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BAH HUMBUG AT SUPERVALU

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ESCADIA LTD, the company that was associated with a large SuperValu supermarket in Ardee Co Louth – controlled by Margaret Lanney and her son, David – finds itself facing a High Court winding-up petition from the owners of SuperValu the week before Christmas, having built up huge losses. For many years, the driving force behind… Read more »

CLOCK STARTS ON FILM LEVY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WITH THE Seanad’s final passing of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022 on December 6, a revamp of the online and broadcast media environment is now awaiting Michael D Higgins’s presidential signature. The good news for producers is that there should be more moolah to go around, eventually. Celine Craig’s Broadcasting Authority of… Read more »

VOL. 40 NO. 23

Date: December 1, 2022 -

BASHING BLACKROCK BOYS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC has handled his first crisis as Irish Times editor by ignoring it and Róisín ‘Bungle’ Ingle’s loud, long sneer at Blackrock College boys – in the week that the widespread abuse of Spiritan clergy was exposed –remains on the IT website in all its reverse snobbery and pseudo-feminist glory. No apology or… Read more »

PROFILE: JOHN COONEY

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE LATEST flood of revelations about the horrific scale of previously unaddressed historic clerical sexual abuses at Blackrock College has spread to other fee-paying schools. This rising tide will force the coalition Government to convene yet another state inquiry next year into Church-controlled educational institutions. It also produced two remarkable articles by Irish Times premier… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: ROSIE CONNOLLY QUINN

Date: December 1, 2022 -

FROM HUMBLE beginnings as a personal shopper at Arnotts, Rosie Connolly-Quinn has transformed her online persona from girl-next-door blogger to wealthy business woman. This has made her appeal soar from ‘relatable’ to ‘aspirational’, with her followers swooning over the plush new pad she purchased last year and family holidays at a five-star resort in Portugal…. Read more »

NEW CHAIRPERSON AT RTÉ

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE APPOINTMENT by Catherine Martin’s of Siún Ní Raghallaigh as chairwoman of RTÉ will not be too big a surprise to those who have watched the career of the canny businesswoman and former two-term chair of TG4 (originally appointed in 2012 by Pat Rabbitte). She is certainly familiar to fans of Goldhawk, who penned a… Read more »

SURRENDER: 40 SONGS, ONE STORY – BONO

Date: December 1, 2022 -

SURRENDER IS a command and the media have complied. No editor appears to have given Surrender to someone qualified enough or brave enough to review its dubious history, politics and economics or to contest the results of Bono’s ‘activism’. Yet in interviews and in the book, the U2 frontman is beset by unnamed enemies, inheritors… Read more »

BALLS.IE SCORES

Date: December 1, 2022 -

WITH THE World Cup in Qatar driving footie fans even to the outer reaches of the internet in search of more and more coverage, the event is clearly good news for sports media organisations, most obviously the likes of RTÉ and Mediahuis. There are, of course, other specialist sports websites making a killing, including “multi-platform… Read more »

EAMON RYAN’S RED FACE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THERE MAY be a few red faces at Green Party headquarters this week as a result of the Energy Action board deciding to call it a day. The decision was taken the same week that the Greens kicked off their party conference in Athlone, with climate minister Eamon Ryan in a buoyant mood. In Inchicore,… Read more »

ZERO VAT FOR WEALTHY MEDIA

Date: December 1, 2022 -

PAUPERISED NEWSPAPERS and their websites recently reflected the windfall tax relief donated to them by the Government’s budgetary measures after a lengthy campaign that emphasised how close to ruin many of their titles were due to the punitive 9% Vat rate. The Vat rate is to be reduced to zero for newspapers – but not… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ MUSICAL CHAIRS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE RECENT reshuffle of top editorial and commercial positions at the Irish Times solved what looked at one stage to be a chaotic situation. When deputy editor and former managing editor Deirdre Veldon lost out to Ruadhán Mac Cormaic in the contest for the editor’s post, colleagues described her as inconsolable and on the verge… Read more »

BIODIVERSITY WAKE UP CALLS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

DESPITE REPEATED attempts by vested interests trading on Ireland’s “green” reputation, Ireland’s biodiversity is in fact in freefall. Water pollution, largely as a result of livestock agriculture, is increasing, while two thirds of our native bird species are in decline. According to the Irish Wildlife Trust, Ireland is the world’s most deforested country, with native… Read more »

SUNDAY TIMES’ TRUMP CARD

Date: December 1, 2022 -

ANOTHER EXCLUSIVE by the Aawrish edition of the Sunday Times on those dastardly Sinn Féin operators reported that the party has “taken a page from Donald Trump’s playbook by offering supporters a wide array of eye-catching political merchandise”. The British newspaper put two journalists on this investigation and their conclusions, explained in some detail, were… Read more »

‘NAZIS AND NUTTERS’

Date: December 1, 2022 -

MANY WERE non-plussed at muffled media reports of an incident at the Lough Erne Resort in Co Fermanagh a fortnight ago involving the far-right National Party. It’s not the first time the National Party has held its ard fheis in such salubrious surroundings. It had already used the Lough Erne resort in 2018 and 2021,… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

How does someone who first shows up as a monumental pain-in-the-arise fundamentalist become someone who can write the greatest ode to love in two thousand years. Bono on writing ‘One’ in his book, Surrender She might be sitting on the bed in her dressing gown, but Varian Barry still manages to look like an image… Read more »

RISHI SUNAK’S WEAKNESS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

SPEAKING ON November 28 at the lord mayor’s banquet in London’s Guildhall, British prime minister Rishi Sunak explained that his foreign policy towards competitors would not be “grand rhetoric” – a dig at Johnson – but one of “robust pragmatism”, whatever that means. Rishi Sunak’s opponents and detractors among Conservative MPs (and there are many)… Read more »

‘UNITED’ GREEN PARTY

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE GREENS put on a show of unity and purpose last Saturday in a convention that was several galaxies distant from traditional gatherings of yesteryear when policy differences were aired and debated with passion. That was then, when such dialogue was a distinction on which the party prided itself. Now the Greens are in coalition… Read more »

IRELAND JOINS THE COLD WAR NEUTRALITY

Date: December 1, 2022 -

AN ALARMING note recently from one of Goldhawk’s agents in Moscow’s sphere of interest advanced the proposition that the Irish Government is involved in a western plot to effect regime change in Belarus, Russia’s strongest ally in the region. According to the current mission statement of Polish-based Belsat TV, the broadcasting station is “a democratisation… Read more »

CRAUGHWELL’S FORGOTTEN ARMY

Date: December 1, 2022 -

SENATORS MICHAEL McDowell and Gerard Craughwell issued some aggressive statements about the refusal of Government and the Defence Forces to give official endorsement to last week’s commemoration of National Army soldiers who died in the Civil War. McDowell accused the Government of “tip-toeing around the Civil War in pursuit of an anodyne policy of offering… Read more »

MEDIA GONGS TO BE SILENCED?

Date: December 1, 2022 -

GOLDHAWK SPECULATED recently that Mediahuis titles might show a marked improvement in the NewsBrands Ireland awards this year compared with their humiliation in 2021 (see The Phoenix 2/11/22). Last year Mediahuis, the biggest national newspaper group in the country, received just one award compared to six each for the Irish Times and its sister title,… Read more »

LARRY GOODMAN’S OIL STRIKE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

YOU’RE NEVER too old to reinvent yourself. At 85, billionaire beef baron Larry Goodman is starting a new career – as an aspiring oil baron. Earlier this year he bought up 16% of the Sir Tony O’Reilly-founded Providence Resources, after which the company renamed itself Barryroe Offshore Energy. The rebranding may have been an attempt… Read more »

EU ROUNDS UP RENEWAL

Date: December 1, 2022 -

Imagine if civil servants ignored the outcome of a Dáil vote and implemented a policy measure against the wishes of a majority of TDs. Something like that has happened in Brussels. The licence that allows glyphosate, aka Roundup weedkiller, to be sold in the EU is due to expire this month. When EU states voted… Read more »

MY NAME IS KASIA

Date: December 1, 2022 -

NO DOUBT Katarzyna ‘Kasia’ Gaborec-McEvoy was delighted with the latest lengthy plug her upmarket handbag company received in the Business Post last month, courtesy of the publisher’s media deal with Enterprise Ireland (EI). Also happy will be some recently arrived shareholders, who include a familiar name. The company, My Name Is Ted Ltd (MNIT), was… Read more »

PAUL SHEERAN’S PLANS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THERE’S BEEN plenty of publicity in recent weeks for jeweller Paul Sheeran, who has been expanding on all fronts. Well established in the bling trade, Sheeran has shifted a fair few watches from his high-profile shop on Johnson’s Court off Grafton Street and has recently splashed the cash, in conjunction with half a dozen top… Read more »

KEVIN O’RYAN’S SCHEDULE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

RACING TV presenter Kevin O’Ryan is known to keep himself busy within the sport, juggling his broadcasting role with acting as a jockeys’ agent, an equine talent scout for Goffs, while also running his own breaking and pre-training yard. It’s little surprise then that O’Ryan can sometimes get distracted by all his commitments and the… Read more »

MCNALLY HANGING ON

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE CURIOUS case of trainer Ronan McNally rumbles on, despite reports in recent months that a decision was imminent as to whether he would face any sanctions from the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board. McNally came to the attention of the regulator after a number of his horses landed significant gambles in the past few years… Read more »

KEVIN DOYLE’S NEW GOAL

Date: December 1, 2022 -

WHEN FORMER Republic of Ireland striker Kevin Doyle paid €155,000 three years ago for a foal that was a half-brother to a then star two-mile chaser, he announced it was an investment that he would hopefully cash in two-and-half years later when offering the horse for re-sale at Goffs as a three-year-old. That plan did… Read more »

CARRY ON CARLOW

Date: December 1, 2022 -

HAVING LOST out on some money-spinners last year due to the pandemic, the cash-strapped Visual arts centre in Carlow is hoping nothing derails this year’s panto. While the institution (where Emma-Lucy O’Brien is in situ as chief executive) is heavily backed by the Arts Council to the tune of around €210,000 pa, the contemporary arts… Read more »

BOYD BARRETT’S CAMEO ROLE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

WATCHING THE Oireachtas select committee on finance and public expenditure go through the nuts and bolts of the recently published Finance Bill would be a pretty tedious undertaking were it not for some members’ close interrogation of those assorted tax loopholes that don’t appear in the budget as expenditure because the money is never collected… Read more »

GREAT WESTERN’S GROWING PROSPECTS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

EMMETT O’CONNELL floated off the tiny Great Western Mining exploration vehicle in Dublin in 2011, which focused on licences he had acquired in the west of the US state of Nevada. While the state is very mining friendly, this is not an easy place to explore – up in the Rockies and impossible during the… Read more »

GREENCOAT MANAGERS CONTINUE TO REAP THE REWARDS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

GREENCOAT RENEWABLES raised €270m at €1 a share in 2017. It has since gone on to raise over €1bn from investors, most recently €282m in April this year. It is essentially a capital fund that has invested in existing wind farms, initially in Ireland and over the last three years in Germany, France, Sweden, Finland… Read more »

BILL MCCABE’S LEGAL HEADACHE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

INTERESTING TO see a midland engineering outfit called Aubren Ltd lodging proceedings in the Four Goldmines against the high-profile air purification outfit WellAir Ltd, where the main player is well-known tech investor Bill McCabe. Indeed there are some interesting names on both sides WellAir has been hoovering up funding from an assortment of big international… Read more »

MARK GALLIGAN’S EMPTY HOUSE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE SUMMER of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the House of Ireland (HoI) crafts and gifts retail group collapsed into liquidation. The liquidator has now completed his task but the bad news is that, apart from a few bob to cover the winding-up fees, there is nothing in the kitty for the creditors… Read more »

RESCUING CIARA DONLON

Date: December 1, 2022 -

HAVING WON her fair share of plaudits in recent years, Ciara Donlon – the woman behind Theya Lingerie Ltd, which produces post-surgery underwear from bamboo no less – finds herself in unfamiliar territory, looking to stave off liquidation through the recently introduced Scarp legislation. It is, however, far from clear what kind of state the… Read more »

MICHAEL HACKMAN’S IRISH SCREENPLAY

Date: December 1, 2022 -

INTERESTING TO see that the first accounts have been filed by Michael Hackman’s Ardmore and Troy Studios Limited, which acquired the two film and TV studios from Joe Devine’s consortium last year. This is only one of the Yank’s Irish interests. Fans of Goldhawk will be aware that Hackman’s group, HCP, has also entered a… Read more »