Affairs of the Nation

Affairs of the Nation

LEO VARADKAR IN RETREAT

IT’S EARLY days yet but the latest poll showing Fine Gael voters favouring Simon Coveney over Leo Varadkar have unnerved the latter’s supporters and right now the momentum is with... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

MARIE COLLINS PUTS IT UP TO ‘IL PAPA’

HOW careless of Pope Francis to lose abuse victim Marie Collins a year after Briton Peter Saunders jumped ship from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The departure... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

HOW WEALTHY IS DINNY?

THERE WAS the usual array of surprise valuations in the latest Sunday Times Rich List, with the likes of Martin Naughton, John Magnier and JP McManus all wildly undervalued, while... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Affairs of the Nation

CLOCK TICKING AT NATIONAL GALLERY

WHAT ON earth is going on at the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI)? The contract of the director of the institution, Sean Rainbird, expires on April 15 but the job... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

DUP Gaelgoir

ONE DUP member who survived the party’s slaughter last week was Jim Wells who got help from Dublin Irish language academic Professor Ciarán Ó Coigligh, who canvassed with him in... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

MICHAEL CAREY TAKES THE BISCUIT

WHAT GOES around, comes around. A Drogheda biscuit company called East Coast Bakehouse, which has been heavily promoting its products, is the brainchild of Michael Carey, a man with quite... Read more »
" Photo: https://thewordpoint.com/ "

Affairs of the Nation

Letters to the Editor

‘MALICIOUS’ SOURCES Dear Editor, You write (See The Phoenix, 24/2/17) that I, among others, suggested that RTÉ’s Paul Reynolds should reveal his garda sources in relation to his reporting about... Read more »
four_courts_dublin_ireland

Affairs of the Nation

MAHON TRIBUNAL RIP?

With the settlement of Joe Murphy’s High Court case against the MahonTribunal last week, the taxpayer may now never learn the truth about what really went on in the Flood/Mahon... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

INVESTIGATING GALWAY’S ‘PALACE’

THE STATEMENT issued by the Charities Regulator last week that it has opened a statutory investigation into the €9.5m and counting Solas-Galway Picture Palace Teo won’t have come as much... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Regina Doherty

Pillars of Society

Regina Doherty

GOVERNMENT chief whip Regina Doherty is the most ambitious woman in the Dáil and sees herself as a future Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach.... Read more »

The Young Bloods

The Young Bloods

Al Porter

HIGH profile Dublin comedian Al Porter (24) copper-fastened his status last month when he took over the reigns of his very own Today FM... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Fit to Print?

DENIS O’BRIEN’S BOSWELL

IS Denis O’Brien’s enthusiastic apologist, John J May, deliberately trying to provoke a libel writ from one or more principals in the Moriarty Tribunal? Or is he trying to usurp... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Cop Culture

WITH exquisite timing the current edition of Garda Review, organ of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), was published the day before the Policing Authority held its latest public meeting on... Read more »

Last Refuge

Shane Ross

Last Refuge

LORD ROSS TO CURB JUDGES?

THAT recent report about “leading judge” George Birmingham proposing a watering down of transport minister Shane Ross’s judicial appointments bill omitted one small detail, namely, that Birmingham is a former... Read more »

Last Refuge

SOC DEMS: STICKIES IN DISGUISE?

ARE Social Democrats TDs Catherine Murphy and Roísín Shortall along with Irish Times ideologue Fintan O’Toole trying to recreate the Workers Party? It recently emerged that the DUP had received... Read more »

Last Refuge

O’Brien backs Simon

LEO VARADKAR’S campaign team is getting jittery and it is not just because of that Irish Times poll showing Fine Gael members swinging over to Simon Coveney in the leadership... Read more »

Last Refuge

WILL AOIBHINN SUCCEED ENDA IN MAYO?

THERE is much fretting among Mayo Blueshirts about the future without An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and even more anxiety about the possibility that Michael Ring might also bow out. A... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Periwinkle picker pickled in public A TUAM periwinkle picker was told by Judge James Faughnan at the local District Court that he would get one chance but wouldn’t get a... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Fowl Emissions

NAUGHTEN’S FUTILE ‘AMBASSADORS’

DENIS NAUGHTEN is appointing “climate action ambassadors” in every county as part of a new “national dialogue on climate change” he launched in Dublin’s Mansion House last week. The climate... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Bird's Eye View

TRIUMPH FOR SF IN NORTH

UNIONISTS are still coming to terms with the new electoral landscape in the north after last week’s Assembly election. It’s worth having a look at that landscape. Out of 15... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

And then I thought, I can’t take my girls to a country where abortion is illegal. How could you do that? It’s like having black children and bringing them to... Read more »

High Society

High Society

High Society

IN SYNC WITH SAMANTHA LESLIE

SAMANTHA LESLIE, the woman who is the face of the impressive Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan, popped up in an Irish Times series on... Read more »

High Society

article default

High Society

Peter Gaynor’s Club

THE entry for Monte Carlo-based Olivia Gaynor-Long and hubby Brian Long in the latest Sunday Times Rich List guesstimates their wealth at an impressive... Read more »

High Society

High Society

SHANE RYAN’S MANSIONS

AT LAST Shane Ryan has got around to lodging a planning application for his latest abode – the former French consulate on Ailesbury Road. Not surprisingly, the property hungry moneybags... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

GARRY HYNES FEELS THE HEAT

WITH Druid Theatre’s artistic director Garry Hynes coming in for fierce criticism over the lack of female playwrights in the company’s latest programme, one man who may have permitted himself... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

AND THE AWARD GOES TO …

THE ANNUAL gong show season is upon us again and after the Oscars debacle, Áine Moriarty and Deirdre Hopkins at the IFTAs will also be looking to restore their own... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Sport of Kings

PHILIP’S CHELTENHAM HOPES

PHILIP REYNOLDS, son of former Taoiseach Albert, had a day to remember in March last year when he saw his own silks in the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham for the... Read more »

Sport of Kings

RACE ON FOR NEW STUD BOSS

OUTGOING Irish National Stud (INS) chief executive John Osborne certainly won’t be paying Brian Kavanagh a debt of gratitude any time soon. Meanwhile, the runners and riders are lining up... Read more »
article default

Sport of Kings

Tough Turf Club Tactics

The Turf Club’s stewards are not shy about implementing the new rules for alleged “non-triers”, particularly so when it comes to the smaller yards. They showed no leniency to the... Read more »

Sport of Kings

SHEIKH FAHAD’S JUMPER

QATARI SHEIKH Fahad Al Thani has a good chance of adding a Cheltenham Festival win to his international haul of big race wins, which includes a Melbourne Cup and an... Read more »

Reviews

Books

ABOUT BEING NORMAL – DES FENNELL (SOMERVILLE)

“THE ‘ECONOMIC foundation of independence’ cannot be built in a context of decreasing independence … It can be built … only in an independent nation which is reliant primarily on... Read more »

Reviews

DANIEL AND MAJELLA’S B&B ROAD TRIP – RTÉ ONE

FOLLOWING their initial success on UTV Ireland, the Donegal crooner and his wife have been nabbed by RTÉ for the new series of their laidback travel show. The format could... Read more »

Books

THE GOOD PEOPLE – HANNAH KENT (PICADOR)

HANNAH KENT’S second novel follows her internationally successful debut, Burial Rites, the disquieting account of a young wife executed for her role in a murder that happened in Iceland in... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Moneybags

UDG’s accounting manoeuvres

OVER THE past 16 years, Liam Fitzgerald dramatically transformed United Drug from being the biggest Irish wholesale drug and distribution company supplying most hospitals... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

DCC shareholders sitting pretty but party is now over

TOMMY BREEN’S €270m acquisition of Esso’s retail petrol network in Norway last month and, even more so, last week’s decision to sell off DCC’s... Read more »

Brief Cases

Brief Cases

Jerry Carey’s pals in China

MORE on Jerry Carey, the Cork businessman who has been a godsend for the political career of Fine Gael junior minister Dara Murphy. It will be recalled that Carey was... Read more »

Brief Cases

Niall McGarry’s high standards

CONGRATULATIONS are in order to hard-necked “new media” mogul Niall McGarry whose company, Maximum Media Network Ltd – the outfit behind the Joe.ie website – filed healthy looking accounts recently.... Read more »

Brief Cases

End of the line for Noel McFeely

SPARE a thought for Derry builder Noel McFeely who has been declared bankrupt in the north. McFeely follows in the footsteps of his brother, cowboy builder Tom McFeely, who was... Read more »

Brief Cases

‘Cloud bleed’ hits Captains?

STRANGE that a recent major internet security breach went unreported in the Irish media recently. The phenomenon known as “cloud bleed” affected over four million web domains including a host... Read more »

Brief Cases

Familiar names feature on defaulters list

GOLDHAWK spotted some familiar names on the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters. Disgraced former District Judge Heather Perrin was hit with a tax judgment for close to €¼m in... Read more »

Brief Cases

More tax trouble for Michael O’Leary

SPARE a thought for Michael O’Leary (not that one) who has just had yet another judgment registered against him by the dreaded taxman, this time for €87,000. Wexford accountant O’Leary... Read more »