Article Category: Affairs of the Nation

THE COUNTER-RESTORATION

November 15, 2023

DESPITE THE very best efforts of the European agri-industrial lobby and its allies on the political right, the EU’s Nature Restoration Law (NRL)... Read more »

---

ANNUAL 2023: GOLDHAWK’S AWARDS FOR THE PASSING PARADE 2023

November 15, 2023

DEE FORBES THERE WAS only ever one real contender for the 2023 Where’s Wally TV Drama Award. The biggest hit show this summer... Read more »

---

‘A EUROPEAN ARMY — GETTING CLOSE’

November 2, 2023

A DEAFENING silence from the media and its normally enthusiastic security correspondents surrounds the European Union’s first ever live military exercise – near... Read more »

---

SIGHTS SET ON STRASBOURG

November 2, 2023

THE FIRST ever female president of the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR), Síofra O’Leary, was the subject of a glowing profile in... Read more »

---

MOORE McDOWELL’S ‘CONFLICT’

November 2, 2023

THERE WAS quite a setback last month in the High Court for private hospital entrepreneur Shay Sweeney in his (very) long-running case against... Read more »

---

JIMMY SAVILE AND TED HEATH

November 2, 2023
Steve Coogan has earned plaudits for his unnerving portrayal of the late Jimmy Savile, the notorious BBC celebrity and child sex abuser. The late... Read more »

---

NOT EMUSED

November 2, 2023

THE FINAL page has been turned on the story of the multimillion-euro collapse of Irish TV tech outfit Emuse. Liquidator Joseph Walsh has... Read more »

---

DEMOCRATIC WEST

November 2, 2023
A FAVOURITE argument of Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin is that the Russians have a stranglehold over Irish foreign policy because they can block... Read more »

---

MEDIA WAR ERUPTS

November 2, 2023

PHOENIX READERS will be familiar with the secession of Belgian multinational Mediahuis – the biggest media group in Ireland by far – from... Read more »

---

STORMIN’ NORMAN’S HEADLINES

November 2, 2023
FAIR PLAY to Stormin’ Norman Crowley – he has the promotion of his Cool Planet brand down to a fine art. The latest example... Read more »

---

DODGY DUBLIN DECLARATION

November 2, 2023

IN OCTOBER 2022 Teagasc, the state agriculture research agency, hosted a conference of meat industry activists. Arising from this, the so-called ‘Dublin Declaration’... Read more »

---

IRELAND AND PALESTINE NOW

October 19, 2023
EXACTLY ONE year ago, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “Russia’s attacks against civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting... Read more »

---

DRINKAWARE’S HANGOVER

October 19, 2023

GOLDHAWK ALWAYS enjoys reading the annual report of the alcohol-industry-funded charity Drinkaware, and the one just published is as entertaining as always. It... Read more »

---

ALAN SHATTER’S ROMP

October 19, 2023
CONGRATULATIONS TO loudmouth former politician Alan Shatter, whose saucy novel has been attracting rather a lot of media attention here. Given that it is... Read more »

---

McENTEES: MEATH PATRIOTS

October 19, 2023
THE McENTEE family has done the county proud in recent years and efforts by two or more of the boys to promote the county... Read more »

---

RACHEL KENNY’S WRITS

October 19, 2023

A COUPLE of libel writs have just landed relating to recent coverage of events in An Bord Pleanála (ABP). It looks like the... Read more »

---

ABBEY THEATRE REVIEWS

October 18, 2023
WHILE ARTS and media minister Catherine Martin has come in for criticism over her hands-off style when it comes to the unfolding debacle at... Read more »

---

BUDGET BLUES

October 18, 2023

FROM UNDER- to over-reaction, the gardaí lockdown around the Dáil and Government Buildings on budget day, to ward off protests, reminded Goldhawk of... Read more »

---

RIC PARTY POOPERS

October 18, 2023

CHARLIE FLANAGAN is hanging up his blue shirt at the next election with the great disappointment that his “postponed” Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)... Read more »

---

‘WARRIOR CLASS OF OUR RACE’

October 18, 2023

MARK TWAIN’S assertion that “history never repeats itself but it does often rhyme” definitely holds water when you consider the composition of the... Read more »

---

MORE MEDIA TRANSPARENCY

October 5, 2023

THERE IS something piquant about the current fury among the once-pampered literati at the Irish Times, who have for long purveyed ethical attachment... Read more »

---

McGRATH TAKES LEAD FROM TRUSS

October 5, 2023

MICHAEL McGRATH and Liz Truss are not obvious political bed-fellows but the finance minister appears determined to announce similarly discredited policies of cutting... Read more »

---

FIGHTING TALK

October 5, 2023

THE PHENOMENON of members of the Travelling community recording ‘call out’ videos – where they challenge others due to perceived slights, previous confrontations... Read more »

---

ADMIRAL McDOWELL CLAMBERS ABOARD

October 5, 2023

THE ESCALATION of a planning row over an Athlone marina, which began in 2012, has moved from Westmeath County Council to the District... Read more »

---

ZOMBIE CHANTS

October 5, 2023
THE LATE Dolores O’Riordan is an unlikely icon for Irish rugby fans outside her native Limerick. But needs must in the face of Ooh... Read more »

---

IRELAND CLIMATE LAGGARDS — OR NOT?

October 5, 2023

Later this month, a case taken by six Portuguese youths will be heard by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.... Read more »

---

CUSSEN’S CUSSED CRITICS

October 5, 2023

ONE OF the big beasts in the permanent government, Niall Cussen – his last civil service gig was as chief planning officer in... Read more »

---

FAR RIGHT DÁIL TANTRUM

October 5, 2023
The far-right activists who attended the recent Call to the Dáil protest outside Leinster House were an eclectic bunch. While there were National Party,... Read more »

---

MI5’S SERIAL KILLER

October 5, 2023
THE PHOENIX reported last May that the BBC was refusing to broadcast The Lost Boys, which has become the documentary du jour, because it... Read more »

---

LUKE COMER’S HANDICAP

September 21, 2023

THE WIDELY reported three-year suspension of the training licence of billionaire tax exile property developer Luke Comer is dividing opinion on the severity... Read more »

---

SEÁN QUINN V JOHN McCARTIN

September 21, 2023
IT IS clear that former bankrupt Seán Quinn has little time for John McCartin – one of the two names he dropped on Newstalk... Read more »

---

LYRA’S LEGACY

September 21, 2023
BBC NI commissioned a documentary called The Lost Boys of Belfast from TV production company Alleycats. It was due for broadcast in May 2021... Read more »

---

ROSSLARE GOLF CLUB BUNKERED

September 21, 2023

THERE’S RARELY a dull moment at Rosslare Golf Club, where the latest spat relates to a €2m plan to sell off lands that... Read more »

---

MAIREAD CASEY’S JUDGMENT

September 21, 2023

A HEFTY €¾m judgment has just been registered against Co Cork solicitor Mairead Casey by a UK property investment company called Advanced Industrial... Read more »

---

SILENCE ON US SHANNON ROUTE

September 21, 2023
SINCE IT’S now out in the open that Ireland’s Defence Forces personnel are providing weapons training to the Ukrainian army and that our National... Read more »

---

UKRAINE: NOTHING TO SEE HERE

September 21, 2023
DESPITE BEING the ‘first casualty of war’, the truth about the Ukraine invasion sometimes emerges and from the strangest quarters, however unintended. Recent slips... Read more »

---