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SMURFIT KAPPA INVESTORS TO SUFFER FROM WESTROCK DEAL

Date: March 7, 2024 -

IT IS always a little odd when a share price rises on the back of poor results. In the case of Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG), whose sales fell a significant 12% last year to just over €11bn, this is exactly what happened, with the shares jumping over 10% to just on €39. This is all a… Read more »

‘IN PLAY’ KENMARE RESOURCES WORTH $¾BN

Date: March 7, 2024 -

ALTHOUGH NOT normally an activist shareholder, rather late in the day JO Hambro (which has a 5% stake in Kenmare Resources) has run out of patience with Mick Carvill, one of the longest-serving CEOs in the world, who has been in situ for 38 years. JO Hambro’s move comes despite the fact that, in its… Read more »

BRENDAN MCDOWELL’S AWARD

Date: March 7, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO cosmetics czar Brendan McDowell, who landed the Entrepreneur of the Year award at Ali Ryan’s Gossies bash in the RDS last weekend. There were plenty of B and C listers picking up gongs under assorted headings, including the likes of Muireann O’Connell (best female TV presenter), Deric Hartigan (best male TV presenter) and… Read more »

EXPENSIVE MEDICINE AT CARA

Date: March 7, 2024 -

AFTER THE rescue of the Cara Pharmacy group of companies back in 2020, the latest figures for the new holding company suggest it may be some time before the backers see a return, although at least the directors’ fees will help the medicine go down. The Cara group was the brainchild of Ramona Nicholas. Unlike… Read more »

BRENDAN MORRISSEY’S UPS AND DOWNS

Date: March 7, 2024 -

TECH INVESTOR Brendan Morrissey suffered a setback in the High Court last week when Judge Denis McDonald confirmed a €1m judgment against the Kilkenny-based “serial entrepreneur” and his Malta-registered investment vehicle, BAK Holdings Ltd, in favour of a hearing tests software company backed by comedian John Bishop. It is not the first time that Bren… Read more »

HANDICAPPING MCDONNELL AND CLARKSON

Date: March 7, 2024 -

THERE HAS been heavy going lately for a couple of businessmen who happen to be fans of the turf – Nathan McDonnell and Conor Clarkson. Both boys have been under the spotlight, albeit for very different reasons. Nathan McDonnell was remanded in custody last month in relation to alleged links to what has been described… Read more »

TAX-FREE ‘TOY SHOW’ TREATS

Date: February 22, 2024 -

WHILE MOST of the fall-out from last week’s media committee hearings into the antics at RTÉ concerned golden handshakes for former executives, one aspect of payouts slipped under the radar. As the discussion dealt with the rather generous financial culture at Montrose for full-time staff,… Read more »

PROFILE: MARY LOU MCDONALD

Date: February 22, 2024 -

DESPITE THE recent triumph in the north for Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill, it’s been a bad 12 months or so for party president Mary Lou McDonald. A spell of ill health was preceded by embarrassing disclosures at the trial of Gerard Hutch for murder (he was acquitted) about her links with former SF councillor… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: DOIREANN O’LEARY

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE MEDIA-FRIENDLY Cork-based GP, Doireann O’Leary, has positioned herself as quite the expert on health matters and is a regular on RTÉ’s Today show, The Last Word on Today FM and other programmes. She also has her own range of health supplements, which get a large amount of media attention and column inches due to the photogenic doctor’s ubiquitous media… Read more »

WILL HOLLY CAIRNS RETAIN HER SEAT?

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE MEDIA darling that is Holly Cairns is regarded by the same media as the best thing going for the Soc Dems as they face up to local, European and general elections in the next 12 months or less. But this advantage could turn out to be quite the opposite if the party leader loses… Read more »

JETTISONING JOSEPHA

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE FINE GAEL establishment and supporters of junior minister Josepha Madigan received a shock following senator Regina Doherty’s victory at the convention for the party’s Dublin EU candidate last Sunday. Nobody in the party expected Doherty to win, although readers of The Phoenix would not have been surprised (see edition 9/2/24). However, it was the… Read more »

JOHN MCGUIRK’S STRATEGY

Date: February 22, 2024 -

WHILE right-wing commentator and Gript editor John McGuirk has now been named as the defendant in the libel action filed by the man claiming he was wrongly identified as the Parnell Square attacker, it looks like there will be no day out in the Four Goldmines for McGuirk against the Village magazine, even though he… Read more »

‘DONATING’ MARIAN KEYES

Date: February 22, 2024 -

HUGELY SUCCESSFUL scribbler Marian Keyes was “bowled over” following the commissioning by the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) of her portrait, which was unveiled earlier this month. Presumably, she is grateful to the mystery private donor who covered the full cost of the commission from artist Margaret Corcoran. In the aftermath of the unveiling of… Read more »

COLM WU’S TAXING TIMES

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THINGS ARE clearly not getting much better for Goldhawk’s favourite hotelier Colm ‘Bo Vision’ Wu (aka Guoqing Wu), with the dreaded Revenue moving to wind up one of his many companies, Kerry Hotel Ltd. This may ring a few bells in Cahirsiveen. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 2/11/23) that last year no less… Read more »

HOLY MOLI!

Date: February 22, 2024 -

PERHAPS PREDICTABLY, a fledgling Irish cultural entity finds itself in a financial mess. This time it is the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), which has struggled to carve out an identity for itself. No doubt keeping an eye on the plot here is Orla Feely, president of UCD, which is picking up the tab. A… Read more »

JACK CANTILLON’S ‘RE-IMAGINING’

Date: February 22, 2024 -

“THIS ISN’T the same old boring news of a stallion retiring, this is a re-imagining of what a stallion deal should look like for the benefit of breeders” was the PR spiel last summer from lawyer-turned-bloodstock entrepreneur Jack Cantillon of Syndicates.Racing, where broadcaster etc Kevin Blake plays a supporting role. Syndicate.Racing Ltd, based at the… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 04

Date: February 22, 2024 -

GOVERNMENT’S GAZA VERBIAGE

Date: February 22, 2024 -

As the Israeli slaughter in Gaza reaches genocidal proportions, the disconnect between the Irish Government’s rhetoric and the reality of its commercial actions in recent years could hardly be starker. Enterprise minister Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney has been quite strident in his criticism of Israel as it commenced bombing Rafah in advance of a ground offensive,… Read more »

RICHARDSON: DAME OR IRISH COMMONER?

Date: February 22, 2024 -

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin would have been reassured to learn that the person chairing the neutrality session at the Munich conference last week was Dame Louise Richardson, who was so adept at dealing with pinko radicals and pacifists at Martin’s security forum last year. But the awkward voice at the Munich neutrality… Read more »

IAN KEHOE’S NO-SHOW

Date: February 22, 2024 -

IT IS worth quoting The Currency website’s “over-arching philosophy”, which founders Ian Kehoe and Tom Lyons proclaim as “journalism that is fearless, focused and always interesting” and is also free from “any corporate, sectoral or political interest – including our own”. This detachment would, of course, be equally important in Kehoe’s other job as a… Read more »

CONCERNS OVER GLENCREE CENTRE

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THERE IS not much sign of reconciliation between the worthies at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Co Wicklow and their paymasters in Micheál Martin’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), who appear to be getting a little nervous. Fans of Goldhawk will be aware that there has been rather a lot of coming… Read more »

JUDGING JOHN OF GOD

Date: February 22, 2024 -

DISABILITIES MINISTER Anne Rabbitte expressed her “incredible disappointment” at the stand-off between Saint John of God (SJOG) and the HSE, which was caused by last week’s announcement of the former’s plan to withdraw disability services. She will, however, be well aware that this represents merely the latest surfacing of the tensions between the two entities…. Read more »

BRITISH ‘DIPLOMACY’ AT WORK

Date: February 22, 2024 -

BARRIE GANE CMG OBE, of MI6, born on September 19, 1935, died of a stroke on December 10 last. His official resumé alleges that he was a “diplomat”, a description that masks his true role as an MI6 high flier. Also concealed is the fact that he served in Ireland in the early 1980s. By… Read more »

MI6 HONEY TRAPS

Date: February 22, 2024 -

In 2016, an anonymous MI6 officer swore under oath to Judge Anthony Hart that MI6 had never engaged in sexual blackmail. This delicate piece of perjury was uttered during Hart’s inquiry into child sexual abuse in the north. Hart lapped it up, despite the publication of confessions by a string of MI6 officers that they… Read more »

BRITISH AND IRISH RIGHT WING

Date: February 22, 2024 -

When the notorious British far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) arrived in Ireland in February last year, he caused a significant amount of rancour and tension among Ireland’s far-right milieu. It was not so much Robinson’s multiple convictions for crimes involving violence, stalking, financial and immigration fraud, drug possession, public order offences etc… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 22, 2024 -

I worked with Paul Mescal, and he’s a really good friend of mine. I saw him speaking Irish and that blew my mind. Dakota Johnson, Irish Independent With Sara Greavu as curator, we aim to make a pavilion in tribute to those who persist, against the odds, in being shelter for each other. Artist Eimear… Read more »

MEDIA CLIMATE CALL

Date: February 22, 2024 -

In recent years, the Business Post had developed a reputation as a broadly progressive publication on many hot-button issues, including climate and environment. Notwithstanding the regular presence of hard-right commentator Lucinda Creighton, the Post under editor Richie Oakley made some effort to platform voices beyond the business/growth consensus. However, his replacement, former Irish Examiner political… Read more »

MATT O’KEEFFE’S CLIMATE CALL

Date: February 22, 2024 -

Irish Times readers were recently treated to a glossy 32-page magazine insert, titled The Climate Call. According to the cover, it was about a “sustainable future” and “green efforts”. Published by IFP Media and edited by Matt O’Keeffe, confusingly this magazine appears to be a rebadged Dairy Ireland, a bi-annual industry magazine. Oddly, O’Keeffe did… Read more »

NORTH POLL MELTS DUP ICE

Date: February 22, 2024 -

On the face of it, last week’s LucidTalk poll offered mixed fortunes for the DUP. The party did slide four points to 24% but, on the other hand, the poll vindicated DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson’s decision to face down his party’s hard liners and return to Stormont: 67% of unionists support that. That 67% score… Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CUNNING PLAN

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE GROWING pressure on the reluctant Social Democrats to unite with Labour does not primarily come from the latter party but from the Fourth Estate, although inspired by ‘bourgeois’ parties of the Third Estate. These have used the willing platform of the Irish Times and others in efforts to coerce the Soc Dems to bond… Read more »

BEWARE MINISTERS BEARING GIFTS

Date: February 22, 2024 -

FURTHER EVIDENCE of the growing rift on Gaza between Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin emerged last week when the Taoiseach joined with Spain to urge recognition of Palestinian statehood while Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney, a former foreign minister, described Israel as a “rogue state” and a “monster”. Meanwhile, Tánaiste Martin tailed his coalition partners by… Read more »

RELIGIOUS CENSORS AT ‘IRISH TIMES’

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE CENSORSHIP continues of letters and submissions to the Irish Times that challenge the newspaper’s view of unique Catholic repression and abuse in Irish society. The new year has seen further analysis of this allegedly exceptional Catholic behaviour but, more significantly, of censorship by the IT of any disagreement or criticism of this viewpoint. A… Read more »

GUINNESS GUFF

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE SPECIAL pleading from Diageo against the imminent banning of its five-axle lorries from the city centre has the finger prints of a particularly experienced PR handler all over the rhetoric deployed to exempt it from such a fate. The Irish Times published a front-page report about the historic Guinness route to Dublin Port, once… Read more »

MIRIAM AND BRENDA SOCK IT TO THOMAS

Date: February 22, 2024 -

IRISH TIMES columnist Miriam Lord gave Fianna Fáil minister Thomas Byrne, the party’s leader on the referendums, a good talking to recently and applauded Sunday Times columnist Brenda Power for trouncing “male, stale and inside the Pale” Tommy in a debate about the impending votes. The minister made the mistake, on RTÉ Radio’s Today with… Read more »

DONOHOE’S MITIGATION

Date: February 22, 2024 -

THE REFERRALS committee of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), chaired by legal eagle Robert Dore, recently convened to consider matters arising from a stable visit to the premises of trainer Shane Donohoe. He looks to have been a lucky boy. During the inspection, it was noted that three horses had not been returned as… Read more »

MOLONEY’S ADVENTURES

Date: February 22, 2024 -

AN INCIDENT at Cork racecourse between well-known trainer and breeze-up consignor Thomand O’Mara and IHRB clerk of the course Paul Moloney recently went before the board’s referrals committee. Moloney alleged that O’Mara both verbally and physically abused him and had been harassing him with repeated phone calls, including late at night. The hapless Moloney, more… Read more »