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Elon Musk

GAVIN SHERIDAN’S HEDGE

Date: January 14, 2021 - The Hot Water Brigade

ELON MUSK’S electric car company, Tesla, has been accelerating in value, reaching $800bn last week. One person who will be rubbing his hands in glee is Gavin Sheridan, the founder of Irish legal tech firm Vizlegal. Sheridan is a long-time booster of Musk’s company and writes occasionally about what a genius the tech titan is. Sheridan… Read more »

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Eithne Shortall

MICHAEL MCLOUGHLIN’S SPORTING TACTICS

Date: January 14, 2021 - The Hot Water Brigade

WHEN FREELANCE journalist Eithne Shortall began reporting on the diminishing returns of Irish sports autobiographies, a name at the very top of her list of experts to provide some insight was Penguin Random House’s Irish supremo, Michael McLoughlin. In her piece, Shortall made a strong case by reference to the sales numbers, noting that, as… Read more »

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Gene Murtagh

PETER WILSON’S WEDGE

Date: January 14, 2021 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT WAS a torrid 2020 for Eugene and Gene Murtagh’s Kingspan, and not merely because of Covid-19. It also got a good old kicking in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry from lawyers for the 72 dead and many more of the bereaved. Over the course of several weeks, the legal eagles picked over emails and grilled Kingspan… Read more »

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APOLOGY – PRIME VALUE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT (PVMC)

Date: January 14, 2021 - The Hot Water Brigade

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Leo Varadkar

STANLEY AND ‘LEO D TORY’

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

WHY DID Fine Gael’s ever alert social media watchers not react with outrage in early June 2017 when Brian Stanley tweeted about “Leo d Tory” winning the Fine Gael leadership contest? The reason is that it would have been virtually impossible for Blueshirt politicians to cry foul for any gay taunts against Vlad – real,… Read more »

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Frank Clarke

FRANK CLARKE’S SUCCESSOR

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

CHIEF JUSTICE Frank Clarke’s magnificent and munificent gesture in declining to accept his €5,200 pay increase has not impressed all his colleagues and a slew of jealous judges resent the pressure this put on them to emulate Frank. But Clarke – who has enjoyed (not) a semi-annus horribilis since his Supreme Court ‘colleague’ Séamus Woulfe’s… Read more »

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Helen McEntee

PROFILE: HELEN MCENTEE

Date: December 16, 2020 - Pillars of Society

STRANGELY, THERE have been several ministers for justice appointed to that important position while still in their early 30s – Kevin O’Higgins and Des O’Malley, to name just two strong men. The more reserved, discreet Helen McEntee (34) is also more enigmatic than her predecessors, but she comes from a hardy stock whose members brook… Read more »

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James Kavanagh

YOUNG BLOOD: JAMES ‘EXTRA’ KAVANAGH

Date: December 16, 2020 - The Young Bloods

IS SOCIAL media darling James Kavanagh taking audiences for granted with his Paris Hilton-lite excess and bombastic claims? Or is he a shrewd businessman who is successfully exploiting the current obsession with glitter, fame and excess? One of his claims to fame is that he only got 200 points in the Leaving Cert and “now… Read more »

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Trevor White

CLEVER TREVOR’S PAY PACKET

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

LIKE MOST cultural venues, The Little Museum of Dublin has been hit by the pandemic, which resulted in the St Stephen’s Green operation closing its doors for much of the year. However, things have been good in recent years and, in the 2019 annual review, chairman Brody Sweeney points to the fact that “visitor figures… Read more »

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Undernose Farm

UNDERNOSE FARM – HARRY CROSBIE (THE LILLIPUT PRESS)

Date: December 16, 2020 - BooksReviews

THE PAST year of lockdown has seen a surge in autobiographical fiction. This slim hardback book (90 pages) of short stories about Dublin life in the 1960s is rare auld Dub property developer Harry Crosbie’s offering. It comes with glowing praise from American author Richard Ford, who goes as far as to compare the former… Read more »

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Pippa Hackett

CAN’T SEE THE GOOD FOR THE TREES

Date: December 16, 2020 - Last Refuge

WHAT AN unusually flattering article the Irish Times published last weekend about the involvement of junior agriculture minister Senator Pippa Hackett in the planting of trees by Coillte Nature, “transforming 900 hectares of commercial plantations for people and nature”. The IT’s environment and science editor, Kevin O’Sullivan, wrote of a “facelift which will see autumnal… Read more »

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Anne Heraty

ANNE HERATY’S BAD TIMING

Date: December 16, 2020 - High Society

THE AIR of scandal currently surrounding Gene Murtagh’s Kingspan must be generating a sense of déjà vu for the hapless Anne Heraty, the loaded founder of recruitment firm CPL Resources, which is being bought out in a deal that will land her a personal €90m pay day. She certainly knows a thing or two about… Read more »

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Vol 38 No 24

Date: December 16, 2020 -

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SUSAN KIRBY’S EXHIBITION

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE NEW boss of the Screen Producers Ireland lobby group is former St Patrick’s Festival CEO Susan Kirby. There has, however, been no mention in media coverage of her attempt to rescue the disastrous Dublin Contemporary 2011 exhibition. Maybe that is not surprising. DC2011 was hardly a success, with €4m gobbled up by an event… Read more »

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Roz Flanagan

ROZ FLANAGAN’S RESCUE PACKAGE

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

A COMPANY that was just placed in examinership to protect it from creditors turns out to be half-owned by Roz Flanagan of Dublin Housewives fame. Back in 2012, Roz made quite an impact on TV3’s Dublin Housewives, where she was joined by the likes of Danielle Meagher and Virginia Macari. Viewers were told to expect… Read more »

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NICK ASHMORE’S LENDERS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI), headed up by Nick Ashmore, was set up in 2014 to funnel hundreds of millions in low-cost moolah to middle-man lenders at a time when the banks were battening down the hatches. There have been some changes on the board here, just as the Public Accounts Committee is… Read more »

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Michael Creed

FEED THE BIRDS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

What could be more heart-warming than a fisherman sharing his catch with hungry penguins in a wildlife park forced to close due to Covid-19? Fota Wildlife Park in Cork has been juggling a €15,000-a-month feed bill for its 135 animal species while the 100-acre park remained closed for much of this year due to pandemic… Read more »

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Carol Nolan

ABORTION: THE NEXT ROUND

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

SEVERAL OIREACHTAS members have banded together to form the Oireachtas Life and Dignity Group. Five Oireachtas members were present at the group’s launch this month, as the advance guard of the anti-abortion movement prepares for a year of campaigning on the issue. Activists are preparing to clamber back into the saddle to renew battle with… Read more »

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SANTA’S TESTERS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

CONGRATULATIONS TO Dave Rock and his team at RocDoc, who managed to secure some top-notch PR in the Sindo earlier this month for the company’s Dublin Airport antigen ‘Lamp’ test for Covid-19. This is despite the fact that, for now, the government insists that only the gene-based PCR test can be accepted as proof of… Read more »

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" Photo: https://thewordpoint.com/ "

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Date: December 16, 2020 - Letters to the Editor

TOM ARNOLD Dear Editor, Your profile of Tom Arnold (The Phoenix 4/12/20) states that “Arnold is now very much distanced from Concern, which has affiliated with Trócaire… to form… Stop Climate Chaos”. This statement does not accurately reflect the reality. Stop Climate Chaos was formed in 2007 when Tom Arnold was Concern’s CEO and, rather… Read more »

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Barry Cowen

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: December 16, 2020 - The Hot Air Brigade

Look at the adversity of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali and many others like him who were on their backside a few times too – he got up and became world champion three times. I have to adopt the same attitude here – the people of the constituency want to see me do my job. Barry Cowen… Read more »

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Nigel Dodds

BORIS: ‘A BLACK WIDOW SPIDER’

Date: December 16, 2020 - Northwind

Bitter recriminations erupted between unionists last week after the UK folded and accepted the EU position on the Irish Protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement (WA). In one day, December 8, British minister Michael Gove agreed all the details of the Irish Sea border that the British had been resisting all year. Unionism was plunged into… Read more »

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HushHush-def

KINAHANS’ BELFAST LINKS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Hush Hush

The Russian Makarov firearm, either as a handgun or rifle, is a signature weapon of the Kinahan cartel and has been linked to a series of Kinahan murders and arms finds. Eyebrows were raised, therefore, when a Makarov handgun was used in the murder of former Belfast IRA commander-turned-community worker Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison in May… Read more »

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Charlie McConalogue

FISHY EU BUSINESS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Fowl Emissions

“EU SUPERTRAWLER hell as dolphins killed!” screamed a Daily Express headline last week. The image of foreigners catching British fish and killing British dolphins is a potent one for the right-wing press. The Express urged Boris Johnson to “use Brexit to end the chaos in the Channel”, as up to 10 supertrawlers appeared in the… 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

METHANE MUMBO JUMBO

Date: December 16, 2020 - Fowl Emissions

“Methane is a short life cycle gas.” This was just one of several flimsy arguments from IFA president Tim Cullinan that went unchallenged by Bryan Dobson in an interview on RTÉ’s News at One last week. The occasion was the launch of yet another roadmap for agriculture, this one being Minister Charlie McConalogue’s ‘Ag-Climatise’ document,… Read more »

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Brian Stanley

BRIAN STANLEY’S FOES

Date: December 16, 2020 - Last Refuge

INTERESTING to see that Fianna Fáil members on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) did not row in with abandon behind Fine Gael’s onslaught against Sinn Féin’s TD and PAC chair, Brian Stanley, for comparing Warrenpoint to Kilmichael and because of another, three-year-old tweet about Leo Varadkar. And while Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy did pitch… Read more »

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Louise O'Reilly

EXTRA DUBLIN DÁIL SEAT

Date: December 16, 2020 - Last Refuge

ALL BETS are off in Dublin Fingal, where the five-seat constituency is likely to be divided into two three-seaters by the time of the next general election – barring an early collapse of the government. Next year’s census will ultimately determine if and where boundary revisions to constituencies will be made, but the political parties… 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

JENNIFER WHITMORE’S GREEN CONCERNS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Last Refuge

IF SINN Féin stands accused of deliberately embarrassing the government parties with confidence motions and other tactics, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, party spokesperson on climate change and diversity, can legitimately embarrass the Green Party. Jennifer was horrified to learn recently of the low level of state funding received by environmental organisations – the Irish… Read more »

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Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Bog Cuttings

Clueless Dealer Judge Helen Boyle heard the case of a young man who, having been caught with a large quantity of cannabis, turned up at the Garda station to be charged while he had €60 of MDMA on his person. The defence solicitor for Conor Breen (21) of Garmons, Moyvane, described her client’s actions as… Read more »

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Tommie Gorman

RTÉ TO POACH FROM BBC?

Date: December 16, 2020 - Fit to Print?

WILL RTÉ management be again forced to tap up a BBC journalist to staff their Belfast office given that its northern editor, Tommie Gorman, is due to retire next year? Gorman’s replacement is effectively a done deal, but the station will have to solve a long-running problem in tempting southern journalists to work in the… Read more »

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Padraig Conneely

GALWAY BAY LITIGATION

Date: December 16, 2020 - Fit to Print?

Galway 2020 must have breathed a sigh of relief when former Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely decided not to run in the last local elections. The three times Galway city councillor had been a relentless critic of the European capital of culture project, which has been dogged by controversy since a series of high-profile resignations… Read more »

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David McConnell

ROSE DEEGAN’S SONG

Date: December 16, 2020 - Fit to Print?

HOW REFRESHING to see the Christmas spirit pierce the normally po-faced publishing exterior of the Irish Times with a human-interest story that hopefully lifted the Covid/Brexit gloom this yuletide. Last weekend, tucked alongside court reports of gun murder in Belfast and a dangerous-driving charge causing death was a story to warm the cockles of your… Read more »

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Samantha Leslie

SAMMY’S REVIEWS

Date: December 16, 2020 - High Society

SAMMY LESLIE, the chatelaine of Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan, is celebrating being chosen as one of the winners of the Good Hotel Guide Editor’s Choice 2021 award under the ‘historic hotel’ category. But reviews for a film featuring a pal of hers – and Ireland’s president – have been less glowing. Earlier this month… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

KIERAN WHITE’S €5,000

Date: December 16, 2020 - High Society

MICHAEL O’FLYNN’S property development outfit earned some positive publicity last week with the announcement of the winners of the inaugural O’Flynn Group Heritage Prize. Devised by architectural historian Robert O’Byrne and run in conjunction with the Historic Houses of Ireland organisation, the new prize of €5,000 goes to the owner of the chosen period property… Read more »

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Niamh Smyth

NIAMH SMYTH’S CAST

Date: December 16, 2020 - Behind the Scenes

LAST WEEK Niamh Smyth’s Oireachtas media committee spent a couple of hours discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the film and TV production industry with Screen Ireland (SI) chief executive Désiree Finnegan; her deputy, Teresa McGrane; and Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) committee members Stuart Switzer and Aoife O’Sullivan – producers of factual programming and drama… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

ANN CLARKE’S TEST RESULTS

Date: December 16, 2020 - Behind the Scenes

CONGRATULATIONS TO Anne Clarke, whose Landmark Productions outfit is co-producing the first theatrical ‘test’ live performances at the Abbey Theatre. Culture minister Catherine Martin announced the performances on Sunday and it is not surprising that the national theatre gets first dibs. Not surprising either is the fact that the show is a co-production – the… Read more »

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