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YOUNG BLOOD: AIMEE CONNOLLY

Date: September 8, 2022 -

AT 29, cosmetics queen Aimee Connolly has already achieved a significant level of success, with her Sculpted By Aimee brand generating a striking looking €2.6m profit last year. As she prepares to open a ‘bricks and mortar’ store next week, on Grafton Street no less,… Read more »

VARADKAR’S NORTHERN PLOT

Date: September 8, 2022 -

WHILE Taoiseach Micheál Martin mulls over his chances of surviving as Fianna Fáil leader until the next election, his replacement as leader of the country in December, Leo Varadkar, is plotting to seriously undermine him the minute he takes over at Christmas or in the New Year. Martin would be delusional if he thinks that… Read more »

DALY AND WALLACE TARGETED

Date: September 8, 2022 -

MEPS CLARE Daly and Mick Wallace continue to be singled out for special treatment by the media as well as Government politicians. The Irish Mail on Sunday (reflecting its London-based foreign policy outlook?), dished it out to them last weekend. “MEPs visit four of the least free countries on earth,” blared the newspaper in a… Read more »

GELDOF’S ‘TENANT’

Date: September 8, 2022 -

WHEN MOTORMOUTH, and landlord, Bob Geldof paid a flying visit to Ireland this summer to visit Skibbereen and recall famine atrocities, he presumably checked in on some of his property interests here. One of those, in Dún Laoghaire, landed him in a landlord/tenant dispute with the controversial Period Door Properties (PDP). A Residential Tenancies Board… Read more »

RTÉ BOYCOTTS DANA

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE CRASS behaviour by RTÉ in failing to invite Dana to participate in the RTÉ Concert Orchestra celebration of Eurovision is still confounding those concerned. Dana was the first and most celebrated Irish winner of the contest and her exclusion is bizarre. She is also, of course, the most political and – even worse in… Read more »

GRAEME DE RENZY’S $16M HEADACHE

Date: September 8, 2022 -

GOLDHAWK WAS not surprised to learn that his old friend, Graeme de Renzy, is in another spot of bother, this time on foot of a consent order he signed relating to a settlement for a cool $16m (€16.1m). This follows on foot of a deal with a Canadian businessman that involved the Castleknock-based former bankrupt… Read more »

ED GUINEY’S MOVIE MARATHONS

Date: September 8, 2022 -

IT MAY have come as something of a surprise that the biggest movie hit of the season by far, Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, opened at the two ‘arthouse’ cinemas (the Lighthouse in Dublin and Pálás in Galway) that are owned by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe’s Element Pictures. Both of these venues benefited from… Read more »

BRENDAN McCABE’S PRICEY PADDOCK

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE LATEST ‘super-prime’ property to come on the market is the impressive Paddock Wood pile on Killiney Hill Road, famously formerly owned by the hapless one-time bankrupt telecoms whizz John ‘Payzone’ Nagle and his missus, Joan Nagle. The current owners have a rather lower profile and it is unclear how much property and telecoms cable… Read more »

VOL 40 NO 18

Date: September 8, 2022 -

KENNEL CLUB’S NEXT DOGFIGHT

Date: September 8, 2022 -

FRIDAY NIGHT sees the latest monthly gathering of Irish Kennel Club (IKC) members, many of whom continue to fear a sale of the National Show Centre to moneybags Noel Smyth. It will, presumably, be more productive than last month’s meeting, when club president Sean Delmar got a pasting for refusing to circulate the minutes in… Read more »

MI6 FIGHT BORIS RETURN

Date: September 8, 2022 -

BORIS JOHNSON ended his premiership with a campaign for his political rehabilitation and return via a ‘farewell tour’, showcasing his achievements to the Tory faithful. Does he hope for a mere return to the Cabinet or to reoccupy his apartment at Number 10 before Liz Truss has a chance to redecorate it? His enemies are… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ EDITORIAL CONTEST

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE RACE to become the new editor at the Irish Times will be more complex, political even, than normal with the ascendancy of the commercial side of the house – a privilege it normally enjoys – being challenged by a felt need to solve a cultural malaise at the newspaper. Editorial staff tend to assume… Read more »

SIMON COVENEY’S TRAINING MISSION

Date: September 8, 2022 -

GOLDHAWK BOWS to the military genius and alacrity displayed by defence personnel recently when the question of Irish involvement in an EU training mission was leaked to the Irish Times. The war in Ukraine has provided ample opportunity for Deaprtment of Defence hawks to place Ireland’s long-standing neutrality under scrutiny. On August 26 the IT… Read more »

FACTS ON THE GROUND

Date: September 8, 2022 -

AS PHOENIX readers will know, Ireland’s co-operation with Nato has deepened in recent years. The Defence Forces involvement in Nato’s operational capability concept (OCC) since 2016 is possibly the most important aspect of such increased co-operation. The OCC’s aim is to “develop and train partner land, maritime, air or special operations forces that seek to… Read more »

ZERO CRED

Date: September 8, 2022 -

As the climate crisis deepens, it is heartening to see corporate Ireland respond to the emergency. Take the new group, The Alliance for Zero Carbon Heating (TAZCH), which is proposing to “transform Ireland’s heating sector” through the use of ‘biofuels’. This transformation involves promoting mysterious substances known as “low carbon liquid fuels”. These appear to… Read more »

IRISH MILITARY INDUSTRIAL PLAN?

Date: September 8, 2022 -

ALONG WITH the huge increase in defence funding ‘agreed’ by the Government (a planned rise from €1.1bn to €1.9bn by 2028), there has been a significant push to develop an Irish arms industry. It is fascinating to track the circular reasoning concerning the agenda for our military establishment and the process of promoting an Irish… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: September 8, 2022 -

When my son was 2, I heard him mumbling to himself as he was going to sleep, ‘Mikhail Gorbachev’. It sounded like a promise that the world he would grow up in would be less fearful and more hopeful. Fintan O’Toole, Twitter, submitted by reader If I were RTÉ, I would probably regret losing that… Read more »

TRUSS GRAPPLES WITH DUP

Date: September 8, 2022 -

ALL IS not going to plan between the DUP and the British government. To the surprise of no one in the North, the DUP is not co-operating with the Conservatives’ plans for dealing with the Irish Protocol. English politicians may not know the Ulster-Scots word ‘thran’ but they would be familiar with the American ‘ornery’,… Read more »

CALLEARY BACK AT COURT

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE UNASSUMING if still ambitious figure of ex-minister Dara Calleary can be seen stalking the corridors of power again, albeit as a mere junior minister. Some believe – or have been led to believe by the devious ones that surround Micheál Martin – that this is but a staging post on the way back to… Read more »

PASCHAL DONOHOE’S VIRTUE SIGNALLING

Date: September 8, 2022 -

BENEATH THE Blueshirts bonding bonhomie at their Kilkenny think-in this weekend, there will undoubtedly lurk some malicious thoughts and no small resentment at various leadership personalities.  Chief among these is finance minister Paschal Donohoe, whose heavy virtue-signalling as a prudent keeper of the nation’s wealth has not impressed all Fine Gael party members, TDs in… Read more »

LEO TO SWITCH CONSTITUENCY?

Date: September 8, 2022 -

SPECULATION SURROUNDS the personal intentions of Leo Varadkar at the next general election and in particular whether he will leave Dublin West for southside constituency Dublin Bay South (DBS). This is because the Fine Gael leader and Tánaiste now lives in the South Circular Road area with his partner, Matt Barrett, although some appear to… Read more »

LYNN RUANE’S PARTY

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE SUNDAY TIMES’ Atticus column recently published a sniffy piece about “Sinn Féin politician” Senator Lynn Ruane, who failed in her complaint to the Press Ombudsman over comments made about her by the pro-life Senator Sharon Keogan at the Oireachtas committee on international surrogacy. The Meath Chronicle had reported local politician Keogan’s accusation that Ruane… Read more »

REVISIONIST FEUD

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE FEUD between two media academics and politicos continues at TCD next week when historian Eve Morrison gives a lecture about the November 1920 Kilmichael ambush about which, she claims, Tom Barry invented a false surrender narrative. The late Peter Hart, author of The IRA and its Enemies, claimed this was a cover for “serial… Read more »

POISONOUS DEBATE

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE IRISH agricultural sector only recently signed up to challenging 25% cuts in overall emissions by 2030. Since the overwhelming bulk of these emissions come from ruminant livestock, you might assume the Government is supporting the industry in transitioning towards lower-carbon food systems. You would of course be wrong. Government campaigns are aimed at growing… Read more »

DAMIEN O’REILLY’S EMISSIONS

Date: September 8, 2022 -

ALSO CONCERNED about the tenor of the agri debate is Damien O’Reilly, presenter of Countrywide on RTÉ and columnist with the Irish Farmers Journal, sponsor of his radio show. In Damo’s alternate world, frightened farmers are desperately trying “to correct the record on wild assumptions made by people on social media”. These dastardly (unnamed) environmentalists… Read more »

PAMELA LAIRD’S MOXIE

Date: September 8, 2022 -

PAMELA LAIRD, a former star of both the Irish version of Dragon’s Den and Alan Sugar’s version of The Apprentice, is rarely far from the headlines. For the last few years, La Laird has been the darling of the business hacks, who are happy to portray her as a hard-charging business titan in the making,… Read more »

PATRICK GUINNESS’S AQUACULTURE

Date: September 8, 2022 -

INTERESTING TO see that an aquaculture company called A Harvest Industry Ltd (AHI) has gone into liquidation. AHI was incorporated in December 2016 and the most surprising player here turned out to be Patrick Guinness, who put in an 18-month stint on the board from 2017, joining Norway-based Jan Stykket and Bard Fredrik Fleischer. Among… Read more »

NORTH SEA CONNECTION – RTÉ ONE

Date: September 8, 2022 -

FOR THOSE who think RTÉ’s drama output is a bit of a cod, it’s perhaps fitting that the national broadcaster’s new Sunday night series is a fishing thriller. Set in an isolated community cut off from modernity, North Sea Connection centres on fisherwoman Ciara Kenny… Read more »

MARTIN’S TIMELY GRANT

Date: September 8, 2022 -

IT TURNS out that the arts department was particularly eager to support Brian Merriman’s International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (IDGTF) after the Arts Council (AC) pulled the plug. The timing was particularly good. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 3/6/22) that the Merrion Square mafia cut funding for the IDGTF, earning a strong rebuke… Read more »

RYAN McELLIGOTT’S NEW JOB?

Date: September 8, 2022 -

AFTER 10 years as head of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA), Michael Grassick is set to dismount. Although there has been no official announcement yet, Goldhawk understands that Ryan McElligott, best known as a journalist with the Irish Field and Gordon Elliott’s race planner, will be taking over the IRTA role from the retiring… Read more »

COAKLEY COMES A CROPPER

Date: September 8, 2022 -

YOUNG IRISH jockey Ross Coakley’s career has been on an upward curve since he relocated to England last year but the rider’s momentum has been severely halted by a particularly harsh ban picked up when riding in Germany recently. Ross Coakley, who has ridden 44 winners in Britain this year – more than twice the… Read more »

MURPHY’S LAW

Date: September 8, 2022 -

IT HAS been reported that Cork trainer John Joseph Murphy was recently fined €4,000 by the referrals committee of Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (chaired by Tony Hunt) after one of his horses, Ten Ten Twenty, tested positive for the prohibited substance Meloxicam following his win in a flat race at Cork on August 7 last… Read more »

RYAN OUT OF AMO

Date: September 8, 2022 -

IT HAS been an eventful week for Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing. The increasingly familiar ownership group, run by the UK-based football investor, has suffered from a case of second album syndrome on the track this year, notably at Royal Ascot, when Amo’s Michael O’Callaghan-trained Crispy Cat suffered significant interference when in with a chance in… Read more »

CLONTARF ENERGY’S TINY VALUATION COULD PROVE TEMPTING

Date: September 8, 2022 -

LAST MONTH there was bad news for shareholders in Clontarf Energy. The Australian gas well, Sasanof-1, in which the company has a 10% stake was drilled 100 miles offshore the west coast, targeting a huge identified seven trillion cubic feet enclosure. However, it proved a dud and the well was plugged and abandoned. Unsurprisingly, this… Read more »

COLIN HUNT V FRANCESCA MCDONAGH

Date: September 8, 2022 -

AT AIB, Colin Hunt reversed his attempt to withdraw cash facilities from 70 branches nationwide after getting a right hammering from commentators and politicians. The fallout may have surprised him, given that over at Bank of Ireland Francesca McDonagh has been rather more aggressive in her tactics, but faced a significantly smaller backlash after, for… Read more »

POWERSCOURT POWER PLAY

Date: September 8, 2022 -

THE BATTLE of the super-rich landowners of Wicklow over staff quarters on the grounds of American billionaire John Malone’s Powerscourt Hotel has now escalated to An Bord Pleanála, which will decide on a contentious issue between the Slazenger family and the Yank and his partners. Interestingly, the planning consultant is playing a starring role here. The… Read more »