Affairs of the Nation Archives

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

ZUZANA’S ZETBACK

August 25, 2022

GOLDHAWK SPOTTED that a judgment for a hefty $438,000 (€439,000) has been registered against Co Waterford developer Shane Houlihan and his American wife,... Read more »

AN ENEMY OF THE CROWN

August 25, 2022

NEW INFORMATION about a decade-long MI6 smear campaign against Charles Haughey and even an operation to sully St John Hume is about to... Read more »

DUBAI JUDGES: WHO KNEW AND WHEN?

August 11, 2022

SABINA HIGGINS’S public spat may have helped to obscure not so much the appointment of heavyweight Irish judges Frank Clarke and Peter Kelly... Read more »

BISHOPS CENSORED!

August 11, 2022

THE NORTHERN Ireland Equality Commission is mulling over a request for “advice” from an unusual quarter – the Catholic Primate of All Ireland,... Read more »

ALL ABOUT EVA

August 11, 2022

HEALTH GURU Eva Orsmond (previously of Operation Transformation fame) was back on RTÉ this week with the second series on her attempt to... Read more »

FRANCES RUANE’S SHORT RUN

August 11, 2022

AS GOLDHAWK predicted (see The Phoenix 17/6/22), former economist Frances Ruane has been given just a two-year extension to her initial five-year term... Read more »

FRANC’S UKRAINIAN BONUS

August 11, 2022

GOLDHAWK’S favourite wedding planner, Peter Kelly, aka ‘Franc’, has been doing rather better out of the State coffers this year than was the... Read more »

MORGAN O’SULLIVAN’S CAST

August 11, 2022

THERE HAS been an immediate reaction from the Irish Film Workers Association (IFWA) to a piece in the Sunday Times on disputes at... Read more »

CHECKING THE FACT CHECKERS

August 11, 2022

‘FACT CHECKING’ has become a virtuous activity of liberal and not-so-liberal agencies (in the West) fighting “misinformation” (in the East) and one of... Read more »

GREAT GREEN GAS WARS CONTINUE

August 11, 2022

AS IRELAND struggles to decarbonise its energy system in line with ambitious 2030 targets and in light of the deteriorating international energy landscape,... Read more »

MI6, BORIS AND THE LEBEDEVS

August 11, 2022

Once upon a time, Britain’s Independent newspaper was owned by Sir Tony O’Reilly, Thatcher’s favourite Irishman. Then it was a platform to question... Read more »

RUSH TO ARMS

July 28, 2022

THREE POLLS on Irish neutrality since the Russian invasion of Ukraine have disappointed the dogs of war in government and the Defence Forces... Read more »

Nóirín Hegarty Sunday Times Staff Cuts Jobs

MURDOCH’S DAYS OF CARNAGE

July 28, 2022

WHAT HACKS at Sunday Times Ireland and Times Ireland called ‘days of carnage’ came to an end last week with more than a... Read more »

SIMON COVENEY’S MEDIA FUND

July 28, 2022

ONE HIGHLY publicised element of the report by Brian MacCraith’s Future of Media Commission was the rejection of the recommendation that the licence... Read more »

ENDA KENNY’S ENERGY SHARES

July 28, 2022

WHILE IT may be assumed by many that Enda Kenny is taking things easy these days, apart from hosting the odd sleepy RTÉ... Read more »

COLM O’GORMAN’S LEGACY

July 28, 2022

GOLDHAWK’S favourite charity executive, Colm O’Gorman, is now settling in as a senior director at the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative. Given that it... Read more »

HELEN MCENTEE’S CRITIC

July 28, 2022

JUSTICE MINISTER Helen McEntee came under fire this month when shutting down visa exemption rules for refugees travelling to Ireland from other European... Read more »

GARRY O’SULLIVAN’S MAMMON

July 28, 2022

WHILE THE poor old print media has been under severe pressure in recent years as the digital giants like Google and Facebook hoover... Read more »

AGRI-CATASTROPHE

July 28, 2022

Hysteria has this week been dialled up to 11 as the agri-industrial sector went into full scale panic mode in a last gasp... Read more »

SECRET DIPLOMAT’S KIDNAP FILES

July 28, 2022

FOREIGN AND Commonwealth Office (FCO) files have just been released which shed some light on the IRA kidnapping of Germany’s Consul in Belfast,... Read more »

NETFLIX’S NEW DRAMA

July 14, 2022

IT CAN be hard to escape the name of Ian Bailey these days after the gardaí reopened the infamous Sophie Toscan du Plantier... Read more »

SPOOKS DO FOR BORIS

July 14, 2022

HOW FASCINATING it is to note that two and more of the senior British civil servants that downed British PM, Boris Johnson, have... Read more »

PETER FITZGERALD’S RANDOX TESTING BONANZA

July 14, 2022

LAST WEEK, the Advertising Standard Authority of Ireland (ASAI) issued its latest bulletin on complaints received over advertisements alleged to be misleading or... Read more »

NGI NEW BOARD

July 14, 2022

THE NATIONAL Gallery of Ireland (NGI) is looking for four new board members. Presumably, by the time they are in situ, we will... Read more »

MARTIN SHANAHAN’S SURPRISE EXIT

July 14, 2022

THERE WAS plenty of praise for outgoing IDA Ireland boss Martin Shanahan, who surprised everyone by calling it a day at the state... Read more »

SOPHIE’S COLD CASE REVIEW

July 14, 2022

WHAT IS the real motivation behind the cold case review and reopening of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier... Read more »

ISRAEL MONITORS THE IRISH

July 14, 2022

IN MARCH this year, Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, had a pop at Irish parliamentarians – during a... Read more »

IIEA NEW MANDARIN: DAVID O’SULLIVAN

July 14, 2022

THE NEW director general of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), David O’Sullivan, has been quick to use the institute’s favourite... Read more »

MUTINOUS NOISES

July 14, 2022

THE MOST interesting thing about that internal, unpublished government Defence Forces report on the state of relations between the Defence Forces and the... Read more »

MARY AIKEN’S PALS

June 30, 2022

WITHOUT DOUBT, the most interesting of the women conferred with the freedom of Dublin City last month is Mary Aiken (whose latest gig... Read more »

MALIGN MISSION

June 30, 2022

THE IRISH Times reported last week that the government is reconsidering its military mission in Mali, due mainly to security issues; human rights... Read more »

NOEL SMYTH’S WUFF RIDE

June 30, 2022

THIS WEEK will see the next chapter in the ongoing saga of a potential sale by the Irish Kennel Club (IKC) of its... Read more »

PAUL WARD’S €15M JUDGMENT

June 30, 2022

THE HIGH Court has just awarded a hefty €15m judgment against cinema magnate Paul Ward as a result of a legal action taken... Read more »

COLIN HUNT’S PRESIDENCY

June 30, 2022

THERE WERE eyebrows raised last week when it emerged that AIB’s Colin Hunt is to receive the Ireland-US Council’s 2022 Global Business Leadership... Read more »

IN PRAISE OF GERALDINE BYRNE NASON

June 30, 2022

Quite a few diplomatic and political eyebrows were raised last week by the Business Post’s breathless account of how a civil servant, our... Read more »

WHY WAS DE RÓISTE FRAMED?

June 30, 2022

53 YEARS is a long time to wait for justice if you were forced to ‘retire’ and had your life ruined for no... Read more »