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LADY MARY’S £42M SALE

Date: March 25, 2021 - High Society

ACROSS THE Irish Sea, trouble is brewing for billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, whose massive steel empire is creaking, with demand for the product having plummeted worldwide courtesy of Covid-19. The British government has been drawing up plans to bail out the troubled Liberty Steel operation that employs 5,000 workers but the good news is that… Read more »

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Tony Wright

LEX GREENSILL’S IRISH CUSTOMERS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Briefcases

THESE ARE nervous times for businesses that have links to the giant UK-based Greensill Capital firm that collapsed into administration earlier this month. Founded by larger-than- life Aussie financier Lex Greensill and featuring one David Cameron as an adviser, Greensill’s collapse has sent out plenty of ripples, including the odd one in Ireland. Greensill’s supply… Read more »

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Vol.39 No.06

Date: March 25, 2021 -

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IAN BLACK’S PAC GRILLING

Date: March 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE WERE fun and games at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this month, when the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) faced a grilling. It was set up by the government in 2014 to funnel low-cost money to middleman lenders. Interim chief executive Ian Black faced a raft of questions about Bibby Financial Services… Read more »

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Siobhan Stack

JUDGE HUMPHREYS’ PEERS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THE ELEVATION recently of Siobhán Stack SC to the High Court bench will have been welcomed by her Law Library colleagues and also members of the bench. However, there may be some embarrassing moments among M’luds if or when Judge Stack encounters Judge Richard Humphreys. Now one of his peers, Stack has until now been… Read more »

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Eoghan Harris

EOGHAN HARRIS’S SLEEPERS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THE MOST brazen aspect of the weekend’s Eoghan Harris column in the Sindo was not the cartoon’s sexist barb at the witch-like Mary Lou McDonald, but rather the assertion by Harris that Sinn Féin had “planted sleepers in all branches of the public service – in RTÉ, the gardaí, the Revenue Commissioners and, easiest target… Read more »

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Date: March 25, 2021 - Letters to the Editor

GREENS’ NON-POLICY Dear Editor, I would like to draw your attention to several factual errors in your article entitled ‘Unarmed Military Committee’ which – if you will excuse the pun – looked like a case of shoot first, ask questions later. First, your article incorrectly states that our newly established Foreign Policy and Security Group… Read more »

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SLOWLY DOES IT AT TENI

Date: March 25, 2021 - Clerical Errors

THE CULTURE war surrounding self-identification for transgender people continues to stir up strong emotions, most recently in the letters pages of the Irish Times, where a debate has been raging over self-ID legislation. In NUI Galway, a student union motion was drawn up to de-platform groups such as the Irish Women’s Lobby (IWL) on the… Read more »

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Aidan O'Driscoll

‘MILITARY NEUTRALITY’?

Date: March 25, 2021 - Top Brass

THE COMMISSION on the Defence Forces as outlined in the programme for government is to address pay and conditions of the troops. But the real business is to scrutinise and recommend measures for the “effective defence of the country at land and sea” More reassuringly – perhaps – the programme also states that the commission’s… Read more »

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Rosita Boland

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: March 25, 2021 - The Hot Air Brigade

I’d so wanted a Simone Rocha x H&M capsule piece. They weren’t just clothes. They were hope. Rosita Boland, Irish Times, submitted by reader The late and greatly lamented Ballymaloe Literary Festival helmed by Darina and brother Rory O’Connell burned briefly like a glorious comet, playing an unsurpassable ambassadorial role for Ireland’s food culture, its… Read more »

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Michelle O'Neill

NORTHERN ABORTION CHAOS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Northwind

ALL THE parties in the north tied themselves in knots in the past fortnight about abortion legislation, none more so than Sinn Féin. First, the assembly was faced with a DUP bill amending the British abortion legislation imposed on the north in 2019 while the assembly was in mothballs. Second, the northern secretary Brandon Lewis,… Read more »

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Leo Varadkar

MICHEÁL AND LEO v THE MEDIA

Date: March 25, 2021 - Last Refuge

IT MAY be that in the absence of his golden source at the top level of Fine Gael – Big Phil Hogan – that the Irish Independent Ireland correspondent Fionnan Sheahan has become alienated from the party leadership with whom he once enjoyed cordial relations. Whatever the reason Sheahan appears to be less enthusiastic about the leadership of FG… Read more »

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Liadh Ni Riada

SINN FÉIN’S AMBITIOUS PLANS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Last Refuge

ANGUISHED NOISES from Sinn Féin general election candidate Séighin Ó Ceallaigh, about the imposition of a male gender ban in his constituency, Limerick County, are a sign of things to come. As the 40% gender quota kicks in at selection conventions for the next general election all political parties will face tough decisions that will… Read more »

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John McGuirk

MCGUIRK AND RTÉ

Date: March 25, 2021 - Last Refuge

RIGHT-WING commentator John McGuirk railed against RTÉ for paying out €20,000 recently to several charities nominated by left-republican group Éirígí on foot of McGuirk’s incorrect remark that it was responsible for Lyra McKee’s 2019 shooting. But his rant against RTÉ and Éirígí was spurred by a situation that he himself had created. On the Gript.ie… Read more »

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Joe Brolly

SINDO v BOBBY SANDS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Fit to Print?

A RECENT tweet sneering at Bobby Sands’ hunger strike and death from Sindo sports writer Tommy Conlon has caused a furore on social media. But this is just the latest of several provocations from Conlon whose outpourings have drawn angry reactions and more than one libel action down on the Sindo over the years. On March 1… Read more »

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Arthur Beesley

BEESLEY TICKLED PINK BY ‘IT’ RETURN

Date: March 25, 2021 - Fit to Print?

THE Financial Times is looking for an Ireland Correspondent to replace Arthur Beesley who has returned to his editorial alma mater, the Irish Times. Showing an appreciation of things Irish that eludes most British media, the FT job advert says “Ireland has grown into a prosperous, self-confident nation with a strong voice in the EU … with its two traditional… Read more »

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Joe Biden Russian Orwell Road

RYAN BIDENS HIS TIME

Date: March 25, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

JOE BIDEN is enjoying a reputation as something of an environmental hero, and to a degree this is merited – in the opening weeks of his presidency he has been doggedly reversing the assault on the environment perpetrated by Donald Trump; has designated climate change as a national security issue; and has pledged to spend… 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

VLAD’S TRAFFIC PLAN

Date: March 25, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

IF ANYTHING is guaranteed to arouse the irrational fury of the residents of Dublin’s leafier boroughs, it is proposals to take road space from cars and give it to cyclists and pedestrians. In January the OPW published an ambitious plan that aims to deter commuters from using Phoenix Park as a ‘rat run’. It emerged… Read more »

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Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Bog Cuttings

‘His Hands Down His Jocks’ Brian Butler (38) of Wyattville Park, Loughlinstown, was handed a three-year suspended sentence in Dublin Circuit Court for threatening a security guard at a supermarket. Butler repeatedly threatened to shoot a security guard in Tesco, Ballybrack, for barring his son from the supermarket. The guard said that Butler had his… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

GUY O’CALLAGHAN’S NEW STUD

Date: March 25, 2021 - High Society

THE SALE of a prime stud property on the Curragh sees the blueblood O’Callaghan bloodstock clan adding another asset to the empire. The reported sale of Eyrefield Lodge Stud for about €3.7m isn’t too far off the €4m price tag attached to the 160-acre estate when it went on the market last year and it… Read more »

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Mark Kennelly

IN THE BUNKER AT DRUIDS GLEN

Date: March 25, 2021 - High Society

WHILE IRELAND’S golf fairways are quiet, there is plenty of action at Druids Glen resort in Co Wicklow where a former member, Niall Barry, has initiated two sets of legal proceedings that threaten to land certain players in the rough. Druids Glen, which changed hands in 2019, had been controlled by moneybags Donal Flinn and… Read more »

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Catherine Martin

CATHERINE MARTIN’S ADDRESS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Behind the Scenes

IT WAS interesting to see arts minister Catherine Martin taking time out earlier this month to “address female representation and equality in Ireland’s arts, culture, sports and media sectors”. According to her International Women’s Day comments, Martin is seeking to “further gender equality within every sector under my remit”. This primarily includes the arts sector… Read more »

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THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL - NEIL JORDAN

THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL – NEIL JORDAN

Date: March 25, 2021 - BooksReviews

THE BOOM in historical fiction continues with this new account of the odd friendship between Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his African-American manservant, Tony Small. The result is far from convincing. Although almost nothing is known about Small’s life, he is placed at the centre of public events throughout the story. By coincidence, a second book… Read more »

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NO ONE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE EXCEPT FOR YOU - LAURA WHITMORE

NO ONE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE EXCEPT FOR YOU – LAURA WHITMORE

Date: March 25, 2021 - BooksReviews

READERS HOPING that Laura Whitmore’s debut might give them an inside track into her life as a TV and radio presenter may be in for disappointment. The book, which gets its title from a 1990 Wilson Phillips song, aims to help readers become the heroes of their own lives. Female readers at that – men… Read more »

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David Mullins

BACKING DAVID MULLINS

Date: March 25, 2021 - Sport of Kings

DAVID MULLINS, who surprised many in racing by announcing his retirement from the saddle at the tender age of 24, has embarked on his first public venture off the saddle by unveiling a new subscription tipping service. Mullins is charging would-be members a sign-up fee of €19.99 for his ‘virtual stable’, covering the seven-week period… Read more »

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Oisin Murphy

MURPHY’S FALSE START

Date: March 25, 2021 - Sport of Kings

AFTER SERVING a three-month ban for testing positive for metabolites of cocaine, champion jockey Oisin Murphy was chomping at the bit to get back in action in March but he had his comeback halted after a communications mix-up with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). Having been booked for several mounts at Lingfield and Chelmsford, Murphy… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

BYRNE HITS THE JACKPOT

Date: March 25, 2021 - Sport of Kings

WHEN YOUNG Dublin racehorse-owner Paul Byrne acquired the seemingly well-exposed horse, The Shunter, from Kilkenny trainer John Clifford last year for (presumably) relatively small money, nobody could have predicted the rollercoaster ride the horse would deliver over the following 12 months. Having been winless in 18 runs for his former trainer, Byrne sent The Shunter… Read more »

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Rachael Blackmore

CHELTENHAM GREENWASH

Date: March 25, 2021 - Sport of Kings

THOSE GRIM days in the late 1980s and 1990s, when Ireland might only muster up one or two winners at the Cheltenham festival are long gone, with the Brits now barely getting a look in at their own event. How pathetic then to see only one horse take up the challenge in a steeplechase at… Read more »

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Francesca McDonagh

MCDONAGH FAILS TO CLOSE THE GAP WITH AIB

Date: March 25, 2021 - Moneybags

BANK OF Ireland CEO Francesca McDonagh showed her ruthless side by taking the scalpel’s knife to the group’s branch network, announcing the closure of 36% of the branches, with the network being slashed from 285 outlets to 182 on the island of Ireland. To do this in the midst of the current unemployment crisis caused… Read more »

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Gerry Gannon

JOHN O’SULLIVAN’S CRASH LANDING

Date: March 25, 2021 - Briefcases

A COMPANY that provided car-parking facilities at Dublin airport has just gone into liquidation. Parkfly Ltd, where the principal is John O’Sullivan, has suffered badly during the pandemic while deteriorating relations with its landlord – Goldhawk’s old friend Gerry Gannon – ultimately led to the business’s demise. Parkfly’s problems can be linked to an expensive… Read more »

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WAVF Castleknock Hospitality BAL Susan Bergin Tixserve EOG Fergal Naughton hot-water-brigade def

FAILED BID

Date: March 25, 2021 - Briefcases

WHILE THERE has been plenty of grumbling about Dún Laoghaire by local business types in recent years, it seems the best efforts of the local business improvement district (BID) scheme had little enough impact. The company behind it, BID DL Ltd, has now filed a notice to cease trading. (There are no outstanding creditors.) The… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

ED GUINEY’S ‘FESTIVAL’

Date: March 25, 2021 - Behind the Scenes

WHILE ALL eyes where on Cheltenham, another festival of sorts was under way in the digital sphere, featuring free Irish films being offered “with the support of Screen Ireland” (SI) on Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe’s Volta platform. The films in the festival were a mixed bunch, some from Guiney and Lowe’s Element back catalogue… Read more »

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Tony Walshe

TONY WALSH’S THEATRICAL EXIT

Date: March 25, 2021 - Briefcases

AN IMPRESSIVE pile off Sweetmount Avenue in Dundrum – Churchtown House – is on the market with a near €3m price tag. There have been some big winners and losers associated with this property. The biggest winner by some way was developer Michael Whelan, who managed to offload the house at the top of the… Read more »

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Dermot Crowley

EXPOSED DALATA BANKING ON TOURISTS’ QUICK RETURN

Date: March 25, 2021 - Moneybags

WITH CEO Pat McCann announcing his intention to resign after “a period of transition” as he reaches the 70 mark, he is leaving Dalata Hotels in a bit of a mess, banking on the future being the same as the past and that in 2022 things will be back to normal. Even with a complete… Read more »

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Paul O'Neill

BETHANY HOME AND THE ‘IRISH TIMES’

Date: March 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

TWO MONTHS ago The Phoenix published a special investigation into the Irish Times’ suppression over many years of information about ill-treatment of children in Protestant mother and baby homes, despite being offered a wealth of such information The newspaper was interested primarily in targeting the abuse of children in homes run by Catholic religious orders…. Read more »

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HARVEY BOULTER’S MURDER CHARGE

Date: March 25, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK WONDERS what impact a startling development may have on the plaintiff in High Court proceedings faced by his old friend, investor extraordinaire Graeme de Renzy. The case, featuring a claim for $60m from Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency operation GuardianCoin, has been listed for hearing next November, but Harvey Boulter, the man behind GuardianCoin, has just… Read more »

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