Affairs of the Nation

Affairs of the Nation

UK ELECTION: THE NORTH

IN THE WORDS of SDLP leader Colum Eastwood the British prime minister’s announcement of a general election on June 8 “shows the disdain she holds for Northern Ireland and the... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

STRIKING OFF MRS BROWN

SURPRISING TO see comedian Brendan O’Carroll’s Boc-Pix company listed for striking off by the Companies Office, given that it is the Irish production partner in the smutty millionaire’s latest juggernaut... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

INM HUNT FOR SECOND WHISTLEBLOWER

THAT Independent News & Media chief executive Robert Pitt should make a protected disclosure to the corporate police, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, is obviously of concern... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Affairs of the Nation

DECLAN GANLEY’S BAD DAY IN COURT

THERE WERE some significant developments recently in the long-running defamation case taken by controversial Galway businessman Declan Ganley against RTÉ in relation to its 2008 Prime Time programme, Citizen Ganley.... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

BID CAMPAIGN GETS NASTY

WITH A plebiscite due in June/July on the renewal or otherwise of the mandate of the Dublin City Centre Bid Company (BID) – an organisation whose purpose is “to enable... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Alas Poor Mrs Yorrick

COURT of Appeal Judge Alan Mahon recently reaffirmed a jail sentence for contempt against barrack room barrister David Walsh for his persistent attempts to speak in the Waterford Circuit Court... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

Nial Ring’s Judgment

HIGH PROFILE independent Dublin city councillor and businessman Nial Ring suffered a setback last month when Investec Bank registered a hefty €468,000 judgment against him. Ring, who comfortably retained his... Read more »
Brendan Halligan

Affairs of the Nation

HALLIGAN’S QUANGO NETS €1M

THE LATEST accounts for the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) show its income for 2015 rose by 22.3% to €881,593 and with a community employment grant rose to... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

Keith Mahon’s Followers

CONGRATULATIONS to Keith Mahon of The Taste.ie who has been named most influential food and drink journo on Twitter by Murray Communications. But a quick look at Mahon’s list of... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Pillars of Society

Paddy Prendergast

EXACTLY 100 years after John Pentland Mahaffy, the much-celebrated provost of Trinity College, distinguished himself by suppressing the college’s Gaelic Society (over its plans... Read more »

The Young Bloods

The Young Bloods

Eoghan Murphy

JUNIOR finance minister Eoghan Murphy is the quintessential young (35) Fine Gael politician with the deportment of a young Tory and a CV that... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Paul O'Neill

Fit to Print?

IRISH TIMES’ LAST CHANCE SALOON

EXITING Irish Times editor Kevin O’Sullivan has expressed excitement at his new role as environment, agriculture and science editor but he put up quite a fight to retain his editorial... Read more »
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Fit to Print?

Reviewing Desmond Traynor

IF Irish Times critic and literary diva Eileen Battersby was treated with kid gloves by the Sunday Independent, her own critic, Sindo reviewer Desmond Traynor was terminated with extreme editorial... Read more »

Fit to Print?

VICTORIA WHITE’S TSUNAMI

IRISH EXAMINER columnist Victoria White last week stuck it to those Harry Houdinis in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil whom she charged with trying to wriggle out of international commitments... Read more »

Last Refuge

Last Refuge

WILL AG SURVIVE NEW FG LEADERSHIP?

AN INTERESTING sequence of stories following the recent Fennelly Report indicates that Alan Shatter is now being used to pressure Enda Kenny to resign forthwith. The former justice minister told... Read more »

Last Refuge

Brendan Howlin’s Headache

RTÉ coverage of Labour leader Brendan Howlin’s conference speech this weekend will help sustain the illusion that the party is still a player in Irish politics. Labour’s goal has always... Read more »

Last Refuge

Squeezing John McGuinness

IT’S hard to keep John McGuinness down, as Micheál Martin knows only too well. Motor Mouth McGuinness, as loyal frontbenchers call him, was last year dropped from the front bench... Read more »

Last Refuge

BIFFO’S BROTHER V MICHEÁL MARTIN

IT’S BEEN a bad week or so for Fianna Fáil and inside the party the choice of scapegoats for the water charges gyrations and eventual capitulation is evenly divided. There... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Urinating man claimed he was Enda Kenny A WESTPORT man who urinated in the direction of gardaí while claiming he was Enda Kenny was given the benefit of the Probation... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Fowl Emissions

IFA LOSES RAG

ARE THE wheels starting to come off Ireland’s most formidable lobbying machine? The IFA’s attack on Fianna Fáil last month for failing to roll over and support its demands on... Read more »

Bird's Eye View

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster

Bird's Eye View

SNAP ELECTION IN THE NORTH

THERESA MAY’S snap election call may or may not mean a second Assembly election will be held simultaneously with the Westminster poll. Either way, the northern impasse remains gridlocked. It... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

Wigs on the Green

LEGAL EAGLES’ FACTION FIGHTS

BAR Council chairman Paul McGarry took the unprecedented step recently of posting on the Law Library notice board a rather censorious open letter to Master of the High Court Ed... Read more »

Foreign Frolics

Foreign Frolics

DID ASSAD REALLY USE SARIN?

by Paul Gottinger ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after video of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Idlib hit Western media, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was declared guilty by US news networks and... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

The Hot Air Brigade

This is female power. How can we have the Eighth Amendment when we have this in our culture? Look at how she’s baring her teeth. Visual artist Jesse Jones views... Read more »

High Society

High Society

High Society

WINDING UP ANNES GROVE ESTATE

THE TRUSTEES of Annes Grove Estate Co – which owns the impressive Annes Grove demesne and its famous garden in north Cork – have... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Tadhg Campion’s Contacts

THE PLANNING row continues in Harcourt Terrace where low profile zillionaire Declan Ryan has just lost the latest round to equally media-shy auctioneer/property consultant... Read more »

High Society

High Society

KATE GLEESON’S FASHION BUSINESS

FANS OF high profile boutique Kate Gleeson will not have been surprised at the splash given to her last weekend in the pages of the Sunday Independent, this time a... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

‘EXTRA-ORDINARY’ generosity at the NLI

WITH THE papers of Conor Cruise O’Brien now on the list of acquisitions being targeted by the National Library of Ireland (NLI), it is interesting to look at how the... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

DUKE V GARRAHY

GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend Michael Duke has popped up in the court lists after filing High Court proceedings against Elizabeth Garrahy’s Arts For Peace Foundation (AFP). This is an unusual pairing,... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

IFB Shuts The Door

ANNIE DOONA’S Irish Film Board (IFB) recently closed its screenplay development funding scheme due, it said, to a need to reassess the fund following a 25% increase in applications. It... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

FAT LADY PREPARES TO SING

THIS WEEK is the deadline for shortlisting applicants hoping to become the go-to company for producing main-scale opera in Dublin for the next few years. Finalised proposals are then due... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Sport of Kings

LUKE COMER’S PROBATION

LUKE COMER SNR’S plan to develop a state-of-the-art training centre at his property in Kilternan had a setback recently and the jury is out on how long it will take... Read more »

Sport of Kings

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS FOR JAMIE CODD

AS TRAINERS Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott continue their high profile battle for the Irish trainers championship, there is another contest going on in the amateur jockeys’ championship, which both... Read more »
john-oxx

Sport of Kings

BIG YEAR FOR JOHN OXX

IT WAS good to see John Oxx start off the flat season with a nice winner but he is facing a tough season to stay in the race. Oxx is... Read more »

Sport of Kings

AIDAN O’BRIEN’S PRIORITIES

IT HAS been a less than impressive start to the flat season for Aidan O’Brien but he is getting ready for the first big day out next month when the... Read more »

Reviews

Books

THE PONZI MAN – DECLAN LYNCH (HACHETTE)

DURING THE latter stages of the delirium known as the Celtic Tiger, Irish high society became the land of the pyramids – or at least the pyramid scheme. Participation in... Read more »

Reviews

PRIVATE LIVES – GATE THEATRE

TRANSITIONS are a curious business. Former director Michael Colgan may have left the Gate Theatre at the start of April and his successor Selina Cartmell’s name now appears in the... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Moneybags

Datalex shares flying dangerously high

AIRLINE SOFTWARE engine Datalex has been one of the most impressive and surprising share performers on the Irish Stock Exchange. With its shares at... Read more »

Moneybags

Brian Hall

Moneybags

Aminex assets not reflected in the share price

ONE OF Aidan Heavey’s less fortunate decisions was to relinquish Tullow Oil’s 50% stake in Aminex’s onshore Ruvuma licence in Tanzania, after the consortium... Read more »

Brief Cases

Brief Cases

Jimmy Finlay’s bad punt

IT’S THE end of an era as the company behind well-known independent bookmakers Bambury has moved to wind itself up in the High Court. Finbam Leisure Ltd – which traded... Read more »

Brief Cases

Daragh Heagney’s Howth return

PENINSULA Brewery Ltd, with an address on O’Connell Street in Limerick City, has just had a judgment registered against it by Fingal County Council for unpaid rates. The judgment is... Read more »

Brief Cases

Alan Kershaw runs out of road

SPARE a thought for Alan Kershaw – father of Goldhawk’s old pal Mark Kershaw – who has just been declared bankrupt in the High Court. Kershaw the elder founded Manvik... Read more »

Brief Cases

Anthony Fitzpatrick’s courtroom saga

WELL done to Limerick accountant Anthony J Fitzpatrick who recently had a relatively good day in the Court of Appeal. Regular readers of these pages will recall that Fitzpatrick was... Read more »
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Brief Cases

Accountants’ not so public hearings

ALTHOUGH hearings before the Disciplinary Tribunal of Chartered Accountants Ireland – the institute’s mechanism for dealing with wayward members – are advertised as public sessions, it turns out that’s not... Read more »

Brief Cases

Doodys dogged by the taxman

WHAT is going on at Cork law firm Doody Solicitors where the two principals, Goldhawk’s old pals brothers Seamus and Michael Doody, have just had yet another pair of tax... Read more »