Affairs of the Nation

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Affairs of the Nation

EDITORIAL STATEMENT

EDITORIAL STATEMENT – We wish to state that the editorial team at The Phoenix, had nothing to do with the recent recruitment advertisement for an intern. This was an action solely taken... Read more »
Tadhg Daly

Affairs of the Nation

TADHG DALY’S REVENGE

THE TURNING of the PR tide against Simon Harris has been in no small measure due to the relentless efforts of one Tadhg Daly, the chief executive of Nursing Homes... Read more »
Caroline Keeling

Affairs of the Nation

CAROLINE KEELING’S WORKERS

THERE WAS a predictable outcry by Ireland’s hair-trigger xenophobes when fruit company Keelings was reported to be bringing in migrant workers to pick fruit in the middle of the pandemic.... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

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Affairs of the Nation

ROBERT ARMSTRONG’S RECORD

THE 1,700-word obituary of Lord Robert Armstrong, published in the Irish Times last weekend, omitted a few interesting details. As principal private secretary to prime ministers Ted Heath from 1970... Read more »
John McGabhann

Affairs of the Nation

JOHN McGABHANN’S REPORT CARD

TEACHERS’ UNION boss John McGabhann probably cannot believe his luck as he prepares to retire as general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) later this year. His union’s... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

JOHN KIDD’S LOBBYING

GIVEN THAT there is only one thing on people’s minds these days, it is predictable that some of the latest lobbying activity has focused on the pandemic. Among those who... Read more »
Niamh O'Beirne

Affairs of the Nation

EY RESCUES HSE

THE STRAIN on the HSE is beginning to show, with top dog Paul Reid having to turn to EY Ireland to draft in one of its senior management consultants –... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

IRISH TIMES AND “THAT CHURCH”

YOU’VE GOT to hand it to the Irish Times. When it comes to the dreaded Catholic Church, the paper knows the right tone to strike. An editorial was published on... Read more »
Declan Kelly

Affairs of the Nation

DECLAN KELLY’S DANCING SHOES

TENEO FOUNDER Declan Kelly is not one to play down his accomplishments. The latest talent no one knew he had is that of an executive producer with one Lady Gaga... Read more »
Bill Holohan

Affairs of the Nation

BILL HOLOHAN’S WASTED COSTS ORDER

THERE WAS a pretty damning ruling issued in the High Court earlier this month by Judge Denis McDonald, in relation to the case of a personal insolvency arrangement for one... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Micheál Martin

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: MICHEÁL MARTIN

MICHEÁL MARTIN may become a scientific and political phenomenon: the man who was saved by Covid-19. But the consequences for Fianna Fáil could be... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Neasa Hourigan

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: NEASA HOURIGAN

THE GREEN Party – despite basking in the success of increasing its Dáil seat tally to 12, its highest ever – is coming under... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Connor Murphy

Fit to Print?

CONNOR MURPHY’S RTÉ GIG

ALTHOUGH APPOINTMENTS to state boards have effectively been put on hold while the interim/caretaker government remains in situ, it turns out that some positions just can’t wait. This is the... Read more »
Marc Coleman

Fit to Print?

CASSANDRA COLEMAN

LOOKS LIKE mercurial economist Marc Coleman is on the loose again, having been tamed within IBEC for a few years. Earlier this month, he popped up on his old radio... Read more »

Last Refuge

Simon Coveney

Last Refuge

ISRAEL NOT LOSING ANY SLEEP

GOLDHAWK WAS heartened to see in the proposed programme for government advanced by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that there was a firm commitment to “support efforts towards a durable,... Read more »
Simon Harris

Last Refuge

SIMON HARRIS’S BRIT BASHING

YOU KNOW something’s not quite right when a Fine Gael minister defensively reaches out for a bit of Brit bashing. Such was the case when health minister Simon Harris was... Read more »
Janice Boylan Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

Last Refuge

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S HEADACHE

WHILE THE media are concentrating on the chances of one of the smaller parties rowing in behind a Programme for Government put forward by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the... Read more »
John Paul Phelan

Last Refuge

BLUESHIRTS LOVE-BOMB ‘NUTTERS’

IT’S HARD to believe that the Blueshirts are blowing kisses at the Greens after bad-mouthing them as ‘nutters’ to the Irish Farmers’ Association, whose members have been known to pour... Read more »
Eoghan Murphy

Last Refuge

EOGHAN MURPHY’S WAITING GAME

HOUSING MINISTER Eoghan Murphy has been enjoying some Covid-19 cover over his delays in releasing the social housing completions by local councils in 2019. The figures are not good and... Read more »

Hush Hush

Robbie Lawlor

Hush Hush

THE DANGER OF ‘GOING NORTH’

THE RECENT murder of psychopath Robbie Lawlor in Belfast has generated a lot of lurid headlines, but the media missed the all-Ireland realpolitik behind the slaying. Comment on the full... Read more »
HushHush-def

Hush Hush

VINCENT JENNINGS’S WORKERS

THE COUNTRY’S corner-shop keepers and ‘convenience store’ owners got a shock in recent weeks as their poorly paid employees did a runner. They had gone to claim the Covid-19 €350... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘Stick It In A Certain Location’ JASON SHEEHAN of 5 Renard View, Knightstown, appeared before Cahersiveen District Court in relation to a 2018 incident involving gardaí. Garda Inspector Michael Fleming... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

John FitzGerald

Fowl Emissions

JOHN FITZGERALD’S TWO HATS

LIKE MOST of the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael ‘draft document’ on forming a government, the section on climate is vague and threadbare. There is no mention of climate science nor of... Read more »
Seamus Woulfe

Fowl Emissions

SEAMUS WOLFE’S ENERGY POLICY

AMID THE coronavirus chaos, carmakers, airlines and oil companies are persuading governments to roll back environmental regulations to help them weather the Covid-19 storm. Most gratuitous among these is the... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Roz Purcell

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I am trying my best to be 100% present in whatever is happening right now, aiming to be totally and utterly ‘forcibly’ present. Roz Purcell on dealing with lockdown restrictions,... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Siobhan and Kasao Learat

High Society

SIOBHAN LEARAT’S UPSCALE DESIGNS

GOLDHAWK WAS not surprised to see irrepressible travel agent Siobhan Byrne Learat feature in the Sindo last week, where her Adams & Butler business... Read more »

High Society

Ballyfin House

High Society

BALLYFIN HOUSE BLUES

LIKE OTHER tourist destinations, the magnificent Ballyfin House and demesne in Co Laois has had to be shuttered due to Covid-19. Given the steep... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

CELEBRITY COUPLE Theresa Lowe and Frank McNamara have been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons and last month the High Court finally approved a personal insolvency arrangement... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Cathal Gaffney

Behind the Scenes

CATHAL GAFFNEY’S SIX SHOOTS

THE FILM and TV business is going through an existential Covid-19 downtime, but the public purse is always open, as evidenced by the latest quarterly list of Revenue’s Section 481... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

JOSEPHA MADIGAN’S LEGACY

WHILE COMMENTATORS speculate on the make-up of any new cabinet, culture minister Josepha Madigan’s name is noticeable by its absence. She has only herself to blame. It is certainly pretty... Read more »

Reviews

A THOUSAND MOONS - SEBASTIAN BARRY

Books

A THOUSAND MOONS – SEBASTIAN BARRY (FABER & FABER)

SEBASTIAN BARRY’S Costa-winning Days Without End told the story of two young soldiers in the American Civil War. In this sequel, set during the 1870s, the author returns to these... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Eamon Crowley

Moneybags

JEREMY MASDING CUTS AND RUNS FROM PTSB

PERMANENT TSB is a real mess and, after eight years trying to sort it out, CEO Jeremy Masding threw in the towel. Last October... Read more »

Moneybags

Gavin Slark

Moneybags

GRAFTON GROUP SHARE COLLAPSE OVERDONE

GAVIN SLARK had a unique opportunity to realise the goal of his predecessor, Mike Chadwick, to turn Grafton Group into “a leading international distributor... Read more »

Brief Cases

John V Farrelly

Brief Cases

JOHN V FARRELLY’S ADVENTURES

GOLDHAWK’S OLD pal, John V Farrelly, a former Fine Gael politician and a shareholder in ‘free’ energy company Steorn, will be paying close attention to a new book on the... Read more »
Brian Fallon

Brief Cases

FALLON BROTHERS DIG DEEP

THEJOURNAL.IE, that right-on source of news for young readers, has probably suffered more than most news outlets due to the Covid-19 restrictions and associated advertising collapse. With advertising revenue completely... Read more »
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Brief Cases

NOT IN KANSAS ANY MORE

THE BOYS of Dollard Packaging in Dublin will be breathing a sigh of relief after they dodged a hefty $4.5m pension deficit claim in Kansas. Eugene Reynolds and Patrick Walsh... Read more »
Francesca McDonagh

Brief Cases

FRANCESCA’S ‘ANNUS HORRIBILIS’

LIKE BRITAIN’S Queen Elizabeth, who gave her an OBE in 2017, Bank of Ireland (BoI) boss Francesca McDonagh will presumably recognise an annus horribilis when one presents. The British banker... Read more »
Rich Ricci

Brief Cases

RICH RICCI’S WIND DOWN

A COMPANY called Dedsert Ireland Ltd has just been voluntarily wound up by its owners. The company turns out to be behind the Irish-registered BetBright operation that was sold off... Read more »