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LIZ HEADON’S ROLL-OUT

Date: January 14, 2021 - Affairs of the Nation

THE APPOINTMENT of Liz Headon to head up the communications aspect of the vaccine roll-out should come as little surprise given her credentials. It is certainly not her first state appointment but she will hope there is not much flak this time around. While busy Lizzy was kept busy fighting fires last year at Bus… Read more »

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Date: January 14, 2021 - Letters to the Editor

WHOLLY FLATTERING Dear Editor, I am flattered that you have published a somewhat outdated photograph of me in your 2020 annual: but in consideration of the accompanying text, I would like to clarify that I am not a member of – even the imaginary – “Catholic Choir of Beating Hearts”. I am not a member… Read more »

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Martha Pope

THE POPE CONSPIRACY

Date: January 14, 2021 - Hush Hush

JUST AS with the original 1996 DUP/Spook driven smear campaign against US peace envoy Martha Pope, the latest revelations – via the release of state papers – in this story have very much gone under the media radar. Pope was awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Ulster in July 2019 in recognition of… Read more »

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HushHush-def

KINAHANS GO NORTH

Date: January 14, 2021 - Hush Hush

THE CONVICTION of two Kinahan gangsters recently in connection with a botched gangland hit in 2017 against rival Hutch gang supremo James ‘Mago’ Gately highlights the problems that now beset Ireland’s leading crime gang. At the non-jury Special Criminal Court, the actual gunman in the attack, Caolan Smyth, was convicted of attempted murder and his… Read more »

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Mairead Ronan

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 14, 2021 - The Hot Air Brigade

I wouldn’t have got recognised very often before DWTS as I think I have one of those very Irish faces. I could easily be your cousin or your one off the radio. I was making a reservation in a restaurant so I had three-quarters of my face covered at the time and the guy goes… Read more »

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Naomi Long

NEW DECADE NO DEAL

Date: January 14, 2021 - Northwind

JANUARY 11 marked one year since the New Decade New Approach (NDNA) document enabled the Stormont executive to be restored. Nobody was rejoicing at any progress made as a result. The DUP marked the occasion with a fierce attack on Sinn Féin by the hardline MP Gregory Campbell while Michelle O’Neill extolled the advantages of… Read more »

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Ray Bates

SCIENCE NOT REFEREES

Date: January 14, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

NEW YEAR, same old nonsense at the Irish Farmers Journal. In recent years the paper has dabbled in promoting climate denial and junk science, producing comically awful headlines such as ‘Earth is in midst of a CO2 famine – Princeton professor’. All of this is an ever more desperate attempt to downplay both the reality… 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

LUCINDA’S INSIGHT

Date: January 14, 2021 - Fowl Emissions

Since when did former politician-turned-lobbyist Lucinda Creighton become a moderate? Speaking from her weekly Business Post soap box, she recently decried “the extreme left and the extreme right” for their churlish opposition to the EU-Canada trade deal known as CETA. In Creighton’s world, mild-mannered environmental NGOs like Friends of the Earth and An Taisce have… Read more »

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Jim O'Callaghan

JIM O’CALLAGHAN’S PROGNOSIS

Date: January 14, 2021 - Last Refuge

FIANNA FÁIL TD, Jim O’Callaghan, has gone all quiet about the pandemic in recent weeks after several months of energetic and robust criticisms of both Nphet and the extent of restrictions throughout that period. O’Callaghan may be the brightest and most articulate leadership contender waiting to seize the crown when Micheál Martin is forced to… Read more »

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Brid Smith

MAKE INCHICORE GREAT AGAIN

Date: January 14, 2021 - Last Refuge

HARD LEFT TD, Bríd Smith, would greatly resent being compared to the stormtroopers of Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) that attacked the US Capitol but chief justice, Frank Clarke, went close in a letter commending Charlie Flanagan for his reaction to her last summer. According to a recent report Clarke thanked the then… Read more »

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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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