Affairs of the Nation

Heather Humphries

Affairs of the Nation

HEATHER WHO?

THERE IS a state of disarray in Fine Gael right now that has not been seen since the electoral thrashing of 2002 and it has led to all manner of... 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

TRENDING AT ALFIE’S

TWITTER LIT up last week with a thread about a former worker in Alfie’s restaurant on Dublin’s South William Street being paid his wages in 5c pieces. It is possible... 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

DENIS O’BRIEN’S UK RADIOS

WHILE DENIS O’Brien is likely to have made a significant loss on the reported sale for “north of €100m” of Communicorp to Bauer Media Audio earlier this year, the news... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Lorraine Clifford Lee

Affairs of the Nation

CLIFFORD-LEE’S RETALIATION

OIRISH MAIL on Sunday hackette Niamh Walsh got a roasting last week for her snarky column lambasting the sartorial disasters on show at the Fianna Fáil ‘think-in’ at the Slieve... Read more »
Gerry Boyle

Affairs of the Nation

WHERE’S THE BEEF?

SPARE A thought for Teagasc director Gerry Boyle. Having for years battled to defend the indefensible expansion of the dairy industry in the teeth of the climate emergency, Boyle, who... Read more »
Mary Irvine

Affairs of the Nation

LEGAL LOWER ORDERS

THE FIRST five of the 17 High Court judges recently demanded by High Court president Justice Mary Irvine have been selected for nomination by the cabinet, but the figure that... 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

HARVEY BOULTER’S ANNUS HORRIBILIS

THIS IS turning into quite the annus horribilis for moneybags and venture capitalist Harvey Boulter, who is being sued in the UK over claims that £64m of investors’ money has... Read more »
Aidan Gillen

Affairs of the Nation

THE COST OF ‘KIN’

BACK IN February the RTÉ publicity machine went into one of its occasional paroxysms of activity when TV series Kin (see review p20) was sold by its producers to the... Read more »
Jack Chambers

Affairs of the Nation

NO IRISH WANTED HERE

GOVERNMENT CHIEF WHIP Jack Chambers should take time off from riding shotgun for the government in the Dáil (and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin in the party) and focus on... Read more »
Jennifer Whitmore

Affairs of the Nation

BIG TECH’S MULTIMILLION SPEND

GOLDHAWK DREW attention recently to the new direction of former Labour TD Michael McCarthy, whose new job is chief lobbyist for Cloud Infrastructure Ireland (CII), which represents three of the... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Catherine Martin

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: CATHERINE MARTIN

IN THE summer of last year Green party deputy leader Catherine Martin stood out as the coming force inside the party and was poised... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Karen Koster

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: KAREN KOSTER

IN THE wake of the bloodbath that continues to claim victims at Virgin Media Television, Karen Koster’s move from Ireland AM to The Six O’Clock Show suggests that... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Michael D Higgins

Fit to Print?

MEDIA TAKE ON HIGGINS

POPULAR OPINION may be overwhelmingly with Michael D on the event “marking” partition and the state of Northern Ireland. But much of the media in the southern part of ‘partitioned’... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

THE ‘SINDO’ AND VLAD

THE MOST sensational story Goldhawk has seen for some time – about Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail and his allegation that he was the subject of attempted blackmail – was published... Read more »
Joanne Hayes

Fit to Print?

NEW, CARING GARDAÍ

IN THE annals of Sunday Independent crime reporting, normally supportive to the point of eclipsing the garda press office, there can hardly have been a more adulatory piece than that... Read more »

Last Refuge

Kate O’Connell

Last Refuge

KATE WRITES FOR HER SUPPER

WHAT A mature, non-contentious and carefully calibrated article former TD Kate O’Connell wrote for the Sunday Independent last weekend. In a piece that read like a lecture on standards in... Read more »
Marc MacSharry

Last Refuge

MARC EYES MICHEÁL … AND MARION

MARC MACSHARRY may have resigned the Fianna Fáil whip but he has not lost his penchant for the dramatic soundbite. Expounding on the failings of the FF party under Micheál... Read more »
Philip Brennan

Last Refuge

GREENS’ DEFENCE NON-POLICY

MYSTERY SURROUNDS the Green party’s position on defence, neutrality and foreign policy despite the deliberations of a foreign policy and security group for most of this year and despite also... Read more »

Hush Hush

Ronan Mullen

Hush Hush

STAG HUNTS AND HIGH MASS

WHEN THE referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment was passed easily in 2018 the ‘God squad’ was left reeling and right-wing Catholic activists have taken a while to regroup. Aontú... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘Gingerbread Man’ A 22-year-old man who appeared before Tralee District Court pleaded guilty to two counts of being abusive and threatening towards gardaí. Judge Joanna Carroll heard that on July... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Charlie McConalogue

Fowl Emissions

TRILLIONS WASTED IN CLIMATE ACTION

EARLIER THIS year, the European Court of Auditors reported that, despite spending more than €100bn of EU agriculture funds on climate action projects in the past seven years, “virtually nothing” was... 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

MET ÉIREANN’S NEW FORECAST

SOME YEARS back, Met Éireann was regularly in the firing line for its curious reluctance to engage in any way with climate change and its role in fuelling extreme weather... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Sarah Carey

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I didn’t expect to write about Afghanistan. Geopolitics and military tactics are not my usual stomping ground. Human nature is my field of expertise, the psychology of ‘great men’ my... Read more »

High Society

High Society

James Gormley

High Society

GORMLEY’S CULTURE COUP

CONGRATULATIONS TO the wily James Gormley et al at Gormley’s Fine Art on Dublin’s South Frederick Street. The gallery got a welcome shot of... Read more »

High Society

IHT CHL The Lion in Winter Racing Royalty Le Brocquy City of Troy Fitzwilliam Square AIRO Dermot Smurfit Ballinacarrig Park Club Cosgrave Fitzpatrick Keith Jameson National Gallery Collection Marissa Carter VG Tom Higgins Neil Jordan Laura Bonner Paul Ward Variety Jones Dtat Eathos Sharon Keegan Angela Scanlon Desmond Canouan Bellair Estate Bobby Flay John O’Conor Portrait of Omai Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile Wedding NGI Board Rachel Flynn JP McMahon Ash Quinn Pamela Laird Abdullah Al Naboodah Boundless Ocean

High Society

MCGUCKIANS’ MANSION

THE IRISH TIMES was very coy last week about the ownership of what looks set to be the most expensive house in Ireland. It... Read more »

High Society

Bonnie Shortall

High Society

NOT SO PEACHY FOR BONNIE

A CREDITORS’ meeting is to be held next week for the winding up of a company called Peachee Collection Ltd. This is the fitness fashion business established by south Co... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Edna O’Brien

Behind the Scenes

DAME EDNA’S WINDFALL

EARLIER THIS month it was announced that the National Library of Ireland (NLI) had acquired “Edna O’Brien’s Papers (2009-2021)”. The arts and culture minister Catherine Martin issued a press release... Read more »

Sport of Kings

John Magnier has been thrust into the spotlight thanks to a legal dispute over the 750-acre Barne Estate in Tipperary, while Moya Doherty had a problem with her neighbour.

Sport of Kings

MAGNIER DETHRONED

IN WHAT represents a momentous changing of the guard, 2021 looks like being the first year this century that a Coolmore stallion will not be crowned champion flat sire in... Read more »
Aidan O'Brien

Sport of Kings

O’BRIEN’S HEAVY GOING

ALTHOUGH VICTORY went his way in the feature event on Champions weekend, when St Mark’s Basilica survived a stewards’ enquiry to win the Irish Champion Stakes, it proved a weekend... Read more »
Michael O'Leary

Sport of Kings

MICKO’S CLEAR-OUT CONTINUES

MICK O’LEARY’S annual clearance sale at Goffs UK in Doncaster takes on more significance nowadays, given that he is not restocking his squad with new blood and reduced his string... Read more »
Chris Timmons

Sport of Kings

KEEPING UP WITH CHRIS TIMMONS

THE PRACTICE of dual licences, whereby a jockey can also hold a trainer’s permit, is not uncommon. Denis Hogan has been successfully riding his own horses in races now for... Read more »

Reviews

Clare Dunne

Reviews

KIN – RTÉ ONE

WITH A recent Broadcasting Authority-commissioned report warning of an “existential crisis” in RTÉ, the cash-strapped national broadcaster’s hyping of gangland drama Kin – including a Late Late Show outing for the cast – betrays... Read more »
BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU - SALLY ROONEY

Books

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU – SALLY ROONEY

WHILE SALLY Rooney’s two previous books, Conversations With Friends and Normal People, weren’t to everybody’s taste, it was impossible to argue with the phenomenal sales figures. The accompanying near-hysterical hype... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Brian Larkin

Moneybags

UNITED OIL AND GAS DRILLING IN CHOPPY WATERS

MUCH LIKE the aircraft leasing industry in Ireland grew out of Tony Ryan’s GPA business, with this country now responsible for the leasing of... Read more »

Moneybags

Gavin Slark

Moneybags

GRAFTON’S SHARE PRICE DISTRACTS FROM INVESTOR DISCONTENT

OVER THE past decade, Grafton CEO Gavin Slark expanded the Grafton model that his predecessor Michael Chadwick had developed. The Chadwick culture had remained... Read more »

Brief Cases

Deirdre Foley

Brief Cases

DEIRDRE FOLEY MOVES ON

SO FAREWELL then Natrium Ltd, a company that was at the centre of the highly fractious purchase, closure and eventual sale to Paddy McKillen Jr’s Press UP group of Dublin’s... Read more »
David Nash

Brief Cases

DAVID NASH’S EXPENSIVE HEALTHCARE

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR David Nash (cousin of the soft drinks family that shares the name) has decided to wind up one of his healthcare software companies. Separately, his main interest, Vitro... Read more »
Simon Kelly

Brief Cases

KEEPING UP WITH SIMON KELLY

MORE ON Goldhawk’s old friend Simon ‘son of Paddy’ Kelly, whose risk mitigation operation Emex Software, hit a road bump last month. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 10/9/21)... Read more »
Don Seidman

Brief Cases

CHASING THE YANKEE DOLLAR

CONGRATULATIONS to e-learning gurus Garrett Byrne and Kevin Cronin, who have just wound up their Hawkington Ltd holding company, a year after selling off their business to Don Seidman’s giant... Read more »