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THE ELECTION of Alan Kelly has led to an expectation of a Stalinist-style clean-out of many of the Labour Party’s functionaries as the new man puts his stamp on a party in its death throes. Among those looking over their shoulders are the hapless apparatchiks who were in regular e-mail correspondence with Aodhán Ó Ríordáin… Read more »

FRANCESCA MCDONAGH, chief executive of Bank of Ireland (BoI), took everyone, including the government, by surprise with last month’s announcement that no less than 101 branches were being shuttered. Particularly peeved, it turns out, are the legal eagles. The government had met the bank bosses a week before the BoI bombshell and had emphasised that… Read more »

THE EU Commission’s local point man in Ireland, Gerard Kiely, has a tough job promoting a sense of EU unity when the Italians have been left in the lurch and Hungary is beginning to look a bit like it was in the 1930s before it snuggled up to Herr Hitler. Kiely has spent over 30… Read more »

OUTGOING MINISTER for Social Protection Regina Doherty looked like the first political victim of the Covid-19 virus last weekend, while colleagues Simon Coveney, Simon Harris and Leo Varadkar basked in the praise of their leadership. She has been forced to quickly and dramatically boost welfare payments and wage subsidies for those affected, having initially announced… Read more »

THE 24/7 CORONAVIRUS coverage means all eyes are focused on the unfolding calamity and, as a result, some other health scares are getting overlooked. One group probably glad of the media diversion is the board and management of the National Children’s Hospital (NCH), where former National Roads Authority boss Fred Barry is in the chair…. Read more »

IRISH FILM industry reports are two a penny (or rather more expensive than that actually), but they seldom arrive in the manner of PwC’s recent ‘Section 481 & The Film/TV Industry’. While the consultancy giant’s logo is on the cover of the report, the driving force here was actually moneybags Joe Devine. It turns out… Read more »

GIVEN THAT viewers of RTÉ are increasingly accustomed to seeing various Montrose personalities popping up on each other’s shows, often shamelessly plugging their latest offering, the video appearance of self-isolating Kathryn Thomas on Claire Byrne Live earlier this week was perhaps not that surprising. Byrne part-hosted the show in her own state of self-isolation at… Read more »

SITE PREPARATION work at St Vincent’s Hospital in south County Dublin has largely been completed, but the main construction work for the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) continues to be delayed until someone blinks over the transfer of the land controlled by the Sisters of Charity. Health minister Simon Harris may have bitten off more… Read more »

GRIPT.IE EDITOR John McGuirk’s recent hit job on former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell was the latest in his long-running effort to beat the biased left-wing media at what he certainly regards as their own game. In his social media postings around the piece, McGuirk made sure to set out all of the trappings of… Read more »

THE ON-OFF ‘mots-doux’ engagement talks between the Blueshirts and Soldiers of Destiny have yet to address one of the thorniest aspects of their approaching, embryonic merger coalition. That is the sweetly named ‘Decade of Centenaries’ that has been running, on and off, since 2012. The real meat of the centenaries is just beginning, and the… Read more »

THERE WERE different tactics used this month when examining the digital marketing company controlled by former Irish rugby international and RTÉ presenter Donncha O’Callaghan. O’Callaghan and partner Pat O’Flynn invested in additional shares in 4Impacts Intelligent Solutions Ltd, when €306,000 was raised on March 10. The Business Post, er, tackled the subject with a story… Read more »

THE CAMPAIGN by St John of God (SJOG) to extract more money from the HSE has gained little traction given the rather regrettable timing, just as the coronavirus was gathering steam. The reverend brothers, who specialise in psychiatric nursing, tried to copy the Rehab playbook from last year, announcing that they would have to shut… Read more »