Affairs of the Nation

Brian Hayes

Affairs of the Nation

GOLFGATE ‘CULTURE AND PROTOCOLS’

SO FAR, a minister (Dara Calleary) and an EU commissioner (Phil Hogan) have lost their jobs and a Supreme Court judge (ex-attorney general Séamus Woulfe) is under investigation for attending... Read more »
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Affairs of the Nation

JUDICIAL TRANSPARENCY

WITH TRANSPARENCY supposedly the preferred way of doing business these days, it is refreshing that some things don’t change that much. Justice minister Helen McEntee recently announced the appointments of... Read more »
Stephen Donnelly

Affairs of the Nation

FALSE FLAGS?

HEALTH MINISTER Stephen Donnelly has a lot riding on the testing programme for Covid-19. With reported cases rising recently, there is more focus on the testing procedure itself and Goldhawk... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Ursula von der Leyen

Affairs of the Nation

HOGAN’S CLUMSY ASSASSINATION

NOBODY EXCEPT the new EU commissioner for finance, Máiréad McGuinness, got what they wanted out of the downing of big Phil Hogan, although it was not for the want of... Read more »
Niall McGarry

Affairs of the Nation

NIALL MCGARRY’S LEGACY

WITH ICONIC Media currently bedding in the restructuring of the Maximum Media online outfit following its purchase by investment fund Greencastle Capital, across the Irish Sea the administrators recently filed... Read more »
Brian Polly

Affairs of the Nation

BRIAN POLLY’S ROUGH RIDE

WHILE HORSERACING has been back in action for a number of weeks, the real excitement is taking place off the track, where internecine feuding on the board of the Association... Read more »
Seán Mac Stíofáin

Affairs of the Nation

SEÁN MAC STÍOFÁIN – IRA DOUBLE AGENT

THE FIRST chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, Seán Mac Stíofáin, was a double agent, according to a soon-to-be published book, Deception & Lies, the Hidden History of the... Read more »
Charlie Flanagan

Affairs of the Nation

FLANAGAN’S NEW ROLE

FORMER JUSTICE minister and RIC champion Charlie Flanagan has been appointed to the board of Co-operation Ireland, where he should fit in nicely with the politically ‘moderate’ souls that dominate... Read more »
Bill Holohan

Affairs of the Nation

BILL HOLOHAN’S SENIOR TITLE

CONGRATULATIONS to Cork legal eagle Bill Holohan, one of those lucky solicitors who managed to get themselves appointed senior counsel under new legislation. Goldhawk is delighted a little mix-up earlier... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Frank Clarke

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: FRANK CLARKE

THE CONSTITUTIONAL tenet ‘separation of powers’ has been bandied about in the gravest tones by politicians, lawyers, academics and media in the wake of... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Una Mullally

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: UNA MULLALLY

MAINSTREAM PRINT journalism is facing a serious challenge on several fronts at a time of declining circulation generally. Revenue is down, as advertisers look elsewhere;... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Leo Varadkar

Fit to Print?

VLAD TO RESCUE MEDIA?

THE CONFRONTATION between the Australian government and Facebook over legislation to make digital platforms pay for news content will be watched with interest by media everywhere. One presumes that Tánaiste... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

PUB RULES

THIS WEEK’S decision to allow the so-called ‘wet pubs’ re-open from September 21 was the culmination of a remarkably effective PR campaign waged by the publicans. What must have amazed... Read more »
Alan Dukes

Fit to Print?

DUKES ‘IN BED’ WITH CHINA

FORMER FINANCE minister and Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes will presumably be familiar with the relentless campaign by the Sunday Times Aarish edition to submerge our foreign policy into that... Read more »

Last Refuge

Marc MacSharry

Last Refuge

MAC KNIFES MARTIN

THERE WAS method behind that maddening intervention by the former Fianna Fáil finance minister, Ray ‘Mac the Knife’ MacSharry, after Big Phil Hogan’s exit from the EU Commission. The octogenarian,... 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

COVENEY V VARADKAR

WHAT A mature, statesman-like figure foreign minister Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney struck as he declined to respond to a query from Sunday Independent interviewer Hugh O’Connell last weekend. O’Connell had asked... Read more »
Alan Kelly

Last Refuge

AK47 SNIPES AT SINN FÉIN

ALAN ‘AK47’ KELLY, heads up a party of six TDs and is on 5% circa in the polls, while Mary Lou McDonald’s Sinn Féin has 37 TDs and is on... Read more »
Mary Fitzpatrick

Last Refuge

BERTIE’S NEMESIS

AS IF Fianna Fáil senator Mary Fitzpatrick has not enough to contend with in her perpetual quest for a Dáil seat in Dublin Central, Brian Mohan – a supporter of... Read more »

Hush Hush

Helen McEntee

Hush Hush

CELTIC 0 — MI5 1

Operation ‘Arbacia’ is a joint MI5 (UK) and Special Branch/Garda Síochána sting that has targeted Celtic football supporters groups, amongst others, as part of a massive trawl of people who... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

No Cover Up Eamon McIVOR (49) of River Road, Draperstown, appeared before Magherafelt Magistrates Court charged with multiple counts of indecent exposure. McIvor denied all eight charges of exposing his... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Climate Disinformation Coillte Climate Action EU Livestock NDC Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

Fowl Emissions

EXTINCTION DENIAL

Conor Skehan chooses unlikely scapegoats when pontificating on the crises of our age. In 2018, as chair of the Housing Agency, he said some homeless people were “gaming the system”.... Read more »
Michelle O'Neill

Fowl Emissions

ALISON MCCULLAGH’S CLIMB DOWN

One of the environmental success stories of recent years is how a cross-border grassroots movement uniting those supposed sworn enemies, farmers and environmentalists, has kept Ireland fracking free. But in Northern... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Ciara Kelly

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I did very well in my Leaving Cert and surprised quite a few people as I was a bit of a devil. Ciara Kelly, Irish Independent Perhaps it’s better to... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Amanda Pratt

High Society

AMANDA PRATT’S RESTORATION

ODD TO see that Monkstown-based Amanda Pratt, formerly of Avoca, has just changed the name of her Irish company, Amanda Pratt Ltd, to Amo... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

RUTH MONAHAN’S TRIMMING

ALONG WITH the shifting of pints, another business feeling the pandemic pinch is flower selling, with a significant impact felt due to the lack... Read more »

High Society

Chitra and Roman Stern

High Society

STERN TIMES FOR ROMAN

WITH HOME holidays the flavour of the month, many Irish destinations have been packing in the punters. One destination that has opened its doors in recent times is Liss Ard... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Louise O'Neill

Behind the Scenes

LOUISE O’NEILL’S OUTSIDER

SPARE A thought for Ian Bailey, who is well used to finding himself in the media spotlight. Now, on top of never-ending legal battles, extradition attempts, podcasts and potential film... Read more »
Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

Behind the Scenes

AUDIT’S PREDICTABLE PLOT

THE OVERDUE ‘audit’ of the independent film and TV drama production sector by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was released last month, but it is hardly a blockbuster. Not surprisingly, those... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Noel Meade

Sport of Kings

NOEL MEADE’S CLAIMS

SINCE RACING resumed in June, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has been viewed as having done a decent job in rescheduling important races that were lost during the lockdown and amending... Read more »
Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

Sport of Kings

KEVIN BLAKE’S INTERFERENCE

RACING HACK and broadcaster Kevin Blake is not shy about airing his opinions and he has been on a campaign over the summer to highlight both the inconsistency and the... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

David Whelan

Moneybags

VRE SHAREHOLDERS BANKING ON BUY-OUT

IT IS certainly surprising that a tiny company, with sales of less than €½m and losing money at a rate of knots, could possibly... Read more »

Moneybags

Edmond Scanlon

Moneybags

KERRY GROUP’S SHARE RATING LOOKS TOO HIGH

KERRY GROUP is now worth over E19bn, having floated off at IR£0.52 in the early 1980s, with the shares now at U114. Over the... Read more »

Briefcases

Franky Wright

Briefcases

FRANKY WRIGHT’S RENT HOLIDAY

WITH IRISH tourism businesses having benefitted from the boom in stay-at-home holidays, Goldhawk presumes that Franky Wright’s Lilliput Adventure Centre on the banks of Lough Ennel outside Mullingar did pretty... Read more »
Bernard Brogan

Briefcases

BERNARD BROGAN’S PERFORMANCE

DUBLIN FOOTBALL ace Bernard Brogan is back in the newspapers thanks to his new autobiography, which was released this month. Cynics might carp that he had never really left them,... Read more »
Marcus Carne

Briefcases

KEATING’S LEGAL ISSUES

SURPRISING TO see that construction and marine/civil engineering powerhouse Keating construction on the wrong end of a judgment for €92,000. The high-profile company behind Keating construction was founded back in... Read more »
Paul Williams

Briefcases

PAUL WILLIAMS ON THE HIGH SEAS

INTREPID CRIME fighter Paul Williams spent some time on the high seas with “the maritime drug busters”, publishing a breathless piece in the Indo last month from the deck of... Read more »
WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Briefcases

ZOE KELLY’S WEDDING WOES

ACCOUNTS for the impressive-sounding MBZ International caught Goldhawk’s eye recently, but the figures on the balance sheet were a good deal more modest than its name might suggest. Fans of... Read more »