Search the Archives

YOUNG BLOOD: JOHN CUMMINS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WHILE MAJOR attention focuses on whether the establishment parties can fend off the Sinn Féin challenge, a more intriguing battle is that between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as to which will speak for that establishment. Opinion polls suggest it will be FG (which has a consistent lead over FF in the polls) but what… Read more »

BIO-BOYCOTT

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THOUGH YOU would struggle to find a mention of it anywhere across Ireland’s media, the most important international conference on nature and biodiversity this decade is currently taking place in Montreal. Known as COP15, this is a once-in-a-decade intergovernmental conference that will set out the key targets for protection of global biodiversity until 2030. Experts… Read more »

PLOT THICKENS AT LISTOWEL WRITERS’ WEEK

Date: December 15, 2022 -

GOLDHAWK HAS been struck by coverage of the Arts Council-inspired restructuring of the Listowel Writers’ Week (LWW) organisation, including the disbanding of the long-standing volunteer committee. Front and centre has been Fianna Fáil senator Ned O’Sullivan, who has appealed to the LWW board to “turn back from this disastrous course”. Presumably his wife, Madeleine, is… Read more »

LAURA WHITMORE’S MUFF MOVE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

AN IRISH lass who has been making waves in London in recent weeks is TV presenter Laura Whitmore. Having fronted the insanely popular Love Island for three seasons, she has called it a day over “conflicting projects”, with the red tops making it very clear that this was a “shock announcement”. Also surprisingly, it turns… Read more »

LINDA STINSON’S COMPETITION

Date: December 15, 2022 -

RTÉ HAS been keeping the red tops suitably topped up with the drip-feed of details about the array of ‘talent’ set to feature on the latest series of the Larry Bass-produced Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), which kicks off in the new year. One of the celebs set to feature large is the minted cosmetics… Read more »

A LOTTO MONEY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

IRELAND’S NATIONAL Lottery has been in the spotlight recently as a result of the introduction of legislation relating to gambling and on foot of significant criticism of the manner in which unclaimed prizes have been spent. What nobody has bothered to point out is that its Canadian, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board (OTPPB) owners… Read more »

ELLIOTT’S FRONT NINE ADVANTAGE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE IRISH national hunt season has provided entertainment over the last few weeks and viewers of RTÉ’s coverage of the sport every Sunday for several weeks in a row have had plenty to get their teeth into as Gordon Elliott loosens the reins. Fans have also voted with their feet, with decent attendances and vibrant… Read more »

ROCHE BELOW PAR

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE AGM of Rosslare Golf Club last week proved rather eventful, with former senior newspaper man Michael Roche finding himself ousted as chairman. Roche was a no-nonsense exec at Independent News and Media and was sent Down Under to oversee the publishing end of the then Australian subsidiary, APN. When he returned, however, he found… Read more »

VOL 40 NO 24

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MCNALLY’S NAGS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

CONTROVERSIAL HORSE TRAINER Ronan McNally is planning heavy going for the stewards of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) when his punishment is dished out in the new year. McNally has been hit with multiple findings by the Judge Brian McGovern-chaired referrals committee, dating back a number of years. These include running his horses in… Read more »

RENA MAYCOCK’S MANY HATS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE MULTI-TALENTED Rena Maycock was celebrating last week when she was informed that the state had become a major backer of her fledgling child-protection tech company. There is, however, still the small matter of securing a million or so spondoolicks from private investors. It also turns out that the dating site founder has now become… Read more »

NOT-SO-RICH FOOD

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ALTHOUGH IT was announced nearly three years ago that high-profile Michelin-starred restaurant L’Ecrivain in D2 was to close down for good, it was only this week that a creditors’ meeting was held for the company behind the famous dining establishment. It may come as a surprise to former clients that the business ended up in… Read more »

TOO MUCH INFORMATION?

Date: December 15, 2022 -

HEATHER HUMPHREYS has been social protection minister for two-and-a-half years but appears to have been unaware until recently of the convulsions inside the Citizens Information Centres (CICs), in particular the Citizens Information Board (CIB), which come under her remit and were aired on Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme last September. The service, funded by Humphreys’ department… Read more »

KELLY’S HEROES

Date: December 15, 2022 -

HERMANN KELLY, leader of the Irish Freedom Party (IFP), has been reinvigorated in recent weeks. Not only has he led his party activists and associates into protests against refugee accommodation in East Wall, he has also tried to out-manoeuvre other far-right parties and activists. Fresh from his verbal onslaught against Justin Barrett and the National… Read more »

IRISH AMBIGUOUS ARMY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MICHEÁL MARTIN lost his cool with Cork TD Mick Barry of Solidarity in the Dáil recently. Barry was questioning the presence of Nato assessors in Kilworth, Co Cork, looking to judge the Irish Army’s interoperability with other Nato forces. Barry derided the oft-repeated claim by Government ministers that Ireland is not politically neutral but is… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

I’m a huge fan of Japanese culture and design. Not many people know this, but when I took part in Celebrity Mastermind, my specialist subject was the geisha! What can I say, I’m full of surprises! Darren Kennedy, Irish Independent There’s something about its determinedly idealised portrayal of an Irish childhood which no longer exists,… Read more »

DAMNED LIES AND BORDER POLL

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE IRISH Times seems predictably smugly delighted with the figures in the ARINS poll jointly produced by the Royal Irish Academy and Notre Dame university in the US. As far as the Irish Times is concerned, it’s a slam dunk; no border poll “in the short or medium term”. Stop talking about it and especially… Read more »

VARADKAR AT RISK FROM COVENEY FANS?

Date: December 15, 2022 -

A STATE of fear and paralysis descended on Fine Gael members, especially at senior level, as that video of incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar kissing a young man at a gay nightclub spread like wildfire last week. But this is not the first time that Varadkar’s sexual orientation has become an issue inside the Fine Gael… Read more »

RTÉ DEFIES GOVERNMENT TDS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WHAT BEGAN as a run-of-the-mill targeting of Sinn Féin by Government members of the Oireachtas joint committee on the media developed into an embarrassing own-goal last week. Instead of yet another media taunting of Sinn Féin, the Irish Daily Mail ran a story about RTÉ claiming that the politicians were “trying to interfere in its… Read more »

IS MARTIN NOW SAFE AS LEADER?

Date: December 15, 2022 -

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS appear to be unanimous in their view — a view spun with assiduous intent by the party’s handlers — that Micheál Martin’s leadership of FF is now safe as houses (just like the party’s policy on houses). But some of the shrewder party operators know there are dangerous times ahead for the party… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ AND CHILD ABUSE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ON NOVEMBER 21 last, the Irish Times published a brief report on the passing of 81-year-old Derek Linster (also known as Derek Leinster). It noted that he had “campaigned for the inclusion of Protestant institutions in government inquiries and redress schemes” and that he “wrote two books on his experience”. What the IT did not… Read more »

MEDIAHUIS SUED

Date: December 15, 2022 -

RTÉ AND Sunday Independent journalist Brendan O’Connor has arrived late to the privacy party being reluctantly hosted by Mediahuis, owners of the Indo and other titles in the group formerly controlled by Denis O’Brien. At one stage there was a list of 19 such litigants suing over their data being illegally accessed by the group’s… Read more »

RTÉ’S ‘TOY SHOW’ DIRGE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MEDIA PREVIEWS of Toy Show The Musical were ecstatic, describing the lavish and very expensive production as the “perfect recipe… an instant Christmas classic” (Irish Examiner) and “Pack the tissues! It’s a roller coaster of emotions (Evoke), while RTÉ Radio 1’s Shay Byrne “was blown away”, (would you believe). Well, viewers and fans of The… Read more »

SF’S CLIMATE NO-CHANGE POLICY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THIS YEAR Sinn Féin received some serious political flak for staying schtum on the thorny issue of setting emissions targets for agriculture to mitigate the sector’s significant role in climate change. In July Sinn Féin climate spokesman Darren O’Rourke implausibly tried to argue that their silence was all about not having “enough information” to even… Read more »

GOLDEN DALE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO incoming director of Meat Industry Ireland Dale Crammond, who has spun through the revolving door of being a senior inspector in the Department of Agriculture dealing with greenhouse gas emissions straight into a lucrative gig lobbying against regulations for the livestock sector. While with the department, he worked hard to downplay methane emissions… Read more »

FAIRYTALE WEDDING

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE OIRISH Mail on Sunday was eager to plug the “fairytale wedding” of TV presenter Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile and moneybags Alan Maloney. Readers were told that the shindig was held in the “historic grounds of Mount Falcon Estate”, which provided the “enchanted location” for the happy couple, who have been together for around 13 years…. Read more »

CHRISTINE DAVIES’S ‘VISION’

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE FORMER Squire of Abbeyleix House, David Davies – president of the Irish Georgian Society – sold his listed Co Laois demesne to the Collison bothers last year and ‘downsized’ to the impressive Killoughter House in Ashford, Co Wicklow. This pile turns out to be just a stone’s throw from Ballybla Farm, a sprawling estate… Read more »

RORY COLLINS’S CATALOGUE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MEATH BREEDER and owner Rory Collins has cashed in several of his racing jewels in recent weeks with mixed results. The Ennistown Stud owner offered a few high-class two-year-old fillies to the market and was well rewarded when selling the Jim Bolger-trained Gan Teorainn for £1m, while another Bolger-trained horse, Speirling Beag, fetched €280,000. Paddy… Read more »

BONUS BLUES

Date: December 15, 2022 -

FOR MANY, jockey Tom Queally will always be associated with steering the mighty Frankel to all of his successes on the racecourse 10 years ago and it is fair to say his career has never hit anything like those heights since. His brother, Declan, however, is making a name for himself at home in Ireland…. Read more »

O’LEARY’S SPENDING SPREE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

DESPITE THE general economic gloom, cost-of-living crisis, inflation concerns etc, etc, the market for high-end flat bloodstock is reaching boiling point and one moneybags keen to make the most of the buoyancy is Mick O’Leary. The high-flying Ryanair boss bought Plantation Stud in Newmarket a number of years ago with the intention of setting up… Read more »

LEO KICKS TO TOUCH

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THERE HAS been plenty of water under the bridge since Goldhawk highlighted the hugely expensive arbitration process that was left hanging over IDA Ireland and the taxpayer after the surprise exit two years early of Martin Shanahan from his role as the agency’s €195,000 pa chief executive (see The Phoenix 15/7/22). Now Shanahan is being… Read more »

TRESPASSES – LOUISE KENNEDY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THIS DEBUT novel by Louise Kennedy – the latest winner of An Post’s Book of the Year award – is the much-hyped follow-up to her short fiction collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac. Many of these earlier stories centred around secrets and lies – particularly in failing relationships where women… Read more »

PTSB MISSES SECOND PAYDAY BUT SHARES STILL FLYING

Date: December 15, 2022 -

EAMONN CROWLEY, the chief executive of Permanent TSB (PTSB), is a lucky chap. The bank’s former boss, Jeremy Masding, jumped ship in July 2020 at a time when NatWest was considering dumping Ulster Bank. With the pillar banks out of the picture to a certain extent, PTSB found itself in prime position, with Crowley agreeing… Read more »

ARKLE INVESTORS BETTING ON GLENCORE MOVE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ARKLE RESOURCES, previously known as Connemara Mining, has been engaged in mineral exploration in Ireland for just on 20 years and has worked up an interesting zinc resource in the Limerick area, as well as prospecting for gold in the Wexford-Wicklow region. More recently, the focus has been on lithium, the key battery mineral, with… Read more »

LIKEWHERE’S LOADED PASSENGERS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

A TRAVEL tech outfit called LikeWhere, founded by Simon Dempsey and Luke Middlewick, is set to officially crash-land next week. It turns out the boys were able to convince some heavy hitters to stick their hands in their deep pockets. Dempsey set up the marketing outfit LikeWhere in 2013 to “enable travel brands to engage… Read more »

SIMONE ROCHA’S REWARDING GAZE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WHILE Laura Whitmore has been attracting headlines across the Irish Sea, another Irish player making an impact there is fashion designer Simone Rocha, who has started making some serious moolah. Although based almost exclusively in London, La Rocha maintains closes ties to this country and recently finished a seven-month run of an art exhibition –… Read more »