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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 »

TARGETING JACK CHAMBERS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

THE SUITS in the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (Digi), a lobby group for the alcohol sector, must have been delighted with the front-page story in the Irish Times this week, headlined: “Irish drinking rate falls to lowest level since 1987”. While they are busy lobbying the Government ahead of Budget 2025 to reduce excise… Read more »

‘COOL KID’ BRENDAN O’CONNOR

Date: August 22, 2024 -

RTÉ AND Sunday Independent front-page commentator Brendan O’Connor clearly felt the need to reinvent himself as a man with empathy when he moved over to his primary role of RTÉ broadcasting host following many years as the Sindo’s pitbull. But Brendan is surely pushing it if he thinks he can now come over as a… Read more »

FEMALE FINANCE PROBLEM FOR HARRIS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

TAOISEACH SIMON Harris has a serious political, financial and feminist problem on his hands with Cork City and County Fine Gael (FG) proving to be an almost female-candidate-free area as the general election nears. This statistic will send a chill down the collective spine of party financiers, as well as election organisers in other parts… Read more »

NEIL O’CONNELL’S WILD ROOTS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

WHILE ELECTRIC Picnic folded up its tents last weekend after another sell-out shindig, there was rather less to celebrate in the grounds of Hazelwood House farm in Co Sligo this year, where the debut Wild Roots “music, performing arts and adventure festival”, organised by Neil O’Connell, never got off the ground. Indeed, his company has… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 17

Date: August 22, 2024 -

BILL’S BIG HIT

Date: August 22, 2024 -

AN OLD friend of Goldhawk’s has just made quite a splash, courtesy of a whopping great judgment from those spoilsports in Nama. Like many property developers, Bill Kilmurray, with an address at 33 Upper Leeson St, D4, found himself in quite the pickle as a result of the crash and in 2015 Nama issued proceedings… Read more »

NOT SO TIDY

Date: August 22, 2024 -

THE NEXT AGM of Dún Laoghaire’s Eblana Club is likely to experience a stormy session regarding unsavoury reports emanating from the club about its alleged refusal to allow refugees to be part of a planned social function on its premises. The local tidy towns committee recently planned a get-together at the club for its volunteer… Read more »

WORKING-CLASS HERO

Date: August 22, 2024 -

IRISH INDEPENDENT shock-jock columnist Ian O’Doherty is a fan of right-wing US libertarian politics. The born-again proletarian champion recently wrote how “the images from Belfast of working class loyalists joining up in a protest with working class nationalists were a sign of unity nobody could have predicted. What on earth could these two groups possibly… Read more »

SUE GRAY’S CONTROL

Date: August 22, 2024 -

PRIME MINISTER Kier Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, has for some time been accused by many in Britain as a powerful spook behind the scenes in government, especially when she worked north of the border. Now the most powerful woman in Britain has become a target for angry civil servants (former colleagues of Gray),… Read more »

MI5’S MISSING SCAPPATICCI FILES

Date: August 22, 2024 -

NO ONE familiar with the manner in which the UK has conducted inquiries into allegations of British dirty tricks over the last half century will be surprised that MI5 failed to furnish Operation Kenova with all of its Freddie Scappaticci files. Scappaticci was a British agent in the IRA and was responsible for a string… Read more »

VIRTUAL SOLDIERS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

DOES THE Government and defence minister Micheál Martin believe they have solved the recruitment crisis in the Defence Forces with pretend soldiers? RTÉ News recently ran a fluff piece on how the army is expanding its use of virtual reality (VR) simulators, with footage of a soldier driving an armoured car and the chief instructor… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: August 22, 2024 -

Hospitality is changing and we believe our strong work ethic is better applied to new and different opportunities. Celebrity chef Dylan McGrath explains why he has closed two of his restaurants, Instagram His Nixonian restlessness is perfect for the age. Gerard Howlin on Simon Harris, Irish Times She merely wafted across the kitchen in her… Read more »

PSEUDO SOLAR GIFTS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

It’s not unusual for an energy company to throw a lot of cash at a rural community when trying to build a big fossil fuel plant in their midst. It’s an old trick that often ends up sowing bitterness and division but a cunning new twist to this ploy has come to light in east… Read more »

WHAT A WIZZ!

Date: August 22, 2024 -

Last week Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air launched an ‘All you can fly’ annual ticket. “What’s not to love?” asked a BBC online article. Indeed. On RTÉ’s News At One, Rachel English began her interview with flying pundit Eoghan Corry by saying she could “already see the horror on the faces of environmentalists”. Corry ignored… Read more »