Affairs of the Nation Archives

AFFAIRS OF THE NATION

AODHÁN Ó RÍORDÁIN’S CONSTITUENTS

February 7, 2019

‘PROPERTY OWNERS of Howth, unite! You have nothing to lose but your cliff views’ is Labour Party senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin’s latest rallying... Read more »

SECRET CENTENARY PLANS PRISED OPEN

January 24, 2019

THE OIREACHTAS commemoration of the first Dáil passed off without controversy, but the government’s failure to disclose, until this month, any details whatsoever... Read more »

DINNY’S DWINDLING ASSETS

January 24, 2019

DENIS O’BRIEN must have been chuffed with the guesstimate of his wealth that appeared in last weekend’s Sunday Independent Rich List. The title,... Read more »

TABLOID TALKING POINTS ON ‘PRIME TIME’

January 24, 2019

TRANS RIGHTS and gender recognition are trendy, emotive and complex issues and it wasn’t going to be too long before Prime Time blundered... Read more »

THE ABBEY’S BAD TIMING

January 24, 2019

IN THIS issue (see p14), Goldhawk profiles the man at the centre of the Abbey Theatre’s latest offstage drama, director Graham McLaren, and... Read more »

VARADKAR’S YELLOW PERIL

January 24, 2019

WHAT A strange, strident initiative Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made on behalf of Ireland during his visit to North Africa’s Mali and Ethiopia recently.... Read more »

ROSS VS JUDGES: INJURY TIME

January 24, 2019

IS SHANE Ross’s Judicial Appointments Bill in its final stages of enactment or will there be extra time in the Seanad and Dáil?... Read more »

GARY KAVANAGH’S PALS

January 24, 2019

THERE HAS been quite a surge in activity in recent weeks at right-wing “think tank” the Edmund Burke Institute (EBI), where Gary Kavanagh... Read more »

PAISLEY’S JUNKET

January 24, 2019

CO-OPERATION IRELAND, which funded Ian Paisley’s first-class junket (£6,327 in travel and accommodation) to New York last year, is headed by a former... Read more »

LAW SOCIETY WARS

January 24, 2019

MAYO SOLICITOR Daniel Coleman has just emerged from a decade-long joust with the Law Society. He was successful in an appeal to the... Read more »

PADDY PRENDERGAST’S PROJECT

January 24, 2019

NOT FOR the first time, Trinity College Dublin students are expressing their dissatisfaction with Provost Paddy Prendergast and his administration (see The Phoenix,... Read more »

EILEEN BATTERSBY’S LITERARY LUVVIES

January 10, 2019

THE OUTPOURINGS from literati in the Irish Times and elsewhere following the death of literary correspondent Eileen Battersby disguised the tensions that existed... Read more »

MARY ROBINSON’S CREDENTIALS

January 10, 2019

MOST OBSERVERS have been baffled by Mary Robinson’s blunder in giving cover to the feudal Emirates ruling family and noticed the irony of... Read more »

DIARMUID MARTIN’S SUCCESSOR

January 10, 2019

The race to succeed Diarmuid Martin as Archbishop of Dublin has begun in earnest, even though the most successful head in recent times... Read more »

NIALL MCGARRY’S BIG YEAR

January 10, 2019

GOLHAWK’S favourite self-promoting online publisher, Niall McGarry, has hit the ground running in 2019, promising a very big year for his Maximum Media... Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ ROMAN FEUD

January 10, 2019

THE IRISH TIMES’S refusal to adequately recompense Paddy Agnew, its Rome correspondent of 28 years, has now involved six hearings at the Tribunale... Read more »

THOSE IRISH YELLOW VESTS

January 10, 2019

Who exactly are the Irish Yellow Vests? The movement in France is a leaderless broad church but, although subject to some right-wing infiltration,... Read more »

HELEN LUCEY’S SEMI-KINGDOM

January 10, 2019

THE LAW Society Gazette’s report last month on sanctions imposed on Listowel solicitor Helen Lucey raises an interesting question about Lucey’s role of... Read more »

ODRAN REID’S POLITICS

January 10, 2019

The changes continue apace at Brendan Halligan’s Ireland China Institute, the “independent think tank dedicated to the study of Irish Chinese affairs”. The... Read more »

SOFTLY DOES IT WITH THE MAKTOUMS

January 9, 2019

GIVEN THE influence of the Dubai ruling Al Maktoum family here, the silence to date of the Irish government on the Sheikha Latifa... Read more »

COVENEY’S CAREFUL CHOREOGRAPHY

December 13, 2018

ALAN SHATTER’S predictable outburst against Simon Coveney on the Israel-Palestine issue will actually be welcomed by the foreign minister. Far from behaving like... Read more »

TROUBLE BREWING AT TROY STUDIOS?

December 13, 2018

IN FEBRUARY this year, culture minister Josepha Madigan was invited to a ‘do’ in the Merrion Hotel, Dublin, by Kim Harris, general counsel... Read more »

PITT’S HUNT FOR INM LEAKS

December 13, 2018
THE SHINE has come off former Independent News & Media (INM) chief executive Robert Pitt – the man who blew the whistle on INM’s... Read more »

COMMONWEALTH BLUES

December 13, 2018

AT THE height of the Brexit crisis, what are Fine Gael senators Neale Richmond and Frankie Feighan up to in their promotion of... Read more »

FF MAN TO SAVE MADAM MENG?

December 13, 2018

FORMER Fianna Fáil spin doctor Dave Harmon will surely be called on to provide political and diplomatic assistance to Ms Meng Wanzhou, chief... Read more »

DIVIDENDS AT GRAFTON COLLEGE

December 13, 2018

WHILE THE sudden closure of Grafton College English language school attracted plenty of media attention, little has been said about the operation behind... Read more »

PHIL HOGAN V FRANCES FITZGERALD

December 13, 2018

SUCH IS the poll-induced hubris in Fine Gael, especially in Dublin, that party seniors are already divvying up and apportioning potential MEPs and... Read more »

UNION FACTION FIGHTS

December 13, 2018

AN INTRIGUING political quarrel inside the country’s second-largest union, Fórsa, saw its youth wing, Fórsa Youth Network, closed down recently by the union’s... Read more »

CHASING MICHAEL HEGARTY

December 13, 2018

FANS OF Goldhawk may have been a tad surprised to see East Cork Blueshirt county councillor Michael Hegarty pop up on a three-man... Read more »

ZAPPER ZAPS HER CONSTITUENCY

November 29, 2018

THE DANCING on children’s minister, Katherine Zappone’s political coffin that Fine Gael and media commentators have engaged in could be most premature judging... Read more »

DANA LIBEL SAGA: CHAPTER 1

November 29, 2018
DANA’S libel settlement with the Sunday World this week is just the beginning of a long, litigious war for the singer and former presidential... Read more »

DENIS O’BRIEN’S AWARD

November 29, 2018

CONGRATULATIONS TO Denis O’Brien, who has landed an honorary fellowship from the National College of Ireland (NCI). It is the least the great... Read more »

LUKE COMER’S HEAVY GOING

November 29, 2018

ALTHOUGH ONLY a handful of people in this country can claim to be richer than developer Luke Comer, he finds himself being sued... Read more »

LORRAINE HIGGINS FOR EUROPE?

November 29, 2018

FORMER LABOUR senator Lorraine Higgins has suddenly become a lady that lunches with Blueblouse women and has been tweeting in support of the... Read more »

JACKIE LAVIN’S LITIGATION

November 29, 2018

INTERESTING to see Jackie Lavin once again suing Bill Cullen (this time with Ulster Bank). The happy couple have been down this road... Read more »

WHO FEARS TO SPEAK?

November 29, 2018

EARLY LAST month, French President Emmanuel Macron demanded the creation of a “real European army”, arguing in apocalyptic mode that “we have to... Read more »