Affairs of the Nation

Declan Kearney

Affairs of the Nation

WILL SINN FÉIN PACIFY SHANNON? 

SHANNON AIRPORT has played an important role in the United States logistical network that has facilitated its Afghan war and other conflicts the US has been involved in over the... Read more »
Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

PRICKLY ROSES

WITH THE 62nd Rose of Tralee hooley cancelled, it will be 2022 before the successor to Limerick’s Sinéad Flanagan is crowned. Given the financial strains showing in the operation, the... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

REVIEWING SALLY ROONEY

THE LONG wait for the new novel from Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You, exposed readers to something of a marketing blitz, although the PR team did opt to... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Sean Clancy

Affairs of the Nation

ARMY RANGERS’ DISCONTENT

RUMBLINGS IN the ranks of the Army Rangers Wing have not reached mutinous levels but the government would want to avoid any more perceived provocations if it wants to retain... Read more »
Simon Kelly

Affairs of the Nation

SIMON KELLY’S STAFFING PROBLEM

ONE OF the more high-profile falls from grace during the property crash was that of Paddy ‘Shrewsbury Road’ Kelly and his son Simon’s sprawling empire. Ten years on, however, Wicklow-based... Read more »
Brian Polly

Affairs of the Nation

BRIAN POLLY’S HEAVY GOING

THE ASSOCIATION of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) held its AGM last month (a remote affair) and, not surprisingly perhaps, it has led to calls for a steward’s enquiry. The AGM... Read more »
Kieran Corrigan

Affairs of the Nation

KIERAN CORRIGAN’S TAX PLOT

FILM FINANCIER, number cruncher, film studio promoter, and film school owner, Kieran Corrigan, will be looking forward to getting students back into his fledgling Irish Film School. Separately, it turns... Read more »
Diarmuid Gavin

Affairs of the Nation

GAVIN AND GRETA

IS THERE a word in the English language more grievously misused than ‘sustainable’? The unseemly scramble by major polluters, from oil companies to mining firms and car makers trying to... Read more »
Michael Semple

Affairs of the Nation

PAKISTAN SAYS SEMPLE IS MI6

US/BRITISH divisions over strategy in Afghanistan did not begin with President Biden’s precipitous exit from that country and British ‘diplomat’ Michael Semple’s expulsion in December 2007 – ostensibly by the... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Michael Nugent

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: MICHAEL NUGENT

RENOWNED ATHEIST Richard Dawkins once described the difficulty his fractious atheist colleagues had in organising themselves as akin to “herding cats”. This characterisation is... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Rebecca Moynihan

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: REBECCA MOYNIHAN

BUOYED BY Ivana Bacik’s comfortable win in the Dublin Bay South byelection, the Labour party is now drawing up its list of key targets... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Eoin O'Malley

Fit to Print?

DES O’MALLEY’S CRITICS

THERE IS little mystery about the Irish Independent’s choice of one Eoin O’Malley to critique Conor Lenihan’s recently published biography of former taoiseach Albert Reynolds – Albert Reynolds: Risktaker for Peace – or there... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

SUNDAY TIMES STRATEGY

THERE WAS elation last June among employees and the surrounding community at the Kells print plant when News UK & Ireland – owned by News Corp, publishers of the Sun... Read more »
Stephen Collins

Fit to Print?

IRISH TIMES SCHISM?

INTERESTING TWEETS from Irish Times heavyweight politicos last week indicate that columnist and former political editor Stephen Collins is regarded as too heavy-handed in his repetitive denunciations of Sinn Féin.... Read more »

Last Refuge

Leo Varadkar

Last Refuge

LEO VARADKAR’S AGENDA

FINE GAEL is not as convulsed with incipient leadership rumours, plots and heaves as is Fianna Fáil, but everybody knows that Leo Varadkar’s grip on power is loosening by the... Read more »
Richard Boyd Barrett

Last Refuge

BUS PLAN (DIS) CONNECTS

DUBLIN BUS management will have been gratified to learn that the rhetoric from Dublin Bus union leaders about the “gutter based opposition” to the new Bus Connects plan was aimed... Read more »
Albert Reynolds

Last Refuge

MICHEÁL MARTIN AND PLAYING BOTH SIDES

WITH SPECULATION about a Fianna Fáil leadership heave almost a constant since the general election, party TDs as well as contenders would do well to read former minister Conor Lenihan’s... Read more »
Arlene Foster

Last Refuge

COLLUSION ONCE AGAIN

IF DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson was cheeky in demanding that the Dublin government investigate alleged collusion between “gardaí and the IRA” during the Troubles, Micheál Martin rolled over and agreed... Read more »

Hush Hush

Brigadier Frank Kitson

Hush Hush

GARRET, THE SPY AND KITSON’S IRISH WAR

IN A timely postscript to Cullum Macrae’s The Ballymurphy Massacre programme, author David Burke is about to publish a book on Brigadier Frank Kitson, Kitson’s Irish War: Mastermind of the... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘Orange Bastards’ Derry Magistrates’ Court heard the case of a 47-year-old man with 250 previous convictions whose defence solicitor insists that his record is now beginning to ‘taper off’. Kevin... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Michael McCarthy

Fowl Emissions

MCCARTHY’S CLOUDY THINKING

DURING HIS only term as a TD for Cork South-West, Labour’s Michael McCarthy was chair of the oireachtas environment committee. When he lost his seat as part of Labour’s mass... Read more »
Climate Disinformation Coillte Climate Action EU Livestock NDC Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

Fowl Emissions

WES EDENS’S GREENWASHING

AMID ALL the climate doom and gloom, a sunbeam of hope appeared in the southwest recently with news of a project that “will help lead the transition to a zero-carbon... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Fintan O'Toole

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

She is asking throughout the novel: what does contemporary mean? Is there even such a thing as “now”? Can this present moment express itself in anything other than a free-flowing... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Lauren Healy

High Society

LAUREN HEALY’S METHOD

FOUR INTERESTING looking houses are emerging on Ranelagh’s Charleston Road, where former Apprentice contestant Jamie Moran is developing four upmarket townhouses using a cast... Read more »

High Society

Woodridge Stud

High Society

MICHAEL BRESLIN’S STUD FARM

GOLDHAWK ENJOYED the glowing report in the Indo property supplement last week on the sprawling Woodridge Stud in Dunsany, Co Meath, which has just... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

TOM KEANE’S RECEIVERS

LAST MONTH a receiver was appointed to Stradbally-based Tom Keane’s Killenard Golf Company Ltd (KGC), which was behind the upmarket Killenard hotel and golf course complex in Laois that imploded... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Ruth McGowan

Behind the Scenes

‘IT’ ON THE FRINGE

AS FANS of Goldhawk are aware, the organisation known as the Trans Writers Union has called for a boycott of the Irish Times and even organised an online petition. Although... Read more »
Tailored Films Screen Ireland Perspectives DCCI Crescine Tarka Russell Lara Hickey Reality Check Sarah McInerney Irish Movies Paul Murray Arts Council Dublin Theatre Festival TWU Macdara Kelleher Richard Boyd Barrett DADC Cillian Murphy Terry McMahon Media Commission Ireland Kerlin Gallery Creative Ireland Section 481 Christine O’Donovan RTÉ Storyland NMI Board Vacancies IASCA Ossie Kilkenny RTÉ Original Programmes

Behind the Scenes

NEESON’S GOOD NEWS

SCREEN IRELAND (SI) has finally published details of its funding for this period. Among the winners is a Hollywood ‘co-production’ starring Liam Neeson. Cumulatively, the big winner is Macdara Kelleher’s... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Michael Grassick

Sport of Kings

GRASSICK’S TIMING ISSUE

IT WILL be interesting to see what stance Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) takes after the underwhelming lobbying efforts of the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association (ITTA) to allow trainers to again... Read more »
Cathal Byrnes

Sport of Kings

ZEROING IN ON CATHAL BYRNES

RACECOURSE STEWARDS appear to be paying particular attention to horses trained by the Byrnes boys these days. Certainly, there was a fuss made recently over the performance of the Cathal... Read more »
Pat Foley

Sport of Kings

WEIGHTY ISSUES

FLAT RACING is often decided by fine margins including the weight carried, with a couple of pounds differential often the difference between winning and losing. Some punters, therefore, could have... Read more »
Gordon Elliott

Sport of Kings

GORDON ELLIOT’S RETURN

THE NAME of Gordon Elliott will make a return to race cards this week after a six-month absence. While the Irish racing community tends to be a forgiving bunch, it... Read more »

Reviews

Erin McGregor

Podcasts

IMPERFECTION – BY ERIN AND JUDITH 

WHILE GOLDHAWK is no gastroenterologist, it is incumbent upon him to warn potential listeners about the elevated risk of barfing up their lunch while digesting a new podcast from Erin... Read more »
THE ECHO CHAMBER JOHN BOYNE

Books

THE ECHO CHAMBER – JOHN BOYNE

HAVING GENTLY satirised the publishing industry in his 2018 novel, A Ladder to the Sky, John Boyne now casts an eye on the aggressive world of social media and cancel... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Carl McCann

Moneybags

ONLY DIRECTORS AND KPMG WINNING AT BALMORAL

A LITTLE more than a year ago AIB sold an €850m non-performing commercial loan book to a vulture fund, Cerberus, at a discount of... Read more »

Moneybags

Joe Wylie

Moneybags

AMRYT’S ‘MINI BLOCKBUSTER’ DRUGS SET TO REAP $1BN IN SALES

COMING ON top of the $153m acquisition of Aegerion as recently as September 2019, Amryt Pharma’s current $375m merger with Chiasma represents another major... Read more »

Briefcases

ZMG Cyril Murphy Newbridge College Peter Wilson Sporting Emporium Chris Wholey O'Kane God’s Creatures Film Tax Relief Anne Rossi Desmond Live Nation ESCADIA LTD Al Porter Comeback Gordon Elliott Clayton Love Ivan Wilde hot-water-brigade Parnells GAA Lawsuit

Briefcases

GREG KAVANAGH’S WINE BILL

THE ONE and only Greg Kavanagh, Irish property developer extraordinaire, continues to encounter problems with parties who are demanding money from him. In some cases, the sums are most significant... Read more »
PJ Lynch

Briefcases

JOHN SWAN’S ROTTEN FRUIT BASKET

FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with the long-running liquidation of Carlow-based Swan Fruit Ltd, where the principal is John Swan (see The Phoenix 22/2/19). The company went under with... Read more »
Shane Filan

Briefcases

SHANE FILAN’S FOLLY

A NEW filing in the Companies Office concerns the notice of cessation by a receiver of a company called Shafin Developments Ltd. This company turns out to be the one... Read more »
Ralph Christians

Briefcases

RALPH CHRISTIANS’S NEW PLOT

A COMPANY called Taylormade Films Ltd has just listed itself for voluntary striking off, which presumably means that a spat over the not insignificant sum of €674,000 has been put... Read more »