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Eleanor McEvoy

NEW TUNE FOR THE NCH

Date: January 30, 2020 - Behind the Scenes

IT WILL be interesting to see if culture minister Josepha Madigan looks to make a few board appointments before the new government is in place. One of the national cultural institutions where some vacancies are to be filled is the National Concert Hall (NCH), where the closing date for expressions of interest was earlier this… Read more »

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Suzanne Jackson

THE STYLE COUNSELLORS – (RTÉ 1)

Date: January 30, 2020 - ReviewsTV

THE LATEST home-produced makeover series is presented by Suzanne Jackson and Eileen Smith – described by RTÉ as “two social media sensations”. At the start of each programme, the 35-year-old fashion blogger and octogenarian Instagrammer inform viewers that “some people don’t know how to dress”. To illustrate this, they strike a dramatic pose while sharing… Read more »

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Amer Abdulaziz

PHOENIX RISES

Date: January 30, 2020 - Sport of Kings

DESPITE EXPLOSIVE allegations late last year of money laundering and using the proceeds of a crypto-currency Ponzi scheme to fund the investment of tens of millions of euro into bloodstock and racehorse purchases, it has been more or less business as usual for Phoenix Thoroughbreds. In the frontline of significant press coverage, the company’s thick-skinned… Read more »

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Brian Hughes

BRIAN HUGHES’S OPPORTUNITY

Date: January 30, 2020 - Sport of Kings

THE SAYING ‘one man’s loss is another man’s gain’ can often ring true in jump racing and the recent injury suffered by reigning champion jockey Richard Johnson is a case in point. Johnson’s setback very much leaves the door open for a changing of the guard among the top brass. Remarkably, there have only been… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

MICK O’LEARY’S RATING PROBLEM

Date: January 30, 2020 - Sport of Kings

WITH THE Cheltenham Festival looming, the thorny issue of Irish-trained horses being allotted higher handicap marks in Britain compared to Ireland has again raised its head. Questions were asked a few years ago when the British handicapper gave Presenting Percy a mark six pounds higher than his Irish rating – although that didn’t stop him… Read more »

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John Magnier

JOHN MAGNIER’S FRENCH FANCY

Date: January 30, 2020 - Sport of Kings

COOLMORE STUD is known to be relentless in its pursuit of dominance in the breeding world and the latest acquisition by John Magnier and his squad of heavy hitters is the result of a partnership with Peter Brant, which sees Coolmore landing a 50% share in Brant’s top-class colt, Sottsass. The horse won last year’s… Read more »

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Ian Ireland

IAN IRELAND IMPRESSES AT DONEGAL INVESTMENTS

Date: January 30, 2020 - Moneybags

IAN IRELAND, a Denis Brosnan acolyte at Kerry Group, has been running Donegal Creameries – now called the Donegal Investment Group (DIG) – for 15 years. In that time, he has transformed the group in a truly impressive manner, untypical of the typical Irish senior executive. The company is now poised for growth in the… Read more »

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John O'Connor

KOLLECT TAPS SCANDINAVIAN MARKET

Date: January 30, 2020 - Moneybags

WATERFORD entrepreneur John O’Connor pulled off a neat trick in raising €2.5m by offering shares in his Kollect waste operation at €1.33 on the tiny Nasdaq First North market in Stockholm, valuing the whole business for just over €7m. This is quite extraordinary given how small the company is compared to the other waste collection… Read more »

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Charles Caldwell

DOMINO’S DOUGH KNOTS IN A TWIST

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

THE TAXMAN placed a tall order with Domino’s this month. It successfully quashed an appeal by the pizza chain’s Irish franchisee, Karshan (Midlands) Ltd, over the question of whether it should treat its drivers as PAYE workers or as self-employed. Good thing the company and its owners, Belfast brothers Aidan and Charles Caldwell, have more… Read more »

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Frank Hynes

HYNES DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

THE INEVITABLE has arrived for embattled jewellery merchant Frank Hynes (see The Phoenix, 13/12/19). His business, Hynes Jewellers (Wexford) Ltd, was wound up by the taxman earlier this month. Revenue has appointed Dublin accountant Myles Kirby to oversee the liquidation, while judge Miriam O’Regan gave the company directors 21 days to file a statement of… Read more »

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

ALAN SMYTH’S WEEDS

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

THE WEEDS have appeared for Kildare-based landscape gardening consultant Alan Smyth, who had a judgment for €185,000 registered against him by the taxman earlier this month. The former civil engineer, once a fixture at Dublin’s Bloom festival, was previously listed on Revenue’s 2018 tax defaulters list, having racked up €390,000 (including interest and penalties) in… Read more »

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Colm Wu

NUMBER 88 NOT SO LUCKY FOR WU

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

A BAD start to the Chinese New Year for Chinese businessman Guoqing Wu (known here as Colm Wu). The taxman came along to spoil celebrations when a judgement for €88,000 was registered against one of the businessman’s firms, Bo Vision Holding Company Ltd. Chinese culture regards the number 88 as particularly auspicious and lucky –… Read more »

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

FETHERSTON’S CLEAR OUT

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

MICHAEL FETHERSTON, the low-profile operator of the TLC nursing homes group, has featured heavily in the headlines recently. The moneybags will soon finalise the purchase of deluxe golf resort the K Club from Michael Smurfit for an eye-watering U70m and is also due to sell off his chain of nursing groups to the French-headquartered Orpea… Read more »

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Julia Marciniak

MARCINIAK MAKES HER MARK

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

THE DUST is not going to settle for troubled upmarket grocer Fallon & Byrne any time soon. Even though a recent cash injection from the company’s remaining investors is welcome, a cabal of disgruntled employees may prove troublesome – particularly now that unions are involved. Fallon & Byrne suddenly vacated its Rathmines premises at the… Read more »

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

WASTE NOT, WANT LOTS

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

THINGS ARE tense in the town of Tullamore, Co Offaly, where local businessmen Brian Colgan and Brendan Guinan have elevated an ongoing dispute to the High Court. Guinan, through his company GHL Logistics Ltd (GHL, trading as Guinan Haulage), subcontracted Colgan to haul bottom ash and scrap metal from an Indaver waste management site in… Read more »

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

BRIAN CONROY’S RECEIVERS

Date: January 30, 2020 - Briefcases

BANK OF IRELAND has appointed receivers Abdullahi Jambo and Richard Keith Roe, of Eddisons Commercial Ltd in Leeds, in relation to a €1m mortgage charged on one of the properties acquired by M&F Finance Ltd, a company owned by Irish financier Brian Conroy and his wealth management firm BCWM. The charge in question relates to… Read more »

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Leo Varadkar

VLAD’S FALSE START

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

LEO VARADKAR met his election target date, but the manner of its announcement was belated and cack-handed. Fine Gael’s delicate political choreography came undone a week ago as plans to call the election last weekend had to be aborted due to adverse political and PR conditions. Storm ‘Charlie’ had a lot to do with it,… Read more »

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Ian Bailey

IAN BAILEY: THIRD TIME UNLUCKY?

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

MUCH LEGAL comment has focussed on the change in extradition law and how this may enable the despatch of Ian Bailey to the tender mercies of the French for allegedly murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Arguments surrounding Bailey’s extradition – the third effort to extradite him since 2010 – will be heard in the High… Read more »

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Paschal Donohoe

PROFILE: PASCHAL DONOHOE

Date: January 16, 2020 - Pillars of Society

For a finance minister and someone who holds not one but two powerful cabinet portfolios, Paschal ‘Dimples’ Donohoe is not exactly a household name outside Leinster House. Despite being in charge of the state’s purse, he has been elbowed out of the spotlight, at home and abroad, by Simon Coveney, as the foreign affairs minister,… Read more »

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William McGlade

YOUNG BLOOD: WILLIAM MCGLADE

Date: January 16, 2020 - The Young Bloods

Rich-kid William McGlade is hoping to square up to the likes of Airbnb, Travelocity and Booking.com with his short-term letting platform, HipHipStay. The business boasts a catalogue of so-called premium apartments with “swagger” that have equally premium (read ‘eyewatering’) price tags to boot. Yet the short-term hot-shot is already facing obstacles, ranging from aggrieved neighbours… Read more »

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Marian Finucane

MARIAN’S ADMIRERS

Date: January 16, 2020 - Fit to Print?

LIKE EVERY other media and many politicians, the Sunday Independent eulogised the late Marian Finucane, but there was a slight edge to Liam Collins’s profile. And Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald’s tribute did not reflect the antagonism her party felt for the broadcaster when she was alive. In his column, Collins effectively damned the… Read more »

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Sophie Cafolla

SOPHIE CAFOLLA’S BABY BOXES

Date: January 16, 2020 - High Society

AN ARTICLE in the Sunday Times business section last weekend featured advice for small businesses, with one of the players featured being Sophie Cafolla of baby clothing retailer The Stork Box. To some, Sophie is better known as Sophie Gleeson – a scion of a rather well-heeled Dublin 4 family and she has some interesting… Read more »

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Damien English

COVENEY’S €50M COUP

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

WITH THE general election having been called, Tánaiste Simon Coveney must be relieved he got to deliver the news of a big funding boost in his Cork South Central constituency just 10 days earlier, with the help of his pal, Damien English. For years, the wily Coveney has been using the proposed Cork event centre… Read more »

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Joe Healy

VEGAN VAGARIES

Date: January 16, 2020 - Fowl Emissions

The agri-industrial sector has worked itself into a lather over what it clearly sees are threats to its core beef-and-dairy business, with the latest pro-vegan billboard campaign the target of the IFA’s ire. Outgoing president Joe Healy came out swinging, demanding to know where the dastardly vegans get their money. Sandra Higgins, director of Go… Read more »

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Ross Kierans

TOTE’S WOES, O’LEARY’S WINNERS

Date: January 16, 2020 - Sport of Kings

LEOPARDSTOWN’S annual Christmas festival had its usual mix of thrills and spills and, on the whole, it was considered a fine week for the track, with top-class racing and kind weather pulling in the crowds and ensuring a vibrant atmosphere. But not everyone was happy. The attendance at Leopardstown over the four days was up… Read more »

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3801 FP

VOL 38 No 01

Date: January 16, 2020 -

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article-default

ANGUS’S ASSETS

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE WAS a fl urry of fi lings around Christmas by players at the centre of a legal action by the Solicitors Mutual Defence Fund (SMDF) against assorted former partners of the failed Bloxham stockbroking firm, which is due back in the Four Goldmines next week. The litigation was reactivated late last year, with Law… Read more »

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Alan English

‘SINDO’ INSIDERS ‘SWOTTED’ ASIDE

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

A MOOD of rejection and indeed resentment was palpable at Independent House last week as various ‘leading’ in-house contenders for the post of Sunday Independent editor were told they would not be called for a second, final interview. The mood worsened when the news spread that Alan English, group editorial director of Iconic Newspapers and… Read more »

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Brian O'Driscoll

TENEO’S SPORTING INTERESTS

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

TENEO, THE global corporate communications outfit headed by Declan Kelly, brother of Labour TD Alan ‘AK47’ Kelly, has won a contract as PR and media advisor to Sport Ireland (SI), working alongside communications manager David Gash. SI is the body that doles out advice, encouragement – and funding – to sports groups in Ireland. Declan… Read more »

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Róisín Shortall

SINKING SOC DEMS

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE SOCIAL Democrats might be staring into the abyss at this election. The centre-left group, headed by TDs Catherine Murphy and Roísin Shortall, had pretensions of replacing the moribund Labour Party. Now Labour, the resurgent Green Party and even Fianna Fáil threaten to put the kibosh on that Soc Dem breakthrough. The party’s best chance… Read more »

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Brigid Laffan

TRUMP CARD FOR EU ARMY

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THOSE MODERATE Irish Europhiles who are so aghast at Donald Trump’s belligerent foreign policy have managed to use his latest excess against the Iranians as another argument to create an EU army. Some 24 hours after a US drone killed Iran’s General Qassem Suleimani, an Irish Times column by EU proselytiser Professor Brigid Laffan told… Read more »

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article-default

GAME OVER

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

A COMPANY called Tag Media Ltd (TML) has shut it doors, but a new one has opened for its principal. The digital print design company was founded by Jesse Morris, who turns out to be an interesting chap – at least if you are a fan of fantasy TV. TML was set up in Tullamore,… Read more »

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Lorna Fitzpatrick

STUDENTS NO-VOTE

Date: January 16, 2020 - Affairs of the Nation

THE CONTROVERSY over the voter register for next month’s election threatens to undo a lot of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) work over the past year. It was reported this week that thousands of people who registered to vote in the last eight months might not be eligible to vote on February 8…. Read more »

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Stephen Travers

MIAMI SHOWBAND: NEW EVIDENCE

Date: January 16, 2020 - Hush Hush

SEISMIC NEW evidence regarding the 1975 Miami Showband massacre will be revealed at Belfast High Court in the coming months by bass player Stephen Travers who survived the gun and bomb attack. Travers is suing the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the PSNI for their “direct complicity” in the murders. The atrocity, which was… Read more »

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HushHush-def

ALAN HYDE’S PROVISION CENTRE

Date: January 16, 2020 - Hush Hush

GOLDHAWK NOTES that an old friend is to close the doors of his direct provision centre next month. The Mount Trenchard operation in Foynes, Co Limerick, has been described as an “open-air prison” and has attracted its fair share of criticism down the years. A statement issued by the direct provision NGO Doras described the… Read more »

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Nigella Lawson

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 16, 2020 - The Hot Air Brigade

The Domestic Goddess ordered various puddings and wines and insisted – almost matronishly – that I taste all of them with her. She spoon-fed me and ordered me – utterly matronishly! – to drink out of her wine glass. Barry Egan reminisces about his 2004 meeting with Nigella Lawson, Sunday Independent, submitted by reader In… Read more »

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