented on the big screen before”. Apparently, the scheme is particularly interested in stories that can “touch on a wide range of experiences across Irish… Read more »

STEVE PARKIN’S MOVES

Date: September 19, 2024 -

FALLEN ANGEL, the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner and dual Group 1 winner, owned by Steve Parkin, has been sold to continue her racing career with Wathnan Racing. The Too Darn Hot filly had raced in Parkin’s Clipper Logistics colours for Karl Burke, winning four of her six starts. She first raced in the Wathnan colours… Read more »

SHARK SLAPPED

Date: September 19, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will recall (see The Phoenix 27/6/24) that a video of an uncovered dead horse in an open builder’s trailer, which was being towed by John ‘Shark’ Hanlon’s Boylesports-sponsored horse box to a factory for disposal, went viral. While Shark apologised for any distress caused, stating that the tarpaulin that had been covering… Read more »

INTERCEPTING JOHN STEWART

Date: September 19, 2024 -

GOFFS SUPREMO Henry Beeby and his team will have their fingers crossed that the free-spending Resolute Racing founder, John Stewart, will get to participate at the upcoming autumn sales, rather than spending his dosh at Coolmore. Former Toyota assembly line worker Stewart, who founded private equity firm MiddleGround Capital, went on a whirlwind spending spree… Read more »

HERBERT PARK’S NEW NEIGHBOUR

Date: September 19, 2024 -

LAST WEEK, Ballsbridge residents were greeted with a sign, erected on the ugly fencing fronting the controversial site on the edge of Herbert Park, announcing the 103 swanky new apartments that are to be erected there, years after the first planning application was submitted. The good news for the well-heeled potential purchasers is that 40… Read more »

AER LINGUS IN FOR A BUMPY RIDE

Date: September 19, 2024 -

AFTER THE high-profile industrial relations stand-off at Aer Lingus, the airline is in the bad books of its owner, International Airlines Group (IAG). The underwhelming performance of the Irish business in the first six months of this year reflects the turbulence and, with senior management focused on the other airlines in the group, Aer Lingus… Read more »

ONEVIEW HEALTHCARE IN SEARCH FOR RIGHT MEDICINE

Date: September 19, 2024 -

IT WAS considered a surprising move when Darragh Lyons jumped ship from Malin Corp last Christmas, at a time when he seemed to be doing a decent job of sorting out the company’s various ailments. It is surely even more surprising that he has joined up with Mark McCloskey’s Blackrock-based Oneview Healthcare, taking over as… Read more »

GAY FUTURE COUP

Date: September 19, 2024 -

FOXROCK-BASED moneybags Ger O’Leary had plenty to celebrate last month after the part-time racehorse trainer saddled Doyen For A Drink to land Cartmel’s bank holiday Monday EWGA Handicap Hurdle on the 50th anniversary of the famous ‘Gay Future Coup’. O’Leary is best known for his control of the OKR Group, which includes high-profile franchises for… Read more »

MARK QUICK’S MANY HATS

Date: September 19, 2024 -

IT’S BEEN a challenging few years for entrepreneur Mark Quick, who has dipped his fingers in a great many pies but pulled up relatively few plums lately. His eclectic track record, however, suggests he won’t be kept down for very long. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that Quick’s 9th Impact gaming company got a €170,000… Read more »

HARRIS’S GAZA MOVE

Date: September 5, 2024 -

A FORTNIGHT ago, August 24, Taoiseach Simon Harris said there was no scope for Ireland to act unilaterally against Israel. A week later he implied he wanted to do just that, saying he had asked for fresh advice from the Attorney General about “trade at… Read more »

PROFILE: RODERIC O’GORMAN

Date: September 5, 2024 -

JUST AS the Green Party faces up to the imminent slashing of its dozen TDs to about half that number – on a good day – at the next general election, it has selected Roderic O’Gorman, a lightning rod for discontent, as its new leader. Eamon Ryan knew well what he was doing with the… Read more »

YOUNG BLOODS: LAURA FOX

Date: September 5, 2024 -

AFTER THE turmoil created by the ‘great exodus of 2024’, Laura Fox has finally been pushed front and centre of the 2FM schedule. It was probably inevitable as – with the departures of Jennifer Zamparelli, Doireann Garrihy, the 2 Johnnies and Donncha O’Callaghan around the same time – Montrose was practically a ghost town. When Zamparelli… Read more »

GENDER TRAP FOR CONOR LENIHAN

Date: September 5, 2024 -

ONE OF the first but definitely not the last tale of woe from a disappointed general election hopeful who faces rejection because of the gender quota is likely to be that of former Fianna Fáil minister Conor Lenihan. Conor awaits his fate as FF apparatchiks and members of the national constituencies committee in Mount Street… Read more »

PHIL HOGAN’S LONG WAIT

Date: September 5, 2024 -

IT TURNS out that Goldhawk’s favourite former EU commissioner, Phil Hogan, had to wait an awfully long time for an honorary doctorate from UCD. At the start of July, UCC graduate Big Phil received his award at a ceremony in Belfield but documents released to Goldhawk reveal that he had first been proposed all the… Read more »

JENNY KEANE’S BOTTOM LINE

Date: September 5, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK’S FAVOURITE ‘holistic sex educator’, Jenny Keane, shows no sign of slowing down after becoming a mother. Indeed, she has found yet more ways to put a smile on her face following what turns out to have been a financially pleasurable year in 2023. The camera-friendly Keane has an uncanny knack for generating headlines courtesy… Read more »

McWILLIAMS’S BLUFF

Date: September 5, 2024 -

HERE’S THE choice: Ireland can either opt for a coherent national climate and energy strategy or we can back the rampant expansion of gigantic energy-sucking data centres to service multinationals. We assuredly can’t have both, as is becoming ever clearer. In 2015, some 5% of Ireland’s electricity production was used to power data centres. By… Read more »

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 »