Affairs of the Nation

Graham McLaren

Affairs of the Nation

THE ABBEY’S €700,000 DRAMA

WITH THE arrival at the Abbey theatre during the summer of Catríona McLaughlin (artistic director) and Mark O’Brien (executive director), the stage was set for a new era. The manner... 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

STEFANIE PREISSNER’S PROFITS

IT IS increasingly hard to avoid Stefanie Preissner these days (for anybody who might want to), with two separate radio stations opting to feature her dulcet tones last month. It... 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

O’BRIEN VS ZUCKERBERG

DENIS O’BRIEN has had a busy couple of weeks, selling off a chunk of his Digicel group to the Aussies and also finding time to have a pop at Facebook.... Read more »

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

PHARMACISTS’ STRONG MEDICINE

WITH A Covid-19 vaccine booster campaign on the table following the recommendation from the National Immunisation Audit Committee earlier this week, Dermot Twomey and the top brass in the Irish... Read more »
Matt Dempsey

Affairs of the Nation

MATT DEMPSEY GOES GREEN

TIME WAS when Matt Dempsey, former editor of the Irish Farmers Journal and a Kildare farmer himself was the champion of dairy and beef farming and railed against such as... 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

CORRECTION

IN THE Phoenix edition, October 8, 2021, an article entitled ‘LEGAL SAGA NEAR AN END?’ referred to a 15-year-old legal battle between Bernard and Viola Bingham and their former solicitor,... Read more »
David Goodall

Affairs of the Nation

‘DIPLOMAT’ DAVID GOODALL

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY of Ireland Press recently published The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 by British diplomat David Goodall – chief driver on Margaret Thatcher’s British team that negotiated... 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

AINE FLANAGAN’S SAFE BET

THE MOST unusual transaction was belatedly reported in Aaron Rogan’s recently published book, Punters: How Paddy Power Bet Billions and Changed Gambling Forever. The book told how Carlow post office... Read more »
Jillian Mahon

Affairs of the Nation

JILL MAHON’S SUSTAINABILITY

WITH CLIMATE change the topic du jour there was no little interest in the recent appointments to the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC), which is chaired by Marie Donnelly, adviser... Read more »
Simon Coveney

Affairs of the Nation

IRISH-RUSSIAN MILITARY CONFLICT?

THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs (DFA) website warns Irish citizens to avoid travel to the Central African Republic (CAR) due to its “extremely dangerous security status and … very high... Read more »
Brendan Hughes outside Mountjoy

Affairs of the Nation

SINN FÉIN’S SECTION 31

A RACY account of the two most dramatic jail breaks in the history of the state – the 1973 helicopter escape from Mountjoy prison of three IRA commanders and the... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Eamon Ryan

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: EAMON RYAN

EAMON RYAN’S hour has come round at last – or has it? The Green party leader’s decade-long dream of a meaningful climate act materialised... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Erin McGregor

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOODS: ERIN MCGREGOR

WITH THE launch of her new Feel to Heal jewellery range, Erin McGregor is hoping that the crystal-based baubles will help wearers conjure up positive vibes... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Veronica Guerin

Fit to Print?

VERONICA GUERIN: ‘SINDO’ REVISIONISM

THE DEATH last week of John Traynor, a gangland criminal source of Veronica Guerin who was also suspected of fingering her for her killers 25 years ago, gave the Sunday... 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?

JOHN BURNS’S SIGN-OFF

DISAPPOINTED APPLICANT for the post of Irish Sunday Times editor, John Burns, signed off as acting editor last Sunday with an interesting editorial flourish by way of an editorial on... Read more »
President Higgins

Fit to Print?

PARTITION: McALEESE AND HIGGINS

IN EFFORTS to re-educate President Higgins and the public for supporting his boycott of the church event marking the centenary of partition, two prominent journalists may or may not have... Read more »

Last Refuge

Willie O’Dea

Last Refuge

NIGHTMARE ON MOUNT STREET

ESTABLISHMENT AND media fright at the latest spooky poll figures for Sinn Féin – its highest ever Red C figure at 33% – obscured another notable poll figure, that of... Read more »
Charlie McConalogue

Last Refuge

MILITANT IFA BALL BREAKERS

MILITANT FARMER Conor O’Leary, chairman of the IFA (Irish Farming Association) executive in Cork Central, is an articulate and colourful polemicist when agitating on behalf of his members. But he... Read more »
Alan Shatter

Last Refuge

ISRAELI PR MACHINE RULES

WHAT A curious sequence of events and priorities manifested themselves last week in the abysmal reaction to events concerning Israel and Palestine. On Saturday, October 23, the Irish Times reported... Read more »
Mary Lou McDonald

Last Refuge

MARY LOU MCDONALD’S COALITION MUDGUARD

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS now appear to be in the final stages of grief and are moving from depression towards acceptance that Sinn Féin will almost definitely lead the next government. The... Read more »

Hush Hush

Matthew Prince

Hush Hush

HOSTING HATE DATA

THERE HAS been quite the kerfuffle recently over Ireland being the destination of choice for data centres. EirGrid claims that data centres use 11% of the electricity available on the... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

COLOURFUL PAST Listowel District Court heard the case of Hussain Akeel (54), of Viking House, Coffee House Lane, the Quay, Waterford, who was charged with public intoxication and engaging in... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

Kadri Simson

Fowl Emissions

BIG OIL’S COP-OUT

SPARE A thought for ‘big oil’. Having sponsored COP climate summits down through the years, they have suddenly lost access to this prime vehicle for promoting their green credentials. That... Read more »
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

COP26’S ‘PARTNERS’

“EVERYTHING FEELS very last minute.” This was the verdict on the COP26 summit in a joint letter of complaint sent last May to the event organisers and leaked to the... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Imelda May

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I’m an artist. I’m a creative. An empath. I’m sensitive and most artists are. A lot of people forget that … we undress ourselves in front of everybody. Imelda May,... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Yasmin Hyde & Maxine Hyde

High Society

BIGGING UP BALLYMALOE

WITH THE hospitality sector under pressure as a result of the pandemic, Darina Allen and the gang at Ballymaloe House were no doubt chuffed... Read more »

High Society

Consuelo O’Connor

High Society

DERMOT DESMOND’S THEATRICAL PAST

WHAT A bizarre story in the Sindo last weekend, featuring the uber litigious Dermot Desmond and the estate of renowned writer and critic Ulick... Read more »

High Society

David Raethorne

High Society

DAVID RAETHORNE’S DREAM HOME

IT WAS a case of déjà vu last week when the Indo property supplement went into raptures over a house on Dundrum’s Sydenham Road that has come on the market... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Michael Wall

Behind the Scenes

THE ABBEY’S CASTING CALL

THE ABBEY Theatre has advertised to fill no less than four vacancies on its depleted board. One of those who might consider throwing in an application is former director, barrister... Read more »
Catherine Tate

Behind the Scenes

CATHERINE TATE’S TAX BREAK

ONE OF the more venerable companies to benefit recently from the latest round of the lucrative Section 481 tax break for film and TV producers turns out to be Kieran... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Seamus Heffernan

Sport of Kings

HEFFERNAN’S WHIP HAND

SEAMIE HEFFERNAN’S problems with the whip don’t show ending any time soon, with the Ballydoyle No 2 finding himself in hot water again recently with the stewards. Heffernan received a... Read more »
Michael O'Leary

Sport of Kings

MICK’S MUNIFICENCE

BOLSHY MONEYBAGS Mick O’Leary showed his apparent softer side when he revealed that he had allowed Gordon Elliott to invest in few young point-to-point winners on his behalf earlier in... Read more »
Ed Dunlop David Dunsdon Sarah Lynam Rebecca May Wayne Hassett Eoin O'Brien Michael Burke Aine O’Connor Ashroe Diamond Thomand O’Mara Peter Keatley Timmy Hyde Coolmore All About Sunday Colin Keane Ronan Whelan JP McManus Jessica Harrington Dundalk Racecourse Paul Hensey Irish National Hunt Horse-racing Doping Paddy Walsh Tom Kelly Suspension

Sport of Kings

MUSICAL CHAIRS AT DOWN ROYAL

DOWN ROYAL’S big jumps meeting heralded the return of some of the sports major national hunt heroes, including this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Minella Indo but there was no... Read more »
Conor O’Neill

Sport of Kings

SLOW OUT THE GATE

WHEN THE government announced a further relaxation of Covid-related restrictions on October 22, it was expected that racecourses and Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) would be rolling out plenty of incentives... Read more »

Reviews

WE DON’T KNOW OURSELVES - FINTAN O’TOOLE

Books

WE DON’T KNOW OURSELVES – FINTAN O’TOOLE

SAMUEL BECKETT, with whom Fintan O’Toole is compared on this book’s back cover, might conceivably have compressed his era into 57 pages. O’Toole’s occupies 570 and still contains silences, albeit... Read more »
Callan as Francis Brennan

Reviews

CALLAN KICKS THE YEARS – RTÉ One

WHEN IT comes to entertainment programming, Callan Kicks The Years provides an interesting case study in RTÉ’s seemingly limitless capacity to shoot itself in the foot.  Having scored a rare... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Darragh Lyons (Photo: Fergal Phillips/Business Post)

Moneybags

MALIN CORP’S DISPOSALS BOOST THE COFFERS

THE BOARD of Malin Corp finds itself stuck in a legal spat that could prove expensive, the core issue being a change in control... Read more »

Moneybags

James Menton

Moneybags

PROVIDENCE NEEDS TO FIND THE RIGHT MAN

AFTER ALL the hot air spouted by Providence and its recently departed CEO Alan Lynn about the bizarre Barryroe farm-out deal to a £2... Read more »

Brief Cases

Dermot Desmond The Sporting Emporium Losses

Brief Cases

DER KAISER AND MR & MRS SMITH

GOLDHAWK WAS impressed by the old-fashioned shoe leather reporting demonstrated by veteran Sindo reporter Liam Collins last week. Collins made his way down to the Probate Office in Smithfield, Dublin... Read more »
Ian Redmond

Brief Cases

IAN REDMOND’S DANCE MOVES

ALMOST UBIQUITOUS in the recent media frenzy over the reopening of nightclubs and the government-imposed restrictions was Ian Redmond of the popular Dublin city centre club, Tramline. He quickly became... Read more »
WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

Brief Cases

NOEL MORAN’S EXPENSIVE STUD

NOEL AND Valerie Moran have had a turbulent 2021, with plenty of media (and Central Bank) attention focused on the trials and tribulations of the Aussie group EML Payments, which... Read more »
Jack Ronan

Brief Cases

JACK RONAN TIDIES UP

GOLDHAWK SPOTTED a couple of familiar names filing ‘ceased trading’ notifications – Vita Cortex Holdings Ltd and Vita Five Five Ltd. These were central players in a highly controversial shutdown... Read more »