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John FitzGerald

JOHN FITZGERALD’S TWO HATS

Date: April 23, 2020 - Fowl Emissions

LIKE MOST of the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael ‘draft document’ on forming a government, the section on climate is vague and threadbare. There is no mention of climate science nor of fossil fuels. This will comfort Ireland’s oil and gas suits, who are fighting to stop their sunset industry sinking below the horizon. Fans of Goldhawk… Read more »

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Bill Holohan

BILL HOLOHAN’S WASTED COSTS ORDER

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE WAS a pretty damning ruling issued in the High Court earlier this month by Judge Denis McDonald, in relation to the case of a personal insolvency arrangement for one Mark Fay. Of interest to Goldhawk, however, was the outcome for the solicitor involved, the highly respected Bill Holohan. Holohan is probably the biggest player… Read more »

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Siobhan and Kasao Learat

SIOBHAN LEARAT’S UPSCALE DESIGNS

Date: April 23, 2020 - High Society

GOLDHAWK WAS not surprised to see irrepressible travel agent Siobhan Byrne Learat feature in the Sindo last week, where her Adams & Butler business got another plug, this time in the context of dreary Covid-19. Siobhan explained that “people have always wanted to run away. The only difference is that what they’re running away from… Read more »

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Connor Murphy

CONNOR MURPHY’S RTÉ GIG

Date: April 23, 2020 - Fit to Print?

ALTHOUGH APPOINTMENTS to state boards have effectively been put on hold while the interim/caretaker government remains in situ, it turns out that some positions just can’t wait. This is the case for Moya Doherty’s RTÉ board – tech money wiz Connor Murphy has just been appointed by communications minister Richard Bruton. Reflecting the new focus… Read more »

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FP-3808

VOL. 38 ISSUE 08

Date: April 23, 2020 -

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ROBERT ARMSTRONG’S RECORD

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE 1,700-word obituary of Lord Robert Armstrong, published in the Irish Times last weekend, omitted a few interesting details. As principal private secretary to prime ministers Ted Heath from 1970 and then Harold Wilson until 1975, Armstrong was intimately involved with the British government’s response to the Troubles in the north from the start. He… Read more »

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John McGabhann

JOHN McGABHANN’S REPORT CARD

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

TEACHERS’ UNION boss John McGabhann probably cannot believe his luck as he prepares to retire as general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) later this year. His union’s pre-election, one-day strike last February made little impact, but the absence of an annual congress this Easter has sidestepped any anticipated unruly behaviour by browned-off… Read more »

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JOHN KIDD’S LOBBYING

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

GIVEN THAT there is only one thing on people’s minds these days, it is predictable that some of the latest lobbying activity has focused on the pandemic. Among those who have been busy recently, not surprisingly, is the Irish Refugee Council. Chief executive Nick Henderson has been in contact with justice minister Charlie Flanagan and… Read more »

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Niamh O'Beirne

EY RESCUES HSE

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE STRAIN on the HSE is beginning to show, with top dog Paul Reid having to turn to EY Ireland to draft in one of its senior management consultants – the highly regarded ‘Performance Improvement and People Advisory Services’ partner Niamh O’Beirne – to beef-up the Covid-19 testing teams. The re-branded EY Ireland was, of… Read more »

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IRISH TIMES AND “THAT CHURCH”

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

YOU’VE GOT to hand it to the Irish Times. When it comes to the dreaded Catholic Church, the paper knows the right tone to strike. An editorial was published on Good Friday under the heading “A Tough Reality” and, for Catholics, it would not have made for easy reading, albeit there would not have been… Read more »

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Robbie Lawlor

THE DANGER OF ‘GOING NORTH’

Date: April 23, 2020 - Hush Hush

THE RECENT murder of psychopath Robbie Lawlor in Belfast has generated a lot of lurid headlines, but the media missed the all-Ireland realpolitik behind the slaying. Comment on the full details of the murder is restricted as a man may soon be brought before the courts on charges related to the killing, but Robbie Lawlor’s… Read more »

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HushHush-def

VINCENT JENNINGS’S WORKERS

Date: April 23, 2020 - Hush Hush

THE COUNTRY’S corner-shop keepers and ‘convenience store’ owners got a shock in recent weeks as their poorly paid employees did a runner. They had gone to claim the Covid-19 €350 payment, which was more than they earned for working for members of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents’ Association. The association’s boss, Vincent Jennings, and some… Read more »

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Roz Purcell

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: April 23, 2020 - The Hot Air Brigade

I am trying my best to be 100% present in whatever is happening right now, aiming to be totally and utterly ‘forcibly’ present. Roz Purcell on dealing with lockdown restrictions, TheJournal.ie, submitted by reader Admittedly, I did pull out my red sequin ballgown for a trip to Lidl. Taryn de Vere’s small thrills, RTÉ This… Read more »

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Robin Swann

IT WILL BE BANANAS

Date: April 23, 2020 - Northwind

A STRING of experts on epidemiology, north and south, have given interviews and written op-eds advocating an all-Ireland approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. They sound increasingly desperate. Most recently Dr Gabriel Scally, best known here for his inquiry into the cervical smear scandal, has written in both the Irish Times and Irish News (Apr 18)… Read more »

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Seamus Woulfe

SEAMUS WOLFE’S ENERGY POLICY

Date: April 23, 2020 - Fowl Emissions

AMID THE coronavirus chaos, carmakers, airlines and oil companies are persuading governments to roll back environmental regulations to help them weather the Covid-19 storm. Most gratuitous among these is the US plastics industry, which has exploited fears about the virus, with manufacturers convincing several US state governors to suspend bans on plastic bags in the… Read more »

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Simon Coveney

ISRAEL NOT LOSING ANY SLEEP

Date: April 23, 2020 - Last Refuge

GOLDHAWK WAS heartened to see in the proposed programme for government advanced by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that there was a firm commitment to “support efforts towards a durable, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict”. At least, if they can’t solve the housing and health crises, things might be looking up in the Middle… Read more »

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Simon Harris

SIMON HARRIS’S BRIT BASHING

Date: April 23, 2020 - Last Refuge

YOU KNOW something’s not quite right when a Fine Gael minister defensively reaches out for a bit of Brit bashing. Such was the case when health minister Simon Harris was on the ropes over the high death count in our old folks homes (sorry, “residential settings”). He hesitated before telling RTÉ radio that the Republic… Read more »

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Janice Boylan 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

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S HEADACHE

Date: April 23, 2020 - Last Refuge

WHILE THE media are concentrating on the chances of one of the smaller parties rowing in behind a Programme for Government put forward by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the real story is that the noose is tightening around FF leader Micheál Martin’s neck, with more and more local constituency groups coming out against the… Read more »

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John Paul Phelan

BLUESHIRTS LOVE-BOMB ‘NUTTERS’

Date: April 23, 2020 - Last Refuge

IT’S HARD to believe that the Blueshirts are blowing kisses at the Greens after bad-mouthing them as ‘nutters’ to the Irish Farmers’ Association, whose members have been known to pour slurry into rivers, set gorse fires and chop hedges used for nesting. During the election campaign, it was easy for minister of state John Paul… Read more »

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Eoghan Murphy

EOGHAN MURPHY’S WAITING GAME

Date: April 23, 2020 - Last Refuge

HOUSING MINISTER Eoghan Murphy has been enjoying some Covid-19 cover over his delays in releasing the social housing completions by local councils in 2019. The figures are not good and will be well below the targeted 6,242 new builds for 2019, up from 4,251 new social houses completed in 2018. By the end of last… Read more »

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Bog-Cuttings-Defaul

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: April 23, 2020 - Bog Cuttings

‘Stick It In A Certain Location’ JASON SHEEHAN of 5 Renard View, Knightstown, appeared before Cahersiveen District Court in relation to a 2018 incident involving gardaí. Garda Inspector Michael Fleming told the court that Sheehan became abusive towards gardaí when they confronted him in Cahersiveen. When the gardaí notified Sheehan that if he continued his… Read more »

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Marc Coleman

CASSANDRA COLEMAN

Date: April 23, 2020 - Fit to Print?

LOOKS LIKE mercurial economist Marc Coleman is on the loose again, having been tamed within IBEC for a few years. Earlier this month, he popped up on his old radio station, Newstalk, to push his latest pamphlet/report/book called An Economic Response to Covid-19. A catchy title given that it was issued even before we were… Read more »

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Cathal Gaffney

CATHAL GAFFNEY’S SIX SHOOTS

Date: April 23, 2020 - Behind the Scenes

THE FILM and TV business is going through an existential Covid-19 downtime, but the public purse is always open, as evidenced by the latest quarterly list of Revenue’s Section 481 tax break beneficiaries. Some of these are retrospective, like the €½m-€1m scooped by Kieran Corrigan’s Glen Green Ltd for Supervized. This is a film directed… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

JOSEPHA MADIGAN’S LEGACY

Date: April 23, 2020 - Behind the Scenes

WHILE COMMENTATORS speculate on the make-up of any new cabinet, culture minister Josepha Madigan’s name is noticeable by its absence. She has only herself to blame. It is certainly pretty rare for the minister in a good news department to get a kicking in an Irish Times editorial, but Madigan got both barrels last week…. Read more »

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A THOUSAND MOONS - SEBASTIAN BARRY

A THOUSAND MOONS – SEBASTIAN BARRY (FABER & FABER)

Date: April 23, 2020 - BooksReviews

SEBASTIAN BARRY’S Costa-winning Days Without End told the story of two young soldiers in the American Civil War. In this sequel, set during the 1870s, the author returns to these characters. The result is surprisingly underwhelming as a bizarrely woke sensibility muffles much of the book’s momentum. John Cole and Thomas McNulty (two “good-as-women men”)… Read more »

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Eamon Crowley

JEREMY MASDING CUTS AND RUNS FROM PTSB

Date: April 23, 2020 - Moneybags

PERMANENT TSB is a real mess and, after eight years trying to sort it out, CEO Jeremy Masding threw in the towel. Last October he announced that he would be leaving this year, with CFO Eamonn Crowley now lined up to take charge. The new man has a real challenge on his hands, although the… Read more »

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Gavin Slark

GRAFTON GROUP SHARE COLLAPSE OVERDONE

Date: April 23, 2020 - Moneybags

GAVIN SLARK had a unique opportunity to realise the goal of his predecessor, Mike Chadwick, to turn Grafton Group into “a leading international distributor of building materials” by buying CRH’s huge £3bn turnover continental European distribution business, which was for sale last year. He let it pass. Meanwhile, the sell off of Grafton shares in… Read more »

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John V Farrelly

JOHN V FARRELLY’S ADVENTURES

Date: April 23, 2020 - Briefcases

GOLDHAWK’S OLD pal, John V Farrelly, a former Fine Gael politician and a shareholder in ‘free’ energy company Steorn, will be paying close attention to a new book on the company by Business Post journalist Barry Whyte. A former TD and county councillor, Farrelly is better known in recent times for calling his former Blueshirt… Read more »

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Brian Fallon

FALLON BROTHERS DIG DEEP

Date: April 23, 2020 - Briefcases

THEJOURNAL.IE, that right-on source of news for young readers, has probably suffered more than most news outlets due to the Covid-19 restrictions and associated advertising collapse. With advertising revenue completely annihilated, TheJournal.ie has been forced to cut wages, shutter some of its sub-sites and, most recently, launch a funding drive from its readers. Goldhawk certainly… Read more »

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

NOT IN KANSAS ANY MORE

Date: April 23, 2020 - Briefcases

THE BOYS of Dollard Packaging in Dublin will be breathing a sigh of relief after they dodged a hefty $4.5m pension deficit claim in Kansas. Eugene Reynolds and Patrick Walsh are the main shareholders in Dollard, a Dublin printing company which is part of a wider group that includes assorted unlimited companies such as Coleridge… Read more »

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Francesca McDonagh

FRANCESCA’S ‘ANNUS HORRIBILIS’

Date: April 23, 2020 - Briefcases

LIKE BRITAIN’S Queen Elizabeth, who gave her an OBE in 2017, Bank of Ireland (BoI) boss Francesca McDonagh will presumably recognise an annus horribilis when one presents. The British banker is having a forgettable year so far (see The Phoenix 10/04/2020) and things don’t seem to be getting much better. Complaints have mounted from politicians… Read more »

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Rich Ricci

RICH RICCI’S WIND DOWN

Date: April 23, 2020 - Briefcases

A COMPANY called Dedsert Ireland Ltd has just been voluntarily wound up by its owners. The company turns out to be behind the Irish-registered BetBright operation that was sold off last year. Fans of Goldhawk will be familiar with the exploits of the fabulously named Rich Ricci, who invested heavily in BetBright. The free-spending racehorse… Read more »

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EDITORIAL STATEMENT

Date: April 23, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

EDITORIAL STATEMENT – We wish to state that the editorial team at The Phoenix, had nothing to do with the recent recruitment advertisement for an intern. This was an action solely taken by management and we wish to fully distance ourselves from that action. Paddy Prendiville (editor) Paul Farrell (dep. editor)

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3807 FP

Vol 38 Issue 07

Date: April 9, 2020 -

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Paschal Donohoe

HOLDING THE LINE ON €350

Date: April 9, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE LACK of probing by some newspaper editors and parts of the state broadcaster of the party line from Government Buildings has at last begun to fray – at least when it comes to the Covid-19 testing debacle. But the line Fine Gael will be most focused on in the near future is the one… Read more »

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Brian McEnery

BRIAN McENERY’S CRITICS

Date: April 9, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE SLOW reaction of Simon Harris and the government’s National Public Health Emergency Team to the spread of Covid-19 in nursing homes created significant tensions. However, relations between the body that represents private nursing homes in Ireland and politicians have been pretty dreadful in the not-so-distant past. Not noted for great employment conditions, there have… Read more »

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