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GOD’S FEATURES

Date: April 6, 2023 -

FOLLOWING THE Oscars hype in Ireland, man of the moment Paul Mescal pops up on screen again with God’s Creatures (see review p22), the latest release to benefit from Irish taxpayers. Directed by Americans Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer, and produced by London-based Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, the film was released by US backer and… Read more »

GALLAGHER’S INTERNATIONAL FLAVOUR

Date: April 6, 2023 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p18) Goldhawk examines the story behind a remarkable property on the Clare coast on the market with a near €10m price tag. It is owned by one John Thomas Gallagher, who splits his time between Ireland and Switzerland. The wealth adviser and finance expert has presumably had a rocky 12… Read more »

SUSAN BERGIN’S WINNING BOARD MEMBERS

Date: April 5, 2023 -

AT LAST, the 2021 annual report of Susan Bergin’s Screen Ireland (SI) board has appeared in a discreet corner of the agency website. In her introduction, Susan Bergin refers to the sector developing “in a way that is transparent, fair and open”. Perhaps it is in this spirit that the question of SI board members’… Read more »

TECH ENERGY CUTS?

Date: April 5, 2023 -

“We have placed Amazon in energy sobriety because we are looking for billions to finance pensions and we believe this money is there.” So said Claude Etchelamendy of French trade union CGT after electricity workers cut the power to an Amazon facility in Morlaàs in the south of France to protest Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms…. Read more »

JODY CORCORAN CALLS IT

Date: April 5, 2023 -

BLOODY POLLS. They can make whizz psephologists such as the Sunday Independent’s Jody Corcoran look positively foolish, with banal stats that take no account of profound insights into the body politic. Seizing on the Sindo’s Ireland Thinks poll a month ago, which showed the Social Democrats had bounced (“soared”) from 4% to 9% just days… Read more »

ELLIE KISYOMBE KEEPS BUSY

Date: April 5, 2023 -

NO DOUBT one-time Social Democrats local election candidate Ellie Kisyombe was breathing a sign of relief last month when she was given just a caution at Blanchardstown District Court for assaulting a Ukrainian kitchen assistant at a centre for asylum seekers in 2019. This is the sort of publicity the self-described “public figure, politician, mum,… Read more »

CIARA FLOOD’S BANKERS

Date: April 5, 2023 -

AS THE dust settles on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), assorted Irish customers with loan facilities are breathing a sigh of relief that HSBC came to the rescue. Happily, the potential fallout for Irish companies was contained by the takeover of the UK arm of the Californian bank. One business turns out to… Read more »

FRANCESCA’S SWISS ROLE

Date: March 23, 2023 -

WHILE THERE has been acres of space devoted to the trials and tribulations of Credit Suisse in the business media in particular, the name of Francesca McDonagh has been noticeable by its absence. Credit Suisse has turned out to be an even bigger basket-case of a bank than had been understood. Having suffered from corporate… Read more »

PROFILE: HOLLY CAIRNS

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE NEW leader of the Social Democrats has enjoyed a media reception of the kind normally enjoyed by a triumphant, first-time, incoming taoiseach. Yet Holly Cairns (33) is merely a TD of two years standing and has been parachuted into the leadership of the Soc Dems following the resignation of the party’s two co-leaders –… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: CHUPI SWEETMAN

Date: March 23, 2023 -

A savvy businesswoman, Chupi Sweetman has quite the line in sales patter and a penchant for attaching carefully selected buzzwords to her “ethical” and “sustainable” jewellery brand. Having recently secured a reported €3.75m in funding to expand her eponymous brand, Sweetman is aiming to hit a whopping €40m in turnover over the next five years…. Read more »

ENDA MCNULTY’S PERFORMANCE

Date: March 23, 2023 -

IT HAS been hard to avoid the dulcet tones of former Armagh All-Ireland winning full-back Enda McNulty in recent weeks as he has done the rounds on the chat shows discussing the sports motivation and corporate management strategies he now sells through his McNulty Performance business. There was also plenty of talk about rugby given… Read more »

‘IT’ CENSORS DENIS O’BRIEN

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE IRISH TIMES editorial office is locked in ethical debate about whether to publish a letter on behalf of mega-mogul, Denis O’Brien. His PR handler, James Morrissey, wrote in response to a recent article by Anne Harris that praised Catherine Murphy TD for her role in events leading to the Commission of Investigation into the… Read more »

€20M ‘KIN’ CONUNDRUM

Date: March 23, 2023 -

WHILE THE crux of the opening episode of RTÉ’s second series of Kin (see review p23) is the €90m cost of the Kinsella family’s deal with a Turkish gang, the financial wheeling and dealing to get the expensive series off the ground is every bit as intriguing as the plot onscreen. Starring the likes of… Read more »

TED CUNNINGHAM’S COURT CASE

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE LATEST development relating to Tipperary farmer Patrick Quirke’s conviction for murdering Bobby Ryan (aka DJ Mr Moonlight) in 2011 has been the subject of much discussion in legal circles but a separate case, featuring one Ted Cunningham, that is set to surface this week will also focus the legal eagles’ minds. Quirke won a… Read more »

ENDA KENNY’S SPACE MISSION

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE COLOURFUL story of an alleged spy working for the National Space Centre (NSC) in Cork got quite the kicking in the Sindo last weekend, with the claim that Marina Sologub is a Russian spy dismissed as “baloney” (see p12). Goldhawk, however, is more interested in the fact that the NSC turns out to be… Read more »

BARRY NAPIER’S SATISFACTION

Date: March 23, 2023 -

CONGRATULATIONS Are in order for telecoms entrepreneur Barry Napier of Cubic Telecom fame, who has just satisfied a whopping €1m judgment from AIB. As revealed by Goldhawk (see The Phoenix 2/7/21), Napier surprisingly found himself on the end of the hefty judgment in June 2021. As a result, six weeks later High Court judge Karen… Read more »

CHEF ADRIAN’S CULINARY FLOPS

Date: March 23, 2023 -

HE HAS been touted as a “hot young chef” for several years but is the ambitious and television-friendly Adrian Martin displaying a penchant for biting off more than he can chew? At 31, the Cavan chef has now closed the doors of both of his fine-dining restaurants in Dublin and London. Opening on the back… Read more »

VOL. 41 NO. 06

Date: March 23, 2023 -

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S NEW FRIENDS

Date: March 23, 2023 -

AS The Phoenix has repeatedly pointed out, the Government, and in particular Micheál Martin, has in the last year moved further and further away from Ireland’s neutrality. Our engagement with the “European Peace Facility” and “European Union Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine” are two concrete examples of this trend. Recent reports of a… Read more »

SISTERS’ MANSION HOUSE SUMMIT

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THIS WEEK a conference called the National Menopause Summit kicks off at the Round Room in Dublin’s Mansion House, fronted by Davina McCall no less. All of the €170-a-pop tickets have sold out, which is good news for the organisers, while many of the participants look set to boost their business in the burgeoning menopause… Read more »

BARON’S PAEAN TO EOGHAN HARRIS

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE ULTIMATE British Tory journalist, Charles Moore – official biographer of the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher and past editor of the Daily Telegraph, Spectator and Sunday Telegraph (he still writes for all three) – recently paid a visit to former British colony Aawland. Charles Moore, who also goes under the moniker Baron Moore of Etchingham,… Read more »

IFA ‘MODERATES’

Date: March 23, 2023 -

If you run an industrial operation where there is a risk of pollution, you will require a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Large-scale pig and poultry farms also require such a licence. There is, however, one glaring loophole and that is the regulation of larger beef and dairy operations. Both of these have… Read more »

MANCHESTER BOMB: MI5 INCOMPETENCE

Date: March 23, 2023 -

MI5 DIRECTOR GENERAL Ken McCallum has said he is “profoundly sorry” that his service did not prevent the Manchester Arena suicide bombing, in which 22 people perished and over 1,000 were injured. The attack was perpetrated by Salman Abedi, a native of Manchester and took place on May 22, 2017, four days after Abedi returned… Read more »

THE RIGHT STUFF?

Date: March 23, 2023 -

NADIA DOBRIANSKA, the Irish-speaking Ukrainian refugee, has over the last year maintained a high profile in the Irish media. In recent months, for example, she has appeared in articles in publications including the Irish Times and Irish Examiner and on a number of shows on Raidió na Gaeltachta. Her fluency in Irish is unquestionable, but… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE – RUGBY BALLS

Date: March 23, 2023 -

I am, like most of the country, mesmerised by this Irish rugby team – but also enraptured by how unIrish it is, how it shuns all the Irish melodramas of gallant efforts, brave attempts and almost greatness. Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times An ever-expanding population of admirers has come to recognise the conveyor belt of brilliant… Read more »

VLAD IN THE US

Date: March 23, 2023 -

After his initial acute bout of foot-in-mouth disease last week with his maladroit gaffe about the fate of interns in Clinton’s administration, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s political judgement and understanding didn’t improve when the subject of Irish unification was broached. After apologising to Hillary Clinton for his “ill-judged” joke, as he described it, Varadkar went on… Read more »

PRESIDENT BIDEN CONGRATS IRELAND

Date: March 23, 2023 -

AS TÁNAISTE and foreign minister Micheál Martin embarked on his trip to the US for the annual St Patrick’s Day performance, his press release emphasised Ireland’s support for those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, in other words the accommodation so far of 75,000 circa refugees from that war. This commitment was again emphasised in a… Read more »

‘SERIOUSLY GOOD BIT OF STUFF’

Date: March 23, 2023 -

Unnoticed by the Irish media – ie her former colleagues – European ombudsman Emily O’Reilly pulled off the rare feat last week of uniting the far left and the extreme right of European politics. Her annual address to the Strasbourg-based parliament on the subject of her just-published annual report was a tour de force, taking… Read more »

‘SUNDAY TIMES’ IMPLOSION

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE PURGE or exodus of seasoned journalists from the Irish edition of the Sunday Times has been well chronicled in these pages, as has their replacement in some cases by much younger (and much less well paid) hacks. However, the latest personnel crisis at the paper has been caused by the resignation of two of… Read more »

IRELAND WORST POLLUTER IN EU

Date: March 23, 2023 -

At first glance, there was nothing radically new in the release this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of its synthesis report, which draws together the various strands of its blockbuster Sixth Assessment Report into a condensed, more accessible format. There is,… Read more »

NOT SOLD ON SWIFT

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE MOST high-profile of the items acquired by the state at the 2021 auction of the contents of Howth Castle was a full-length portrait of Jonathan Swift picked up for nearly €¼m. It turns out that the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) wasn’t particularly bothered about getting its hands on the work. In 2018, the… Read more »

A PRIVATE AFFAIR AT IMMA

Date: March 23, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK WAS interested to see that an exhibition kicks off in Imma next month focused on the Mary and Alan Hobart Collection. Entitled Championing Irish Art, all of the featured paintings are privately owned by Mary Hobart, whose hubby, Alan, was a high-profile art dealer in London until his death in 2021. He also featured… Read more »

ELLMARIE’S STRONG MEDICINE

Date: March 23, 2023 -

THE IRISH Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) has made it very clear in recent years that maintaining up-to-date records of all medications administered to horses under its care is a non-negotiable requirement for trainers. It is surprising then that some trainers are still falling foul of this rule and the latest to be handed a hefty… Read more »

DAVY’S DAY TO FORGET

Date: March 23, 2023 -

PLENTY OF people were surprised when Davy Russell announced his intention to temporarily return to race riding less than three weeks after retiring from the saddle in December following a glorious career. His return was viewed as a dig out to Gordon Elliott after the trainer’s number one jockey, Jack Kennedy, broke his leg and… Read more »

GLEESON HAS HIS CAKE…

Date: March 23, 2023 -

RTÉ AND ITV racing presenter Brian Gleeson knows how to strike a deal and they probably don’t come any sweeter than the one involving his former horse, A Dream To Share. Gleeson not only bred the Cheltenham Bumper winner but also bred his dam, Hikari. Having already grossed over €400,000 in sales from the progeny… Read more »

SURPRISE RESULT FOR MULLINS

Date: March 23, 2023 -

TATTERSALLS CASHED in on Cheltenham fever by holding a select auction of Irish point-to-point winners in the winners’ enclosure following racing on the Thursday. After witnessing so many scenes of jubilation earlier in the day, buzzed-up speculators had to dig deep into their pockets to acquire potential future Cheltenham winners. It was no surprise to… Read more »