Affairs of the Nation

Simon Coveney

Affairs of the Nation

IRELAND JOINS BIG BOYS IN WAR GAMES

IT IS both apt and ironic that the Defence Forces should emulate warmonger Winston Churchill’s dictum, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’. The top brass and sympathetic ministers,... 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

NANCY HARRIS’S DRY RUN

LAST WEEK RTÉ went into overdrive when “revealing” a “first look” at a new TV comedy drama called The Dry, which is about a hard-drinking protagonist who returns to Dublin... Read more »
John Molloy

Affairs of the Nation

JOHN MOLLOY’S PHONE TROUBLE

HAVING HOOVERED up millions of euro to fund his safe smartphone app for children, John Molloy’s company is heading into liquidation. Molloy made a name for himself when he helped... Read more »

Affairs of the Nation

Paul Niland

Affairs of the Nation

UKRAINE VETS’ DUBLIN HERO

DUBLIN-BORN but Ukrainian-based Paul Niland has been lionised by RTÉ, BBC, the Irish Times and Irish Independent both for his suicide prevention service to Ukrainian vets and soldiers and his... Read more »
Jon Williams

Affairs of the Nation

GREENWASH AWARDS’ WORTHY WINNERS

IN THE immortal words of Kermit the Frog, it’s not easy being green, but that doesn’t stop some people from at least pretending. Details of the Irish Green Awards 2022... Read more »
Simon Coveney

Affairs of the Nation

THE SILENT NEUTRALITY

DESPITE THE intense media focus on the Ukraine crisis there has been little or no attention paid to the oft expressed will of the Irish electorate on whether Irish neutrality... Read more »
Domhnal Slattery

Affairs of the Nation

DÓMHNAL SLATTERY’S AWARD

GOLDHAWK WAS delighted to see that Shrewsbury Road resident and Avolon air leasing moneybags Dómhnal Slattery has landed the Irish Times Business Person of the Month award for January. Ironically,... 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

CANADIAN CONVOY CASH

SINISTER ASPECTS of the Canadian protest movement against the anti-Covid 19 restrictions of Justin Trudeau’s government include the far-right politics of some of the organisers and the way they set... Read more »

Pillars of Society

Desiree Finnegan

Pillars of Society

PROFILE: DÉSIRÉE FINNEGAN

LAST WEEK Désirée Finnegan – the chief executive of the state’s film and television funding agency, Screen Ireland – delivered yet another close-up, with... Read more »

The Young Bloods

Sophie White

The Young Bloods

YOUNG BLOOD: SOPHIE WHITE

FROM POLE dancing on live TV to drinking pigs’ blood when pregnant, there is little that is off limits for writer Sophie White. Described in... Read more »

Fit to Print?

Brendan O'Connor

Fit to Print?

BRENDAN O’CONNOR’S PANDEMIC

GOOD NEWS from the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures about news and current affairs radio programmes was meted out to readers of the Irish Independent this month but, as the newspaper... Read more »
Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

Fit to Print?

LITERARY LOVE-IN

FINTAN O’TOOLE and John Banville have incurred the ridicule of British satirical mag Private Eye, despite their deserved status as two of Britain’s favourite Irish luvvies. The Eye recently observed that... Read more »
Rory Montgomery

Fit to Print?

MANDARIN MONTY PRESSES HIS CASE

GOOD TO see that the arbiters of press complaints – members of the Press Council of Ireland – who exist also to “promote press freedom and the right to freedom... Read more »

Last Refuge

Micheál Martin

Last Refuge

IS MARTIN’S REVIVAL FOR REAL?

‘IRISH TIMES’ readers could almost smell the strong odour of relief wafting from political editor Pat Leahy’s analysis of Micheál Martin’s apparent comeback in the polls, the media and the... Read more »
Tom Clonan

Last Refuge

TRINNERS LOVES INDEPENDENTS

ALMOST EVERY candidate in the Trinners (Dublin University) byelection is standing as an Independent but some are more Independent than others. While four of the candidates are either present or... Read more »
Helen McEntee

Last Refuge

FG MUCKS OUT FARMERS’ GROUP

A SIGN of Leo Varadkar’s fear at the decline of his party’s future election prospects came recently with an email from Vlad to members of the FG Agriculture Affairs Group... Read more »
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Last Refuge

CARROLL MACNEILL REVIVES FRIENDS OF ISRAEL CLUB

EFFORTS TO revive the cross-party oireachtas Friends of Israel group begin with an invitation to a pro-Israel speaker – who has served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) – to... Read more »

Hush Hush

Caitriona Heini

Hush Hush

THE COMMISSION ON DEFENCE’S MEMBERS

THE COMMISSION on the Defence Forces includes retired officers from the Irish, Finnish and Norwegian defence forces and a handful of civil servants, academics and a trade unionist. But probably... Read more »

Bog Cuttings

Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

‘F**k you all!’ A Kildare man who stripped off his top and told gardaí that he was not going to be arrested was handed a suspended prison sentence by Judge... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

David Horgan

Fowl Emissions

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

FOR YEARS oil executive David Horgan has enjoyed a side gig as one of the media’s favourite pundits, thanks in part to a sort of harmless schoolboy persona. But as... Read more »

Fowl Emissions

RICHARD BRUTON’S HOT AIR

IN 2019, Ireland was on the cusp of a “rooftop revolution”. Minister Richard Bruton’s Climate Action Plan promised that by the end of that year, arcane planning restrictions would be... Read more »

The Hot Air Brigade

Eddie Hobbs

The Hot Air Brigade

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

I think I’ve put in a very good shift in getting a lot of things right on behalf of the Irish people. Eddie Hobbs, interviewed by Donal Lynch, Sunday Independent,... Read more »

High Society

High Society

Joe Donnelly

High Society

JOE DONNELLY’S BETS

IT’S THAT time of the year again, when the name of low-profile former bookie Joe Donnelly, now two decades in self-imposed exile, starts to... Read more »

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

BRETT DESMOND’S ‘BOOST’

THE UPMARKET burger chain run by Dermot Desmond’s scions considers itself a notch above the competition. Dishing out expensive burgers has proved, however, a... Read more »

High Society

Damien Grey

High Society

DAMIEN GREY’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

THERE WAS the usual banquet of media hype last week, following the release of the names of those restaurants that picked up new (or additional) Michelin stars. One of the... Read more »

Behind the Scenes

Jimmy Carr

Behind the Scenes

JIMMY CARR’S TIMING

THE ARTS Council may be wondering if it is a case of when rather than if it will be dragged into the increasingly febrile so-called cancel culture debate, with that... Read more »

Sport of Kings

Ted Walsh

Sport of Kings

TED WALSH’S BIG MOUTH

FORMER MULTIPLE champion jumps trainer Noel Meade and his stable jockey Sean Flanagan found themselves in hot water at Thurles recently when their fourth place finisher Bugs Moran was adjudged... Read more »
Sam Waley Cohen

Sport of Kings

PAUL BYRNE CASHES IN

EMMETT MULLINS and owner Paul Byrne have pulled off another coup courtesy of the sale of Byrne’s Noble Yeats to wealthy English father and son duo Robert and Sam Waley-Cohen.... Read more »
Seamie Heffernan

Sport of Kings

HEFFERNAN’S WHIP HAND

SENIOR FLAT jockey Seamie Heffernan has not got his riding year off to a good start, after being hit with an 11-day ban for misuse of the whip when winning... Read more »
Michael O’Leary

Sport of Kings

O’LEARY’S LAMENT

MICK O’LEARY’S annual rant about the Grand National weights has become a right snore-fest at this stage and exactly what he hopes to achieve from these predictable outbursts is hard... Read more »

Reviews

Free Statism & the Good Old IRA

Books

FREE STATISM & THE GOOD OLD IRA – DANNY MORRISON

THIS IS a book of two parts but just one laser-like focus: ‘free statism’ and its hypocrisy, double-standard and betrayal of Irish citizens in the north. Those ’free staters’ who... Read more »
Here Before

Movies

HERE BEFORE – DIRECTED BY STACEY GREGG

KENNY BRANAGH’S mawkish Belfast might put some people off Stacey Gregg’s Here Before – a film actually made in, if not about, Belfast, unlike the Branagh opus, which was notionally... Read more »

Moneybags

Moneybags

Nick Read

Moneybags

VODAFONE SHARES NOW READY TO DELIVER

ABOUT 380,000 Irish investors in the original Eircom float in 1999 became shareholders in Vodafone in 2001 when the mobile phone business Eircell was... Read more »

Moneybags

Donal Murphy

Moneybags

MURPHY’S STRANGE STRATEGY AT DCC

DCC WAS a non-focused conglomerate a decade ago but dumped half of its then six divisions, finally disposing of the waste sector in May... Read more »

Briefcases

Mike Morris

Briefcases

MIKE MORRIS’S HOTEL HEADACHE

THIS YEAR is not looking any better for hapless hotelier Mike Morris, whose Belmont Hotel in Knock, Co Mayo, burnt down at the end of last year. The dreaded taxman... Read more »
Judge David Keane

Briefcases

JERRY DONOVAN’S JUDGMENT

AN OLD friend of Goldhawk’s, property developer Jerry Donovan, has just suffered a significant setback with the registering of a judgment by Nama against the now UK-based operator for a... Read more »
Catriona Carey

Briefcases

CATRIONA CAREY’S EARLY PROMISE

THE NAME of Catriona Carey has certainly grabbed the public’s attention over the last couple of weeks, following the broadcasting of the RTÉ Investigates programme that dug into her alleged... Read more »

Briefcases

LIQUIDATING LOTUS GREEN

SO FAREWELL then Lotus Green, a company whose name may ring a bell or two. Most readers who kept an eye on the gripping insider trading court case that featured... Read more »
Willie O'Dea

Briefcases

WILLIE O’DEA’S SHARES

FIANNA FÁIL’S Willie O’Dea was all over the media last weekend, with a flurry of eye-catching statements that hungry pol corrs leapt on. First, there was his claim that he... Read more »