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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

DECLAN LAVERY’S SURPRISE BAN

Date: March 21, 2019 - Sport of Kings

A GROUP of Irish amateur jockeys felt the full force of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) at Cheltenham when the trio of Declan Lavery, Rob James and Noel McParlan were banned for a total of 37 days between them in circumstances that could have long-term repercussions for the sport. The first case has caused very… Read more »

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Rich Ricci

RICCI FEELS THE HEAT

Date: March 21, 2019 - Sport of Kings

CHELTENHAM provided liberal helpings of thrills. There was also karma of sorts at play when the Rich Ricci-owned Benie Des Dieux, considered by many as one of the bankers of the meeting, stumbled and fell after the last in the Mares’ Hurdle with the race… Read more »

Albert Manifold

TIME FOR CRH TO SPIN OFF US INTERESTS

Date: March 21, 2019 - Moneybags

TAKING ADVANTAGE of the recent collapse in CRH’s share price, the arrival on the share register last month of the largest activist fund in Europe – the Stockholm-based Cevian (which picked up a 3% stake for €600m) – caused excitement in Dublin, but wrong-footed the… Read more »

Tony Smurfit

WILL INT PAPER SWOOP ON SMURFIT AGAIN?

Date: March 21, 2019 - Moneybags

SMURFIT KAPPA’S Tony Smurfit has proven a short-sighted CEO who displays little awareness of the bigger picture. When the much larger International Paper (IP) cardboard box company requested a meeting on February 14 last year to put forward “a specific proposal”, Smurfit informed IP that it was his firm belief that it would not be… Read more »

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Hot Water Brigade default

BACSTROKE’S BAD NEWS

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

SPARE a thought for the production company and, er, specialists in inflatable leisure Bacstroke Limited, which featured on the tax defaulters’ list, having paid the Revenue almost €60,000, including penalties and interest. The Ballymount-based Prop Me Up group (owned by Bacstroke) was hit for underdeclaration of corporation tax, PAYE, USC and PRSI. A quick glance… Read more »

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Rachel Graham

RACHEL GRAHAM BOUNCES BACK

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

Rachel Graham and hubby Victor Graham’s Italian-themed Dundalk restaurant, Eno, had a liquidator appointed last month. Entrepreneur Rachel previously owned a specialist shoe shop, The Shoe Room, which catered for women with larger feet. It operated above the restaurant for four years before folding. The good news is the couple had already launched a new,… Read more »

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Evan Chamberlain

TV PRODUCER FEELS THE PINCH

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

A busy Ranelagh-based television production firm, Good Company Productions Limited, starred in the latest tax defaulters’ list, having paid the Revenue some €219,000 (including €78,000 in penalties and interest) for underdeclaration of VAT, PAYE, PRSI and USC. Judging by the last accounts, Good Company has gone through a bit of a rough patch, with accumulated… Read more »

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Alan Hynes

FINAL WORD ON ALAN HYNES?

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

A small legal notice published in the media last week by Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) marks the final chapter in the long-running Alan Hynes saga. The legal note confirmed that the exclusion of Hynes from CAI membership has now come into effect (following the dismissal of the controversial accountant’s appeal). Fans of Goldhawk will recall… Read more »

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Hot Water Brigade default

VITGESON’S MILLION EURO BONUS

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

THE receiver of a Nama-controlled property development company, Vitgeson Limited, offloaded a 59-acre site in Blackcastle, Co Meath, for a healthy €9.5m – €1m more than it had been previously valued. Meath-based Vitgeson has begun to turn things around since Tom O’Brien was appointed receiver in 2016, but there are still some lingering issues. Vitgeson… Read more »

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Ruthie Heatherington

RUTHIE H’S HARD TIMES

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

FANS of Goldhawk will remember nutrition entrepreneur Ruth Heatherington and her company, Miss Fit Enterprises Ltd, which has now been wound up. Heatherington previously refused to tell Goldhawk if the recall of her Miss Fit Skinny brand of teas and coffees by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) had anything to do with the… Read more »

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Joan Lynch

JOAN LYNCH’S TAXING TIMES

Date: March 21, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

ONE of the companies in the Born Clothing franchise, Born Clothing Ltd, has featured on the tax defaulters’ list, having paid the taxman €260,000, including €110,000 in interest and penalties for underdeclaration of PAYE, PRSI and USC. The parent company behind the clothing franchise, Elland Clothing Parent Ltd, is owned by fashion guru Joan Lynch…. Read more »

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Denis O'Brien

DENIS O’BRIEN MISCALCULATES

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

NOBODY HAS ever accused Denis O’Brien of not being able to count or play poker, but he certainly got it wrong in negotiations to settle with the Sunday Business Post in an agreement that would have averted his crushing defeat in the High Court libel case last week. Michael McDowell received plaudits for his bravura… Read more »

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Jim O'Callaghan

JIM O’CALLAGHAN UNDER THREAT

Date: March 7, 2019 - Last Refuge

THERE WAS a time when Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesperson, Jim O’Callaghan, was Micheál Martin’s right-hand man in the parliamentary party and a member of the inner circle along with advisors Deirdre Gillane and Pat McParland. However, Jim received a rap across the knuckles recently in a public admonition from the leadership delivered via the Irish… Read more »

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Michael McDowell

PROFILE: MICHAEL MCDOWELL

Date: March 7, 2019 - Pillars of Society

PRESENTING AS St George fighting Denis ‘The Dragon’ O’Brien during the billionaire’s recent libel case against the Sunday Business Post, Michael McDowell stole the show. Senior counsel, senator, former tánaiste and minister as well as leader of the Progressive Democrats, McDowell has prowled around the… Read more »

Ellie Kisyombe

YOUNG BLOOD: ELLIE KISYOMBE

Date: March 7, 2019 - The Young Bloods

Egotism and factionalism are the rocks that threaten to scupper the Social Democrats’ ship before the party even leaves the harbour. The recent furore over its local candidate for Dublin’s North Inner electoral area, Malawian national Ellie Kisyombe (41), and the cack-handed management of the… Read more »

Stephanie O'Toole

ISRAELI BACKLASH AT DCU

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

Students at another Irish university will vote on whether their union should sign up to the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli occupation, with a referendum being held this week by DCU’s student union (SU). If passed, it will mean that the SU… Read more »

Marian Keyes

MARIAN KEYES’S MAKE-UP

Date: March 7, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

THIS MONTH the long list for the first Comedy Women In Print (CWIP) prize is announced, with our own Marian Keyes in situ on the judging panel. The new prize arises out of a perceived “sexist imbalance” (according to Keyes) in choosing the annual winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse comic fiction prize, which is… Read more »

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Ross Maguire

ROSS MAGUIRE’S GERMAN EFFICIENCY

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

AN ANONYMOUS-looking company called Generode Ltd has been listed for striking off by the Companies Office for failing to file accounts. This could prove tricky for one of its founders, outspoken debt-restructuring barrister Ross Maguire SC of New Beginning. It turns out that Ross has been involved in a number of linked property ventures, but… Read more »

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Gemma O’Doherty

GEMMA O’DOHERTY’S ROOSKEY ROWS

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

Until recently, Broadsheet.ie had been a staunch defender of former Indo journalist Gemma O’Doherty and even campaigned for her ahead of the 2018 presidential elections. Last September, when she made the bonkers claim that Veronica Guerin was murdered by the state – torpedoing her own Áras run in the process – she was given an… Read more »

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Nicholas Crossan

MCDOWELL’S GAMBLE

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

WHILE THE bolshy Michael McDowell was jousting with Denis O’Brien in the High Court, he was also keeping one eye on another issue close to his heart – the regulation of one-armed bandits. This thorny issue is set to be the subject of some interesting activity in Donegal next week. Last week in the Seanad,… Read more »

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3705-FP

Vol 37 No 05

Date: March 7, 2019 -

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Róisín Shorthall

THOSE ANTI-SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

In this issue, Goldhawk profiles the Social Democrat’s local election candidate for Dublin’s North Inner City, Ellie Kisyombe, who is at the centre of an unholy row that threatens to split her party. With its insistence on a review of Kisyombe’s backstory following recent Sunday… Read more »

Marianne Finucane

WHOSE AFRAID OF DENIS O’BRIEN?

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

THE MEDIA chill – or unbridled paranoia – that grips RTÉ management at the very suggestion of broadcasting critical coverage of Denis O’Brien was referred to in the recent Sunday Business Post libel case. But if RTÉ management is nervous about any of its investigative… Read more »

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CRAIG ZEIRING’S BUTTOCK-TONING

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

SO FAREWELL then Dr Craig Ziering, hair transplant surgeon and ‘body sculptor’ to the celebrity set, whose Irish venture has quietly folded. Craig operates mainly out of his Beverley Hills clinic and has recently moved into the lucrative business of offering clients the body they feel they deserve, but without any bothersome exercise routine. Visitors… Read more »

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Dearbhail McDonald

MATERNAL DEARBHAIL

Date: March 7, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

IT IS difficult to say how Irish Independent editor Fionnán Sheahan, felt when he opened his Sunday Independent last weekend to read the most effusive and sympathetic interview, even by Sindo standards, with INM group business editor Dearbhail McDonald. Readers will recall that McDonald has deposited a 100-page document with INM management detailing her alleged… Read more »

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Pat Finucane

FINUCANE: WHY NO PUBLIC INQUIRY

Date: March 7, 2019 - Hush Hush

The most basic question arising from Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane’s murder is whether RUC Special Branch members aided and abetted loyalist paramilitaries in the elimination of people it saw as problems. The answer is undoubtedly yes. A case book example of this campaign of collusion… Read more »

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DONAL CAULFIELD’S TAX BILL

Date: March 7, 2019 - Hush Hush

GOLDHAWK spotted an old pal on the Revenue’s latest list of defaulters. Boom-era builder Donal Caulfield made a settlement with the taxman for U35,000 in relation to underdeclared VAT. Caulfield was the brains behind LM Developments Ltd. LM raised eyebrows with its erotically themed adverts for the Belmayne development, proclaiming “gorgeous living has arrived” in… Read more »

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Roz Purcell

HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: March 7, 2019 - The Hot Air Brigade

Roz Purcell has become what is known as a ‘multi-hyphen’ force to be reckoned with. Rachel Farrell, Sunday Independent Shorts are comfortable, they keep you cool and they are less cumbersome than trousers, so why not, with the incredible weather we’ve been having? Liam Collins, Irish Independent David McWilliams: ‘Contented classes’ could be biggest threat… Read more »

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Boris Johnson

DREW HARRIS’S ‘LEGACY’

Date: March 7, 2019 - Bird's Eye View

On 27 February, the permanent secretary at the north’s Department of Justice allocated £55m for expediting so-called “legacy inquests”. He was able to do this in the absence of devolution. The decision came four years after a request for the money by the north’s Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan was blocked by Arlene Foster, an… Read more »

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Seán Kelly

EXPELLING VICTOR ORBÁN

Date: March 7, 2019 - Last Refuge

FINE GAEL’S four MEPs are keeping their heads down as a serious split breaks out over the proposed expulsion from the European People’s Party (EPP) of Hungary’s Fidesz party, headed by premier Victor Orbán. Orbán’s anti-immigration policies, as well as Fidesz internal democratic deficit, has seen EPP parties in various countries come out against Orbán… Read more »

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Ruth Coppinger

TROT SEATS AT RISK

Date: March 7, 2019 - Last Refuge

THE Sunday Business Post’s story last weekend about the Socialist Party’s international and internecine factionalism is surprising, but nevertheless indicates a malaise in the Irish revolutionary left, with seat gains most unlikely and potential losses on the cards. Ruth Coppinger’s Socialist Party (SP) and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) hide behind the titles Solidarity and… Read more »

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Micheál Martin

WHO FEARS TO SPEAK OF UNITED IRELAND?

Date: March 7, 2019 - Last Refuge

FIANNA FÁIL senator Mark Daly stuck it to the government in a Sunday Independent interview last weekend over its lamentable failure to prepare for a united Ireland which, he says, is much closer than people realise. But while Daly has proved his Republican credentials in recent years, he was surely being mischievous as his real… Read more »

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Fionnán Sheahan

DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS

Date: March 7, 2019 - Fit to Print?

TRIUMPHANT BOASTS and victory cries over the competition always accompany the Irish Independent’s reporting of the circulation figures and the latest ABC results are no different. But the most recent stats reveal a remarkable turn around between the Indo and the Irish Times. Indo editor Fionnán Sheahan told readers last month that his title remained… Read more »

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FINTAN’S FOE

Date: March 7, 2019 - Fit to Print?

IRISH TIMES opinion enforcer Fintan O’Toole, expressed his distaste last year that New York Times columnist Ross Douthat should welcome the notion of prosecuting women who have abortions “the way we prosecute other forms of homicide”. IT readers would perhaps not have been surprised then to learn that Douthat last month described abortion laws passed… Read more »

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Conor O'Donnell

‘MAIL’ MANAGEMENT MASSACRE HACKS

Date: March 7, 2019 - Fit to Print?

THE PRE-CHRISTMAS hack-cleansing at the Irish Daily Mail (see The Phoenix, 30/11/18) has been followed by another onslaught against staff at the newspaper exceeding even the scale of the INM purge, as the crisis of print media approaches ground zero. Managing director Paul Henderson’s bland, public statement about the newspaper group being “future proofed” was… Read more »

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Bríd Smith

MANNERLY VARADKAR

Date: March 7, 2019 - Fowl Emissions

We may be in for another torrid year – meteorologically and politically. The UK’s all-time record for the warmest winter’s day was broken several times last week. On this side of the Irish Sea, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar seems to be feeling the heat over his… Read more »