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Emma Dabiri

HUGH LANE’S NEW FACE

Date: March 11, 2021 - Behind the Scenes

AT LONG last change is in the air at the Dublin City Council controlled Hugh Lane Gallery. While the board is getting some new blood, however, the long overdue appointment of a new chair remains outstanding. New board member Emma Dabiri looks a radical addition to the board. The Dublin-born, London-based writer and historian made… Read more »

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Paddy McKillen

PADDY MCKILLEN’S GALLERIES

Date: March 11, 2021 - High Society

ART LOVING moneybags Paddy McKillen was splashing the cash recently, when adding a super expensive art gallery to his 540-acre Chateau La Coste cultural/tourist project in France. According to the Sunday Times, the new gallery’s first exhibition could be by McKillen’s mother. McKillen has plenty of other art interests, including the Kerlin Gallery closer to… Read more »

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Charles Byrnes

CHARLES BYRNES’S NEIGHBOUR

Date: March 11, 2021 - Sport of Kings

RECENTLY BANNED trainer Charles Byrnes has teamed up with a neighbour of his to enable him to run some horses. Byrnes signed off for the next six months as a licensed trainer in fine fashion by saddling a winner at Naas a few days before his suspension kicked in. Subsequently, entries were made for two… Read more »

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Jim O'Callaghan

FIANNA FÁIL PLOTTERS DIVIDED

Date: March 11, 2021 - Last Refuge

A FASCINATING zoom meeting last week of the Cosmhuintir Fianna Fáil faction within the party heard TDs Seán Haughey and Jim O’Callaghan, as well as former minister Conor Lenihan, discuss the merits of two books published last year. These were Michael Heney’s The Arms Crisis of 1970 and barrister David Burke’s Deception & Lies, the… Read more »

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Yvonne Bauer

YVONNE BAUER’S RADIO WAVES

Date: March 11, 2021 - The Hot Water Brigade

WHAT NEXT for Newstalk radio? A look at the apparent valuation placed on the Communicorp group by Yvonne Bauer’s radio group (see p3), which has been reported to be about €100m, suggests that the station may not be part of the Germans’ long-term plans. Using the normal valuation method for a company of about 10… Read more »

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Vol. 39 No. 04

Date: February 25, 2021 -

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Mary Lou McDonald

SINN FÉIN’S ELECTORAL GROUND WAR

Date: February 25, 2021 - Last Refuge

SINN FÉIN’S spectre is stalking the land again as its extraordinary election result last February was diminished only by its failure to run enough candidates, a mistake that will be rectified next time out. Add to that the steady and persistent increase of several percentage points in 24 media commissioned polls since it took 24.5%… Read more »

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Mary Robinson

MARY ROBINSON’S PR DISASTER

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

MARY ROBINSON has faced a barrage of criticism since the BBC’s report on the plight of Sheikha Latifa, the hapless daughter of United Arab Emirates prime minister Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum. This is the latest chapter of the PR disaster that has dogged Robbo as a result of her December 2018 trip to Dubai to… Read more »

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Daragh O'Brien

PROFILE: DARRAGH O’BRIEN

Date: February 25, 2021 - Pillars of Society

HOUSING AND local government minister Darragh O’Brien has three tasks in hand: one is to conquer or at least ameliorate the housing crisis; two is to succeed Micheál Martin as Fianna Fáil leader and taoiseach; and three is to electorally revive a party in, perhaps, terminal crisis. Appointed FF’s housing spokesperson in 2018, O’Brien’s first… Read more »

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Caroline Foran

YOUNG BLOOD: CAROLINE FORAN

Date: February 25, 2021 - The Young Bloods

HAD SHE been born into a different generation, Caroline Foran might have taken an alternative path to helping people to ‘own’ their vulnerability. While baby boomers and Gen Xers are products of the ‘suck it up, buttercup’ style of coping with life’s trials, Foran (32) can thank her cohort’s collective levels of angst and emotional distress… Read more »

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Alex Maskey

ALEX MASKEY V IRISH TIMES

Date: February 25, 2021 - Fit to Print?

IRISH TIMES legal affairs correspondent Colm Keena wrote a lengthy feature article on Sinn Féin on March 5 last which purported to outline the alleged stranglehold that unelected people have over the organisation. It referred to various individuals by name and offered readers details of their activities. Interestingly, when it came to the name of… Read more »

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Dermot Desmond

DERMOT DESMOND’S CELTIC CROSS

Date: February 25, 2021 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT GOES from bad to worse for Dermot Desmond in Glasgow, where Celtic continue to fall off the pace set by bitter rivals Rangers, and the club announced a loss of £5.9m for the year just gone. Rangers are currently on 82 points while Celtic are on 64 and the grousing from Celtic fans must… Read more »

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Crime World

CRIME WORLD – NICOLA TALLANT

Date: February 25, 2021 - PodcastsReviews

WITH TRUE crime podcasts all the rage, now might be an opportune time for somebody to do a mystery series on what happened to all the great shows newspapers promised to produce in recent years. Indeed, apart from a handful of sports and documentary programmes, Irish podcasting in general is a bit of a wasteland,… Read more »

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UNA MCGURK’S FIGHTBACK

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

OUTSPOKEN SENIOR counsel Una McGurk received an apology from Irish Legal News (ILN) last week over an article in the online publication. It turns out that she is taking rather more seriously comments made about her on social media. The ILN piece had stated that McGurk was “rebuked” by Judge Max Barrett in the High… Read more »

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Davy Russell

RUSSELL’S REVENGE

Date: February 25, 2021 - Sport of Kings

DAVY RUSSELL’S opinions tend towards the forthright but, nevertheless, he caught unsuspecting viewers by surprise live on Racing TV recently. The jockey was a phone-in guest on Nick Luck’s Luck on Sunday programme, discussing Russell’s struggle to return to the saddle after breaking his neck last autumn. A studio guest was Bruce Millington, the former… Read more »

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Michael O'Leary

RYANAIR FACING TURBULENCE FROM LEANER WIZZ AIR

Date: February 25, 2021 - Moneybags

WITH MICK O’Leary now forecasting Ryanair will incur further significant losses in the last three months of its current year ending March 2021, this outlook is coming into line with Moneybags’ own forecast last November that the airline would lose €1bn during this period. When you take into account the €500m Ryanair has lost in… Read more »

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Judge Yvonne Murphy

‘I. TIMES’ SILENT ON BETHANY BABY HOME

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

FOLLOWING JUDGE Yvonne Murphy’s report last month into mother and baby homes, The Phoenix published an investigation, ‘Bethany Baby Home and the Irish Times’ (see edition, 29/1/21). The article criticised the newspaper for its failure to adequately cover events at the home where at least 262 babies were buried; argued that this contrasted with its… Read more »

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EAMON RYAN’S PRIORITIES

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THE DECISION of Dublin City Council to reject an application by the ESB to change the much-loved Georgian Museum on Lower Fitzwilliam Street to apartments is not one that reflects especially well on Eamon Ryan. Certainly, it is unlikely that the minister responsible for culture – the Green Party’s Catherine Martin – was overjoyed when… Read more »

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Mary Aiken

MARY AIKEN’S PAYDAY

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK WAS delighted to see that celebrity cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken has made a fair few bob out of her involvement with a US television crime show. Aiken’s profile was significantly boosted as a result of her involvement with the hit CBS show, CSI: Cyber where she landed a producing role. Apparently, this came about after… Read more »

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Angela Merkel

‘SPINELESS TEAM EU’

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

CHEERY COMMENT from Irish Times Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary recently – “Millions more doses secured for Ireland” – came a day after the infinitely more pessimistic prognosis from the paper’s columnist, Michael McDowell on the EU’s bungling of vaccines supply. He said that despite all the rhetoric about the community way, EU recovery could end… Read more »

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SIMON COVENEY’S PROMISES

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

REMEMBER HOW foreign minister Simon Coveney made theatrical and rhetorical gestures about recognising Palestinian statehood and breaking with the EU consensus on foreign policy if the Israelis made one more – just one more – retrogressive move against the Palestinians? So irked with Israeli belligerence was Covetous Coveney that he organised a special conference at… Read more »

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Tim Cullinan

FARMING FACTS

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

IT’S TOUGH work trying to put a positive PR spin on the environmental train wreck otherwise known as the Irish beef and dairy sector. Thanks to the recent stampede to ramp up dairy output, agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are spiralling, while air and water quality plummets. Luckily, the industry has deep pockets – including lashings… Read more »

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Stephen Martin

UNTURNED STONES

Date: February 25, 2021 - Hush Hush

STEPHEN MARTIN, a top PSNI crime officer centrally involved in the decision to launch a criminal investigation into the journalists who probed the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, is one of four government appointments to the Policing Authority. Journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, who helped make the No Stone Unturned (NSU) film about the Loughinisland atrocity,… Read more »

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Eugene Regan

EUGENE REGAN’S FRIENDS

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

WELL-CONNECTED former senator Eugene Regan has been reappointed to the Court of Justice to the EU for another six-year term following the intervention of court president Koen Lenaerts, who told the government of his preference for Regan. This is an example of Eugene’s ability to impress the right people in the right places. Back in… Read more »

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Jack Chambers

CASHIERED CHAMBERS MARK 11

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

MINISTER CHAMBERS is still the subject of military disputation after the Minister for Defence (and foreign affairs), Simon Coveney, broke him down from the ranks (see The Phoenix, 29/1/21). Covetous made clear in answer to a Dáil question from Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh that Fianna Fáil’s Jack Chambers – who was made chief… Read more »

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CLARIFICATION

Date: February 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

An article in the issue of January 29, 2021, referred to the establishment by Noel and Jacinta McMahon of an online dating agency called Perfect Partners. In fact, this business is wholly owned by Bill Phelan.

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HushHush-def

SUING OPERATION KENOVA

Date: February 25, 2021 - Hush Hush

THE STAKEKNIFE farrago continues to unravel with Operation Kenova now being undermined by legal action. The murder of Belfast pensioner Francisco Notorantonio by the UDA in October 1987 was central to the setting up of Kenova in 2016 because of a claim by British army spook Ian Hurst that Francisco was sacrificed to save the… Read more »

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Mary Robinson

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 25, 2021 - The Hot Air Brigade

I didn’t actually want to talk to her and increase the trauma over a nice lunch. Mary Robinson reflecting on lunch with ‘troubled’ Princess Latifa, Sunday Independent, submitted by reader But while memories like that don’t age, everything else must. Roy becoming a grandparent is perfectly understandable, really. Even acceptable. Frank Coughlan on Roy Keane… Read more »

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David Frost

IT CUTS BOTH WAYS

Date: February 25, 2021 - Northwind

LAST SATURDAY Micheál Martin gave an interview to Raidió na Gaeltachta – a station which unionists obviously listen to avidly – and urged them “to put politics aside and come together to discuss these questions”, to find practical solution to the problems of Brexit. Needless to say, there was no response; nor will there be…. Read more »

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Maria Byrne

FRIENDS AT COURT

Date: February 25, 2021 - Last Refuge

THE INDO’S Fionnan Sheahan mischievously remarked recently that Fine Gael Seanad byelection candidate Maria Byrne is “a real favourite of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s office”, while also writing that she would win the seat. He may well be right but Maria’s electoral record nationally – as opposed to her four successful local election outings in Limerick… Read more »

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Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MEDIA OFFENSIVE

Date: February 25, 2021 - Last Refuge

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S media offensive has caused him some problems (‘mixed messages’ etc) but it also appears that he has had some traction recently and the Business Post argued last weekend that he had survived his party critics’ back-biting as evidenced by the party’s poll ratings. According to the Post’s Red C pollsters, Fianna Fáil has… Read more »

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Kate O'Connell

BENDING GENDER QUOTAS

Date: February 25, 2021 -

UNNOTICED, IT would appear, by most pundits but thundering down the tracks is the 40% gender quota imperative that will be imposed at the next general election. This will cause all manner of reactions, rows and a welter of token female candidates who will be expected to run as gender fodder in order to ingratiate… Read more »

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Leo Varadkar

VLAD’S RHETORIC

Date: February 25, 2021 - Fit to Print?

THE WORLD’S press has been enthralled by the audacious Aussies as they square up to the tech giants who appear to have made Australia a test case for their effort to continue soaking print media. But if the media and public are interested in this battle, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will surely be watching closely as… Read more »

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Patricia Devlin

‘IRISH TIMES’ REMEMBERS

Date: February 25, 2021 - Fit to Print?

HAS THE centenary of Northern Ireland unhinged the Irish Times? It has just spent a week publishing a stream of articles and interviews involving defenders of the British empire, unionists and even a well-known former member of the Red Hand Commando paramilitary group. Some of these laced their diatribes against nationalist Ireland with Cassandra like… Read more »

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Marie Donnelly

FF GREENER THAN RYAN?

Date: February 25, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

“PASSING THIS legislation … means we can now move away from fossil fuels and give our complete focus to our plans to transition to renewable energy,” declared the Green Party’s climate action spokesperson Brian Leddin as party leader Eamon Ryan announced an immediate ban on new oil and gas exploration licences. The Greens have been… Read more »

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Climate Disinformation Coillte Climate Action EU Livestock NDC Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

MARIE DONNELLY’S BAD START

Date: February 25, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

THERE WERE high hopes for Marie Donnelly, the former Brussels bureaucrat recruited by Eamon Ryan as the new chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC). After five years of Prof John FitzGerald, who seemed out of touch with the climate crisis, the hope and expectation was that his successor would instigate a radical shake-up,… Read more »

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