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Robert Pitt

INM ‘HACKERS’ FOR HIGH COURT

Date: April 4, 2019 - Fit to Print?

INDEPENDENT NEWS & MEDIA’S (INM) legal and corporate strategy is clear from the decision to take High Court action against former chief executive, Robert Pitt, following a similar action against ex-chairman, Leslie Buckley. INM must try to prove that the alleged data breaches were carried out by ‘rogue’ executives without authority and were not in… Read more »

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David Quinn

DAVID QUINN’S POLITICAL PROBLEM

Date: April 4, 2019 - Clerical Errors

DAVID QUINN, director of the high profile Catholic advocacy group, the Iona Institute, could find himself having to go to Confession if the Charities Regulator frowns on his call for people at a meeting in the Grand Hotel in Malahide last month to vote for named political parties. This is considered a cardinal sin for… Read more »

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AIRBNB’S POLITICAL TARGETS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

THE rejection by Dublin City Council last week of Friends First’s planning application for the change of use of its city centre property to short-term letting represents the latest setback for Airbnb. But, the US company can’t be accused of not trying its best judging by the amount its eager lobbying of politicians. Among the… Read more »

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Elizabeth Oakes

LIZ OAKES’S EYEBROWS

Date: April 4, 2019 - High Society

AS BUSINESS ideas go, eco friendly water-based cremation is one certain to provoke interest. The woman behind the plan to bring this technology to Ireland is 30-something Liz Oakes. She has already proven that she has the knack for making a few bob. The technology that Oakes is seeking to introduce here uses water rather… Read more »

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Barbara Dawson

BARBARA DAWSON’S PLAN

Date: April 4, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

IT’S SLOW ahead at the Hugh Lane Gallery, where director Barbara Dawson and her board are looking to implement a rather ambitious strategy. Big bucks will be needed, but as of yet the dirty work of raising moolah is on the backburner. The latest accounts (2017) show that there was an extra €150,000 income under… Read more »

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Peter Casey

PETER CASEY’S RETREAT

Date: April 4, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

PETER CASEY’S proposed reversion to the European elections rather than the Dáil has more to do with headlong retreat from Donegal than any gap left by Marian Harkin in the Midlands-North-West Euro constituency. “I will definitely be standing in Donegal at the next general election”,… Read more »

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Vol. 37 No. 07

Date: April 4, 2019 -

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Eamon Casey

BISHOP CASEY TO BE REINTERRED?

Date: April 4, 2019 - Clerical Errors

ANGER OVER fresh allegations of child sexual abuse and other improprieties going back to the 1960s against disgraced former Bishop Eamonn Casey have been ramped up by his ex-lover, Annie Murphy, who expressed how “shocked and saddened” she is this week. As of now, four cases involving Casey have been confirmed by the Dioceses of… Read more »

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IONA INSTITUTE’S NEW FACES

Date: April 4, 2019 - Clerical Errors

WHILE DAVID Quinn has been busy preaching to the converted, his Iona Institute has been on something of a recruitment drive and has just added four new directors to its board in the form of two teachers – Clare Clifford and Brendan Conroy – housewife Evana Boyle, and retiree Eanna Johnson, a director of the… Read more »

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Tony O'Reilly

INM-IRISH TIMES LINK-UP

Date: April 4, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

IRISH TIMES media commentator, Laura Slattery, went through Independent News & Media’s (INM) business and editorial plan with a chainsaw this week, even suggesting that “INM may no longer be INM” in three years time. This catastrophic analysis belies tentative negotiations going on between Slattery’s company and INM for a surprising print deal. Discussions are… Read more »

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Boris Johnson

COOPERATION IRELAND AND DUP

Date: April 4, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

COOPERATION IRELAND receives by far the greatest stipend yearly from the Reconciliation Fund, which in turn is bankrolled by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). But the political antics of Coop Ireland’s chairman, Dr Christopher Moran, must surely have puzzled Iveagh House mandarins in recent times. Of the millions doled out to deserving… Read more »

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Martin McGuinness

BRIT SPOOKS IN THE REPUBLIC

Date: April 4, 2019 - Hush Hush

THE MEDIA’S gullible lionising of ex-British Army under cover operative, ‘Sean Hartnett’ (not his real name) and his second book, Client Confidential, shows a remarkable willingness to sanction much dubious activity, south as well as north of the border. The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Business Post, and others have all reported breathlessly on the… Read more »

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Kate O’Connell

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: April 4, 2019 - The Hot Air Brigade

It’s not nimbyism, it’s simply appealing for a more considered, sensible solution within our existing built heritage. Fine Gael TD and Rathgar resident Kate O’Connell on objections to a proposed local bus corridor, Sunday Times, submitted by reader Frankly it has been like watching a form of political necrotising fasciitis. Mary McAleese reflects on Brexit,… Read more »

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Jeffrey Donaldson

GREEN ALLIGATORS AND UNICORNS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Bird's Eye View

‘Unicorn’ has become a popular word recently to describe Brexiteers in England who, in desperation, spot mythical creatures like German car manufacturers opposing the EU’s Withdrawal Agreement so as to help the UK. However, Brexiteers are not the only people who spot unicorns. Political parties and many commentators in the Republic discern plenty of unicorns…. Read more »

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Mark Durkan

GOODBYE MUIRSHEEN DURKAN?

Date: April 4, 2019 - Last Refuge

FINE GAEL’S supposed coup in recruiting former SDLP leader, Mark ‘Muirsheen’ Durkan, as their Dublin Euro candidate looks like bombing, despite Leo Varadkar’s initial hubris in putting one over on Micheál Martin and Fianna Fail. Meanwhile, the southern parties are cannibalising the SDLP, a party… Read more »

Noel Rock

KEEPING UP WITH NOEL ROCK

Date: April 4, 2019 - Last Refuge

IT’S NOT often that a backbench TD makes three of his own party’s government ministers, including the Taoiseach, look foolish and out of touch, but Fine Gael Tory boy, Noel Rock, managed the trick recently. Rock faces a battle to retain his seat in the re-drawn Dublin North-West constituency whose voters care more about soccer… Read more »

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Alice Mary Higgins

LEFT, LEFT AND LEFT AGAIN

Date: April 4, 2019 - Last Refuge

THREE OF the four Dublin EU seats are predictable with Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald, Fianna Fail’s Barry Andrews and Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan widely expected to win out. But the battle for the fourth seat, which is expected to go to an ‘Independent’ or non-Republican Left politician (Independent, Nessa Childers won it in 2014), sees… Read more »

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Anne Rabbitte

RUN RABBITTE RUN FOR DÁIL AND EU

Date: April 4, 2019 - Last Refuge

RUNNING TWO candidates in the Midlands-North-West (MNW) European constituency in 2014 split the Fianna Fail vote (between Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher and Thomas Byrne), causing no little angst and recrimination at the time. FF’s EU candidate, Barry Andrews, cited this precedent as the reason why… Read more »

Diageo Dana An Garda Síochána IT Trust No Stone Unturned Irish Times Black Friday Vicky Conway

INM EXITERS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Fit to Print?

VETERAN EDITOR, Colm MacGinty, has just exited from the Sunday World and is to be followed this month by Sunday Independent executive editor (operations) Campbell Spray. Both were mould breakers in their own way. Shortly after he took over as Worst editor in the nineties, MacGinty declined to publish ‘the Bonking Blueshirt’ — a story… Read more »

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Jeremy Corbyn

CORBYN AND JIMMY SAVILE

Date: April 4, 2019 - Fit to Print?

A FRISSON ran through the RTÉ newsroom shortly after 7am last Thursday, following the usual Morning Ireland slot, It Says in the Papers by John S Doyle. Doyle described the Times Ireland photo coverage of Tory leadership contenders and their keep-fit techniques, referencing its depiction of Michael Gove jogging in shorts and Boris Johnson biking… Read more »

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Brid Smith

REVOLVING DOORS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Fowl Emissions

As the saga of Brid Smith’s Climate Emergency Measures Bill – to ban new oil and gas exploration licences – drags on, Goldhawk has been perusing the lobbying register (www.lobbying.ie). This shows that a small army of “public affairs consultants” for oil firms, IBEC, Port of Cork, Kildare Chamber and others have been queuing up… Read more »

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Bog-Cuttings-Default

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Bog Cuttings

Garda was no hurler on the ditch “IT WASN’T a swim job. It was a paddle job,” said Judge Patrick Durcan at Kilrush District Court upon hearing of local man Anthony Sweeney’s attempted escape from garda custody by crossing a river. The court heard that Sweeney was in the custody area of the courthouse when… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

CIARÁN MURRAY’S HOUSES

Date: April 4, 2019 - High Society

IT WAS pointed out in The Irish Times recently that former Icon plc boss Ciarán Murray and his wife, Denise Ronan, managed to purchase four homes in Ballsbridge since 2010, which may well be a record. Fans of Goldhawk will recall (see The Phoenix 5/5/17) that having bought a house in the exclusive Ailesbury Wood… Read more »

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RICHARD BRUTON’S TO DO LIST

Date: April 4, 2019 - Fowl Emissions

When Enda Kenny set up the Citizens’ Assembly in 2016, it was to be an exercise in democracy, or perhaps in can-kicking. It wasn’t meant to change much. Three years on, abortion is legally available in Ireland. And now an Oireachtas Committee – created as a direct result of the Assembly – has delivered an… Read more »

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Lisselan House

SPRING CLEAN AT LISSELAN HOUSE

Date: April 4, 2019 - High Society

A YEAR after Colette Twomey – the woman behind Clonakilty Black Pudding – snapped up the splendid Lisselan House outside Clonakilty, Co Cork, the company that previously operated the sprawling estate has been quietly wound up under a new name. The good news is that millions of euro of losses have been accounted for. There… Read more »

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Josepha Madigan

JOSEPHA’S BURSARIES MK II

Date: April 4, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

THIS MONTH, applications close for the ‘Markievicz bursaries’ (mark II) and it promises to be pretty competitive given that the potential field has doubled in size. What is interesting about the decision to open up the €20,000 a head bursaries to applicants of the male persuasion is the lack of serious analysis of any potential… Read more »

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Mel Gibson

THE TAXMAN COMETH… EVENTUALLY

Date: April 4, 2019 - Behind the Scenes

BACK IN November 2014, Goldhawk put a few queries to Revenue as the country’s film luvvies were wishing farewell to the old ‘investor’ form of Section 481 tax relief while looking for opportunity in the incoming new corporation tax credit version of the scheme. In the case of co-productions involving other jurisdictions, Goldhawk asked how… Read more »

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Jim Bolger

BOLGER’S BLAST OFF

Date: April 4, 2019 - Sport of Kings

NAAS RACECOURSE welcomed the Irish flat season back recently and while there was the usual domination by the ‘establishment’, there were also examples of how the ordinary punter can mix it with the big boys. After a disappointing 2018, when both winners and prize money were his lowest since 2012, Jim Bolger began the season… Read more »

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James Gough

HEAVY GOING AT AIRO AGM

Date: April 4, 2019 - Sport of Kings

THE ASSOCIATION of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) held their AGM last week, and the going was far from good. There could be changes afoot here. The beleaguered association, run by the low profile Aidan Burns, has been the brunt of some bad press recently, primarily as a a result of Jimmy Gough’s decision to initiate… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

RICH RICCI’S PR COUP

Date: April 4, 2019 - Sport of Kings

RICH RICCI has pulled off something of a PR coup after personally teaming up with BetVictor to honour antepost bets that had been voided as a result of the £15m sale of Betbright to 888. Ricci had come under intense pressure when the sale of Betbright was announced and although 888 stepped in to honour… Read more »

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Mick O'Leary

MICK O’LEARY’S CAST OFFS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Sport of Kings

MICK O’LEARY has never been one to miss a marketing opportunity in his professional life and it looks like his racing arm will exploit an interesting angle in the build up to the Aintree Grand National. Gigginstown House Stud will look to shift both Outlander… Read more »

Peter Jackson

PADDY POWER’S US BET MAY NOT PAY OFF

Date: April 4, 2019 - Moneybags

AFTER PEAKING at a crazy €136 back in February 2016, it has been a pretty bumpy ride at Paddy Power Betfair (PPB), especially for Gary McGann, who was appointed chairman in August 2016. Moneybags previously warned (see The Phoenix 20/5/2016) that Paddy Power shares were “trading on a pro-forma p/e multiple of 50, a rating… Read more »

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Gavin Slark

WILL GRAFTON TAKE OUT CRH’S EUROPEAN BUSINESS?

Date: April 4, 2019 - Moneybags

SINCE TAKING over as CEO at Grafton Group in 2011, Gavin Slark has too partially fulfilled former boss Mike Chadwick’s ambition to lessen the company’s dependence on the British Isles by expanding into mainland Europe, building up significant footprints in Belgium and The Netherlands. Now though he needs to pull off a deal of serious… Read more »

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Roger O’Sullivan

O’SULLIVAN’S DAMAGED FLEET

Date: April 4, 2019 - Briefcases

SPARE A thought for Roger O’Sullivan and his scuppered hospitality, catering and tourism vehicle, Ignition, which is being wound up. The group was based in the Galway seaside village of Salthill. Included in O’Sullivan’s group was the well-established ‘landmark’ Salthill restaurant, The Galleon, and two newer sister eateries, Salt Restaurant and Salt Café. All three… Read more »

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Ciaran Desmond

DESMOND’S MANY TALENTS

Date: April 4, 2019 - Briefcases

THE LEGAL eagle at the centre of a high profile court case – featuring allegations that Nolan Transport was defrauded of €7m – has had trouble before. Goldhawk can reveal that Ciaran Desmond had his practising certificate withdrawn by the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (CARB)… Read more »

Hot Water Brigade default

PEEL AVIATION’S CRASH LANDING

Date: April 4, 2019 - Briefcases

INTERESTING TO spot a High Court winding up petition last week in relation to a company called Peel Aviation Ltd. It has taken the petitioners almost two years to get to this point and it is difficult to know if there can be any assets available. In May 2017, Chicago-registered Corporate Aircraft Funding LLC had… Read more »

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