Affairs of the Nation

john-delaney

Affairs of the Nation

JOHN DELANEY’S OLYMPIC DENIAL

IT WAS surprising to see FAI boss John Delaney saying that he never heard of the controversial Olympic ticketing company, Pro10 Sports Management when he issued his long awaited statement... Read more »
Micheal Martin

Affairs of the Nation

MARTIN’S WATERY STRATEGY

FIANNA FAIL’S gyrations on Irish Water may not make any sense in terms of the actual issue, but its latest, hard line position is logical when seen as part of... Read more »
Gerry Adams

Affairs of the Nation

SPOTLIGHT’S GERRY ADAMS ‘SCOOP’

THE BBC Spotlight programme’s ‘scoop’ on Gerry Adams’ alleged order to kill MI5 informer, Denis Donaldson, marks a watershed of sorts for the once highly regarded programme. The BBC is... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Sinead O'Connor

Affairs of the Nation

MORE WOE FOR SINEAD O’CONNOR

TROUBLED singer Sinead O’Connor made the headlines last week after being named on the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters. The outspoken superstar reached a settlement with the Taxman for... Read more »
Fergus Finlay

Affairs of the Nation

DIAGEO’S WINNING CAMPAIGN

A DEVASTATING critique of the Diageo funded campaign, Stop-Out-Of-Control-Drinking (SOOCD), chaired by long time spin doctor, Fergus Finlay, has just been published. Written and researched by six health academics in... Read more »
MARY Robinson

Affairs of the Nation

REVIEWING ROBBO’S FOUNDATION

WHILE MARY Robinson attracted plenty of media attention for her recent comments on eating (or rather not eating) meat, there was rather less coverage of her recent trip to Chicago... Read more »
Charlie Flanagan

Affairs of the Nation

ISRAELI FIGHTBACK AGAINST BDS

THE DECISION by Bank of Ireland (BoI) to close the three bank accounts of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) raises some serious questions. The Irish media has more or... Read more »
Michael Keegan-Dolan

Affairs of the Nation

SWAN LAKE CARTHY

RUSSIAN ballet fans may not recognise Tchaikovsky’s original story line or dance form in a re-working of his Swan Lake in the Dublin Theatre Festival, but denizens of Longford and... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

GALWAY’S PICTURE PALACE BLACK HOLE

UNTIL LAST month, barely a peep was raised by the national media (except Goldhawk) about the financial black hole created over a decade by Galway’s Picture Palace cinema project, promoted... Read more »
Brian McFadden

Affairs of the Nation

The Hot Air Brigade

“I’m not on Tinder but I have met girls and got their numbers, then flirty-texted them.” Brian McFadden, VIP magazine, Submitted by reader “This was not so much a concert,... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Jim Sheridan

Pillars of Society

Jim Sheridan

FILM DIRECTOR Jim Sheridan has had a helluva ride since he struck lucky with his very first film, My Left Foot, in 1989. He’s... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Una Mullally

The Young Bloods

Una Mullally

Una Mullally (33) has been the fastest rising star in Irish media since joining the Irish Times in 2012 as a columnist. Owing to... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Ciara Rose Thornton

Fit to Print?

IAN O’DOHERTY’S CULTURE BLACK OUT

IRISH Independent shock jock, Ian O’Doherty, revels in dissing Muslims, feminists, gay activists etc and he has even had a pop at alcoholics for their “lack of self control” and... Read more »
Kevin O'Sullivan

Fit to Print?

Tasteful Times

THE Irish Times criteria for inclusion in its letters pages states merely that such letters should represent a wide range of opinion constrained only by taste and libel. Clearly, some... Read more »
Marion McKeone

Fit to Print?

O’Brien and media

SUNDAY Business Post coverage of Donald Trump’s onslaught against Denis O’Brien was a little hard to follow. Editor, Ian Kehoe suggested that it could “sink the Digicel flotation” while Irish... Read more »

Last Refuge

BRENDAN HOWLIN

Last Refuge

BRENDAN HOWLIN’S SOUNDBYTES

LABOUR leader, Brendan Howlin, is given to issuing the occasional, bombastic soundbyte as when he sneered at Syriza in his final budget speech as public expenditure minister just a year... Read more »
Fiona McLoughlin Healy

Last Refuge

FG’S NEW POLITICS

FINE GAEL’S star chamber has hauled general election candidate, Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy, in front of it to face disciplinary charges following her motion of no-confidence in party colleague, the... Read more »
Kate O’Connell

Last Refuge

SINDO PLAYS THE O’CONNELL CARD

HAVING helped in no small way to create the girl-band politician that is Dublin Bay South Fine Gael TD, Kate O’Connell – by running a smear campaign against Lucinda Creighton... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

BACK to family bosom A LIMERICK man has been found not guilty of threatening to kill a grandad last year. Thomas O’Neill (28) denied threatening to kill Liam Casey Sr.... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

JOHN FITZGERALD

Fowl Emissions

JOHN FITZGERALD DISAPPOINTS

THE great and good of Ireland’s environment world were treated to a bewildering double act last month that laid bare the gaping chasm between, on the one hand, civil society’s... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Arlene Foster

Bird's Eye View

SINN FEÍN’S FAUSTIAN PACT

MARTIN MCGUINESS went to the British Labour party conference in Liverpool on 26 September and told delegates at the annual ‘Ulster Fry’ breakfast that Stormont was “working better than ever”.... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Brian McFadden

Affairs of the Nation

The Hot Air Brigade

“I’m not on Tinder but I have met girls and got their numbers, then flirty-texted them.” Brian McFadden, VIP magazine, Submitted by reader “This was not so much a concert,... Read more »

High Society

High Society

David Wildenstein

High Society

GOFFS AND THE BILLIONAIRES

THE GOFFS Orby sale this year attracted more attention than usual, thanks to the decision by David Wildenstein to offload over 100 horses through... Read more »

High Society

sharon-smurfit

High Society

SHARON’S SWING

WHILE EUROPE was getting stuffed in the Ryder Cup last weekend, the K Club has been celebrating the ten-year anniversary of its hosting of... Read more »

High Society

olivia-gaynor-long

High Society

SHAKE-UP AT RESIDENCE

THE OWNER of private members club, Residence, on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green – Olivia Gaynor-Long – who has pumped millions into the struggling business has finally gotten around to taking... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

A Man Doing Accounts

Behind the Scenes

A MAN WITHDRAWING PAINTING

Man Doing Accounts (detail) THERE WAS an interesting aside in last weekend’s account of the latest Adams Irish art sale, penned by Michael Parsons in The Irish Times. The reference... Read more »
helen-boyle

Behind the Scenes

REVIEWING THE CORK FILM FESTIVAL

DOCUMENTS released to Goldhawk shine some light on the machinations leading to the recent bailing out of the Cork Film Festival and the ousting of its long-time principals. Two senior... Read more »

Sport of Kings

COLM MURPHY

Sport of Kings

COLM MURPHY’S EXIT

THE IRISH jumps scene will be missing some familiar faces this season. Not only will jockeys Adrian Heskin, Davy Russell and Jonathan Moore be plying their trade across the water... Read more »
Jessica Harrington

Sport of Kings

COBALT MILKSHAKES?

THE TURF CLUB has come under fire recently over its perceived inefficiency in implementing a new drug testing procedure for horses, particularly for elevated carbon dioxide levels (TCO2) and Cobalt.... Read more »
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Sport of Kings

Davy Russell’s moment of madness

DAVY RUSSELL seemed to lose the plot at Clonmel last week riding Little Folke to a narrow victory for Henry De Bromhead. Russell was seen to strike the runner-up, Solar... Read more »
WILIE MULLINS

Sport of Kings

WILIE MULLINS’S ROUGH RIDE

MICK O’LEARY has managed to get into a stand-off with someone as stubborn as himself. Despite being faced with the prospect of losing 60 high class horses, champion trainer Willie... Read more »

Reviews

THE STAR MAN - CONOR O’CLERY

Books

THE STAR MAN – CONOR O’CLERY

  PERHAPS because of the overdose this year on anything and everything related to 1916, earlier Irish historical material, fictional or otherwise, seems to have gone out of fashion. So... Read more »
THE LESSER BOHEMIANS - EIMEAR McBRIDE

Books

THE LESSER BOHEMIANS – EIMEAR McBRIDE

IN THIS follow-up to her highly acclaimed (and much hyped) 2013 debut, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride retains the familiar coming-of-age theme and writes in her signature... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Dermot Smurfit

Moneybags

Smurfit dynasty goes out with a whimper

WHEN DERMOT Smurfit (younger brother of Mick), originally bought the Finnish Savon Sellu paper mill in 2005, at the age of 61, it looked... Read more »

Moneybags

David McCann

Moneybags

Fyffes strange plunge into mushrooms

LAST YEAR Fyffes enjoyed a good year’s trading with revenue up 12% to €1.2bn and operating profits up a very healthy 37% to just... Read more »

Brief Cases

Peter Gallagher

Brief Cases

Sibling rivalry at Abbey

THERE COULD be fun and games at the annual general meeting of the Abbey plc house building operation this week when Peter Gallagher, younger brother of chief executive Charlie prepares... Read more »

Brief Cases

Val Timon’s Taxman troubles

ONE interesting name to pop up on the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters was solicitor Val Timon, who was fined €1,500 in the second quarter of this year for... Read more »
Rudi ButlerMcFadden with Brian

Brief Cases

Robert Butler’s Hanging Gardens

ONE of the four sites named in the Limerick Twenty Thirty (LTT) development plan has an interesting history, linked to NAMA developer, Robert Butler. The ‘Garden Site’ on Henry Street... Read more »
Michael Noonan

Brief Cases

Noonan’s Limerick Curtain Call

FINANCE minister Michael Noonan must be delighted that the Limerick development plan seems to finally be getting off the ground. The strategy, which is supposed to bring u500m in inward... Read more »
alan-barrett

Brief Cases

Alan Barrett’s court dates

FORMER director of EventElephant Ltd, Alan Barrett will be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to charges relating to the incorrect filing of VAT returns earlier this year. In... Read more »
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Brief Cases

Hangover for Cork accountant Twohig

ONE familiar name to appear on Revenue’s latest list of Tax Defaulters was Goldhawk’s old pal, Cork accountant and ex-publican Edward Twohig. Edward, who trades as Twohig Kelleher accountants on... Read more »