Affairs of the Nation Archives

AFFAIRS OF THE NATION

IRELAND’S SECRET MILITARY PLANS

April 22, 2021

AN ARTICLE in the Defence Forces Review 2020 has caused a spat between its authors, the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence over charges... Read more »

‘CHICKEN KING’ BOPARAN

April 22, 2021

A COMPANY called Ilderstone Ltd has just been liquidated. This turns out to be an entity linked to the Harry Ramsden’s outlets in... Read more »

DAVID KENNEDY’S CASE

April 22, 2021

THIS WEEK will see the eagerly awaited 2020 annual report from the controversial Datalex firm. The impact of developments in China will be... Read more »

THEY HAVEN’T GONE AWAY, YOU KNOW

April 22, 2021

THE GOOD Friday Agreement was signed almost a quarter of a century ago, with one of its key commitments that the north would... Read more »

DOWN ON THE FARMERS

April 22, 2021

WHATEVER ELSE you might say about RTÉ, it does take impartiality seriously. You would be generally hard pressed to say for sure how... Read more »

SHEIKH MAKTOUM’S GOOD GOING?

April 8, 2021

HORSE RACING Ireland (HRI) finds itself in the spotlight again as the sport faces new pressure to acknowledge the toxic issues surrounding Sheikh... Read more »

STEPHEN DONNELLY: ZERO TO HERO?

April 8, 2021

THE BIGGEST cabinet split between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ministers since the formation of government occurred last week over health minister Stephen... Read more »

KERRY GUINAN’S UNION

April 8, 2021

IT’S NOT every day that a new union comes along but the arrival of the Artists’ Union of Ireland (AUI) looks set to... Read more »

TV’S ROYAL FAMILY

April 8, 2021

IN CASE you missed it, the ‘RTS Irish Television Awards’ had its inaugural outing last week on Virgin Media One, where many of... Read more »

BREEGE O’DONOGHUE’S SUCCESSOR?

April 8, 2021

THERE IS still no sign of a new chair being appointed by Leo Varadkar at the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI),... Read more »

‘IRISH MEDICAL TIMES’ PACIFIST

April 8, 2021

THE WINDS of austerity have swept through the Irish publishing industry, with even the medical media feeling the chill in recent years. Chief... Read more »

COVERT SECURITY PLANS

April 8, 2021

THE YEAR 2021 is supposed to see a strategic review of defence as scheduled in the 2016 White Paper, it being the midterm... Read more »

KEN’S LONG GOODBYE

March 25, 2021

THE LIFE and times of retiring Law Society director general Ken Murphy were shared, last Friday, with lucky past presidents of the society... Read more »

APOLLO’S QUARANTINE SHOT

March 25, 2021

WITH THE hospitality sector in tatters, the landing of the state’s quarantine accommodation contract represents a real fillip for the Tifco Hotels group.... Read more »

IAN BLACK’S PAC GRILLING

March 25, 2021

THERE WERE fun and games at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this month, when the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) faced... Read more »

JUDGE HUMPHREYS’ PEERS

March 25, 2021

THE ELEVATION recently of Siobhán Stack SC to the High Court bench will have been welcomed by her Law Library colleagues and also... Read more »

EOGHAN HARRIS’S SLEEPERS

March 25, 2021

THE MOST brazen aspect of the weekend’s Eoghan Harris column in the Sindo was not the cartoon’s sexist barb at the witch-like Mary... Read more »

BETHANY HOME AND THE ‘IRISH TIMES’

March 25, 2021

TWO MONTHS ago The Phoenix published a special investigation into the Irish Times’ suppression over many years of information about ill-treatment of children... Read more »

HARVEY BOULTER’S MURDER CHARGE

March 25, 2021

GOLDHAWK WONDERS what impact a startling development may have on the plaintiff in High Court proceedings faced by his old friend, investor extraordinaire... Read more »

BRIAN POLLY’S LEGAL ACTION

March 11, 2021

HORSES HAVE been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently and another equine row is bubbling away, this time involving Brian... Read more »

DENIS O’BRIEN’S RADIO EXIT

March 11, 2021

DENIS O’BRIEN was happy to wave goodbye to his Irish radio business when the deal to sell his Communicorp radio group to Bauer... Read more »

RIGHT-WING SPECTRUM

March 11, 2021

FOLLOWING THE recent violent anti-lockdown protest in Dublin, justice minister Helen McEntee said she was reluctant “to get caught up in who was... Read more »

DAVY/‘IRISH TIMES’ AND ‘TRUST’

March 11, 2021

A BEAUTIFUL friendship, partnership even, has been destroyed by the actions of those wheeler-dealers at the Davy Group, which last year had joined... Read more »

FF COMMITTEE CAST

March 11, 2021

THAT’S AN interesting committee selected to work on a postmortem about Fianna Fáil’s poor general election result last February. Two junior ministers, Seán... Read more »

BRIAN KAVANAGH’S NEXT RIDE?

March 11, 2021

INVESTORS IN the revamped Curragh racecourse (who include the likes of John Magnier, JP McManus and one Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum), will be... Read more »

JOHN CORRIGAN’S ‘PRIVATE MATTER’

March 11, 2021

WHILE HEADS have rolled at Davy this week, chairman John Corrigan remains in place, which suggests he is doing a hell of a... Read more »

COVENEY SILENT ON KHASHOGGI MURDER

March 11, 2021

WITH US President Joe Biden under pressure for not sanctioning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the murder of... Read more »

IRISH DPP SCOTS KINGMAKER

March 11, 2021

THE BYZANTINE feud between former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond and his successor Nicola Sturgeon involves complex legal and parliamentary detail, which is... Read more »

TRACY PIGGOTT’S OUTRAGE

March 11, 2021

THE RACING community is still drawing breath after circulation of that photograph of Gordon Elliott sitting on a dead horse, with the trainer... Read more »

MARY ROBINSON’S PR DISASTER

February 25, 2021

MARY ROBINSON has faced a barrage of criticism since the BBC’s report on the plight of Sheikha Latifa, the hapless daughter of United... Read more »

UNA MCGURK’S FIGHTBACK

February 25, 2021

OUTSPOKEN SENIOR counsel Una McGurk received an apology from Irish Legal News (ILN) last week over an article in the online publication. It... Read more »

‘I. TIMES’ SILENT ON BETHANY BABY HOME

February 25, 2021

FOLLOWING JUDGE Yvonne Murphy’s report last month into mother and baby homes, The Phoenix published an investigation, ‘Bethany Baby Home and the Irish... Read more »

EAMON RYAN’S PRIORITIES

February 25, 2021

THE DECISION of Dublin City Council to reject an application by the ESB to change the much-loved Georgian Museum on Lower Fitzwilliam Street... Read more »

MARY AIKEN’S PAYDAY

February 25, 2021

GOLDHAWK WAS delighted to see that celebrity cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken has made a fair few bob out of her involvement with a US... Read more »

‘SPINELESS TEAM EU’

February 25, 2021

CHEERY COMMENT from Irish Times Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary recently – “Millions more doses secured for Ireland” – came a day after the... Read more »

SIMON COVENEY’S PROMISES

February 25, 2021

REMEMBER HOW foreign minister Simon Coveney made theatrical and rhetorical gestures about recognising Palestinian statehood and breaking with the EU consensus on foreign... Read more »