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November 4 – Nov. 17, 2016
Affairs of the Nation
WATERING DOWN THE DRINKS BILL
THE lobbying blitz by the massively resourced alcohol and retail industry was conducted by some interesting, if predictable, players and many Oireachtas members said they had never seen anything quite... Read more »
RED INK AT THE ‘IT’
THE FINANCES of The Irish Times have come under a lot of scrutiny over the last week or so courtesy of the Sindo and its biggest shareholder, Denis O’Brien. Looking... Read more »
BRIAN McDONAGH VS APPLE INC
WICKLOW LANDOWNER Brian McDonagh has put the kibosh – at least temporarily – on Apple’s giant U850m proposed data centre in Athenry. Having cleared the various planning hurdles, Apple is... Read more »
Sponsored Content
Forestry as a Smart Investment for 2025 and Beyond
As global markets continue to face uncertainty, many investors are seeking stable and reliable options that offer strong returns and long-term growth potential. In 2025, Green Belt Ltd is... Read more »
FLOOD TRIBUNAL COSTS SET TO SOAR AGAIN
THE DUMPING of virtually all findings of the Flood / Mahon Tribunal against previously named parties (see The Phoenix, 25/3/16) does not mean the ending of this hugely expensive legal... Read more »
TAKING ON SOLICITOR EAMES
SURELY ONE of the busiest legal eagles in town is Aidan Eames, the former Fianna Fáil-appointed senator and ex-member of FF’s national executive, who is currently involved in high profile... Read more »
‘IT’ TURNS BLIND EYE TO CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL
MOST media covered the recent catalogue of child sex abuse offences by religious lay worker Patrick O’Brien who pleaded guilty to 51 sample counts of abusing 14 children over a... Read more »
DISSIDENTS SET TO DUMP ARMS?
THE LAUNCH of a new dissident Republican party, Saoradh, recently would indicate more militarism, not less, given the bellicose political statements emanating from its inaugural meeting in Newry. But there... Read more »
ANOTHER PLOT TWIST FOR LELIA DOOLAN
TWO REVEALING documents have been released to Goldhawk under the Freedom of Information Act concerning the increasingly expensive (€9.3m and counting) Solas ‘Picture Palace’ shambles in Galway. Meanwhile, there was... Read more »
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S EYE ON RUSSIA
WHAT a pugnacious western warrior and protagonist of Russia’s Vladimir Putin Micheál Martin is turning out to be as he pillories the pesky Ruskies in speech after speech in the... Read more »
Bog Cuttings
Protein bar thief looked fit and healthy A 25-YEAR-OLD Waterford man appeared at Carrick-on-Suir District Court charged with stealing €124 worth of protein bars from a supermarket. Darren Lee of... Read more »
Pillars of Society
Ruth Coppinger TD
RUTH COPPINGER’S clever manipulation of the abortion issue has helped to give the AAA/PBP a three-point boost to 9% in the latest Red C... Read more »
The Young Bloods
Annie Hoey
Annie Hoey (28) made headlines last month when, as president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), she led a 15,000 strong march... Read more »
Dublin Unites to Promote Foreign Investment and Economic Growth
Dublin has long been a hub for global business. But now, a new campaign, “Invested in Dublin: Local Ambition, Global Success”, is showing the world exactly why Dublin is... Read more »
Fit to Print?
AFTER GARRETT HARTE AT NEWSTALK
THE announcement of Newstalk editor-in-chief Garrett Harte’s resignation came five days before the JNLR ratings for all stations. Coincidence? Hardly. But the shrewd Harte may have made his decision as... Read more »
Mail hardship
GALLEY slaves at the Irish Daily and Sunday Mail were summoned to MD Paul Henderson’s annual state-of-the-nation address and, after years of slashed editorial budgets, job losses and increased workloads,... Read more »
BARREL OF LAUGHS FROM MARK HUMPHRYS
THE SUNDAY TIMES has recently published more than one column from DCU lecturer Mark Humphrys, the latest of which says that if Palestinians are poor “it is their fault they... Read more »
Last Refuge
BRENDAN OGLE’S NEW LEFT PARTY
A PROJECT to set up another socialist party, in the Dáil and outside, is being masterminded by Unite trade union official Brendan Ogle, a central figure in the Right2Water campaign... Read more »
ROSS RUNS RINGS AROUND O’DONOVAN
WATCH out for a severe rebuke to the government and implicitly for junior sports minister Patrick O’Donovan from Sports Ireland (SI) chairperson Kieran Mulvey this week at the opening of... Read more »
Harris retracts
A SIGN that Leo Varadkar is edging ahead of Simon Coveney in the Fine Gael leadership stakes is the cringing effort by Sindo columnist Eoghan Harris to get onside with... Read more »
Fowl Emissions
FRACKING: WHAT’S IN A NAME?
ANTI-FRACKING campaigners are not quite sure whether it’s too soon to celebrate – Clare Daly warned those gathered at the Dáil last week not to “put away your placards just... Read more »
Bird's Eye View
ARLENE FOSTER BLOWS OUT DUBLIN
OSCAR WILDE said there was only one thing in life worse than being talked about and that’s not being talked about. Currently that’s Martin McGuinness’s position. As if he’s on... Read more »
The Hot Air Brigade
“The Garda Commissioner would have all her Gestapo in Garda headquarters, in the Kremlin, searching my phone,” he snarls. “That’s when I get angry.” Paul Williams on Newstalk, as reported... Read more »
High Society
KIM GILBERT’S NEW CLUB
LAST WEEK brand new gig venue opened on Dublin’s South Anne Street, fronted by night club king – Michael Wright of The Wright Venue... Read more »
GILLIAN RONAN’S RETURN
TWO YEARS after exiting Kildare Street where she fronted a restaurant that typified the boom times, Gillian Kelly (aka Gillian Ronan), sister of property... Read more »
GEORGIAN SOC COURTS THE YANKS
LAST WEEK the Irish Georgian Society (IGS) gala dinner in the US was held at the University Club in New York, with Beth Dater president of the American board heading... Read more »
Irish National Opera Placing Irish culture On The World Stage
Irish National Opera continues to expand its impact by showcasing outstanding performances across Ireland and internationally. Since its inception in 2018, INO has presented 184 live performances in 35... Read more »
Behind the Scenes
HUGH MAGUIRE’S SUCCESSOR?
GOLDHAWK is wondering when the board of the Hunt Museum in Limerick will get around to advertising for a new director. The position has been vacant for nearly six months,... Read more »
SILENCE AT THE MUSEUM
OPPOSITION is clearly building to the farcical plan to shift the Seanad into the National Museum of Ireland’s educational spaces on Kildare Street, with letters to The Irish Times and... Read more »
DISHING OUT THE HALLOWEEN TREATS
IT’S THAT time of year when the cashiers at the Revenue and Annie Doona’s Irish Film Board (IFB) announce their latest hand-outs of apples or nuts to the hungry film... Read more »
Sport of Kings
CALLING ALL OWNERS
IT’S GOOD to see Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has wasted little time in allocating some of its generous budget for 2017 with the announcement of a new beefed-up ownership department.... Read more »
O’LEARY GETting SOFT?
MICHAEL O’LEARY has found himself a new trainer and could there possibly be a hint of sentiment attached to his decision to send 15 young horses to Eddie Hales? Hales,... Read more »
Mick O’Leary’s penny-pinching
GIGGINSTOWN House Stud seems well on its way to treating its riders in the way Ryanair treats its pilots. Boss of both operations Michael O’Leary recently wrote to several amateur... Read more »
SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR DORAN
AS GOLDHAWK revealed (see The Phoenix 26/8/16), owner Tom Doran was rather aggrieved with the Turf Club over a case at the Galway Festival, where his horse, Ondamoura, finished second... Read more »
GOUGH’S QUEST CONTINUES
The ongoing saga involving Jimmy Gough and the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) is the gift that keeps on giving and it seems there are plenty more worms left in... Read more »
Reviews
THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE – THE GAIETY
FEW COMPANIES and playwrights have enjoyed such an interdependent relationship as Druid and Martin McDonagh. Audiences could be forgiven for wondering whether, after two decades, the two still have much... Read more »
TMI/SCORCHIO – RTÉ 2
IT WAS perhaps fitting that in Halloween week, that most terrifying of phrases – new RTÉ comedy show – should emerge from the crypt. Clearly feeling that 18- to 25-year-olds... Read more »
Books
ALL WE SHALL KNOW – DONAL RYAN
THE TIPPERARY author’s two previous novels (The Spinning Heart and The Thing About December) successfully explored the dark brutal side of Irish rural life. So much so that Donal Ryan... Read more »
Moneybags
Carroll and Heraty’s focus unlikely to boost CPL share price
PAUL CARROLL and his wife, Anne Heraty, run the successful 26-year-old Irish CPL Resources job agency and, had they adopted a less cautious strategy,... Read more »
Nama damned by Project Eagle report
THE SPECIAL report of Seamus McCarthy, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), on Nama’s sale of its Northern Ireland portfolio – Project Eagle – is... Read more »
Gold’s $3,000 Breakthrough: A Financial Call to Arms
GOLD’S EXPLOSIVE surge past $3,000 per ounce last week is more than just a price milestone – it’s a wake-up call. We are entering the centre of an economic... Read more »
Brief Cases
Hammond Lane’s heavy metal
HAMMOND Lane Metal Ltd (HLM), a Dublin-based subsidiary of metal recycling giant Clearway Disposals, filed its latest accounts last week which revealed a mixed bag for the outfit. The good... Read more »
Stunning behaviour in Newcastle West
GALWAY rockers The Stunning, fronted by brothers Joe and Steve Wall, went public last week with a row that’s been brewing between them and music festival organisers in west Limerick.... Read more »
Ready for strike-off
GOLDHAWK spotted an interesting company listed for striking off the register recently. Marc MacSharry Properties Ltd. Marc MacSharry Properties (MMP) is an auctioneers and property valuation company named for its... Read more »
Other strike-offs
SEPARATELY, Osberstown Developments Ltd – the property company through which the Millennium Park business complex was bought for over €310m by Nama developers Gerry Prendergast, Paddy Sweeney and Tom Considine... Read more »
Redhill car crash continues
THE long-running saga of Redhill Properties Ltd continued last month when the company had a tax judgment registered against it – a mere four months after its fifth receiver was... Read more »
Baron Taylor’s hefty losses
ONE interesting company to file accounts recently was BOL Pubs Ltd, which trades as O’Loughlin’s Pub in Birr, Co Offaly. The unassuming pub company is owned by Baron John Taylor... Read more »
Ger Madden’s bad day in court
IT TURNS out that Goldhawk’s old pal Ger Madden was declared bankrupt in the High Court earlier this year. The former Radio Limerick One (RLO) station boss, who has had... Read more »
Dublin Through the Eyes of its Artists at The Oriel Gallery
“Dublin Through the Eyes of its Artists” Exhibition Opens at The Oriel Gallery Dublin, Ireland – Thursday 10th April 2025 The Oriel Gallery is proud to announce the opening... Read more »
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