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PROFILE: HOLLY CAIRNS

Date: May 2, 2024 -

As opinion polls indicate extreme volatility among the voters, is now the time for the Social Democrats to seize the day under its new leader, 34-year-old Holly Cairns, and become kingmakers after the next general election, or will the party be swept aside in a tide of independent votes? Much will depend on the Dáil… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: LYRA

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH HER general gobbiness, outlandish outfits and penchant for providing headline-grabbing soundbites (eg “I’ll carry my own knickers” – the Sunday Times), Cork singer-songwriter Lyra has developed a strong public profile that seems to dwarf her limited chart success to date. Given her backer, this will not come as a surprise. Saying early on that… Read more »

JUSTIN BARRETT LAYS DOWN THE LAW

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WHEN THE Registrar of Elections’s Art O’Leary announced in Iris Oifigiúil that he was denying separate applications from both Justin Barrett and James Reynolds to amend the registration details of the National Party (NP) it was clear that the dispute between rival factions for control… Read more »

JOHN MAGNIER’S SILAGE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

JOHN MAGNIER, obviously not thwarted by the previous rejection of his acts of generosity towards his “strapped for cash” Co Tipperary neighbours, Richard and Alexandra Thompson-Moore of Barne Estate, has again been dipping into his charity bucket. This time the gifts were not in brown envelopes but rather enclosed in black plastic and were to… Read more »

IAN HYLAND’S UCD BASH

Date: May 2, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO Business & Finance publisher-turned-grandee Ian Hyland, who didn’t let the small matter of Gaza get in the way of a day out for his self-important Ireland Inc (II) outfit and the assorted fat cats who splash out to attend its annual beanos, this time with UCD dragged into the picture. Last week, former… Read more »

VINNIE DOYLE’S BUM NOTE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THIS WEEK, rock band Cry Before Dawn will be playing a gig at Whelan’s. While a good time is guaranteed for fans, it is to be hoped that the mind of bass guitarist Vinnie Doyle isn’t elsewhere. Cry Before Dawn was formed in Wexford in the early 1980s and their sound resonated with an awful… Read more »

CAROLINE DOWNEY’S RUBY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p16), we profile new pop-dance sensation Lyra (aka Laura McNamara), who has been benefiting from the business muscle of her manager, Caroline Downey, to the extent that her debut album entered the charts last month at No 1, albeit before sliding down eight places the following week. Caroline Downey is… Read more »

FALLON BOYS BACKTRACK

Date: May 2, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK WAS as surprised as Mediahuis staff were to see that the Belgian media giant had been sniffing around online news platform The Journal. Also taken by surprise were the staff at The Journal, who reacted strongly to the news that the owners of the Indo were in talks to buy the company. It all… Read more »

BRÍD KEARNS’S WINDFALL

Date: May 2, 2024 -

A COMPANY with the unlikely name of Rockvig Unlimited has just been quietly wound up. Goldhawk was most impressed to find that the assets to be divvied out here come to a cool €23m. This firm turns out to be a part of the opaque… Read more »

PADDY BRENNAN’S TIMELY DISMOUNT

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE CLUNKILY titled Weatherite Air Conditioning Handicap Chase at Cheltenham will be remembered as the race in which Paddy Brennan brought the curtain down on his 1,500-winner career. Having cruised to a cosy victory aboard the Fergal O’Brien-trained Manothepeople, a jubilant and emotional Brennan announced his immediate retirement. The Irish-trained Stumptown stayed on to be… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 09

Date: May 2, 2024 -

HELEN MCENTEE’S LAND MINES

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WHAT A startling suggestion the Indo’s Ireland editor, Fionnán Sheahan, made this week about the Department of Justice, which he accused of not “watching the justice minister’s back” as she blundered into the latest crisis in her department. Just in case readers were in any doubt about his meaning, Sheahan cited a ministerial advisor who… Read more »

ROME RULE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE CATHOLIC Church’s much-publicised downsizing of dioceses in the west of Ireland was announced in a torrent of press releases from its Maynooth PR unit without consultation with either diocesan clergy or the non-ordained faithful. That’s the view of many lay workers, including Brendan Butler, the veteran lay reformer. They also claim that Pope Francis’s… Read more »

FALLING FIANNA FÁIL

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WHILE MEDIA comment has mostly focused on the electoral apocalypse awaiting Fine Gael and the list of its TDs taking flight, an inordinate calm has surrounded Fianna Fáil’s abysmal poll ratings that last weekend descended to 14% in the latest Red C poll. This is not a huge drop from the average rating of around… Read more »

OVERDUE AT THE LIBRARY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH ARTS minister Catherine Martin under pressure to make some appointments to the Arts Council, there are other vacancies that also require her attention. For example, the board of the National Library of Ireland (NLI) remains three members down. You might think the minister would want the NLI board to be in top shape given… Read more »

DECOMMISSIONING QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 business has been booming at Thales UK’s weapons plants in the north. Thales designs and manufactures missiles including Starstreak, lightweight multi-role missile systems and the NLAW shoulder-launched missile system at plants in east Belfast and Crossgar, Co Down…. Read more »

BRIGADIER MACLELLAN IN DARK

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH THE Crown’s decision last month not to prosecute the paratroopers who perjured themselves at the Saville inquiry, a number of doors slammed shut on the deepest secrets of Bloody Sunday. A further possible avenue closed with the recent deaths of General Frank Kitson and… Read more »

HELEN O’SULLIVAN’S BELGIAN BLUES

Date: May 2, 2024 -

LAST MONTH’S new-right National Conservatism conference in Brussels descended into farce as the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode municipality, Emir Kir, tried to prevent it from going ahead. Kir argued that he was acting on advice from security agencies that allowing the event to proceed could lead to serious public disorder. This was most disconcerting for… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BIRGADE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

We recognise that the timelines and deadlines that we’ve previously set have created a sense of expectation and potentially confusion for everyone. Marc Canham on the FAI further delaying the appointment of a new manager, FAI TV A quarter of 1 per cent of GDP for military security is a pitiful reflection of a national… Read more »

DATA CENTRES’ PR WAR

Date: May 2, 2024 -

A recent entry in the lobbying register illustrates the enchanted realm inhabited by corporate lobbyists when it comes to getting access to those at the highest levels of government. Amazon’s chief lobbyist, Ed Brophy, secured a private meeting with two ministers, Eamon Ryan and Malcolm Noonan, to update them on the momentous news that his… Read more »

LISA CHAMBERS’S HOT AIR

Date: May 2, 2024 -

Goldhawk was expecting elevated levels of climate disinformation in the run-up to the European elections in June – considering the number of reactionary and conspiracy-minded candidates running – but he didn’t expect the leader of the Seanad to stoop so low. This week Fianna Fáil senator Lisa Chambers suddenly became a fan of offshore wind… Read more »

NEW RIGHT TO WIN LOCAL/EU SEATS?

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE NEW right is dominating headlines now with vituperative social media comments and arson attacks on buildings supposedly intended to house immigrants and asylum seekers. However, it is unlikely that it will make much impact in the forthcoming local and European elections in just a month’s time. But the main parties are wary of the… Read more »

EU ELECTION STAKES

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH JUST weeks to go, campaigns for the Euro seats are hotting up – if that’s the right word to use for the tepid indifference of the Irish electorate so far. Last time out Sinn Féin did badly, losing two seats that it had previously won. But that was 2019. Since then the party has… Read more »

AONTÚ: A ONE-TRICK PONY?

Date: May 2, 2024 -

PREVIOUSLY A splinter from Sinn Féin, Peadar Tóibín’s Aontú may yet establish itself as a serious political player, with recent opinion polls putting the party above the Greens and Labour, raising the prospect of it making it into government. The drawback, from Aontú’s point of view, is that getting into government would depend on doing… Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S TWO FINGERS TO SDLP

Date: May 2, 2024 -

REMARKABLY, EVEN for the Government-compliant Dublin media, there was no coverage of the snub delivered to the SDLP by Micheál Martin’s Fianna Fáil at the party’s recent ard fheis. FF denied a request for an exhibitor’s stand at the ard fheis for the SDLP’s New Ireland Commission, citing “short notice” as the reason. A diplomatic… Read more »

‘BALANCED’ DEBATE ON GAZA GENOCIDE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE DOGMATIC radicals among Irish supporters of the Palestinians are outraged at the aesthetes on the editorial team at RTÉ’s arts programme, Arena, who bravely held the line against Palestinian propaganda posturing as poetry recently. The innocent souls at Arena had invited Palestinian poet Rafeef… Read more »

MEDIAHUIS’S MEDALS

Date: May 2, 2024 -

MEDIAHUIS’S EDITORIAL supremo, Cormac Bourke, told staff last year that the media awards organised by NewsBrands – now franchised out by NewsBrands – were not modern and that other awards competitions would be utilised to “have the outstanding work of journalists in Mediahuis Ireland recognised”. This followed a series of spats with NewsBrands including the… Read more »

CATHERINE MARTIN’S LATEST VACANCY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE RETICENCE of arts and culture minister Catherine Martin when it comes to filling vacancies on the boards of the national cultural institutions has attained joke status at this stage. For the most part, the Green Party deputy leader gets away with it, due to a predictable apathy in the media when it comes to… Read more »

DANIEL O’RAHILLY’S BIG CHEQUE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THIS YEAR’S Aintree Grand National winner, I Am Maximus (trained by newly crowned British champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins), and the 2021 winner, Minella Times, were paraded before huge crowds at the finals of the Con and Annie Kirby Memorial Stakes in Limerick Greyhound Stadium last week. The prestigious €160,000 race, sponsored by Geneva tax… Read more »

JOHNNY RONAN’S PARK

Date: May 2, 2024 -

FITZWILLIAM SQUARE was in the news again last month when the Irish Times wondered if the proposed sale by receivers of Johnny Ronan’s four-storey over basement No 65 could push the peeved property developer to “stand in the way of a new owner taking a walk” in the private Fitzwilliam Square park. This seems highly… Read more »

DES McGAHAN’S BOLTHOLE BLUES

Date: May 2, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK SPIED yet another glowing report in the Business Post on the impressive Ballinacurra House outside Kinsale, which is on the market for €4m. The same property had a price tag of €6.35m only a couple of years ago but there has been a lot of water under the bridge (and through the courts) since… Read more »

CRH SHARES PLATEAU AFTER US ROCKET RIDE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE SWEDES in Cevian Capital will have been popping the champagne corks as a result of the explosion in the CRH share price since the company began its US adventure, including a move of its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange. When Moneybags examined the strategy in March last year (see The Phoenix… Read more »

LISA MULCAHY’S IFTA

Date: May 2, 2024 -

IN TERMS of viewers, the most successful ‘Irish’ film in recent times has to be the Lindsay Lohan vehicle An Irish Wish. No matter than it’s on Netflix rather than in cinemas, the ‘rom-com’ has topped the streamer’s viewing figures in unexpected places such as Sweden. Of more interest to the luvvies at Áine Moriarty’s… Read more »

CORRE ENERGY’S CORE PROBLEM IS MONEY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH THE 2023 figures for Corre Energy due to be released at the end of this month, investors will be looking to see if the losses have been stemmed or if there is any prospect of much-needed new investment flowing into the business. The Irish… Read more »

MICHAEL LYNCH’S LIMERICK GIG

Date: May 2, 2024 -

REPORTS OF colossal double bets being struck and landed were rife at the Limerick races last month, when the well-punted Declan Queally pair, Rocky’s Diamond and Diamond Nora, won their opening maiden hurdles at Limerick and Ballinrobe respectively. The Queally family are no strangers to well-orchestrated coups and Declan’s sons, Tom and Declan, both rode… Read more »

HARISH BANSAL’S BIG TAX BILL

Date: May 2, 2024 -

ONE OF the bigger judgments that Goldhawk has come across in recent times popped up in Stubbs Gazette last month, where one Harish Bansal, with an address in The Gallops, Leopardstown, Co Dublin, was hit for an eye-watering €3.3m by the dreaded taxman. The judgment follows a €1.35m fine levied against Bansal by the Revenue… Read more »