Irish breaking news | Irish politics

Hush Hush

WHO WIELDED THE STAKEKNIFE?

February 13, 2020

Operation Kenova’s investigations into the so-called Stakeknife affair have now, inevitably, led it to turn its gaze upon RUC Special Branch. Given that... Read more »

ARC’S ADVERTISING BUDGET

February 13, 2020

ACCOUNTS JUST filed for the Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) show a significant increase in spending in the year to the end of March... Read more »

MIAMI SHOWBAND: NEW EVIDENCE

January 16, 2020

SEISMIC NEW evidence regarding the 1975 Miami Showband massacre will be revealed at Belfast High Court in the coming months by bass player... Read more »

ALAN HYDE’S PROVISION CENTRE

January 16, 2020

GOLDHAWK NOTES that an old friend is to close the doors of his direct provision centre next month. The Mount Trenchard operation in... Read more »

WHO REALLY RAN STAKEKNIFE?

December 12, 2019

The new Glenanne Gang terror probe announced recently has attracted a surprisingly high level of support from collusion campaigners. But the fact that... Read more »

KEVIN TOLAND’S ADVICE

December 12, 2019

YOU HAVE to hand it to the chief executive of troubled Swiss-Irish baked goods outfit Aryzta. Last month, the rather well-remunerated suit took... Read more »

LORD BEW DISAPPEARS

November 28, 2019

Paul Bew, or ‘Baron Bew of Donegore’, played a key role in the now discredited Boston Tapes project. However, so far, Bew –... Read more »

LESLIE REYNOLDS’S RECEIVERSHIP

November 28, 2019

GOLDHAWK spotted last week the cessation of the long-running receivership of a company called Leslie Reynolds & Co, where number cruncher Declan Taite... Read more »

DUP/UDA ‘TARGETS’

November 14, 2019

A PRECURSOR to the ‘pressure’ from the UDA on the Ulster Unionist Party to give the DUP a free run in the Westminster... Read more »

GAVAN REILLY’S TWEETS

November 14, 2019

Virgin Media journalist Gavan Reilly hasn’t had a vintage couple of weeks. Known for scooping the competition by breaking big stories on Twitter,... Read more »

LOYALIST THREATS

October 31, 2019

THERE IS something ironic about PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne’s unprecedented political intervention last week, with his warnings about loyalist violence in the... Read more »

JOSEPHA MADIGAN’S NEW UNIT

October 31, 2019

THERE ARE some harsh findings in the spending review on the Pálás cinema in Galway just published (see p6). Not surprisingly, the original... Read more »

WILLIE FRAZER’S ‘VICTIMHOOD’

October 16, 2019

Justice Minster Charlie Flanagan’s praise for Loyalist killer Willie Frazer, now deceased, looks a little misjudged. Flanagan’s posthumous eulogy to Frazer was posted... Read more »

ALL-IRELAND KINAHANS

October 3, 2019

AN EAST European 9mm Makarov semi-automatic pistol, or PM, is not one traditionally associated with gangland crime here in Ireland. However, the formerly... Read more »

CIA-FUNDED SCARE STORIES

September 19, 2019

THE RECYCLING of propaganda by western spook ‘think-tanks’ presented as objective truths is reaching epidemic proportions in the media, with the ‘Aarish’ edition... Read more »

MOUNTBATTEN AND WARRENPOINT

September 5, 2019

THERE IS nothing in the latest book about Lord Louis Mountbatten, The Mountbattens, that explains how the IRA was able to assassinate him... Read more »

CAPTAIN NAIRAC’S ACTIVITIES

August 22, 2019

Last week, the head of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) Geoff Knupfer was busy pouring cold water on... Read more »

BERNADETTE MCALISKEY’S U-TURN

August 22, 2019

SOUTHERN PARTITIONISTS and neo-Unionists in the hated Free State (especially those with nice lawns and big beef farmers with much grassland) will be... Read more »

THE SCAPPATICCI MYTH

August 8, 2019

THE SUNDAY TIMES is cited in a ‘psyops’ complaint lodged at Belfast High Court recently by Belfast Solicitors, Brentnall Legal. The complaint takes... Read more »

DANSKE TAKEN TO CLEANERS AGAIN

July 25, 2019

Just when Danish banking giant Danske Bank thought the heat over the money-laundering scandal at its Estonia operations (see The Phoenix, 21/9/18) was... Read more »

GUNTHER FALKENTHAL’S TAX BILL

July 25, 2019

INTERESTING to see the dreaded taxman registering a judgment against number cruncher Gunther Falkenthal. The German accountant should be familiar to fans of... Read more »

DONALDSON THROWN TO WOLVES

July 11, 2019

MI5’s SPY in Sinn Féin, the late Denis Donaldson, is so (in)famous that he has made it into the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary... Read more »

DREW HARRIS’S COLLUSION CONCERNS

July 11, 2019

GARDA COMMISSIONER Drew Harris’s presence at the head of a Garda/PSNI contingent at the Dublin Pride parade received many plaudits. But Harris was... Read more »

LYRA McKEE EXPOSÉ

June 27, 2019

LYRA McKEE’S posthumous book, Angels with Blue Faces, focuses on the November 1981 IRA killing of firebrand Ulster Unionist MP Reverend Robert Bradford,... Read more »

DAVID WALSH NAILED

June 27, 2019

THE JUDICIARY has finally nailed barrack room lawyer David Walsh, a former haulage contractor who is now serving a fortnight’s jail sentence for... Read more »

DREW HARRIS’S GONG

June 12, 2019

The AWARD of a Queen’s Police Medal (QPM) to Garda commissioner Drew Harris brought zero adverse comment in the Irish media, but it... Read more »

STAKEKNIFE INQUIRY BLUNTED

June 12, 2019

This week’s news of a legal challenge to Operation Kenova (the ‘Stakeknife’ inquiry), by the family of murdered Belfast pensioner Francisco Notarantonio, leaves... Read more »

STAKEKNIFE INQUIRY COLLAPSE

May 29, 2019

The underwhelming response to the selection of Simon Byrne as the PSNI’s new chief constable shows that the media missed two bigger stories... Read more »

CAPTAIN NAIRAC’S REPUTATION

May 29, 2019

THE CAMPAIGN to sanitise the reputation of British Army undercover operative Captain Robert Nairac, shot dead and disappeared by the IRA in 1975,... Read more »

IRA ‘VETS’ WARNING SHOTS

May 16, 2019

FOOTAGE last month of Saoradh dissident republicans jostling a BBC reporter outside Derry’s courthouse received widespread coverage. But more serious stuff involving IRA... Read more »

JEFFREY DONALDSON’S BAHRAINI PALS

May 16, 2019

THE DUP’S Jeffrey Donaldson has come over as the essence of sweet reason in comments about the Irish language and also about the... Read more »

BRITISH SOLDIERS TAKE THE FLAK

May 2, 2019

Reports of the formal interview by police of top Force Research Unit (FRU) spook Brigadier Gordon Kerr got British media headlines last week.... Read more »

DREW HARRIS CROSS-BORDER SECURITY

April 18, 2019

Elite and heavily armed units of the PSNI cruising around Dublin is a steep step change in policing here in the south. But... Read more »

BRIT SPOOKS IN THE REPUBLIC

April 4, 2019

THE MEDIA’S gullible lionising of ex-British Army under cover operative, ‘Sean Hartnett’ (not his real name) and his second book, Client Confidential, shows... Read more »

SLEEPWALKING WITH THE FAR RIGHT

March 21, 2019

The biggest shock for New Zealanders is that the Christchurch massacre at two mosques happened at all. The Kiwis pride themselves on being... Read more »

FINUCANE: WHY NO PUBLIC INQUIRY

March 7, 2019
The most basic question arising from Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane’s murder is whether RUC Special Branch members aided and abetted loyalist paramilitaries in the... Read more »