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ANNUAL 2022: PRINT – OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES

Date: November 17, 2022 -

UPHEAVALS AT the top of Irish newspapers dominated the print and online market this year. The four or five leading titles all saw changes, with a new editor at the Irish Times, a newly appointed group editor at Mediahuis and a new editor awaited at the Business Post. Meanwhile, the relatively new editor at the… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: AIRWAVES – RTÉ LEADERSHIP EXODUS

Date: November 17, 2022 -

HIGH-PROFILE departures, a Government bailout, legal threats and the prospect of a whole new top tier of management made it a mixed year for RTÉ. With a surplus of over €2m for the year and a €14m handout from minister Catherine Martin, the future should… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: CLERICAL ERRORS – ELUSIVE RED HAT

Date: November 17, 2022 -

AN UNEXPECTED lifeline that could yet help the ambitious if indecisive Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin to obtain a coveted red hat was thrown in September by Pope Francis. Unexpectedly, he extended next autumn’s world Synod of Bishops on the future governance of Catholicism to 2024. Hopefully, the recent revelations of clerical abuse by the… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: WIGS ON THE GREEN – TWO JUDGES, A TOUT AND A TEACHER

Date: November 17, 2022 -

MUCH COURTROOM drama took place in Irish courts in 2022, with that haven of human rights, Dubai, proving irresistible to two of Ireland’s most distinguished judges; the prospect of a leaner sentence was dangled in front of an accused turned informant in the Special Criminal Court; and a member of the Christian Union Society was… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: FOREIGN FROLICS – BETWEEN THE US AND THE DEEP BLUE EU

Date: November 17, 2022 -

OUR FOREIGN POLICY has seen Ireland continue its sterling efforts to be seen as the best boy in class, with the Government determinedly staying on message with the United States on any issue that arose. Of course, there has really been only one issue in 2022 – and that remains the Ukraine war. Ireland has… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: BEHIND THE SCENES – RED SCARE IN THE ARTS WORLD

Date: November 17, 2022 -

THE ARTS delivered their usual share of spats and colourful performances but the big winner was surely the minister responsible for signing cheques and maintaining morale in the culture trenches. Money appeared to be no object for the Government, despite the uneasy winds of inflation, while Russian performers found themselves paying the price for the… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: HIGH SOCIETY – INFLUENCERS AND LIMITLESS DRIPS IN 2022

Date: November 17, 2022 -

IN A YEAR dominated by the war in Ukraine, energy fears and rampant inflation, it was refreshing to see that the other half continued to live cosseted lives and opened their chequebooks whenever the occasion presented itself. Many of those on hand to scoop up the moolah in 2022 were members of the increasingly wealthy… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: MONEYBAGS – WINNERS AND LOSERS IN 2022

Date: November 17, 2022 -

AGAINST THE backdrop of rising inflation and interest rates, not too many companies were going to push ahead this year, other than the banks, which are obvious beneficiaries of the new interest regime. LOSERS It is ironic that the best-performing stock in 2021 was Siberia-focused oil exploration vehicle PetroNeft, despite founder Denis Francis having abandoned… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: MONEYBAGS PROFILE – KELLY MARTIN AND MALIN TODAY

Date: November 17, 2022 -

THE CONTROVERSIAL Kelly Martin has made his mark on the Irish investment scene. Having debuted just on 20 years ago when he was parachuted in to rescue Elan Pharmaceuticals, he has reached what looks like a final chapter here by walking away from an €18.5m legal action that he initiated, alongside fellow Malin Corp founders… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022: BRIEF CASES – BUSY YEAR FOR THE GATE KEEPERS IN 2022

Date: November 17, 2022 -

IT WAS a hectic year for liquidators, bankruptcy lawyers, insolvency practitioners and anyone investigating white-collar crime, as the long-stored-up problems during the Covid-19 pandemic finally came home to roost, along with a healthy dose of fraud and swindling. As ever, there were plenty of big names and recognisable faces in the mix. The year started… Read more »

ANNUAL 2022

Date: November 17, 2022 -

ANNUAL 2022: MONEYBAGS – WHICH COMPANIES ARE SET TO THRIVE IN TROUBLED 2023?

Date: November 16, 2022 -

AGAINST THE background of soaring interest rates, rocketing energy prices and the effect on supply lines of increasing tensions between the US and China, investors are facing a more complex and uncertain investment market than has been the case for a number of years. This comes on the back of a world economy that is… Read more »

AL PORTER’S TIMELY COMEBACK

Date: November 15, 2022 -

AL PORTER made his “surprise comeback” last week, the Indo blared on its website. Showbiz editor Melanie Finn told expectant readers how “the funnyman (29) performed for a few minutes at a charity gig in his local pub in Tallaght, The Dragon Inn, where he apparently ‘went down a storm with the audience’”. It was… Read more »

CHRISTINE O’DONOVAN’S CHAIR

Date: November 15, 2022 -

BARRING A disaster from the Oireachtas committee on higher education, high-powered legal eagle Christine O’Donovan will be confirmed as the chairwoman of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), succeeding Richard Thorn. At least she will be in a position to report a healthier financial situation than was the case in the recent past…. Read more »

VAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Date: November 15, 2022 -

FINANCE MINISTER Paschal Donohoe’s spokesperson told Goldhawk recently that although a newspaper is a periodical it can have a zero VAT rate applied to it, while a news periodical (such as The Phoenix) can bear a 9% rate. In a post-budget justification for the discriminatory VAT rates being applied to different media, it was explained… Read more »

VAT RELIEF ONLY FOR ‘GOOD’ MEDIA?

Date: November 2, 2022 -

FINANCE MINISTER Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil in his Budget 2023 speech that he was reducing VAT on newspapers from 9% to zero. The minister was doing this, he explained in suitably grave tones, to assist media that were “holding those in power to account”… Read more »

PROFILE: RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC

Date: November 2, 2022 -

“HONOURED… DELIGHTED” and “beyond proud” to have been appointed editor of the Irish Times was how Ruadhán Mac Cormaic expressed himself on landing what is still the most prestigious job in Irish journalism. How did this relatively anonymous journalist land the gig and what is… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: LORRAINE HALL

Date: November 2, 2022 -

Leo Varadkar’s astute outflanking of Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil on the national question continues apace with the elevation of 41-year-old Dún Laoghaire councillor Lorraine Hall as one of Fine Gael’s key spokespersons on a united Ireland. Varadkar, of course, spoke at the Ireland’s Future rally in Dublin in October, where Martin was conspicuous by… Read more »

PATRICIA MADDEN’S EXIT

Date: November 2, 2022 -

BARRISTER AND long-time member and officer of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA) Patricia Madden has exited her position on the board. It remains to be seen if any issues around her departure go legal. Patricia Madden knows a thing or two about the law and was quick to act in the aftermath of a flawed… Read more »

DEIRDRE CONROY’S DAY IN COURT

Date: November 2, 2022 -

NEXT WEEK will see Fianna Fáil councillor, barrister and failed by-election candidate Deirdre Conroy finally get into the High Court, where she is looking to prove the personal injuries negligence claim that played such a part in her humiliating performance in Dublin Bay South last year. The case should attract an awful lot of media… Read more »

COLD MESS

Date: November 2, 2022 -

IRELAND’S LOSS is Europe’s gain, as Damien O’Reilly trades in his gig as presenter of RTÉ radio’s Countrywide to head up the Brussels office of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS), a dairy industry lobby group. Taking over at Countrywide is seasoned presenter Philip Boucher-Hayes, who has notably specialised in covering the climate emergency in… Read more »

LIZ OAKES’S RESOMARIUM

Date: November 2, 2022 -

YOU’VE GOT to hand it to eyebrows queen Liz Oakes – the multi-talented businesswoman sure knows how to generate media attention. In the last couple of weeks there have been numerous outings in the press – both in print and on the national airwaves – regarding Liz’s latest business idea, which features emergency contact technology…. Read more »

MUTINOUS JUDGES

Date: November 2, 2022 -

THE WHIFF of mutinous protest pervades the courts and even the judiciary at present, with elders among them trying hard to restrain the resentment felt by many judges, especially in the High Court. A recent Irish Times interview with High Court president Mr Justice David Barniville attracted much attention because of its unrestrained support for… Read more »

ALL THE BROKEN PLACES – JOHN BOYNE

Date: November 2, 2022 -

BACK IN 2006, John Boyne’s young-adult novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, focused on the story of Bruno, the son of an Auschwitz SS officer who befriends Shmuel, a Jewish boy imprisoned in the camp. Predictably perhaps, the author was accused of presenting a misleading view of the Holocaust. He has, however, always argued… Read more »

VOL 40 NO 22

Date: November 2, 2022 -

THE ABBEY’S WHISTLEBLOWER

Date: November 2, 2022 -

THERE IS little sign of the drama waning at the Frances Ruane-chaired Abbey Theatre, with Goldhawk hearing that a dreaded ‘whistleblower’ has been looking to shine a spotlight on the €7.5m pa funded venue, alleging corporate governance and other failings. Fans of Goldhawk may not be too surprised to hear that the issue of boring… Read more »

TRESPASS IN CHURCH CHARGE

Date: November 2, 2022 -

THE SOCIETY of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary (SAJM) has been busy eschewing the links a number of its flock once had with the traditionalist Catholic group SSPX Resistance in West Cork, some of whose members believe in some arcane Catholic views from centuries back (see The Phoenix 22/10/21). SAJM was recently covered in… Read more »

ESCORT IRELAND’S FOREIGN FROLICS

Date: November 2, 2022 -

IN TRUE tabloid style, the Sunday World last week ran the grim story of Bruno Binda De Souza, a transexual prostitute who was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for possessing a large trove of child sexual abuse images. She had previously been raking in big bucks here courtesy of her advertising on… Read more »

FRENCH PERFIDY IN MALI?

Date: November 2, 2022 -

IN 2018, with champagne corks popping in the background, the Department of Foreign Affairs issued a press release announcing Ireland’s election to the UN Security Council that was rich in hyperbole. What would phrases such as “a global island, with a clear and tangible ambition” and “shared values of peace, justice, and human rights” mean… Read more »

MOUNTBATTEN QUERY

Date: November 2, 2022 -

RESEARCHERS INTO the squalid Kincora scandal – authors Andrew Lownie and David Burke – have asked gardaí to release the logs made by the unit assigned to protect Lord Mountbatten while he was in Ireland in 1977. Mountbatten spent most of August in Co Sligo each year. He was assassinated by the IRA in 1979…. Read more »

OOH AH, UP THE RUC

Date: November 2, 2022 -

ALMOST 25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, you might be surprised to discover that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), to use a rather hackneyed phrase, hasn’t gone away you know. In the last fortnight the RUC George Cross Foundation, a body established under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, organised a… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: November 2, 2022 -

The book is deeply personal, searingly honest and at times laugh-out-loud funny. It reads like an anatomical lesson; he cuts himself open for all to peer inside. Simon Carswell on Bono’s memoir, Irish Times Yon-Ka is all about the psycho-sensory benefits of aromatic essential oils and their incredible ability to detoxify and control irritations and… Read more »

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

Date: November 2, 2022 -

FOR DECADES the fossil fuel industry has avoided regulation by systematically misrepresenting the science around climate change. To maintain the illusion of credibility, Big Oil often funnels cash into front groups to present pseudo-science in the form of ‘declarations’ signed by non-specialists purporting to reject mainstream climate science. This playbook is now being adopted by… Read more »

LESS THAN FRANK

Date: November 2, 2022 -

ALONG WITH developing dubious narratives around meat and nutrition, the livestock sector has also invested heavily in spinning away the huge climate impact of methane from cattle. The go-to guy for Irish lobbyists in recent years has been Prof Frank Mitloehner, a California-based scientist and self-styled ‘GHG guru’. Now Frank Mitloehner is under the spotlight,… Read more »

MARTIN WANTS FOREIGN POST

Date: November 2, 2022 -

IN THE increasingly fevered world of ministers obsessed with and angling for preferment in the December change-over and reshuffle, the word is that outgoing Taoiseach Micheál Martin wants and has secured agreement that he is to be foreign affairs minister. One reason for this is that it will offer the Fianna Fáil leader multiple opportunities… Read more »

FF LEADER EYES UP COALITION WITH SF

Date: November 2, 2022 -

ONE WISHFUL scenario being propagated by the media, and by the Irish Times in particular last week, is that even if Sinn Féin is the largest party by far after the next election, the three current coalition parties could still outweigh any government led by SF. The second and more disingenuous proposition is that Taoiseach… Read more »