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Charlie Gallagher

OUTSIDE ABBEY SHAREHOLDERS CONTINUE TO SUFFER

Date: October 22, 2020 - Moneybags

CHARLIE GALLAGHER continues to retain €100m cash inside Abbey plc rather than buying assets or paying it out to the shareholders by way of dividends and capital distributions. (The latter would enable the market to better rate the shares by way of dividend yield.) The Abbey strategy, and its probable impact on the share price,… Read more »

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Jim Ferry

CAULDERBANKS’ TIME EXTENSION

Date: October 22, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

ONE OF Donegal’s biggest waste collectors, DM Waste (DMW), has benefited from a planning decision by Donegal County Council. The decision saved some blushes at the council given that DMW had not fulfilled one of the main conditions of holding a waste collection licence and a waste facility permit – that is having valid planning… Read more »

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Deirdre Somers

DEIRDRE SOMERS’ NEW HAT

Date: October 22, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

GOOD TO see Deirdre Somers keeping busy since she stepped down from the top job in the Irish Stock Exchange, but her appointment to a British company called Aquis Exchange caught Goldhawk’s eyebrow. Somers has taken her time to leap back into the corporate world, following since her departure from Anglesea Street in late 2018…. Read more »

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Butlers townhouse

BYE BYE BUTLER’S

Date: October 22, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

THE BUSINESS casualties of Covid-19 continue to pile up and it turns out even the backing of assorted Chinese millionaires won’t save the day. Butlers Townhouse on Lansdowne Road, D4 had been in operation for nearly 25 years when the pandemic struck. It has been owned since 2014 by a company called Butlers Hospitality Ltd,… Read more »

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Dermot Smurfit

DERMOT SMURFIT’S ‘NEXT STAGE’

Date: October 22, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT’S BEEN a tough few months for the shareholders of GAN, Dermot Smurfit’s internet gambling company, and the Smurfits are busy putting on the gloss. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that in March 2019 GAN’s mounting losses had triggered an internal review about a potential sale of the business. Instead, they went for a listing on… Read more »

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

PALMARIANS’ PLANNING PROBLEM

Date: October 22, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

There was mixed news in Lusk, Co Dublin, for His Holiness Pope Peter III – to the initiated, Markus Josef Odermatt – in his battle to build a church for the roughly 140 members of the publicity-shy Palmarian church here in Ireland. Odermatt claims to be a descendant of the austere hermit Saint Nicholas of Flüe,… Read more »

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GOODBYE GIRLCREW

Date: October 22, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

SO FAREWELL then GirlCrew, whose female-focused networking app never gained the traction required to become a big player in the social media maelstrom. The trio behind GirlCrew are Pamela Newenham, Elva Carri and Áine Mulloy. Essentially, their app put women who wanted to go to a gig or bar (or, er, to train for a… Read more »

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David Sturt

END OF THE ROAD FOR PETRONEFT INVESTORS?

Date: October 22, 2020 - Moneybags

PETRONEFT HAS utterly failed to deliver. Having raised big bucks from investors in 2006 on the basis of impressive production projections and stated proven and possible reserves of 100 million barrels in a Russian oilfield, the company never came close to delivering on its promises. Producing oil economically has proved beyond it and with assorted… Read more »

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

VAN MORRISON’S SOUND FIGURES

Date: October 22, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

DUMPY AND grumpy little songster Van Morrison is getting worse reviews than normal thanks to his protest songs against the Covid-19 lockdown. Goldhawk hasn’t yet heard the songs, including ‘Born to be Free’, ‘As I Walked Out’, and ‘No More Lockdown’, but presumably they are perfect pandemic listening as we head into the second lockdown. The… Read more »

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Edwin Poots

DUP SPLIT ON COVID

Date: October 22, 2020 - Northwind

By the middle of this month a Financial Times graph showed the North had the highest Covid-19 infection rate in the world (sic) and within the North the Derry-Strabane council district topped the table with a hair-raising 964 per 100,000 of the population. Just across the border Donegal topped the list in the Republic. Thousands… Read more »

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Dónall Geoghegan

GREEN HANDLERS FOR HIRE

Date: October 22, 2020 - Last Refuge

THOSE IRRESPONSIBLE leftists in the Green Party who seem to think they can change (save, even?) the world, cavilled predictably at the appointment of two joint chiefs of staff — Dónall Geoghegan and Anna Conlan — to the leader, Eamon Ryan. Little do they realise that in Geoghegan they are getting a chief of staff… Read more »

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DENIS O’BRIEN’S APPLIANCES

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

A LIQUIDATOR has been appointed to a company called Demirca Ltd. Although not a familiar name, it turns out to be one of Denis O’Brien’s more forgettable ventures. Demirca was a subsidiary of Dinny’s radio conglomerate, Communicorp, which presumable explains the appointment to the board of the likes of Lucy Gaffney and Adrian Serle. Demirca… Read more »

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Seamus Woulfe

PRINCES OF LAW

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK IS grateful to a reader who looked up the Wikipedia entry for controversial Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe. The highlight is, without doubt, a link in the references to a poem called ‘The Princes of the Law’. Woulfe’s page includes the usual biographical info, including alma mater Trinners, and a link brings readers to… Read more »

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Susan Denham

QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

SÉamus Woulfe got filleted by the Irish Times for his deluded self-pity over Golfgate, but the judges’ favourite newspaper still blamed “successive governments going back more than a decade” for a more fundamental failure, ie the absence of a judicial council to deal with such situations. This revisionist myth has been a constant mantra of… Read more »

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Norma Foley

PROFILE: NORMA FOLEY

Date: October 8, 2020 - Pillars of Society

FAILING TO get on to the Fianna Fáil general election ticket in Kerry last year, Norma Foley could not have imagined she would end up in Cabinet just a few months after being added to the party ticket last Christmas. The long-time teacher and local councillor, now minister for education, knows she has landed one… Read more »

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Laura Whitmore

YOUNG BLOOD: LAURA WHITMORE

Date: October 8, 2020 - The Young Bloods

It has been a trying time of late for Bray’s sweetheart, Laura Whitmore, who struggles with balancing the demands of her rapidly ascending star in the UK and fending off the media, with whom she has a finely honed love-hate relationship. Having shot to fame in 2008 when she successfully saw off “thousands of applicants”… Read more »

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Simon Coveney

COVENEY YIELDS TO TRUMP ON ISRAEL

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE HIGHLY regarded Irish Times Middle East correspondent, Micheal Jansen, recently summarised the so-called breakthrough of the United Arab Emirate (UAE)-Bahrain-Israel deal as something that would finish off the long-sought-after, two-state Israel-Palestinian solution. Jansen also said it would consign five million Palestinians to permanent Israeli occupation. The ‘master plan’ is being negotiated by Donald Trump’s… Read more »

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Alison Canavan

ALISON CANAVAN’S DREAM BUILDING

Date: October 8, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

GOLDHAWK WAS interested to see that California-based model-turned-new-age-guru Alison Canavan has pulled the plug on her Irish wellness coaching business, Tinky Tock Productions. It turns out that the previous involvement of the media-friendly “wellness facilitator” with an Irish company didn’t end all that, er, well at all. Tinky Tock Productions was incorporated in March 2012,… Read more »

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Niall McFadden

NIALL McFADDEN’S OPTIMISM

Date: October 8, 2020 - High Society

AN IMPRESSIVE house on the Mount Juliet estate has gone on the market with a near E2m price tag. It turns out that this is one of a number of properties that were owned by Leisa Benner, wife of boom-time poster boy Niall McFadden. The latter is keeping busy these days with his bar investments… Read more »

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Burning Heresies

BURNING HERESIES – KEVIN MYERS (MERRION PRESS)

Date: October 8, 2020 - BooksReviews

WHEN IS a victim not a victim? Apparently not when they’re single mothers whose children are described as “bastards”. Or a Traveller derided as belonging to a “patriarchal, caste-based, dirty, diseased, alcoholic, illiterate… culture”. Or someone without a job, who is denounced as a “feckless layabout”. Or a Muslim condemned as refusing to assimilate to… Read more »

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Richard Bruton

BLUESHIRT CALL TO ARMS

Date: October 8, 2020 - Last Refuge

THAT’S A slightly unnerving group of right-wing Fine Gael TDs now ensconced in a political bunker hammering out a battle plan to revive the party and lead it back to power as the main party in government. Failed leadership contender of 10 years ago, Richard Bruton, heads up this studious group of Tory types as… Read more »

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Beatrice Tollman

BEATRICE TOLLMAN’S HOTEL BILL

Date: October 8, 2020 - The Hot Water Brigade

WITH THE pandemic causing havoc in the hospitality sector – and little reason for believing things will change any time soon – it is not surprising that there are some serious concerns expressed in the accounts of the hugely indebted luxury Ashford Castle hotel in Mayo. Given the dependence on American tourists, its loaded owners… Read more »

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Vol 38 No 20

Date: October 8, 2020 -

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Willie Walsh

WILLIE WALSH’S ROUTE MAP

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

WITH FORMER Aer Lingus boss Willie Walsh having finally exited the giant International Airlines Group (IAG), where he had been chief executive for nine years, there may be some concern at Cork and Shannon airports that his successor could cause serious turbulence. Willie, meanwhile, will be looking at new routes for himself. Walsh garnered the… Read more »

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Ed Guiney

ED GUINEY’S PLOT TWIST

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

FANS OF Goldhawk are familiar with the costly development and change of ownership of the controversial Pálás cinema project in Galway, where the opening scene featured the sod-turning by Michael Twee in 2009 and the finale involved Element Pictures’ Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe riding to the rescue. Having landed themselves control of an asset… Read more »

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MATT COOPER’S MANY HATS

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

MATT COOPER is a very busy chap, which may explain why he apparently forgot to mention his roles in Today FM and Virgin when taking his latest pop at RTÉ in the Business Post last weekend. Readers of Cooper’s ‘Last Post’ column will be familiar with his regular attacks on Montrose, although he usually identifies… Read more »

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Charlie Flanagan

CHARLIE FLANAGAN TO BE SUED?

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

IT’S RARE that a full-on riposte to Eoghan Harris’s attacks on those with the ‘wrong’ outlook is sanctioned by the Sunday Independent and even rarer that it would be published on the page opposite his weekly column, as it was last weekend. Perhaps the newspaper realised that, so contentious was the column in question, it… Read more »

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Barry Ward

BLUESHIRT ETHICS

Date: October 8, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE CHAIRPERSON of Dún Laoghaire Fine Gael constituency organisation, Edward Kennedy, takes his responsibilities seriously. ‘Ted’ informed members in a recent missive, “I am setting up an ethics committee to ensure adherence to the Fine Gael Party’s code of conduct in future elections.” The impetus for ethical re-education of the highly civilised milieu of Kingstown… Read more »

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HushHush-def

GENE MURTAGH’S GONG

Date: October 8, 2020 - Hush Hush

CONGRATULATIONS to Gene Murtagh, who has won the Irish Times’s Business Person of the Month Award for having “outperformed market expectations despite Covid-19”. As the IT breathlessly recounted, “While the pandemic led to an inevitable contraction in orders during the first half of the year, Kingspan’s profit performance beat analysts’ forecasts.” It’s a sign of… Read more »

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Amanda Byram

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: October 8, 2020 - The Hot Air Brigade

Every morning, when you get out of bed, stand in front of a full-length mirror and give yourself some unconditional love: say out loud three times,“Damn, girl! You are one f**king foxy, funny, fabulous, fit, fantastic, fortuitous female!” Amanda Byram’s essential advice, Sunday Independent, Life magazine It’s important to note that golf was one of… Read more »

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Boris Johnson

WHAT BREXIT WILL MEAN

Date: October 8, 2020 - Northwind

Naturally, all attention is focussed on Britain’s last-minute high-wire act in talks about a trade deal with the EU. However, the fact remains that, deal or no deal, the UK will leave the EU on December 31, which has many practical consequences for everyday life for people in Ireland, north and south. Few people remember… Read more »

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Frank Clarke

SEPARATING JUDGES AND POLITICIANS

Date: October 8, 2020 - Last Refuge

SÉAMUS WOULFE has achieved the compelling feat of lowering the stock of judges to beneath that of politicians. But amid the reams of media analysis (overwhelmingly critical of Woulfe and, by implication, the judiciary), the cosy relationship between judges and Fine Gael – especially the principal players surrounding Golfgate – has merited little or no… Read more »

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Mick Barry

MICK BARRY’S MEDIA STRATEGY

Date: October 8, 2020 - Last Refuge

OPPOSITION TDS and even Fianna Fáil have denounced the obsession with spin and media manipulation engaged in by Leo Varadkar in recent years. And left-wing TDs have been especially indignant at the PR-guided stratagems of Vlad and Fine Gael. But a rather self-serving press statement was issued recently by hard-left TD Mick Barry about the… Read more »

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Niamh Smyth

FIVE-YEAR LIBEL CASE

Date: October 8, 2020 - Last Refuge

A SLOW-motion defamation action in the Northern Circuit Court is causing some confusion within and without Fianna Fáil. This is because the plaintiff – a county councillor who resigned from the party last June – and the defendant – a Cavan-based TD – have completely different recollections of whether any legal action is taking place…. Read more »

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Dara Bradley

HACK GOES DOWN ON GALWAY BAY

Date: October 8, 2020 - Fit to Print?

AN INCESTUOUS spat and legal action between Galway Bay FM and a journalist from the radio station’s owners, the Connacht Tribune, was settled in July, with damages and legal costs amounting to a sum not far off €100,000. A story penned in 2016 by the Tribune’s Dara Bradley referred to the then Galway City Fine… Read more »

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

EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL

Date: October 8, 2020 - Fit to Print?

THAT “FEARLESS” Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph correspondent, the late Chris Ryder, was for many years an inspiration to British hacks covering the Troubles, especially when it came to the daring exploits of the British security services. Older readers will recall his 1987 exposé on the IRA/Libyan plot to spring several IRA and Libyan prisoners… Read more »

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