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HOUSING WHITEWASH

Date: August 22, 2024 -

Presented as a background to the race riots in unionist districts of Belfast, there was a pretty obvious attempt in the Aawrish edition of the Sunday Times on August 11 to rewrite the history of housing in the north, including whitewashing the record of unionism and unionists. Columnist Newton Emerson claimed that the Cameron report,… Read more »

IRELAND’S MALI ADVENTURE

Date: August 22, 2024 -

THE TRUTH behind media reports of a Mali-Islamic motive for the knifing of Fr Murphy in Galway will have to wait for the trial of the teenager charged with the attack. But the reality of Irish military involvement in Mali is not known to many Irish people in any case due to the diplomatic gobbledygook… Read more »

DARYL BARRON’S COMMUNITY WORK

Date: August 22, 2024 -

COOLOCK SAYS NO campaigners appear to have split several ways following their alliance with British fascists and loyalist paramilitaries in Belfast, with various new names being used by those claiming the anti-immigrant ‘mantle’ in Coolock. These include the original Coolock Says No (CSN); Coolock Stronger Together and Coolock Concerned Parents, a throw back to a… Read more »

DEFENCE MINISTER DEFENCELESS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

THE NEWLY appointed junior minister for European affairs and defence, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has been putting herself about in the media since her assignment. This is partly down to her pique at being moved sideways rather than promoted – as she and indeed others see it – from her previous posting as junior finance minister…. Read more »

GARDA INTEL FEARS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

NATIONAL SECURITY fears were issued via the media and its supportive crime journalists late last year when the punitive pension tax bills facing those that might take the job of deputy commissioner deterred applications. Various arguments were used to support the potentially pauperised senior officers (tax bills of hundreds of thousands were talked of) but… Read more »

CATHERINE MARTIN’S ‘NUANCE’

Date: August 22, 2024 -

GOOD TO see arts minister Catherine Martin finally getting around to advertising the vacancies on the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). The procrastinating minister has managed to leave the seats unoccupied for more than a year. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 22/9/23) that arts consultant Ali Curran was appointed… Read more »

PADDY LOU’S LOLLY

Date: August 22, 2024 -

EARLIER this month (see The Phoenix 9/8/24), when no 2024 quarterly funding decisions had appeared on the Screen Ireland (SI) website, a curious Goldhawk lobbed in a couple of queries that met with deafening silence. Subsequently, the film agency shouted ‘action’ and advised that “Q1 decisions were posted on our backend in early Q2, April… Read more »

BREEZE DOWNS?

Date: August 22, 2024 -

BRENDAN ‘BLARNEY’ Holland of Grove Stud – the newly elected chairman of the Breeze-Up Consignors Association (BUCA) – has spooked the horses over proposed new breeze-up sales at Goffs and Goresbridge in 2025. Having just been voted on to the saddle, Holland delivered a written mandate to Goresbridge and Goffs, which stated it had been… Read more »

‘AL RIFFA’S’ FRENCH ADVENTURE

Date: August 22, 2024 -

The Joseph O’Brien-trained Al Riffa was the subject of some bluster on X, courtesy of Kevin Blake, following the nag’s win at Hoppergarten in the Group 1 German Westminster 134th Grosser Preis von Berlin. Despite defeats at the Curragh, Deauville, Longchamp, Saratoga and Sandown since Al Riffa’s last victory nearly two years ago, Blake tweeted:… Read more »

DUKE DELIVERS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

POPULAR CURRAGH trainer Brendan Duke returned from the wilderness earlier this month to saddle the Liam Tougher-owned Ballysax Hank for a win in the bank holiday bumper at Cork. Ridden by top amateur Derek O’Connor, the former Katy Brown-trained five-year-old passed the post on the second anniversary of Duke’s last winner. In an emotional post-race… Read more »

REDDINGTON’S RIDE

Date: August 22, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO London-based construction magnate John Reddington, who hails from Bohola in Co Mayo. Last week, the minted part-time jockey returned west of the Shannon to give his racehorse, Love At Sea, a hell of a ride when he beat the Willie Mullins-trained Surfin USA by 20 lengths at Sligo. The punters at the scenic… Read more »

MAGNIER’S RACING ROYALTY

Date: August 22, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will know about the various private tours of horse racing establishments now being offered by top trainers and breeders, proving them with a welcome additional income stream (see The Phoenix 9/8/24). One option, however, stands out above all the others. Among those offering tours are trainers Jessica Harrington (€200 a head) and… Read more »

DISCOUNT SPECIAL IN FOXROCK

Date: August 22, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK SPIES that the sale of a Brighton Road pile called Tresillian House, sitting on an acre (and including a two-bedroom bungalow), has finally taken place, a full three years after it was put on the market with a remarkably optimistic looking price tag. At the time the Foxrock property went for sale, the Irish… Read more »

HAMMERSON DROPS €½BN ON ITS SALE OF VALUE RETAIL STAKE

Date: August 22, 2024 -

INVESTORS DON’T like surprises. The CEO since November 2020 of Hammerson plc, the largest retail property investor in this country, is Rita-Rose Gagné and she seemed a strange enough choice when she arrived mid-pandemic. Last month, very surprisingly, the CEO moved to sell off the group’s £1.1bn stake in Value Retail, which holds stakes in… Read more »

BANK OF IRELAND PROFITS FROM DUOPOLY BUT SHARES UNDERVALUED

Date: August 22, 2024 -

ALONG WITH seeking to ensure that the Irish banking system is a solid one, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) has a key role in facilitating a competitive banking system in this country. In this latter crucial role, the performance of the CBI has not been one that would land it anywhere the near the medals… Read more »

BILL MCCABE’S IMPLANTS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

A FEW months after the liquidation of the heavily indebted breast implant manufacturer Global Consolidated Aesthetics Ltd (which was backed by the likes of veteran investor Bill McCabe), another company in the group has been wound up, this time as a solvent liquidation, which appears to be part of a restructuring involving Tim Flynn’s London-based… Read more »

9TH IMPACT’S TAX GAME

Date: August 22, 2024 -

DIGITAL GAMING is big business and an Irish company that has been at the forefront in recent years is 9th Impact, which was set up a decade ago by pals Finn Krewer and Mark Quick. It turns out that the company is not too hot when it comes to the game of paying the taxman…. Read more »

KITE MEDICAL’S TURBULENCE

Date: August 22, 2024 -

A YEAR and a half after collapsing into liquidation, the final wind up meeting has been held for Kite Medical Ltd (KML). While there was a few bob to be shared with the unsecured creditors, the backers of HBAN Medtech Syndicate might be scratching their heads over an oddly timed investment by the angel investment… Read more »

WORKCOMPASS LOSES ITS WAY

Date: August 22, 2024 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p5) Goldhawk looks at the adventures of Dundrum-based businessman, landlord and philanthropist Aidan Corless, who is now in situ as CEO of a software outfit called Cognito HRM Ltd, following a €200,000 investment in the troubled company that trades as WorkCompass. He came on board last year when the business… Read more »

NEW RIGHT (DIS)UNITY

Date: August 22, 2024 -

EFFORTS BY disparate new right groups to translate anti-immigration sentiment into unified electoral success have been seriously undermined by a section of the anti-immigrant movement in the south recently lining up alongside Ulster loyalists and British fascists in Belfast.  Before the racist riots in Belfast, the National Party (NP), Ireland First (IF) and Irish People… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ CENSORS

Date: August 22, 2024 -

COVERAGE OF the recent conviction of prolific child abuser Derry O’Rourke in the Irish Times was a commendable, warranted catalogue of outrage against O’Rourke and empathy with his victims, expressed over a week in thousands of words. Every word was the truth, but not the whole truth. For many years the IT has published reams… Read more »

HUW EDWARDS AND MI5

Date: August 8, 2024 -

HOW DID Huw Edwards, the former face of BBC News, maintain virtual immunity for so long given the evidence of his crimes involving sexual pictures of children? Police presented evidence at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last week of Edwards sharing indecent images of children as far back as December, 2020. Yet the extent of MI5 surveillance… Read more »

PROFILE: AENGUS Ó SNODAIGH

Date: August 8, 2024 -

WITH SINN FÉIN under pressure after a disastrous local election, the promotion of 60-year-old Dublin South Central TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh is being seen as a gesture of reassurance to the membership that the leadership means what it says about reverting to basic left-republican politics. So, in addition to his long-standing responsibility for SF policy… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: ESME DUNNE

Date: August 8, 2024 -

ESME DUNNE has been making waves in activist circles these past few years as founder of the Dublin branch of Empower The Voice, a non-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness of the issue of sexual harassment. Apparently unafraid of – even welcoming – controversy, Dunne’s group has amassed thousands of followers on social media and… Read more »

ANNE DAVY’S CHILD’S PLAY

Date: August 8, 2024 -

THREE MONTHS after agreeing to settle High Court proceedings involving 41 children, creche operator Hyde & Seek Childcare is clearly well able to afford the payouts and legal costs. The Hyde & Seek group, owned by Anne Davy, hit the headlines after a 2019 RTÉ Investigates documentary showed children being roughly handled in secretly recorded… Read more »

CAN MARY LOU BOUNCE BACK?

Date: August 8, 2024 -

PUBLICATION LAST week of the revised housing policy of Sinn Féin (SF) – originally scheduled for next month – is part of a concerted effort by Mary Lou McDonald, Eoin Ó Broin et al to reset the political debate away from immigration and back to housing, where the party has its strongest hand. For eight… Read more »

BACHELOR FESTIVAL BLUES

Date: August 8, 2024 -

A COUPLE of high-profile names found themselves with a free Friday night in the run-up to the August bank holiday weekend, having originally committed to being judges in the one and only Westmeath Bachelor Festival. The hooley, however, never made it to the altar this year. Having bounced back on to the scene after Covid-19,… Read more »

PUTIN’S IRISH GUN SLINGERS

Date: August 8, 2024 -

THE TABLOID-reading British public is losing sleep over an alleged disinformation operation being directed by Vladimir Putin to subvert the United Kingdom. Britain has been reliably informed by undisclosed security sources that the Kremlin is responsible for sparking the recent riots in the UK. Last week the Mail reported: “Russia linked to fake news that… Read more »

MIKE ORMONDE’S RESCUES

Date: August 8, 2024 -

ALMOST TWO YEARS on from the approval of a rescue plan, the company behind Mike Ormonde’s media content and production outfit, Packed.House (formerly Electric Media), is the subject of a winding-up meeting next week. Packed.House has a number of online sites, including Entertainment.ie and Beaut, and also offers sponsored content as well as graphic and… Read more »

KATY BROWN’S HANDICAP

Date: August 8, 2024 -

FANS OF The Phoenix will be familiar with outspoken racehorse trainer Katy Brown, who started last month with a second win in two runs for Petrol Head, in the €50,000 Bia Energy handicap at Bellewstown (see The Phoenix 26/7/24). What makes this horse interesting is that the gelding had previously been trained by no less… Read more »

PETER AIKEN’S NEW GIG

Date: August 8, 2024 -

THE ADVERTISING blitz right up to the kick-off of the All Together Now festival in the grounds of Henry de la Poer Beresford’s Curraghmore Castle in Co Waterford reflects the increasing competition for the festival-goers’ dollar. It is clear that for the co-promoters here, Pod Festivals Ltd (PFL), every ticket counts. Now centre stage is… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 16

Date: August 8, 2024 -

IRELAND SAID ‘NO’ TO PINOCHET

Date: August 8, 2024 -

THE CHILEAN Supreme Court demanded Irish government co-operation in establishing the alleged guilt of the two Shannon sisters, Dubliners Frances and Christine, in a helicopter jail break of four anti-government guerrillas in December 1996. This was allegedly organised by the pair in an IRA gesture of solidarity with the Chilean resistance. It led to diplomatic… Read more »

TOM’S TROUBLES

Date: August 8, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend, Tom Ryan, has just had a judgment registered in Stubbs Gazette against him in London for no less than €3m by the dreaded taxman. He first popped up on this side of the Irish Sea with his Ryan’s Irish Cream liqueur business, where he was joined at various stages by other familiar names… Read more »

LEYDEN AT LARGE

Date: August 8, 2024 -

AFTER MANY years of ducking and diving and not a little in-fighting in Roscommon politics, as well as 43 years in the Dáil and Seanad, former Fianna Fáil junior minister Terry Leyden has not in fact retired from public life but has segued into the world of international diplomacy. Members of the Oireachtas recently received… Read more »

BRITISH AND IRISH FAR RIGHT

Date: August 8, 2024 -

THAT A section of the anti-immigrant movement in the south was prepared to line up alongside Ulster loyalists and British fascists in racist attacks in Belfast last weekend indicates extreme stupidity as much as extreme politics. When the ‘Coolock Says No’ banner was brought to an anti-immigrant demo at Garda HQ two days later, some… Read more »