Affairs of the Nation

Denis O'Brien

Affairs of the Nation

DENIS O’BRIEN IN CRISIS?

HAS Denis O’Brien completely lost it? Launching a lightning legal assault against a relatively inconsequential PR and lobbying consultancy, following on from his efforts to bring RTÉ and the Dáil... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

JOHN McCANN’S “ASTUTE” PURCHASE

THERE WAS plenty of focus last week on Tom O’Gorman’s audacious plan to ‘flip’ the sprawling Kilcooley estate in Co Tipperary for €8m, having bought the huge pile – for... Read more »
Michael Dwyer and Eduardo Rozsa Flores

Affairs of the Nation

REBALANCING MICHAEL DWYER

ALTHOUGH the story has not been receiving much media attention of late, RTÉ opted to broadcast a new documentary on the subject of the killing of Michael Dwyer in Bolivia... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Niamh Bushnell

Affairs of the Nation

ISRAELI ARMY START-UPS

THE new Dublin Startup Commissioner is get-up-and-go-girl, Niamh Bushnell, who has been getting a lot of airtime recently on RTÉ, Newstalk and so on. Funded privately by the DCU Ryan... Read more »
Dermot Bannon

Affairs of the Nation

DERMOT BANNON’S COURT DATE

DUBLIN architect Dermot Bannon has made a name for himself through the RTÉ programme, Room to Improve, in which the affable architect helps punters redesign their homes. Of course, this... Read more »
Ed Guiney

Affairs of the Nation

BAILING OUT LELIA DOOLAN

FOLLOWING a meeting of Galway City Council earlier this month, the expensive end credits are now rolling for Lelia Doolan’s ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ in Galway. At the October 12... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

Madigan’s Steamy Briefs

FINE GAEL councillor and general election candidate Josepha Madigan has a knack of generating publicity, good and bad. The recent halting site tragedy involving the death of ten Travellers generated... Read more »
Dermot Desmond

Affairs of the Nation

DERMOT DESMOND’S DATA DISCRETION

IS there no limit to the financial and legal resources that billionaires like Denis O’Brien and Dermot Desmond will expend to battle those sections of the media they do not... Read more »
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Affairs of the Nation

SF AND FF IN GOVERNMENT?

THE notion that Sinn Féin would form a coalition government with Fianna Fail was raised this week in the book, Power Play: The Rise of Modern Sinn Féin, by ex-Irish... Read more »

Pillars of Society

brendan-howlin

Pillars of Society

Brendan Howlin

The wonder of Michael Noonan’s political resurrection late in life has been much commented on, but what about the renaissance of his job sharing... Read more »

The Young Bloods

John Kavanagh

The Young Bloods

John Kavanagh

THE remarkable growth in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Ireland years is thanks in no small part to businessman and gym owner John Kavanagh... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Paul O’Neill

Fit to Print?

DISCORD AT IRISH TIMES

THAT recent reshuffle at The Irish Times involving some of the most senior posts at the Court of Tara Street has created serious discontent among those who believe that the... Read more »
John Horgan

Fit to Print?

HONOURING HORGAN

THE ACCOLADES heaped upon former Press Ombudsman, Professor John Horgan, by establishment figures last week would embarrass a man with less self-confidence. But Horgan took it all in his stride... Read more »
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Fit to Print?

Keaveney Makes Guarded Comments

GIVEN the upcoming election, Galway East TD Colm Keaveney is more concerned with the Connacht Tribune than INM newspapers’ coverage of his alleged involvement in a conspiracy against their boss,... Read more »

Last Refuge

Enda Kenny

Last Refuge

KENNY’S BIG BLUNDER

THE shambles that was Enda Kenny’s agonising over and eventual retreat from a November election helps to explain a 3% drop in the latest Sunday Times/ Behaviour and Attitudes poll.... Read more »
Micheál Martin

Last Refuge

BERTIE’S BOYS RETREAT TO FINGAL

TWO reports in The Sunday Times a fortnight ago indicated the bitterness of the BEGOBs (Bertie’s Good Ol’ Boys) at being routed and outmanoeuvred by that bloody woman, Mary Fitzpatrick,... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Jonathan Powell

Bird's Eye View

LOYALISTS PLEDGE NEW LEAF

JONATHAN POWELL, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, last week made his first public intervention in the North’s politics for a decade. This time he was speaking on his own... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

MAHON TRIBUNAL’S HOT POTATOES

MAJOR dilemmas face the current Mahon Tribunal members struggling with the poisoned chalice passed to them by its long retired original chairman, Justice Feargus Flood. These include a continuing stand-off... Read more »

Beyond the Pale

Beyond the Pale

PASCHAL BERGIN’S POCKET MONEY

FANS of Goldhawk will already be familiar with the many battles of property developer Mervyn Walsh, originally from Wexford, who was behind a disastrous housing development in Co Laois through... Read more »

High Society

High Society

James Buckley

High Society

FOUR FAULTS FOR JAMES BUCKLEY

THE PURCHASE of the former Jessbrook equestrian centre outside Johnstownbridge in Co Kildare – originally built by the notorious John Gilligan – has not... Read more »

High Society

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High Society

RICHARD WOOD’S TAX BILL

FORMER BULA Mines director Richard Wood has just come a cropper with the Taxman and finds himself on the end of a judgment for... Read more »

High Society

Atalanta Pollock

High Society

ATALANTA POLLOCK’S WIND PROBLEM

SPARE A thought for the Pollock family and their Mountainstown House outside Navan, Co Meath. After being in the same family for 250 years, the sprawling demesne has been on... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Pixie McKenna

Behind the Scenes

FUNDING PIXIE McKENNA’S ‘SEX CLINIC’

THE STRUGGLING UTV Ireland got a small shot in the arm from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) when it announced the latest handouts under its Sound & Vision funding... Read more »
Colm Tóibín

Behind the Scenes

Druid Theatre Company & Colm Toibin

THINGS HAVE been good on stage and off at Druid theatre company in recent times, where artistic director Garry Hynes generated plenty of plaudits for the lauded DruidShakespeare production. Next... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Willie Mullins

Sport of Kings

WILLIE MULLINS’S SMART MOVE

CHAMPION trainer Willie Mullins is now operating out of a stable he runs near Irish racing HQ at the Curragh. The remarkably successful handler, whose main yard is located in... Read more »
Aidan O’Brien

Sport of Kings

AIDAN O’BRIEN’S ‘DUCKS’

“THE DUCKS are not in a row.” Aidan O’Brien’s words before unwrapping the thick layers of cotton wool from his star miler, Gleneagles, at the Sheikh Fahad Al Thani-sponsored Queen... Read more »
Eamon McElroy

Sport of Kings

BLUE DAY FOR BOWLER HATS

THE FINE PRINT of Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Bill 2015 was unveiled to the public earlier this month and the legislation marks the death knell for... Read more »
Bernard Caldwell

Sport of Kings

WINNER ALL RIGHT

ONE OF the big winners of Simon Coveney’s new Horse Racing Ireland Bill 2015 is Joe Keeling’s Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), which sees its influence increase significantly. The two seats... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Owen Killian

Moneybags

Can Owen Killian’s strategy pay off for Aryzta?

OWEN KILLIAN has been under pressure since March when Aryzta’s shares peaked at €73. Progressive trading updates have increasingly warned of not just a... Read more »

Moneybags

Carl McCann

Moneybags

Total Produce expanding rapidly but what’s the plan?

CARL MCCANN has been running Total Produce, the fruit and veg merchanting arm of the original Fyffes group, for nine years and has not... Read more »

Brief Cases

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Brief Cases

HOT AIR BRIGADE

Alfred Hitchcock once said that the greatest female stars had the trick of transforming themselves into a blank canvas onto which the masses could project their private hopes, dreams and... Read more »
Kathryn Thomas

Brief Cases

Kathryn Thomas’s Shares

THERE was some bad news last month for Carlow-based developer Gwynne Thomas – father to RTÉ star Kathryn Thomas – when a company he part-owns, Thomas Thompson Holdings Ltd, was... Read more »
Jamie White

Brief Cases

Jamie White’s Rehabilitation

CONGRATULATIONS are in order to budding young Dublin publisher, Jamie White, who enjoyed a nice plug earlier this month in the Sunday Independent, which included him in its ‘30 under... Read more »
Luigi Wewege

Brief Cases

Luigi Wewege’s Legal Contacts

MORE ON Luigi Wewege, the colourful boss of Irish registered subprime mortgage company, Vivier Mortgages Ltd (VML), which is currently suing RTÉ for defamation over an investigation broadcast earlier this... Read more »

Brief Cases

Tom Keane’s Bust Up With Beancounters

DUBLIN accountant Tom Keane – of BKRM accountants in north Dublin – has come out on the losing side of a row with the Certified Public Accountants Ireland (CPA Ireland),... Read more »
Clare Dooley

Brief Cases

Clare Dooley’s Double-Dealing

FINANCIAL advisor Clare Dooley escaped jail last month over an insurance scam against New Ireland Life Assurance plc, but she was disqualified from acting as a company director for five... Read more »

Brief Cases

Ruairi O’Ceallaigh’s Tax Affairs

SOME more bad news for disgraced legal eagle Ruairi O’Ceallaigh, who was jailed in 2014 for five years (with the final two years suspended) for pilfering €2.8m from clients to... Read more »

Brief Cases

The Return Of Alan Hynes

GOLDHAWK was curious to learn of reports emanating from Wexford concerning disgraced accountant Alan Hynes, who has clocked up numerous findings of misconduct at the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (CARB).... Read more »

Brief Cases

More Bum Notes For Gary Hansard

NOT for the first time, Dublin property investor Gary Hansard – brother of Frames frontman Glen Hansard – has landed in trouble with the Taxman. Gary Hansard has just had... Read more »