Affairs of the Nation

Frank Clarke

Affairs of the Nation

WOULFE IN JUDGE’S CLOTHING

HAVING BEEN transformed from predator into the hunted one vis-à-vis Supreme Court ‘colleague’ Séamus Woulfe, Chief Justice Frank Clarke may now feel he laid too much stress on a legal... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

FRANK CLARKE’S APPOINTMENT

ANOTHER aspect of Séamus Woulfe’s term as attorney general that has recently been seized on is the secretive manner of his appointment to the Supreme Court and the fact that... Read more »
Jim Farrell

Affairs of the Nation

FARRELL’S FALL

GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend, security specialist Jim Farrell, has just been adjudged a bankrupt in relation to a row over his former company. Business Mobile Security Services (BMSS) may have a... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Joe Biden

Affairs of the Nation

BIDEN AND IRISH NEUTRALITY

AS VICTORY for Joe Biden’s US presidential campaign inched closer, the Irish Times’s EU warriors became more exercised about the consequences for what is quaintly called “EU security”. On the... Read more »
Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Affairs of the Nation

LONDON CALLING

CONGRATS TO the chaps in News UK, London head Office of the Sunday Times – which dictates the tone and tenor of its aawrish edition – for perhaps the most... Read more »
Nicola Mitchell

Affairs of the Nation

UNICORNS’ PROFITS

LAST YEAR the Dáil declared a biodiversity emergency and, in recent months, the EU’s Farm To Fork strategy set out ambitious targets to cut the use of environmental poisons like... Read more »
Emily Blunt

Affairs of the Nation

WILD MOUNTAIN MEN

WITH ALL the fuss over the trailer for Wild Mountain Thyme, it is interesting to note that the taxpayer has put a fair few bob towards the film that features... Read more »
Tony Holohan

Affairs of the Nation

ANNUAL 2020: GOLDHAWK’S AWARDS FOR THE PASSING PARADE 2020

Tony Holohan IT IS probably safe to say that Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is not on repeat on Tony ‘Soprano’ Holohan’s playlist. The undisputed... Read more »
Mary McAleese confirmed her position as the chief lay critic of misogyny and unaccountability in the Roman Church.

Affairs of the Nation

ANNUAL 2020- CLERICAL ERRORS: IRISH APOSTATES CAST OUT

On Saturday November 28, Pope Francis will preside in Rome at a ceremony conferring red hats on 13 new Cardinals, but none of them will be either Diarmuid Martin (75),... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Micheál Martin announced that sharing the island of Ireland, rather than reuniting it, was his goal.

Pillars of Society

ANNUAL 2020 – PROFILE: WILL MARTIN MAKE IT TO 2022?

‘FIANNA FÁIL can kiss my ass – I’ve got the taoiseach’s job at last.’ That seems to be the political ditty that Micheál Martin... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Majella Gallagher

Fit to Print?

WOMAN MD FOR ‘IRISH TIMES’?

WOMEN JOURNALISTS at the Irish Times will surely be pleased should yet another woman take the post of managing director now that Liam Kavanagh is stepping down (Kavanagh succeeded Maeve... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

STEPHEN COLLINS’S OMISSION

A MOST arresting headline on the recent weekly column of former Irish Times political editor Stephen Collins declared, “It’s worth recalling defining moment in Irish democracy”. Before he even identified... Read more »
Peter Vandermeersch

Fit to Print?

INM’S MIXED RESULTS

A CHEERFUL report in the Irish Independent last week gave figures from the annual results of Independent News & Media Group Ltd, the holding company for various titles now owned... Read more »
Former INM group chairman Leslie Buckley launched a court bid to have High Court inspectors removed from their investigation into an alleged data breach.

Fit to Print?

ANNUAL 2020: ABC OF MEDIA ABANDONED

Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, the print media still managed to afflict some of the comfortable during a torrid year. Just ask the various worthies who thought it was... Read more »
When she contracted Covid-19, Claire Byrne continued to broadcast from her “garden shed”, a structure with neither a garden tool nor a cobweb in sight. Other shows saw her in a mock-up hospital bed and a mock-up Covid testing facility.

Fit to Print?

ANNUAL 2020 – AIRWAVES: COVID: A GOOD NEWS STORY

While COVID nearly destroyed the economy and laid waste to the independent TV sector right across the country, the disaster zone that has been 2020 might just have saved RTÉ... Read more »

Last Refuge

Shane O'Callaghan

Last Refuge

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CORK REBELS

RTÉ AND its Drivetime host, Sarah McInerney, managed last week to transform a most interesting story about Fianna Fáil abandoning its republican traditions – in rebel Cork, of all places... Read more »
Ivana Bacik

Last Refuge

IVANA TRIES AGAIN

LABOUR SENATOR Ivana Bacik has let it be known to her fans in Dublin Bay South (DBS) that she will – for the fourth time – be looking to stand... Read more »
The confidence-and-supply deal reflected Micheál Martin’s lack of belief in his party’s ability to take on FG in a general election.

Last Refuge

ANNUAL 2020: A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR LEADERS

THIS YEAR at times resembled a science fiction B movie as civilisation virtually succumbed to the plague in most countries with politics, economics, sport and social interaction paralysed in the... Read more »
Mary Lou McDonald is managing to stick clearly to a well-thought-out line on Covid and the economic support necessary.

Last Refuge

ANNUAL 2020: SINN FÉIN ON THE BRINK

IF 2019 was an annus horribilis for Sinn Féin, 2020 has been the year of resurrection, of Aiséirí. From the depths of a major setback, the party’s prospect of government... Read more »
The geographic spread of the Social Democrats, which was co-founded by Catherine Murphy, is even more Dublin-centric than Labour’s. Solidarity/People Before Profit TDs, such as Richard Boyd Barrett (below), are all lively and effective political operators.

Last Refuge

ANNUAL 2020: FRINGE PARTIES TRAPPED

As they considered who to vote for to lead our government in February, the electorate faced the choice of TweedleFF or TweedleFG. Perennial predictions of a wipe-out of Independents were... Read more »

Hush Hush

Theresa May

Hush Hush

IRELAND’S SPYCOPS

A British spy in the Real IRA, Dennis McFadden, is alleged to have a ‘love child’ with a woman from Donegal, whom he is said to have left shortly before... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

Even the most seasoned of learned friends in the Four Goldmines were in awe of Chief Justice Susan Denham’s ability to say so little with so many words . The High Court refused to authorise the extradition of Ian Bailey (below) to France over the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Wigs on the Green

ANNUAL 2020: INJUDICIOUS JUDGES

IT WOULD be easy to think that nothing much happened in 2020 beyond the pesky coronavirus. In one way, that is right, but what the plague taketh away, it also... Read more »

Foreign Frolics

Most of the world took a sigh of collective relief as Donald Trump looked set to depart the White House. Simon Coveney (below) was delighted when Ireland won a seat on the UN Security Council and was happy to take most of the credit and glory of the win for himself.

Foreign Frolics

ANNUAL 2020: BALLINA BIDEN TO BIFF BORIS?

It’s been quite the rollercoaster year on the foreign affairs front. Covid-19 will of course be remembered as the defining global event of 2020. As the virus spread exponentially in... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Martina Fitzgerald

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I did a major declutter of my ‘Dulux colour’ coats – the pinks, the oranges, the reds, which I only wore for TV. I gave them all to a charity... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

THE KRAUSE FAMILY FRIEND

FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with Mexican-English millionaire Allen de Jesus Sangines Krause (see The Phoenix 25/8/17), who is the squire of Killua... Read more »

High Society

Pat McDonagh

High Society

PAT’S PILE

A SALE price has been recorded in the Property Price Register of the Co Meath mansion owned by software moneybags Pat McDonagh and it... Read more »

High Society

Laura Burlington

High Society

LISMORE CASTLE’S ARISTOCRATS

NICE TO see the vaunted Book of Lismore returning home. The priceless medieval manuscript has been donated to UCC and the good news is that there appears to be no... Read more »
Catherine FitzGerald and hubby Dominic West declared that they were “very much still together” after the latter was snapped in a compromising situation. Thirty-year-old John Collison (below) is now worth €3bn.

High Society

ANNUAL 2020: BILLIONAIRES COME AND GO IN 2020

IRELAND started off the year with the news that we had the fifth-largest number of billionaires per capita behind Hong Kong, Cyprus, Singapore and Switzerland, according to an Oxfam report... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Wild Mountain Thyme

Behind the Scenes

WILD MOUNTAIN JAM

THE NATIONAL public broadcaster as well as the rest of the media (social and otherwise) got their knickers in a twist over Emily Blunt and Christopher Walken’s excruciating Oirish accents... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

LEO’S NEXT CHAIR

ONE OF the next appointments to be made by Leo Varadkar in his role as enterprise minister is the chair of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, where Pennys... Read more »
Sinéad O’Connor is preparing to publish her memoir next year and is “looking forward to dishing the sexual dirt on everyone I’ve ever slept with”. JK Rowling (below) has been the target of cancel culture after she was labelled a transphobe.

Arts & Entertainment

ANNUAL 2020 – ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: 2020: CANCEL CULTURE, COVID AND CONTROVERSY

THIS WAS a year not much like any other given that the arts were savaged by the pandemic. Nevertheless, it was business as usual for many – or at least... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Colin Keane

Sport of Kings

KEANE’S AMERICAN DREAM

THIS YEAR’S Breeders’ Cup, held at Keeneland racetrack in Kentucky, was a mighty success for Irish trainers and jockeys, none more so than Colin Keane, who was also crowned Irish... Read more »
Mark Brosnan

Sport of Kings

BOYLESPORTS UNSADDLED

BOYLESPORTS HAS received a sharp rap on the knuckles from the Gambling Commission in the shape of a £2.8m fine after a series of money-laundering failures had been highlighted by... Read more »
Rory Cleary

Sport of Kings

STICKING IT AT DUNDALK

FLAT STAYERS aren’t particularly well catered for at Dundalk and, after some lobbying from Michael Grassick’s Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association, Horse Racing Ireland agreed to add a low-level handicap over... Read more »
Gorden Elliott

Sport of Kings

GORDON ELLIOT’S CROCODILE

GORDON ELLIOTT has teamed up with Eddie O’Leary to very lucrative effect this year with a couple of young point-to-point horses. Elliott has unleashed two very promising four-year-old point-to-point winners... Read more »

Reviews

SNOW - JOHN BANVILLE (FABER)

Books

SNOW – JOHN BANVILLE (FABER)

OVER RECENT years, John Banville has written a relatively commercially successful series of hard-boiled noir thrillers under the name of Benjamin Black. This latest crime novel, however – the first... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Cathal Friel

Moneybags

ANNUAL 2020 – STOCKS & SHARES: WINNERS AND LOSERS IN 2020

THIS YEAR, the company leading the winners’ table is one that has lost billions over the years, Providence Resources. The new management, under Pat... Read more »

Moneybags

Michael O'Leary

Moneybags

ANNUAL 2020: MICHAEL O’LEARY’S PANDEMIC OPPORTUNITY

MICHAEL O’LEARY is facing an existential moment for Ryanair, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a seismic difference to the company and help it change... Read more »

Brief Cases

James McIlvenna

Brief Cases

JAMES MCILVENNA’S DOG DAY

THERE’S BEEN plenty of good press for ambitious dog treat inventor James McIlvenna lately, but he is facing a challenging year. Just last week, the Indo wrote in glowing terms... Read more »
Ali Ryan

Brief Cases

ALI RYAN’S GOSSIES

ALI RYAN, the boss of online gossip outlet Goss, announced last week that her much-talked-about annual awards show, the Gossies 2021, will indeed be going ahead come January, albeit not... Read more »
Aldi logo

Brief Cases

PAUL LANNEY’S APPEAL

These are difficult times for grocer Paul Lanney, who runs a SuperValu in his shopping centre in the county Louth town of Ardee. With hefty accumulated losses, he is now... Read more »
Frank McNamara and Theresa Lowe could celebrate after the ending of their prolonged wrangle with vulture fund Tanager. Former Custom House Capital boss Harry Cassidy (below) was arrested by German police and voluntarily returned to Ireland to face the fall-out from his company’s collapse.

Brief Cases

ANNUAL 2020: HOT WATER BRIGADE 2020

THE MORE things change, the more they stay the same. This year may have seen economic carnage like nothing before, but there were plenty of scraps and scrapes in the... Read more »