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Gerard Fleming

CLIMATE WEEK – RTÉ

Date: November 28, 2019 - TV

AS ENVIRONMENTAL anxiety becomes part of the mainstream news agenda, the public-service broadcaster’s focus on climate change coincided with Science Week. RTÉ’s rush to board the eco-friendly bandwagon came late in the day. To compensate, everyone of note – from George Lee and the even more photogenic Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin to Maura and Daithí –… Read more »

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Frances Ruane

QUESTIONS FOR THE ABBEY

Date: November 28, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

EARLIER THIS month, the Abbey Theatre published its 2018 annual report, which generated mainly positive media coverage. However, there are some unusual entries that bear further scrutiny by chair Frances Ruane and her increasingly depleted board. The accounts painted a relatively positive picture thanks to a “healthy year” for the box office, but a huge… Read more »

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Martin Keane

GLANBIA’S ACQUISITION STRATEGY FAILS TO DELIVER

Date: November 28, 2019 - Moneybags

FROM BEING one of the darlings on the stock market, Glanbia’s star has waned over the last year. The shares fell back from a peak of U19 in March 2019 to E14 just before the poorly-received half-year results were announced on July 31, after which they dropped further to the current €11. The earnings multiple… Read more »

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Francesca DeCataldo

STRIKING OUT FRANCESCA DE CATALDO

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

AFTER a few quiet years, it was interesting to see Killiney businesswoman Francesca De Cataldo pop up, not once but twice in the last few months. The company behind posh Dublin supermarket and restaurant Fallon & Byrne has just got the green light from the High Court to have her 2010 personal injuries claim struck… Read more »

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Hot Water Brigade default

MYLES CROFTON’S NEW PROJECT

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

HOW interesting to see Myles Crofton back in the headlines thanks to his involvement in a plan to develop 300 homes in Monkstown. Crofton, alongside fellow boom-era developer Bernard Doyle, is engaged in a consultation process with An Bord Pleanála (ABP) to deliver the scheme in the gardens of the plush Dalguise House on Monkstown… Read more »

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Sheila and Brendan Hade

NO MERCY FOR BRENDAN AND SHEILA HADE

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

NOVEMBER has been a very bad month for Goldhawk’s old pals, Brendan and Sheila Hade, whose prayers have gone unanswered. Rathfarnham-based Brendan Hade is well known to fans of Goldhawk (see The Phoenix, 13/1/12) as a result of his role as senior pastor of the Victory Christian Fellowship (VCF) non-denominational church, where he was also… Read more »

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Eamonn McCann

WINDING UP EAMONN MCCANN

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

A NEW YORK-based energy company called Hydromine Inc is petitioning the High Court to have Lugano Properties Company Ltd, a small Dublin 4 property vehicle, wound up. Lugano turns out to be owned by Belfast concert promoter Eamonn McCann, a former business partner of Denis Desmond no less. For many moons, McCann was best known… Read more »

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Eamon Waters

PANDA WASTE’S TIME WASTING

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

INTERESTING to see another judgment registered against one of the companies in Ireland’s largest waste management group. The €44,000 hit comes courtesy of a factory operative who previously won a substantial personal injuries claim against the group last year. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that Tomasz Zdejszy sued his employer, Stewart Foil Ltd, and Panda… Read more »

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

LIAM HOWARD’S PAPER PROFITS

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

CONGRATULATIONS to Kilworth, Co Cork businessman Liam Howard, who is retiring after 41 years as the owner and proprietor of the Avondhu, the Fermoy-based newspaper and website. Howard has just put the company behind the local rag, Avondhu Press Ltd – where he is listed as a director alongside his wife, Maureen – into voluntary… Read more »

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Jim Ferry

JIM FERRY’S FINANCES

Date: November 28, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

COUNTY DONEGAL illegal waste operator Jim Ferry has had plenty on his plate in recent times, so it is unlikely he will lose too much sleep over the fact that the Companies Office has just struck off his company, Ferry Refuse Collection Ltd, for failing to file accounts. Given the trouble Ferry has been having… Read more »

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Martin Kenny

RACISM OR FILTHY LUCRE?

Date: November 14, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

THE RECENT debate between Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny and Ballinamore Community Group spokesman Gordon Hughes on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live was respectful and calm, but decidedly cool. Kenny and his family were in their Ballinamore home when his car, which was parked outside, was torched, with the common assumption being that the attack was… Read more »

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John McCartin

QUINN DIRECTOR TO STAND FOR FG?

Date: November 14, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

FINE GAEL handlers are still mobbing mountains to persuade former Independent MEP Marian Harkin to stand at the general election in Sligo-Leitrim. They do not have confidence in Senator Frank Feighan to retain the seat and seem to have given up hope of getting TD Tony McLoughlin to return and save FG’s only seat in… Read more »

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Noel Rock

NOEL ROCK WALKS ALONE

Date: November 14, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

The only thing red about Ballymun Blueshirt TD Noel Rock is his soccer jersey. The Fine Gael Tory boy and chair of the Oireachtas housing committee is a dyed-in-the-wool Liverpool supporter, well known for his copious tweets about Jürgen Klopp’s side and chatting publicly about the club with other fans, like Irish Independent journalist Hugh… Read more »

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John Gormley

JOHN GORMLEY’S REVENUE HEADACHE

Date: November 14, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

IT LOOKS like red tape rather than red carpets is increasingly on the minds of the nation’s hard-pressed movie moguls following the imposition by the taxman of a raft of pesky new rules covering the multi-million euro film tax relief scheme. One high-profile casualty is the influential lobby group Screen Producers Ireland (SPI), where former… Read more »

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Francesco Saveerio Fontana

RIGHT-WING RUSTICS

Date: November 14, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

RIGHT-WING activists have been using An Óige hostels – unbeknownst to management of the state-owned hostel network – for bonding and political training retreats. Last August the National Party (NP), which has been accused of racist attitudes to immigrants, held a camping retreat at Glenmalure, Co Wicklow, to discuss ideas and strategy as participants embraced… Read more »

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Matt Cooper

SOLIDARITY WITH RTÉ

Date: November 14, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

IVAN YATES and Matt Cooper thundered recently about the inept, spendthrift, tax-funded RTÉ on their Virgin One The Tonight Show as the private TV station piled the pressure on its crisis-ridden broadcasting rival. The two presenters made much of RTÉ’s cost base and double funding via the licence fee and advertising, with Cooper dismissing the… Read more »

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John Finucane

DUP/UDA ‘TARGETS’

Date: November 14, 2019 - Hush Hush

A PRECURSOR to the ‘pressure’ from the UDA on the Ulster Unionist Party to give the DUP a free run in the Westminster election in North Belfast came just a few weeks earlier. A UDA activist, closely linked to various loyalist activities, was consulted by senior DUP figures over Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy and a… Read more »

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HushHush-def

GAVAN REILLY’S TWEETS

Date: November 14, 2019 - Hush Hush

Virgin Media journalist Gavan Reilly hasn’t had a vintage couple of weeks. Known for scooping the competition by breaking big stories on Twitter, Rapid-Fire Reilly was forced to issue a correction over tweets he sent during the controversy over Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae’s Dáil attendance. Reilly had claimed he “knew for certain” that Healy-Rae wasn’t… Read more »

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Danny O'Donoghue

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: November 14, 2019 - The Hot Air Brigade

I’m still trying to write the song that will save the world. Danny O’Donoghue of The Script, joe.ie This is probably a really arrogant thing to say, but I always joke that we’re like Will and Kate when we go back to Ireland: I feel like I’m waving to people all the time, to people… Read more »

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Nigel Dodds

DUP TO HOLD BALANCE AGAIN?

Date: November 14, 2019 - Bird's Eye View

No sooner had Mary Lou McDonald endorsed Lady Sylvia Hermon as the ‘remain’ candidate in North Down in the UK election than Lady Sylvia announced her retirement; the two announcements were not connected. Hermon had had enough as the sole remain MP from the north in Westminster, hectored and barracked by the 10 DUP MPs… Read more »

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Norma Foley

KERRY DOG FIGHT

Date: November 14, 2019 - Last Refuge

WITH EVERY seat vital in a possible hung Dáil after the next general election, there is consternation in Fine Gael at the possibility of Fianna Fáil taking two seats to FG’s one in Kerry (currently they have one each). Both parties have their eye on Martin Ferris’s Sinn Féin seat as daughter Toiréasa Ferris, the… Read more »

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Dee Forbes

RTÉ SPLIT: DEE VS MOYA

Date: November 14, 2019 - Fit to Print?

YOU HAVE to feel sorry for RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, who is faced with the wrath not only of her staff but also the RTÉ board, which has serious doubts about her and the other executives responsible for the plan to save RTÉ. The… Read more »

Fintan O'Toole

BORDERLINE PARANOIA

Date: November 14, 2019 - Fit to Print?

THE IRISH TIMES has responded to growing calls for a border poll with an avalanche of criticism that reached a climax in the week of the full-page advert in the IT proposing a new conversation, via a citizens’ assembly, on the future of Ireland. That advert was in the form of an open letter from… Read more »

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Willie Mullins

SUPREME SHAMBLES

Date: November 14, 2019 - Sport of Kings

THE SUPREME Horse Racing Club debacle still shows no sign of being sorted out and more fuel was added to the fire with the news that the legality of the sale of the high-profile syndicate’s former horse, Listen Dear, is being disputed. Listen Dear trainer Willie Mullins was instructed by Supreme’s management to sell the… Read more »

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Luke Comer

LUKE COMER LOADS UP

Date: November 14, 2019 - Sport of Kings

NEXT YEAR could be a fruitful one on the track for Luke Comer if a shopping spree at Tattersalls is anything to go by. At the recent Autumn Horses in Training Sale in Newmarket, Comer spent £946,000 on 20 horses and, unlike at previous auctions where Comer had been known to hoover up dozens of… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

BANAHAN’S EVENTFUL EVENING

Date: November 14, 2019 - Sport of Kings

JOE BANAHAN, Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) starter, had an evening to forget at Dundalk recently after a few issues with the starting stalls, one of which could have had a more serious outcome. When Banahan mounted his starting rostrum for the opening race as stall handlers were completing the loading process, the stalls unexpectedly… Read more »

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Davy Russell

DAVY RUSSELL GIGGINSTOWN BLUES

Date: November 14, 2019 - Sport of Kings

There appears to have been a juggling of the ranks by the Gigginstown team of Mick and Eddie O’Leary, with Davy Russell losing out. While never officially reappointed as number one rider, Russell was the favoured pilot in a squad that included the likes of Jack Kennedy, Rachael Blackmore, Sean Flanagan and Keith Donoghue among… Read more »

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Vogue Williams

VOGUE’S IRISH CHAMELEON

Date: November 14, 2019 - High Society

IT HAS been increasingly hard to avoid Vogue Williams/Spencer lately, with her reality TV series on E4 and an appearance on The Ray D’Arcy Show earlier this month. She also got plenty of coverage for the ‘revelation’ that she is looking for a big pad in Dublin, which happened to coincide with Vogue putting her… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

HAMDAN’S HORSES

Date: November 14, 2019 - High Society

THEY DON’T call it the sport of kings for nothing. Take Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum of Dubai, brother of the rather more famous and certainly more controversial Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum. His day job is as deputy ruler in the tainted Dubai regime, but in Ireland he is best known for Derrinstown Stud in Co… Read more »

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Jamie Myerscough

JAMIE MYERSCOUGH’S RESTRUCTURING

Date: November 14, 2019 - High Society

THERE IS still no sign of Jamie Myerscough getting his figures into shape. Meanwhile, his mother Jane (daughter of the late Vincent O’Brien and married to former auctioneer Philip Myerscough) has unsaddled from the horse charity where she was a director for 12 years. In the past, Jamie has generated oodles of publicity for his… Read more »

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Orlaith McBride

ORLAITH MCBRIDE’S NEW JOB

Date: November 14, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

CONGRATULATIONS to outgoing Arts Council director Orlaith McBride, who has landed the I100,000 pa job of director of the National Archives of Ireland (NAI). Although her qualifications for the role are not immediately obvious, she is undoubtedly suited to it. Possibly the most striking aspect of McBride’s CV when she landed the top job in… Read more »

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THE GLOBALIST: PETER SUTHERLAND – JOHN WALSH (WILLIAM COLLINS)

Date: November 14, 2019 - BooksReviews

Peter Sutherland was “possibly the most influential Irish person ever to have lived”, says this book, a smidge hyperbolically but with some justification. However, as it doesn’t pause to observe, he was never elected by anyone anywhere – unlike ‘influencers’ such as Dev, Mary Robinson and Gerry Adams. He didn’t leverage his influence from mass-culture,… Read more »

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Micheál Martin

MARTIN IN LAST-CHANCE SALOON

Date: November 14, 2019 - Pillars of Society

The year of our Lord 2020 will be make or break for the man his chief rival calls the Priest. But if Micheál Martin is to avoid what once seemed his pre-ordained place as the first Fianna Fáil leader never to be taoiseach, he may need divine intervention. His almost nine-year tenure at the helm… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

SUDDEN EXIT AT ARTS COUNCIL

Date: November 14, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

IT LOOKS like we will have to wait a while longer to have a full Arts Council following the sudden resignation of one of the new appointees. As fans of Goldhawk will be aware, there has been a definite lack of urgency on culture minister Josepha Madigan’s part when it comes to filling vacancies at… Read more »

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Skycourt shopping Centre

ANTHONY CAFFERKEY’S BAD INVESTMENT

Date: November 14, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

A TROUBLED Kildare property company called Cafferkey Investments Ltd (CIL), which has called in the liquidator, rang a bell with Goldhawk. It turns out to be owned by the family of low-key Leixlip builder Anthony Cafferkey, who readers will recall had the misfortune of being landed with an eye-watering tax judgment in 2012 (see The… Read more »

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

NO SO EMUSING

Date: November 14, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

ONE of Emuse group’s creditors has lost patience with the ailing technology business. The taxman has just registered a judgment for a measly €3,400 against a group entity called Emuse Technologies Ltd (ETL), the cause of many a headache for chief executive Patrick Rainsford in recent times. ETL is a D2 tech company that makes… Read more »

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