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RWANDA WARNING IGNORED

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE DRAMATIC and forceful actions being taken by the current Government to address the refugee crisis, however unsympathetic they are to refugees, indicate a serious issue being tackled by a serious Government. As it happens, in Belfast’s High Court this week Mr Justice Humphreys made a ruling that may or may not have eased the… Read more »

BANK OF IRELAND’S ‘EXCEPTION’

Date: May 16, 2024 -

LATER THIS month, Judge Nuala Jackson will deliver a ruling in the High Court on a matter than could have significant implications for Bank of Ireland (BoI). At issue is whether a cache of documents that the bank is claiming are covered by legal privilege can be released on the grounds that the privilege has… Read more »

CARELESS TCD

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FOR THE embattled dons of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), one PR disaster – being forced by its students to divest from Israeli companies on a UN investment blacklist – was unfortunate. Two, and it’s beginning to look like carelessness. First, TCD climbed down after sustained student protests – and loss of income at its lucrative… Read more »

JAMES KELLY’S CRYPTO CHALLENGE

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE FIRST report from the liquidator of James Kelly’s collapsed crypto-trading operation, Gigabyte Investment Ltd (GIL), reveals that there is plenty of investigating to be done before this winding up is completed. GIL was founded three years ago by then 21-year-old Kelly (grandson of developer Paddy Kelly) and his UCD pal, Sam Molloy, while foreign… Read more »

O’DEA’S MEDIA MESSAGE TO MARTIN

Date: May 16, 2024 -

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S media maestro, Paul Clarkson, and Martin’s political brain, Deirdre Gillane, will have been very interested in the take of former minister, Willie O’Dea, on the upcoming local and EU elections in the Sunday Independent, which contain a cryptic message – threat even – about possible adverse results for Fianna Fáil early next month…. Read more »

PAUL HOURICAN’S SURPRISE

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AN ENGLISH firm, Igniyte Ltd, has just registered a judgment for a paltry €15,000 against a company owned by Goldhawk’s favourite landlord, Paul Hourican. It appears to have something to do with the management of his business’s reputation. Fans of The Phoenix will be familiar with Hourican’s rental adventures thanks to the high-profile collapse of… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 10

Date: May 16, 2024 -

ENDA O’COINEEN’S STRATEGY

Date: May 16, 2024 -

EARLIER THIS MONTH, the Business Post published a cry to arms under a headline that warned: “The Irish media sector won’t hold out against social media”. The piece was written on foot of Mediahuis’s proposed purchase of The Journal, which is where the Biz Post also happened to be sniffing around. The Business Post Group… Read more »

NATO: WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE AVALANCHE of articles in mainstream media demanding that Ireland abandons neutrality has been accompanied by the Defence Forces becoming closer to both Nato and the EU’s burgeoning military forces. Every now and then reference is made in leaks from the Defence Forces about a new subgroup or project under the umbrella of Nato’s Partnership… Read more »

PADDY MERRIGAN’S WILD RIDE

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FORMER JOCKEY Paddy Merrigan – who once claimed to have blown a million quid on drink, drugs and women – delivered an extended live monologue about Irish racing through his Mad Merrigan Coldbeer Sports online video on May 2. Its contents should, perhaps, have carried a health warning and the rant didn’t stay up for… Read more »

‘NEITHER FANCIFUL NOR ABSURD’

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FIFTY YEARS ago this month, four UVF car bombs blew apart 34 people in Dublin and Monaghan. The late Henry Barron, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, investigated the atrocities for the Irish government. He concluded that suspicion of British intelligence involvement was “neither fanciful nor absurd”. He reached that conclusion before the emergence… Read more »

BRITS ON STICKY WICKET

Date: May 16, 2024 -

BRITAIN’S UNILATERAL decision to stifle victims’ ability to seek truth and justice via its Legacy Act has been condemned not only by the Irish Government but also by the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, the UN’s commissioner for human rights and all political… Read more »

BRITISH ARMS FOR A UNITED IRELAND!

Date: May 16, 2024 -

WHEN EUROPEAN Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, recently introduced the first ever European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS), they were doing so after a comprehensive process with key stakeholders. These included member states, the defence industry, the financial sector, think tanks, academics and… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: May 16, 2024 -

I know there’s a lot of celebrity people that sign their names to certain whiskeys. This is absolutely not the case with what we’re doing. Michael Flatley on the launch of Flatley Whiskey, Business Post I remember the beautiful plainness of the event, the quiet dignity and respect displayed by working people – a butcher… Read more »

TOM LYONS’S AIRPORT ANXIETY

Date: May 16, 2024 -

Won’t anyone think of Dublin Airport? Journalist and The Currency CEO Tom Lyons this week bemoaned the “myopic unwillingness” of our lily-livered politicians to make the “brave but necessary call” and expand Dublin Airport. Yes, Lyons acknowledged, we need to develop greener ways of flying but clearly this is a mere trifle compared with the… Read more »

NO PHONE UNTAPPED

Date: May 16, 2024 -

Investigative journalist Barry McCaffrey and journalist film maker Trevor Birney got more than they bargained for when their case against the PSNI’s unlawful snooping on them finally came before Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) a fortnight ago in London. The IPT is a superior court with a judge presiding. It considers complaints about covert action… Read more »

MICHAEL McDOWELL LURKS STILL

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE HAS been relative silence from Michael McDowell and his right-wing fellow travellers since he led the alarmingly successful revolt against the liberal establishment and Government’s referendums on ‘family’ and ‘care’ last March. But such restrained behaviour should not be misinterpreted as a retreat from the fray – Field Marshall McDowell and his officers are… Read more »

BERTIE AHERN TRIES TO SAVE FF

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin may not appreciate it but one feels sure that his predecessor as leader, Bertie Ahern, had the best interests of the party in mind, and indeed the current leader, with his recent remarks about a united Ireland. One is equally sure that former taoiseach Bertie’s decision to speak at a… Read more »

SENATOR MURPHY V JUDGE SIMONS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AN INTERESTING spat between Fianna Fáil senator Eugene Murphy and Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has arisen following remarks by Murphy in the Seanad recently concerning Judge Garrett Simons. The senator said that the judge had adjudicated in a case involving FIE but that he had also acted previously as a legal advisor to… Read more »

DUBLIN EU NEW RIGHT COMPETITORS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE RASH of candidates on the new right in the Dublin EU constituency – seven candidates come under this category – constitutes a surplus that is likely to damage all of them, with radio shock-jock Niall Boylan of Independent Ireland (II) perhaps emerging out of the less than magnificent seven to present a credible vote… Read more »

RTÉ’S PLOT TWIST

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE 162-page RTÉ report from the “expert advisory committee” on contractor fees, human resources etc is most interesting, not for its focus on Montrose’s current woes but for its potential to push other players in the TV and movie sector in a direction they have long sought to avoid. A significant factor when it comes… Read more »

‘INDEPENDENT’ MEDIA FUNDING

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FOREIGN MINISTER and Tanáiste Micheál Martin continues to publicly and loudly mount a heroic defence against media minister Catherine Martin’s proposals for the state to fund RTÉ. The Tanáiste has described the media minister’s proposal as something that could lead to “unhealthy consequences” for democracy. But there is something of a contradiction between this virtuous… Read more »

STEPHEN REA’S PERFORMANCE

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AN INTERESTING, alternative treatment of the 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombings – one that involves award-winning actor Stephen Rea – is Frank Connolly’s novel, A Conspiracy of Lies, which was recently released as an audiobook. Rea’s smouldering narration signals the leap into the conspiracy of lies that gives the book its title. He brings various characters and… Read more »

NATIONAL LIBRARY’S NEW EDITIONS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

A WEEK after Goldhawk asked why the filling of three vacancies at the National Library of Ireland (NLI) was still overdue, arts and culture minister Catherine Martin has finally acted. Despite the significant (and overdue) multimillion-euro capital development project, which is “essential for the future of the NLI”, Eoin McVey’s board has been three amigos… Read more »

COOLMORE BOYS’ BLUES

Date: May 16, 2024 -

BALLYDOYLE’S WONDER horse, City of Troy, went off odds-on favourite for the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket but failed to justify his starting price. The thrice-raced unbeaten colt – owned by Coolmore boys John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith – appeared wooden-legged before halfway and trailed in third last – the same placing of… Read more »

AINE O’CONNOR’S WHIP HAND

Date: May 16, 2024 -

BOOKMAKERS AND punters might have been excused for diving for cover as the wayward Familiar Dreams carted a whipless Aine O’Connor to victory in the Grade 3 Weatherbys Mares Bumper at Punchestown earlier this month. Having scraped paint around the inside rail for the majority of the race, the All Four Counties Syndicate runner headed… Read more »

KEEPING UP WITH THE CURRANS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE WAS plenty of glowing prose in the Irish Times earlier this month when the property section extolled on the myriad attractions of Torry, a “large and lavish four-bed on two acres for €5m”, where “no expense was spared renovating this New England-style house in Foxrock”. While the IT sales pitch noted “a big renovation”… Read more »

META OSBORNE’S FAMILIAR GOING

Date: May 16, 2024 -

IRISH NATIONAL Stud (INS) boss Cathal Beale has secured approval from agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue and public enterprise and reform minister Paschal Donohoe to continue in situ as chief executive for another three years. This follows the end of his initial seven-year contract. He is now to be joined in Co Kildare by three new… Read more »

AIB’S ‘ODD-LOT OFFER’ LEAVES MUCH TO BE DESIRED

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AIB IS more profitable than ever, recording a €2bn profit last year, but the decision to buy in the holdings of tiny shareholders only serves to highlight the scale of the shafting these got. Meanwhile, at €5 the bank’s shares looked keenly priced given that the price/earnings ratio based on last year’s outturn is just… Read more »

TIME FOR ABF TO SPIN OFF PENNEYS/PRIMARK

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE ARE critics who suggest that Arthur Ryan’s Penneys/Primark legacy will not stand up in the online world. This is a dilemma for retailers but Ryan’s successor, Paul Marchant, has actually doubled down on the group’s bricks-and-mortar retailing model, with 430 stores worldwide. The model is clearly working given the huge profit increase reported last… Read more »

RAYMOND KIRK’S BLOCKBUSTERS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS ARE in order for Raymond Kirk, a Dublin 2-based first assistant director who has clearly been doing rather well for himself, courtesy of assorted Hollywood blockbusters. Kirk has worked for a number of years as a freelance assistant director on assorted productions, including high-profile shows such as the Irish-produced Vikings, for which he was… Read more »

RESTRICTING PAUL NYHAN (II)

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AFTER A whopping 38 outings in the High Court, insolvency expert PJ Lynch has finally witnessed the restriction of Paul Nyhan, one of the directors of Rostella Properties Ltd (RPL). This was the second restriction for the director. RPL was the entity behind three branches of the Nyhan Brothers chain of butchers in south Dublin… Read more »

RORY FITZPATRICK’S ‘SPACE DEBRIS’

Date: May 16, 2024 -

EARLIER THIS week, Rory Fitzpatrick, chief executive of the National Space Centre (NCS) in Cork, popped up as a speaker in Istanbul at something called CubesatVision International Space Defence Workshop. It may be the case that Fitzer’s views are taken more seriously overseas than here at home. The NSC has generally remained off the radar,… Read more »

DAVID STONE’S ROCKY PATCH

Date: May 16, 2024 -

CONTROVERSIAL businessman David Stone found one of his myriad companies on the end of a winding-up petition from a disgruntled creditor last month. It is not the first time the Rathoath, Co Meath entrepreneur has ended up feeling the heat. Stone has fingers in many pies and his various businesses have been experiencing mixed success…. Read more »

PUNCHESTOWN HIGH FLYERS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE WERE a couple of familiar moneybags getting stuck into the action at the Punchestown horse racing festival earlier this month, with mixed results. The Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup saw local resident developer Sean Mulryan’s Fastorslow (owned in conjunction with his wife, Bernadine) pip Galopin Des Champs, which won Cheltenham’s version, aided by the fact… Read more »

COALITION IGNORED RWANDA WARNING

Date: May 2, 2024 -

It’s not as if they didn’t know. On December 7 last year, prominent Labour MP Stella Creasy, chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, wrote to Tánaiste Micheál Martin warning him that the British government’s Rwanda bill would apply to the north because migration policy isn’t devolved. The legislation would contravene the Withdrawal Act and… Read more »