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Stephen Donnelly

HEALTH MINISTER’S FUTURE

Date: January 14, 2021 - Last Refuge

A SIGN of the political times – or near future – in Wicklow is the not entirely innocent Facebook comment posted by Cllr Rory O’Connor recently. On New Year’s Day Cllr O’Connor published a league table of more than 30 countries and how they are faring with the roll-out of the anti-Covid vaccination, showing that… Read more »

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Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: January 14, 2021 - Bog Cuttings

“I Don’t Recognise Your Laws” Marian Brady (66), with a former address at 6 Karol Avenue, Elphin, but now living in Donegal, was fined by Roscommon District Court for verbally abusing and biting a garda. The defendant had become obstreperous when pulled over by customs officials on October 24, 2018, who requested assistance from gardaí…. Read more »

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Jon Williams

COVID SAVES RTÉ

Date: January 14, 2021 - Fit to Print?

THE MEDIA Commission’s investigation into RTÉ’s finances was initially regarded as a crisis management exercise, but one of the great ironies of the pandemic is that it has managed to not only avert the crisis (however temporarily) but to enrich the station. For most of last year RTÉ and director general Dee Forbes repeated the… Read more »

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Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

SINDO’S BLUE LINE

Date: January 14, 2021 - Fit to Print?

SEVERAL ANONYMOUS sources made assertive comments to a receptive media about the shooting dead of George Nkencho at his home in Clonee recently amid much leaking by the usual, reliable security sources. The Sunday Independent’s new crime reporter, Ali Bracken, reported that the gardai fired five shots, killing Nkencho after he “threatened gardai with a knife during a 30-minute stand-off during which… Read more »

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Fionnán Sheahan

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MEDIA FANS

Date: January 14, 2021 - Fit to Print?

GOOD TO see the most prominent and indeed responsible political commentators jumping to the defence of An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, as he came under attack from within and without last weekend. Irish Times political editor, Pat Leahy, and Irish Independent Ireland editor, Fionnán Sheahan, arguably the country’s two pre-eminent political journalists, both dismissed criticisms of Martin’s handling… Read more »

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Valerie Moran

THE MORANS’ SPLURGES

Date: January 14, 2021 - High Society

NOEL AND Valerie Moran’s latest acquisition – Knockdrin Castle and its 1,000 surrounding acres in Co Westmeath – is the latest in a long list of splurges for the newly minted Navan couple. The other acquisitions have been of an equine nature. Obviously the Moran coffers are fairly overflowing thanks to the audacious €250m sale… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

MICHAEL CUSH’S EXIT

Date: January 14, 2021 - High Society

NO DOUBT, the chair of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI), legal eagle Mary Keane, was delighted with her Christmas pressie from culture minister Catherine Martin – an extra €1m for the gallery. Meanwhile, there is a vacancy on the board as a result of the early exit stage left of Keane’s predecessor, Michael Cush… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

NANCY HARRIS’S WINNER

Date: January 14, 2021 - Behind the Scenes

JUST BEFORE Christmas, the hard-working elves at Michael O’Keeffe’s Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) signed off on the latest round of ‘Sound & Vision’ hand-outs to the nation’s struggling TV producers. The good news is that there was plenty to go around given that the state has boosted the pot. Although media minister Catherine Martin… Read more »

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No Hiding (Rob Kearney)

NO HIDING (ROB KEARNEY) & FUEL (SEAN O’BRIEN)

Date: January 14, 2021 - BooksReviews

THERE IS a bitter irony that one of the accusations against Joe Schmidt’s Ireland team in his final year was that it had become predictable and too easy for their opponents to read. The steady, plodding stream of autobiographies from Irish rugby players has in its own way become predictable, but by no means easy… Read more »

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Lydia Hislop

NOT GOING THE DISTANCE

Date: January 14, 2021 - Sport of Kings

THE RETURN of dual Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo in the Savills Chase at Tramore on New Year’s Day was supposed to be a routine outing for the brilliant chaser. The race sparked its fair share of controversy afterwards, however, when sectional timing expert Simon Rowlands revealed data that proved the race was run… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

HOLDEN ON TO THE PRIZE

Date: January 14, 2021 - Sport of Kings

KILKENNY MAN Paul Holden and his trainer daughter, Ellmarie, have pumped a lot of money into racing in the past few years, both through horse ownership and race sponsorship but they have seen a significant return on their investment. Business at Holden Plant Rentals may have benefited from a series of race sponsorships, mostly at… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

MOANING MULLINS

Date: January 14, 2021 - Sport of Kings

ANY DREAMS that 2020 might finally be the year for Gordon Elliott were dashed after Willie Mullins mopped up the majority of prize money on offer over the festive period. Elliott held a €300,000 lead over Mullins pre-Christmas but after four days of racing at Leopardstown and Limerick, that advantage was more or less wiped… Read more »

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Charlie Gallagher

ABBEY’S MARKET EXIT LONG OVERDUE

Date: January 14, 2021 - Moneybags

THE INEVITABLE takeout of Charlie Gallagher’s Abbey plc house-building group by the Gallagher family is, like Anne Heraty’s CPL (bought out by the Japanese Outsourcing Inc), another example of a family-dominated business exiting the stock exchange. There are a number of similar characteristics associated with the two entities, including a strong liquidity preference that has… Read more »

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Elon Musk

GAVIN SHERIDAN’S HEDGE

Date: January 14, 2021 - Briefcases

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 - Briefcases

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 - Briefcases

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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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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article-default

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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article-default

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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