Article Category: Affairs of the Nation

OLIVER CALLAN’S POOR MOUTH

January 25, 2024

TO HARDLY anyone’s surprise, the safe pair of hands that is Oliver Callan landed the gig as Ryan Tubridy’s successor on RTÉ Radio... Read more »

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MAURA DERIVAN’S BIG YEAR

January 25, 2024

EARLIER THIS month, Carrick-on-Suir accountant Bobby Fitzgerald’s 14-year-long defamation case against solicitor Maura Derivan, who until last November was president of the Law... Read more »

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KEVIN RAFTER’S DISAPPEARING ACT

January 25, 2024

THE DEADLINE has now passed for applicants looking to replace DCU’s Kevin Rafter as chair of the Arts Council following his premature exit... Read more »

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EDDIE AND BRENDAN

January 25, 2024

THE PUBLIC veneration of the late Eddie O’Connor – with tributes to his visionary, wealth-creating genius and so on – included an unwitting... Read more »

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REVISING NÍ GHRÁLAIGH’S IDEAS

January 25, 2024

THE IRISH TIMES’s authority on modern Irish history, Ronan McGreevy, seems confused about the political inspiration behind barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh. The Irish... Read more »

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DANNY MCCONNELL’S RIGHT MOVE

January 25, 2024

BUSINESS POST editor Danny McConnell gave Palestinian supporters in the Dáil a good telling off last week for supporting the South African charge... Read more »

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KITSON’S DIRTY WAR

January 25, 2024
THE RECENT demise of General Sir Frank Kitson (see The Phoenix 12/1/24) was a blessing in disguise for the darker elements of the British... Read more »

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DISSIDENTS SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE

January 25, 2024

WHILE SINN Féin’s project has brought the republican movement close to state power north and south, the factions that split away from SF... Read more »

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IRISH ARMS TO ISRAEL

January 11, 2024
IT WAS hardly surprising that little or no fanfare accompanied Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney’s release of the 2022 Annual Report... Read more »

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GOLDEN GLOBES GUFF

January 11, 2024

WHEN THE heat really came on last year, RTÉ emphasised its news and current affairs output as evidence of its commitment to public... Read more »

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FINTAN O’TOOLE ON ISRAEL

January 11, 2024
A RATHER Jesuitical argument from Irish Times resident ideologue Fintan O’Toole came in a polemic this week claiming: “It’s striking how brazen incitement against... Read more »

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DAVID WHELAN’S DANCE MOVES

January 11, 2024

THERE WAS the usual hype in the run-up to last weekend’s launch of the latest season of Dancing With the Stars on RTÉ... Read more »

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NO DRAMA AT THE IRISH TIMES

January 11, 2024
THIS IS the time of year when the Irish Times announces the various luvvies who have been shortlisted for the annual IT Theatre Awards.... Read more »

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PRINCESS COLONNA’S NEIGHBOUR

January 11, 2024

FANS OF Goldhawk with long memories will recall that the Clonmannon retirement village in Ashford, Co Wicklow was bought out of liquidation in... Read more »

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MARY LOU BETS THE HOUSE ON IT

January 11, 2024

THE MOST interesting item in last weekend’s Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll was not the 1% rise in those who prioritised immigration but... Read more »

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DONALDSON RETREATS AGAIN

January 11, 2024
THE BACKLASH over the Irish Government’s case against the British government’s legacy act began with ex-northern secretary Brandon Lewis making a full-frontal assault against... Read more »

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BLOODY SUNDAY: KITSON AND WILFORD

January 11, 2024
COL DEREK WILFORD, the commander of 1 Para in Northern Ireland in 1972, died last November. His former superior, Brigadier (later, General) Sir Frank... Read more »

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LINDA MARTIN’S PUPPY LOVE

December 14, 2023

CHRISTMAS CAME early for Linda ‘Eurovision’ Martin, whose move into the business end of animal welfare has landed her a juicy gig from... Read more »

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JUDGE HUMPHREYS AND JAMIE BRYSON

December 14, 2023
WHAT AN intriguing coupling Judge Richard Humphreys and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson make in their collaboration on the recently published Constitutional Balance, the Acts... Read more »

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GAYLE KILLILEA AND DER KAISER

December 14, 2023
FOLLOWERS OF the entertaining X account of Gayle Killilea saw her react in characteristic fashion to a two-page spread in the Indo about her... Read more »

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DAVID NORRIS’S ‘MILLION POUNDS’

December 14, 2023

FANS WHO managed to stay up (awake?) for RTÉ’s The Week In Politics programme last weekend were treated to an interesting titbit from... Read more »

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BONO’S WINDFALL

December 14, 2023
THE PEACE message frequently peddled by Bono has invariably been aligned with a western political agenda but a recent move by the singer saw... Read more »

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UKRAINE DEFEAT LOOMS

December 14, 2023
THE ISRAELI horror show in Gaza cannot hide for long the uncomfortable fact – for Nato and the West, including Ireland – that Ukraine... Read more »

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RTÉ’S FOUR SEATS

December 14, 2023

AS GOLDHAWK revealed (see The Phoenix 1/12/23), the premature exit of Connor Murphy from the RTÉ board created a second vacancy for media... Read more »

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ARMS TO GAZA (VIA UKRAINE)

December 14, 2023
THE ARMS industry makes a big deal of end-use certificates, which identify a government agency of the importing state that will use their weapons.... Read more »

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MAURA DERIVAN’S SETTLEMENT

December 14, 2023

THE SETTLING this week of circuit court defamation proceedings by number-cruncher Bobby Fitzgerald against outgoing Law Society president Maura Derivan and her hubby,... Read more »

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ED HONOHAN AND THE VULTURE FUNDS

December 14, 2023

FORMER MASTER of the High Court Ed Honohan has been on the rampage in the US in recent weeks, with dramatic allegations against... Read more »

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DAME LOUISE RICHARDSON: NO TRIPLE LOCK

November 30, 2023
ANTI-TERRORIST EXPERT Dame Louise Richardson was hand-picked by Tánaiste and foreign minister Micheál Martin, to chair his forum on defence and security policy and... Read more »

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RTÉ BOARD’S EMPTY SEATS

November 30, 2023

FOLLOWING IAN Kehoe’s decision not to seek a second term on the beleaguered RTÉ board, there is a second man overboard as a... Read more »

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LAURIE MANNIX’S STAR SIGNING

November 30, 2023

CONGRATULATIONS TO Laurie Mannix and her team at lobbying and PR firm MKC Communications, which has landed former secretary general of the Department... Read more »

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MARY MacMAHON’S HEADACHE

November 30, 2023

WHILE THE president of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) should be focusing her energies on the publication by Darragh O’Brien last month of... Read more »

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CHARLIE MCCONALOGUE’S EXTENSIONS

November 30, 2023

THERE HAS been some odd behaviour by agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue in relation to vacancies on the board of the Irish National Stud... Read more »

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FF DUBS OUT TO GET McENTEE

November 30, 2023
MORE THAN one media reference last weekend to Fianna Fáil backbenchers’ anger at Helen McEntee spells internal coalition trouble for the justice minister, especially... Read more »

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FIGHTING EXTREMISM

November 30, 2023
THE Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) presents as a welcome antidote to all things extreme. It also claims to be “fiercely independent” in the... Read more »

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STANDING BACK AND STANDING BY

November 30, 2023

FAR-RIGHT activists have been accustomed to the policy of Drew Harris for the gardaí to stand back as they have not only pushed... Read more »

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FRANCES RUANE’S REPORTS

November 30, 2023

GOLDHAWK PRESUMES there will be little enough Christmas spirit on show between the Arts Council (AC) and the Abbey Theatre this month as... Read more »

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