Affairs of the Nation

Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

SARAH KEANE’S BELLY FLOP

WHAT A bad week it was for Sarah Keane, president of the Irish Olympic Federation (IOF) and chief executive of Swim Ireland. After the high-profile reversal by the world swimming... Read more »
Jennifer Carroll Macneil

Affairs of the Nation

POLITICS AND LAW

JENNIFER CARROLL MACNEILL has had enough of the frenzy about political cronyism in the sphere of judicial appointments as she made clear in a Sunday Times guest column recently. The... Read more »
Eoghan Harris

Affairs of the Nation

CONDEMNING EOGHAN HARRIS

EOGHAN HARRIS was condemned from a great height by Cork City councillors who voted unanimously this week to “condemn the use of anonymous twitter accounts to denigrate journalists and …... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid

Affairs of the Nation

SONAR’S ‘DIPLOMACY’

A CONTROVERSIAL event at Trinity College Dublin last month resulted in Palestinian ambassador Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid expressing her outrage at the failure to inform her that the Israeli ambassador Ophir... Read more »
Hildegarde Naughton

Affairs of the Nation

FLIGHTS OF FANCY

THE DRAMATIC collapse of Stobart Air in recent days has thrown Ireland’s regional airports into turmoil, with 12 routes immediately suspended. These included Dublin to Kerry and Donegal, as well... Read more »
Darragh O'Loughlin

Affairs of the Nation

DARRAGH O’LOUGHLIN’S STRONG MEDICINE

THE BELATED opening-up of the pharmacy sector to the administering of Covid-19 vaccines represents some good news for the country’s chemists. It comes, however, against a backdrop of growing discontent... Read more »
Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

Affairs of the Nation

THE ABBEY’S DRAMATIC LICENCE

WITH THE director team of Graham McLaren and Neil Murray preparing to exit the Abbey next month, the incoming pair of Caitriona McLaughlin and Mark O’Brien will be interacting with... Read more »
Robert Pitt

Affairs of the Nation

INM DATA FRENZY

THE PRIVACY action being taken by former INM editor-in-chief Stephen Rae against Mediahuis Ireland, current owner of the newspaper group, reflects the hothouse atmosphere and intrigue that became rampant in... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Paul Tweed

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: PAUL TWEED

IS PAUL TWEED “the most powerful man in Hollywood” or is he a small-town solicitor from Bangor who happened to fall into the big... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Simeon Burke

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: SIMEON BURKE

FAMOUS FOR his right-wing views, use of litigation and interesting family, Simeon Burke is the controversial conservative who claimed to represent “the many, not... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Dana Rosemary Scallon

Fit to Print?

DANA’S BROTHER SUES LONDON MET

DANA ROSEMARY SCALLON emerged from the Court of Appeal in Dublin recently with a second, satisfactory settlement with the Sunday Worst (now owned by Mediahuis) following her defamation cases against the newspaper... Read more »
Ivan Yates Nell McCafferty RTÉ Lord Laird Intro Matchmaking NewsBrands Martin McGuinness Dún Laoghaire Pat Leahy Cormac Lucey John Cooney Irish Journalism Awards Steve Aiken Anton Savage John Downing Lucinda Creighton Marina Sologub Eilis O'Hanlon Ian Kehoe Danny McConnell Sindo O'Connor Mediahuis Stephen Collins Book Justine McCarthy Rewriting the Troubles Lynn Ruane Sinn Féin

Fit to Print?

SUNDAY TIMES AND THE PADDIES

THE AAWRISH edition of the Sunday Times has always been the most gung-ho western organ in the Irish market, reflecting its deference to Whitehall and HMG in matters of foreign... Read more »
Denis O'Brien

Fit to Print?

WHO INVITED DENIS?

THE FURORE about the invitation extended to Denis O’Brien to attend northern editor Tommie Gorman’s goodbye event saw a flurry of correspondence between the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) and... Read more »

Last Refuge

Emma Blain

Last Refuge

KATE O’CONNELL’S SUCCESSOR?

UNLESS JAMES GEOGHEGAN totally bombs in the Dublin Bay South byelection, he is most likely to stand for Fine Gael in the general election. But the party will also want... Read more »
Susan McKay

Last Refuge

PROTESTANTS AND PROTOCOLS

RTÉ’S CLAIRE BYRNE was not available to protect DUP hard man Gregory Campbell last week as she did recently when closing down sports pundit Joe Brolly’s critique of the DUP... Read more »
Barry Walsh

Last Refuge

BARRY (WO)MANS UP

HAS FORMER Young Fine Gael president Barry Walsh been emasculated by Blueshirt harpies following his social media outbursts about ‘bitches’ back in 2017? Barry filled in for resident Sunday Times... Read more »
Alan Kelly

Last Refuge

LABOUR’S MESSAGE NOT FOR PROLES

LABOUR LEADER Alan Kelly put on a lot of pressure to have Labour first in the Dublin Bay South (DBS) byelection field with posters, leaflets and other election materials. ‘I... Read more »

Last Refuge

CORRECTION: TATE DONNELLY

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber. Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix... Read more »

Hush Hush

Drew Harris

Hush Hush

DREW HARRIS AND THE MI5 AGENT

IN AUGUST 2020, Operation Arbacia, a major MI5 exercise, hit the headlines. It saw 10 people charged with activities linked to the New IRA. The evidence for the charges is... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

Inept Burglary Two men who were caught in an attempted burglary in Cork city centre were apprehended as they come out the front door of a shoe shop carrying a... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Eamon Ryan

Fowl Emissions

ZERO AND COUNTING

OCCASIONALLY THERE comes along an example of greenwash so ludicrous that satire is redundant. Five oil majors who extract from Canada’s vast environmental black spot, the tar sands, announced last... Read more »
Luke Holland Climate Denial John Fagan Wolf Europe David Quinn Duncan Stewart Data Centre Carbon Emissions Conor Skehan Chris Hazzard

Fowl Emissions

ENERGY BRINK

IT’S POPULAR to blame renewable energy for electricity blackouts or the threat of same. Last winter the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said a collapse in the state’s power grid... Read more »

Wigs on the Green

Justice Brian Murray

Wigs on the Green

SUPREMELY AMBITIOUS JUDGES

THE ANTICIPATED elevation of Supreme Court judge Donal O’Donnell recently to the post of chief justice received the equally anticipated panegyric from Irish Times legal affairs correspondent, Colm Keena. Now... Read more »
Simon Coveney

Wigs on the Green

SILENCE… AS TROOPS FACE AFRICA DANGER

DESPERATE ATTEMPTS by the government to ingratiate itself with western powers, especially France, has led to the involvement of the Defence Forces in extremely dangerous adventures in the Sahel region... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Bono and The Edge

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

We are the people of the open hand/The streets of Dublin to Notre Dame/We’ll build it better than we did before/We are the people we’ve been waiting for. Lyrics of... Read more »

High Society

High Society

IHT CHL The Lion in Winter Racing Royalty Le Brocquy City of Troy Fitzwilliam Square AIRO Dermot Smurfit Ballinacarrig Park Club Cosgrave Fitzpatrick Keith Jameson National Gallery Collection Marissa Carter VG Tom Higgins Neil Jordan Laura Bonner Paul Ward Variety Jones Dtat Eathos Sharon Keegan Angela Scanlon Desmond Canouan Bellair Estate Bobby Flay John O’Conor Portrait of Omai Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile Wedding NGI Board Rachel Flynn JP McMahon Ash Quinn Pamela Laird Abdullah Al Naboodah Boundless Ocean

High Society

CLAYTON LOVE’S LOSS

A COMPANY called Barcrest Developments was liquidated earlier this month. It turns out to be a business that was established by one of Cork’s... Read more »

High Society

Ciara Donlon

High Society

CIARA DONLON’S BACKERS

A NEW company has been formed by Ciara Donlon, the high-flying founder of Theya Healthcare, which manufactures post-surgery underwear from bamboo no less. Ciara... Read more »

High Society

Jess Ryan

High Society

JESS RYAN’S BLEMISH

IT IS the end of the road for the D4 beauty salon owned by Jess Ryan, daughter of Arthur ‘Penneys’ Ryan. The glamorous Jess forged her own path in business,... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Angeline Ball

Behind the Scenes

ANGELINE’S HIDDEN ASSETS

THE PROPOSED new TV series, Hidden Assets, first turned up on Goldhawk’s radar when Screen Ireland dished out €300,000 to production company Saffron Moon at the end of 2019. At... Read more »
Tailored Films Screen Ireland Perspectives DCCI Crescine Tarka Russell Lara Hickey Reality Check Sarah McInerney Irish Movies Paul Murray Arts Council Dublin Theatre Festival TWU Macdara Kelleher Richard Boyd Barrett DADC Cillian Murphy Terry McMahon Media Commission Ireland Kerlin Gallery Creative Ireland Section 481 Christine O’Donovan RTÉ Storyland NMI Board Vacancies IASCA Ossie Kilkenny RTÉ Original Programmes

Behind the Scenes

OVERDUE AT THE LIBRARY

WHEN BUSY arts minister Catherine Martin found time last week to officially open the latest (photographic) exhibition at the National Library of Ireland (NLI), Living with Pride, she might have... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Brian Kavanagh

Sport of Kings

KAVANAGH SADDLES UP

FANS OF Goldhawk will not be surprised by the news that, more than 20 years after first serving a five-year stint as manager of the Curragh racecourse, Brian Kavanagh returns... Read more »
Stephen Mahon

Sport of Kings

STEPHEN MAHON DIGS IN

THE CHANCES of a positive outcome from Stephen Mahon’s proposed appeal against the four-year suspension of his training licence would likely attract pretty long odds given the volume of evidence... Read more »
Brian Polly

Sport of Kings

BRIAN POLLY’S HEAVY GOING

THE ASSOCIATION of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) continues to generate controversy. The latest adventure involved an EGM to allow members to vote on a special resolution to provide for the... Read more »
David Dunne

Sport of Kings

DAVID DUNNE’S GAMBLES

THE NUMBER of open investigations on the books of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) continues to grow. Trainer David Dunne now finds his name attached to two reviews after... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Brendan McAtamney

Moneybags

GETTING OUT OF UDG MAKES SENSE FOR SHAREHOLDERS

THE SURPRISE bid by US fund Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) for UDG Healthcare may prove timely for investors given the sensitive area in... Read more »

Moneybags

David Forde

Moneybags

C&C RIGHTS ISSUE IMPOSSIBLE TO JUSTIFY

AFTER A year that saw virtually the whole of the hospitality industry closed down due to Covid-19, C&C has survived despite losses of €121m... Read more »

Briefcases

Rory O'Donnell

Briefcases

PHARMACISTS FOOT THE BILL

WHILE THE news that local pharmacists are finally allowed to start administering Covid-19 vaccines represents a welcome development for the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU), which has been under pressure in... Read more »
John Brennan

Briefcases

JOHN BRENNAN’S LIFT-OFF

HIGH COURT judge Michael Hanna heard harrowing descriptions last week of the experience of some guests of the Killarney Plaza hotel, who were in a lift in July 2011 that... Read more »
Hyde Square circa 2007

Briefcases

GERRY PURCELL’S PROCEEDINGS

A CREDITORS’ meeting has been called to wind up a property company called Megard Ltd, which is owned by Galway developer Gerry Purcell and his wife, Mary. The move is... Read more »
ZMG Cyril Murphy Newbridge College Peter Wilson Sporting Emporium Chris Wholey O'Kane God’s Creatures Film Tax Relief Anne Rossi Desmond Live Nation ESCADIA LTD Al Porter Comeback Gordon Elliott Clayton Love Ivan Wilde hot-water-brigade Parnells GAA Lawsuit

Briefcases

GER LYONS’S WINNERS

RACEHORSE TRAINER Jim Bolger has always been a bit of a thorn in the side of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB). He successfully took racing’s regulator to the High... Read more »
IrishAirPics.com

Briefcases

KAM TIM NG’S HELICOPTER

THERE WAS a setback to high-flying Kam Tim Ng last month when he failed to have a legal action against him dismissed. The case concerns work allegedly carried out on... Read more »