Affairs of the Nation Archives

AFFAIRS OF THE NATION

FIANNA FÁIL FAILING

June 4, 2020

WHY IS the media closing its eyes and ears to the ongoing implosion of Fianna Fáil as its poll figures decline in inverse... Read more »

BARRY ENGLISH VS ‘IRISH TIMES’

June 4, 2020

HIGH COURT defamation proceedings have been initiated by Barry English (one of Bertie Ahern’s ‘dig-out’ buddies) against the Irish Times. Curiously, the case... Read more »

MEL GIBSON’S MOVIE BLUES

June 4, 2020

IT IS nearly a year since the Mel Gibson film The Professor and the Madman got a (very) limited release in the US... Read more »

SIMON COVENEY’S SILENCE

June 4, 2020

LAST MONTH, Nicolás Maduro’s security forces rounded up around 50 of those suspected of having participated in a botched attempt to capture the... Read more »

TRANSGENDER BODY’S MISSING AUDIT

June 4, 2020

WITH THE government preparing to simplify the process for 16 and 17 year olds to change gender, there is nothing simple about funding... Read more »

COVENEY’S SLEVEEN DIPLOMACY

June 4, 2020

ONE OF the most disingenuous speeches in the annals of diplomacy was delivered by our ambassador to the United Nations, Geraldine Byrne Nason,... Read more »

OLD ‘FRIENDS’ ARE BEST

June 4, 2020

FIFTY-ONE YEARS is a long time to wait for possible reversal of a miscarriage of justice. But whether or not 75-year-old Lt Donal... Read more »

MILEY’S €500 MILLION

June 4, 2020

JIM MILEY’S four-year stint as the Blueshirts’ general secretary (prior to outgoing gen sec Tom Curran) appears to count for little with the... Read more »

PASCHAL DONOHOE’S VACANCY

June 4, 2020

WHILE THERE has been an agreed truce regarding the filling of seats on assorted state-linked boards while the ‘caretaker’ government remains in situ,... Read more »

DR KEVIN CAHILL’S ACCUSER

June 4, 2020

A POTENTIALLY devastating scandal threatens one of the most distinguished Irish-American medics in generations, New York-based Dr Kevin Cahill. Cahill studied with Mother... Read more »

BLUESHIRT ELECTION PLOT

May 21, 2020

THAT Irish Times report about general election contingency preparations “by officials on the orders of minister for housing Eoghan Murphy” was revised in... Read more »

BARNSTORMING THE HIGH COURT

May 21, 2020

RETIRING HIGH Court president Justice Kelly’s successor will likely come from that set which for years staffed the upper echelons of the Law... Read more »

RORY MCILROY’S INVESTMENT

May 21, 2020

RORY MCILROY made headlines last week after saying in an interview that he wouldn’t play golf again with Donald Tump. He has also... Read more »

MBS AND MCD

May 21, 2020

THERE WERE glum faces earlier this month, including Denis Desmond’s, when MCD pulled the plug on the 2020 Electric Picnic. However, Goldhawk wonders... Read more »

TROUBLE BREWING FOR TRACING APP

May 21, 2020

THERE HAS been much talk by Paul Reid and the HSE about the proposed Covid-19 smartphone contact tracing app due out in the... Read more »

MANDARINS DEFEND NAMA

May 21, 2020

THE DEPARTMENT of Finance (DoF) went out to bat for Brendan McDonagh and Frank Daly (CEO and chair of Nama respectively), claiming that... Read more »

SPECIALISTS IN SPLITS

May 21, 2020

THE HIPPOCRATIC Oath brigade are a great bunch for splits and it looks like another has emerged in recent weeks. The 400 private-only... Read more »

AENGUS Ó SNODAIGH LEADS THE WAY

May 21, 2020

THE MORE ‘respectable’ political parties were recently made to look amateurish and even disrespectful of parliamentary procedure by Sinn Féin. At a virtual... Read more »

BOI SUPERWOMAN

May 21, 2020

Things seem to keep going from bad to worse for Bank of Ireland (BoI) boss Francesca McDonagh. Having spent days last week calming... Read more »

NURSING HOME CASH

May 21, 2020

INDEPENDENT CLARE TD Michael McNamara will have his work cut out running the new Oireachtas Covid-19 committee. Real teeth will be needed to... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S APPALLING VISTA

May 7, 2020

THE REMARKABLE aspect of the current crisis in Fianna Fáil is the almost deafening silence, not just from senior politicians but the media,... Read more »

MICHAEL SOMERS AND THE LAWYERS

May 7, 2020

WITH THE state focused on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated mounting costs, a new front was opened by... Read more »

ANNE HERATY’S REWARDS

May 7, 2020

INTERESTING to see that eager nurses who thought they would be recruited by the HSE when seeking to help fight the pandemic are... Read more »

FESTIVAL FEELS THE PAIN

May 7, 2020

WITH THE 61st Rose of Tralee hooley cancelled, it will be 2021 before the successor to Limerick’s Sinéad Flanagan is crowned. Given the... Read more »

TALES FROM THE FRONT

May 7, 2020

THE SOOTHING tones of the messages pumped out on the state broadcaster, reassuring employers that the government of Ireland has their backs in... Read more »

CONSULTANTS HOLD THE LINE

May 7, 2020

THE SUDDEN appearance of what looks like a single, public-only health service has come as a shock to the better-paid specialist doctors in... Read more »

LUCINDA TAKES ON LEFTIES

May 7, 2020

LAST MONTH Lucinda Creighton got back into her Renua ‘flat-tax’ mode with hysterical attacks on harmless Labourites, do-gooder Social Democrats and environment-loving Greens... Read more »

COMING AND GOING AT REHAB

May 7, 2020

THE PANDEMIC means that few – apart from regulators in HIQA and some funders in the Department of Health – have noticed the... Read more »

RACEHORSE OWNERS SADDLE UP

May 7, 2020

AFTER MEMBERS of the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) got quite the shock last year, there has been some corporate jockeying. The... Read more »

ARMS TRIAL REPLAY

May 7, 2020

THE Sunday Times selection of academic Eoin O’Malley – son of then justice minister Des O’Malley (Jack Lynch’s prodigy) – to review Michael... Read more »

TADHG DALY’S REVENGE

April 23, 2020

THE TURNING of the PR tide against Simon Harris has been in no small measure due to the relentless efforts of one Tadhg... Read more »

CAROLINE KEELING’S WORKERS

April 23, 2020

THERE WAS a predictable outcry by Ireland’s hair-trigger xenophobes when fruit company Keelings was reported to be bringing in migrant workers to pick... Read more »

DECLAN KELLY’S DANCING SHOES

April 23, 2020

TENEO FOUNDER Declan Kelly is not one to play down his accomplishments. The latest talent no one knew he had is that of... Read more »

BILL HOLOHAN’S WASTED COSTS ORDER

April 23, 2020

THERE WAS a pretty damning ruling issued in the High Court earlier this month by Judge Denis McDonald, in relation to the case... Read more »

ROBERT ARMSTRONG’S RECORD

April 23, 2020

THE 1,700-word obituary of Lord Robert Armstrong, published in the Irish Times last weekend, omitted a few interesting details. As principal private secretary... Read more »

JOHN McGABHANN’S REPORT CARD

April 23, 2020

TEACHERS’ UNION boss John McGabhann probably cannot believe his luck as he prepares to retire as general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of... Read more »