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On Saturday November 28, Pope Francis will preside in Rome at a ceremony conferring red hats on 13 new Cardinals, but none of them will be either Diarmuid Martin (75), the Archbishop of Dublin and Elder Statesman of the Irish Church, or 59-year-old Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, the All-Ireland successor of St Patrick. For… Read more »

HAVING BEEN transformed from predator into the hunted one vis-à-vis Supreme Court ‘colleague’ Séamus Woulfe, Chief Justice Frank Clarke may now feel he laid too much stress on a legal and political precedent that few other judges and legal correspondents seemed to have noticed. In 1999, Supreme Court judge Hugh O’Flaherty and High Court judge… Read more »

AS VICTORY for Joe Biden’s US presidential campaign inched closer, the Irish Times’s EU warriors became more exercised about the consequences for what is quaintly called “EU security”. On the one hand, warned one hack, Nato HQ and various EU governments would be pleased, as Biden could be relied on to be more assertive in… Read more »

LAST YEAR the Dáil declared a biodiversity emergency and, in recent months, the EU’s Farm To Fork strategy set out ambitious targets to cut the use of environmental poisons like chemical pesticides. Tough times, in other words, to be in the pesticide business right now. However, rather than being seen as pariahs in a sunset… Read more »

GOLDHAWK’S OLD friend, security specialist Jim Farrell, has just been adjudged a bankrupt in relation to a row over his former company. Business Mobile Security Services (BMSS) may have a dull name, although the company was anything but and will be well known to fans of Goldhawk thanks to its ownership of Integrated Risk Management… Read more »

CONGRATS TO the chaps in News UK, London head Office of the Sunday Times – which dictates the tone and tenor of its aawrish edition – for perhaps the most ironic headline and story in modern Irish publishing. “Ceann Comhairle accused of ‘meddling’ on China’s behalf”, screamed a headline from the Irish ST’s crime writer,… Read more »

WITH ALL the fuss over the trailer for Wild Mountain Thyme, it is interesting to note that the taxpayer has put a fair few bob towards the film that features bad accents and big names like Emily Blunt (see p15). One of the private companies that has backed it is called CFF Film Fund and… Read more »

Tony Holohan IT IS probably safe to say that Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is not on repeat on Tony ‘Soprano’ Holohan’s playlist. The undisputed gang boss of the Covid-19 pandemic has earned his reputation as a no-nonsense guy who sees the Chianti glass as three-quarters empty and doesn’t take… Read more »