Article Category: Affairs of the Nation

NEW FG MINISTERS

January 28, 2016

SPECULATION about the next Fine Gael cabinet was far more intense among ard fheis delegates last weekend than curiosity about which Independent TDs... Read more »

FUNDING THE MARY ROBINSON CENTRE

January 28, 2016

MORE ON that Mary Robinson Centre (MRC), the multi-million euro project proposed for Robbo’s family home in Ballina. The question of exactly how... Read more »

APOLOGISING TO DENIS O’BRIEN

January 28, 2016

DENIS O’BRIEN is not known for his sense of humour, especially when it comes to the media, so comparing him to Adolf Hitler... Read more »

LUCY GAFFNEY TO HEAD RTÉ?

January 28, 2016

COULD it possibly be that the RTÉ board will hire Lucy Gaffney, right hand woman in Denis O’Brien’s media empire, as director general... Read more »

DON McMANUS V JOE DUFFY

January 28, 2016

SOME HEATED comments on RTÉ’s Liveline programme in September last have resulted in a suit for defamation being lodged by Dún Laoghaire businessman... Read more »

BIRMINGHAM BOMBS: 41 YEARS ON

January 28, 2016

THE tardiness of West Midlands Police in investigating the true identities of those responsible for the 1974 Birmingham bombs has been underlined by... Read more »

CONOR KILLEEN’S SPORTS STRATEGY

January 28, 2016

INTERESTING to see financier and investor Conor Killeen of Key Capital, who took control of the Sunday Business Post in 2014, now playing... Read more »

EDDIE SHEEHY’S LEGACY

January 28, 2016

WICKLOW COUNTY COUNCIL (WCC) is a much duller place in the absence of its former county manager, the combative Eddie Sheehy, whose relations... Read more »

RTÉ CLIMATE DENIERS

January 28, 2016

IS RTÉ easy prey for the farming lobby? One might expect that the largely liberal programmers in the national broadcaster would be enthusiastic... Read more »

FLANAGAN FURIOUS OVER HALAWA

January 14, 2016

FOREIGN minister Charlie Flanagan was not best pleased to see Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan rip apart his softy-softly strategy on Ibrahim Halawa... Read more »

THREE RING CIRCUS IN MAYO

January 14, 2016

FINE GAEL and Enda Kenny’s’ target of three seats in the Taoiseach’s revised four-seat Mayo constituency will be even harder to achieve than... Read more »

MAHON: ASKING THE RELEVANT QUESTIONS

January 14, 2016

DOES environment minister Alan Kelly know what the Mahon Tribunal’s been up to since he nodded through, last February, its disposal of crucial... Read more »

AFTER McGONAGLE AT NCAD

January 14, 2016

IT PROBABLY did not come as too much of a surprise to observers of the goings on in Dublin 8 that the National... Read more »

Saudi Allies?

January 14, 2016

THE RETICENCE of Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan to issue a statement condemning the execution of 47 people by the King Salman... Read more »

PETER MALBASHA’S ‘MISLEADING’ EVIDENCE

January 14, 2016

THERE WAS at least one red face in Nama last month following the outcome of a High Court case concerning the developer, Garrett... Read more »

JUDGE MALONE’S LIBEL WIN

January 14, 2016

ATTORNEY GENERAL Máire Whelan made the interesting suggestion recently that the defamation laws should be reformed to allow more latitude to court reporters.... Read more »

BERGERAC LIVES

January 14, 2016

HOW can an ex-garda get himself involved in legal proceedings against a newspaper in Sark, a small island in the Channel Islands (population... Read more »

MARTIN’S LEFT TURN

January 14, 2016

THIS weekend’s Fianna Fáil ard fheis will resonate to thunderous attacks on the ‘right wing, uncaring, Thatcherite’ etc Fine Gael, as Micheál Martin... Read more »

COALITION SECRETS AND LIES

December 17, 2015

THE four main political parties are lying through their teeth about their coalition options or non-options and the post-election scramble for power will... Read more »

JUDGE CORMAC DUNNE’S COSTS

December 17, 2015

JUDGE CORMAC Dunne has had his fair share of scrapes, but the good news is that at least he doesn’t have to pay... Read more »

MICK O’LEARY’S OIL BILL

December 17, 2015

HOW IRONIC it was to see Mick O’Leary popping up at the annual Dublin Chamber of Commerce Christmas lunch last week claiming that... Read more »

RUNNING RINGS AROUND DRINK BILL

December 17, 2015

ARE Fine Gael and sport minister Paschal Donohoe having a laugh with the minister’s recent statement that he was handing over responsibility for... Read more »

ANN REIHILL’S REDUCED IMAGE

December 17, 2015

ALMOST FORTY years after the magazine first appeared, these are interesting times at Image Publications. There has been a complex restructuring of the... Read more »

ALAN KELLY’S PARIS EMISSIONS

December 17, 2015

“CRAZY” and “frankly not sane” were among the words used by Alan Kelly in Paris last week in relation to Ireland’s beef sector... Read more »

‘MING’ FLANAGAN’S FACEBOOK POST

December 17, 2015

COMBATIVE MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is no slouch when it comes to a legal row and lodged High Court proceedings against The Irish... Read more »

MARY ROBINSON’S EXPENSIVE ARCHIVE

December 4, 2015

THE NEWS from the west of Ireland last week was that the Mary Robinson Centre (MRC) in Ballina is set to open in... Read more »

FIONA’S FOOT IN THE DOOR

December 4, 2015

ONE Dáil candidate who cannot be described as a token female selected to fulfill the gender quota is Fine Gael’s Fiona McLoughlin Healy... Read more »

Exotic Alliance adds another specimen

December 4, 2015

LORD Ross’s Independent Alliance becomes more exotic and eclectic by the hour and the latest target for his parliamentary grouping is Sinn Féin... Read more »

Henderson’s Ham-Fisted HR Hiccup

December 4, 2015

EVEN though the Irish Daily Mail’s flamboyant MD Paul Henderson hasn’t previously been shy about putting journalists’ noses out of joint, it appears... Read more »

BANG BOYS GO BUST

December 4, 2015

A LITTLE late in the day, the Taxman has registered a judgment of €236,000 against ‘delinquent director’ Simon Stokes, whose restaurateur family previously... Read more »

VARADKAR’S ABORTIVE MOVES

December 4, 2015

WHAT an unusually moderate and discreet stance Leo Varadkar took during Fine Gael’s abortion row last week. That row was triggered by James... Read more »

DERMOT DESMOND’S BAD BET

December 4, 2015

DERMOT DESMOND is digging in his heels in an attempt to stymie the proposed merger of betting giants Ladbrokes and GalaCoral. Behind his... Read more »

DAVID AGAR’S SEMI-D

December 4, 2015

  THINGS are looking bleak for poor David Agar, the auctioneer and property developer who hit the headlines following a prescient interview in... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S ‘NO’ TO GOVERNMENT

December 4, 2015

THAT disavowal of coalition government by Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher is as devious as it is amusing. FF talking about rebuilding the party... Read more »

JUDICIOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS

November 20, 2015

ONE of the things that the eagerly awaited Judicial Council – which has been long-fingered by successive governments – may wish to consider... Read more »

MAHON TRIBUNAL’S TANGLED WEB

November 20, 2015

GOOD to see the media catching up with developments in the Mahon Tribunal (see The Phoenix 23/10/15 and passim), but it’s high time... Read more »