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JOHN BYRNE’S BLINKERS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

PROPERTY MONEYBAGS John Byrne – the new chairman of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) – thanked “all those race-day staff and volunteers who commit to upholding the integrity of Irish horse racing”, when releasing the Bowler Hats’ 2022 annual report earlier this month. Remarkably, he added: “I am encouraged by the real progress we… Read more »

SHARK HANLON’S ROUGH RIDE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

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 recently. While Shark Hanlon duly apologised for any distress caused, he stated that the tarpaulin that had been covering the horse came undone during the… Read more »

FRANCES RUANE’S TIMING

Date: June 27, 2024 -

WHILE THE Abbey Theatre’s most famous Broadway hit of modern times, Brian Friel’s Tony award-winning Dancing at Lughnasa, is about to be produced by the Gate Theatre at the far end of O’Connell Street, the €7m-a-year Abbey, run by Frances Ruane, has been reduced to attaching its name to a New York run by independent… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 13

Date: June 27, 2024 -

KILLARNEY’S GAZA STANCE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

THE ISRAELI government will surely appreciate that it has finally and completely lost the global propaganda war when it receives a report from its ambassador, Dana Erlich, about the goings-on in Killarney, tourist mecca of Ireland and a must-see attraction for high-spending American tourists. Each year Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce organises a Fourth… Read more »

NEW C/S FACES FIGHT

Date: June 27, 2024 -

OUTRAGE AT soldiers’ violence against women and the lenient treatment many have received on conviction will have strengthened the hands of reformists in the Defence Forces. So will the Defence Forces Tribunal, which is hearing complaints from the Women of Honour about abuse of women in the ranks. Alternatively, developments other than the Defence Forces… Read more »

ALL IN GOOD TASTE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

LAST WEEK Merrion Square finally fully reopened to Dublin’s citizens after nearly three weeks of severe restrictions, which were put in place so the Dublin City Council-controlled public space could be given over for a four-day private shindig for foodies, Taste of Dublin. Sponsored by the uber-profitable Danish retail outfit, Jysk, punters were asked to… Read more »

MI6, HAUGHEY AND THE MAFIA

Date: June 27, 2024 -

AN UPCOMING book on British intelligence in Ireland, The Puppet Masters, includes new material on Patrick Crinnion of Garda intelligence, who worked for MI6 in the 1960s and early 1970s. Author David Burke has gained access to papers written by Crinnion, which provide the backbone of the volume and shine new light on a string… Read more »

BIG JOBS FOR BIG IRISH SOLDIERS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

FOLLOWING THE appointment of Defence Forces chief of staff Seán Clancy as the first Irish chairman of the EU Military Committee, Irish ex-officer Seán White was appointed by the European Defence Agency (EDA) as director for industry, synergies and enablers (ISE). Thus, the integration of the top brass of the Irish Defence Forces into joint… Read more »

NEW-RIGHT RIFTS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

FOLLOWING THE recent elections there has been feverish speculation about how Ireland’s new right could have a significant impact on the Irish political landscape if it could just find a common vehicle or platform. But the simplistic mathematics of adding together votes received by the Irish Freedom Party (IFP), National Party (NP), Ireland First (IF)… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

To travel by train is to see a textbook case of neoliberal capitalism’s endgame. Football hack Ken Early’s, er, interesting take on at Euro 2024 in Germany, Irish Times Like Jonathan [Anderson], Guinness has always seen the world differently, moving beyond life’s limitations and expectations to make a brighter world. Stephen O’Kelly, Guinness global brand… Read more »

TRUMP ‘HATES’ WIND ENERGY

Date: June 27, 2024 -

The EU elections may have been a bad day for the planet, with climate disinformation helping the far right take seats across Europe, but the vista is altogether more appalling in the US, where Donald Trump has casually asked the fossil fuel industry for a $1bn “donation” in return for undoing all of Joe Biden’s… Read more »

THE EARL AND THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, has never lived in Ireland but has managed to hang on to a colonial inheritance – ownership of the bed of Lough Neagh. This entitles him to royalties from the industrial dredging of sand, a practice environmentalists say is one factor in the ecological disaster at the lake. The… Read more »

DUP UNDER PRESSURE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

DUP party spokesmen (there is a dearth of women) are displaying a distinct lack of confidence in interviews about next week’s general election. The party, and its new leader, Gavin Robinson, are nervous because, although opinion polls show they retain their position as the main unionist party, a Queen’s University poll on June 21 shows… Read more »

GREEN ENTITLEMENT

Date: June 27, 2024 -

GREEN SENATOR Pippa Hackett and her co-conspirators – senators Pauline O’Reilly (party chair) and Róisín Garvey – will likely be seen off by rival leadership contender Roderic O’Gorman, but the three senators’ ambition is in reverse proportion to their own record in sundry elections. Hackett’s first effort was at the 2019 local elections in Edenderry,… Read more »

BLUE-BLOUSE BATTLES

Date: June 27, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK REPORTED in the last edition on the two Dublin Bay South (DBS) Fine Gael personalities, ex-TD Kate O’Connell and newly elected councillor Emma Blain, who hoped to stand here at the next general election. The options appeared to be that one of them would accompany barrister James Geoghegan on the DBS ticket, while the… Read more »

TIMMY DOOLEY’S DELIGHT

Date: June 27, 2024 -

IT’S REFRESHING in these times of political hand-to-hand fighting and abuse of – and between – politicians to note the fraternal expression of great joy from Clare Fianna Fáil senator Timmy Dooley at his “neighbour and friend” Michael McNamara’s victory in South at the recent EU elections. Within minutes of the Independent TD’s triumph, Timmy… Read more »

DUBLIN DANGER FOR FIANNA FÁIL

Date: June 27, 2024 -

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S appointment of Jack Chambers as finance minister and also as deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, a post that had been vacant for four years, was doubtless a recognition of the party’s need to project a Dublin image in these divisive times. It was also a reward for the party’s unexpected success in the… Read more »

GARDA BUGGERS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

TD RICHARD Boyd Barrett hauled justice minister Helen McEntee over the coals in the Dáil last week regarding Garda surveillance of the survivors and families of those butchered during the Dublin-Monaghan (D-M) bombings (see The Phoenix 13/6/24). Boyd Barrett asked the minister about the presence of undercover special branch officers at Garden of Remembrance ceremonies for… Read more »

CLARE DALY AND THE ‘IT’

Date: June 27, 2024 -

IS THE Irish Times worried that many readers recognise that its hounding of Dublin MEP Clare Daly helped to unseat her and nearly led to the election of new-right candidate Niall Boylan? Since the count, it has twice defended its coverage of Daly, with political editor Pat Leahy doing so on the front page and… Read more »

MEDIAHUIS SHEDS HACKS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

AS MEDIAHUIS continues to cut a swathe through its workforce, the genial, soft-spoken Mediahuis chief executive, Peter Vandermeersch, has been issuing soothing statements coupled with financial warnings about inadequate revenue streams at the publishing company. The Belgian-owned Mediahuis includes the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and Belfast Telegraph among its titles. On the one… Read more »

SMOCK ALLEY’S PATHWAY

Date: June 27, 2024 -

ACCOUNTS SIGNED off this month for Smock Alley Theatre (SAT) in Temple Bar make clear the state of affairs that has seen Dublin City Council (DCC) moving in to take overall control (see p28). Fans of Goldhawk will not have been surprised that SAT is in a financial mess. It will be recalled (see The… Read more »

BOXED OFFICE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

THE DREADFUL home box-office performance of Irish films will be familiar to fans of Goldhawk. Now, research from Crescine, a €4m cinema research project looking at seven small EU states, confirms the harsh reality. A team of Irish-based film academics, Judith Pernin, Daithí Mac Síthigh, Fiacre Muller, Nic Flanagan, Padraig Trehy and Rónán Ó Muirthile… Read more »

HASSETT’S ALLOWANCE

Date: June 27, 2024 -

PUNTERS WHO backed John ‘Minella’ Nallen’s Pinball Wizard in Sligo’s Web The Tool Company Handicap on May 15 can feel a little hard done by. Having finished second to Carlo Bianconi on the day, it later transpired that winning rider Wayne Hassett had claimed a 7lb allowance rather than the 5lb he was entitled to…. Read more »

PHILIP BYRNES’S APPEAL

Date: June 27, 2024 -

HAVING HAD a recent four-day Navan ban for careless riding overturned on appeal, jockey Philip Byrnes again returned to the IHRB to appeal his latest ban for the same offence. Once again, Philip Byrnes insisted that the stewards on the day – Dr Tom McDonogh (chairman), Anthony Ryan, Nick Wachman, John O’Shaughnessy and H Hynes… Read more »

ABANDONING ADO

Date: June 27, 2024 -

LUSK TRAINER Ado McGuinness, who has been having a quiet season, delivering a 6% strike rate, was dealt a further blow with the announcement that Shamrock Thoroughbreds is removing all of its 11 horses from his care, following a split with assistant trainer Stephen Thorne, who is also the syndicate manager. The horses will now… Read more »

NEVILLE EAGER’S ASCOT OUTING

Date: June 27, 2024 -

THERE WAS significant success in Royal Ascot last week for the syndicate owners of a horse called Crystal Black, which is trained by Ger Keane and managed to land the £110,000 Duke of Edinburgh Stakes. Ridden to victory by the trainer’s son, Colin Keane, the six-year-old is owned by the Wear a Pink Ribbon Syndicate… Read more »

SUCCEEDING MARY KEANE AT THE NGI

Date: June 27, 2024 -

NEXT MONTH marks the end of the term of Mary Keane as chairwoman of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI). The vacancy should not take long to fill given that arts and culture minister Catherine Martin recently filled three seats on the board, so already has a name in the bag for the fourth seat…. Read more »

DEEP D4 PROPERTY POCKETS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

DEVELOPER Joe O’Reilly must be delighted with the Irish Times giving a plug to his swanky Lansdowne Place apartment scheme in Ballsbridge. The paper reported that a three-bed penthouse has been sold to an Irish buyer for €6.6m, according to the Property Price Register (PPR). Happily, there was no room to mention issues of concern… Read more »

NO TOAST FOR DEBRA CREW AT DIAGEO

Date: June 27, 2024 -

IT WAS never going to be easy for the new CEO of Diageo to follow Ivan Menezes’s decade-long reign to June 2023. While his record had been mixed, Menezes nevertheless increased the market value of Diageo from £42bn in 2013 to £100bn in June 2023. The preceding CEO, Paul Walsh, also had an exceptional record… Read more »

AMINEX SHARES DOUBLE AS TANZANIA HEATS UP

Date: June 27, 2024 -

THE LAST five years have been hugely frustrating for Aminex shareholders, who have been waiting for the company to drill its critical third step-out well in the Ntorya gas discovery block in south-eastern Tanzania. New results have now greatly increased the estimated value of the resource and those who listened to Moneybags (“Aminex finally ready… Read more »

PRIDE PAYS

Date: June 27, 2024 -

IT WAS surprising to see Dublin Pride festival manager Jamie Kenny going to the trouble of telling Irish Defence Force members and courts services workers that they are not welcome at this weekend’s Pride bash. Presumably, those who intended to march on the day had paid up their money like everyone else (all corporates need… Read more »

DRAMA IN TEMPLE BAR

Date: June 27, 2024 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p17) Goldhawk reports on the ongoing structural changes at the Smock Alley Theatre, which have come about as a result of the financial stresses within the operation, chaired until recently by former PTSB suit Brendan Lynott. Accounts were signed off two weeks ago for the year to December 2022, which… Read more »

SF: BEHAVE AS IF IN GOVERNMENT

Date: June 13, 2024 -

SINN FÉIN is staring at an electoral abyss and the potential loss of a republican generation that could have provided a radical political transformation, not to mention the slowing of moves towards a united Ireland, the party’s reason for existence. SF and Mary Lou McDonald have been here before but the worrying thing for members… Read more »

PROFILE: DAN HEALY

Date: June 13, 2024 -

THE NOW characteristic line in fighting talk of Dan Healy was already very much in evidence when he blazed in to succeed John McMahon as the new head of RTÉ 2fm in 2013. Describing the station as a “sleeping giant”, he acknowledged that there were big commercial challenges ahead but asserted that the station had… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: MARTHA NÍ RIADA

Date: June 13, 2024 -

THE OUTGOING president of University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU), Martha Ní Riada (24), is your prototypical student politics type: a permanent fixture at political protests, no stranger to being manhandled by security and a rising star in a left-wing political party. Recently elected to the national executive of the Social Democrats, you should probably… Read more »