IssueM Articles

Archives: Articles

articles
Ray Norton

RAY NORTON’S NEW SHOP

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

THE bizarre Click.ie saga took another turn recently with the opening of a new shop in Dublin. This is despite the company behind the tech retailer, Cantec Office Solutions Ltd, collapsing into liquidation last April, leaving creditors out of pocket to the tune of €1.5m (see The Phoenix, 20/4/18). A raft of Cantec customers, who… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Hugh Scully

HUGH SCULLY’S SWEET SOUNDS

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

DUBLIN entrepreneur Hugh Scully is hitting all the right notes. Companies Office filings reveal that the former DJ recently managed to tap the coffers of several high-fliers to the tune of €350,000 for his vinyl pressing business, Dublin Vinyl, which began operating in Glasnevin last year. Before pivoting into manufacturing records, Scully was better known… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Hot Water Brigade default

PAUL ALLEN’S LOSSES

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

DUBLIN PR suit and lobbyist Paul Allen hasn’t been able to put a good spin on recent results at his company. Allen is a well-known operator in the capital and his website boasts testimonials from the likes of former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Alistair Campbell. Readers will also recall… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Vogue Williams

VOGUE WILLIAMS’S NEW PARTNER

Date: February 7, 2019 - High Society

THE VERY real business of fake tan has been attracting more and more players into an increasingly crowded but lucrative market. The latest name looking to turn bronze into gold is the ubiquitous Vogue Williams, who has teamed up with a 30-something Cork moneybags. The two most high-profile players in the tan wars here are… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Henry Fitzsimons

TAXMAN BITES HENRY FITZSIMONS

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

THE taxman is trying to bring colourful canine trainer Henry Fitzsimons to heel. Meanwhile, the Dundalk native has just brought another case against RTÉ, who he is suing in the Four Goldmines over a 2015 radio broadcast about his controversial dog training operation. That company, Service Dogs Europe Ltd (SDE), has just had a judgment… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Hot Water Brigade default

JERRY DONOVAN’S BUSINESS PARK

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

THERE was some activity (of the wrong kind) at Nama developer Jerry Donovan’s Irish and European Properties Ltd (IAEP) recently. The property vehicle, a high-profile victim of the crash, has had yet another receiver appointed to it by a vulture fund, this time on foot of a 2006 Permanent TSB mortgage secured against property in… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Elliot Hughes

PORTERHOUSE’S BRAY HANGOVER

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

THERE was good news for craft beer fans recently when the Porterhouse group released its annual results, with accumulated profits up by over €1m, from €19m in 2016 to just over €20m at the end of February last year. One company in the group that might be cause for concern is Wavecrest Inn Ltd. This… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Hot Water Brigade default

PATRICK MCCABE’S BANK BEEF

Date: February 7, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

SPARE a thought for Louth farmer and businessman Patrick McCabe Jnr, who has just had his eye wiped by AIB in the High Court. The Blakestown native is the son of Patsy McCabe and Alicia McCabe, whose row with IBRC landed them in the thick of it during the crash. Cows and cars are what… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Maurice Manning

SECRET CENTENARY PLANS PRISED OPEN

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

THE OIREACHTAS commemoration of the first Dáil passed off without controversy, but the government’s failure to disclose, until this month, any details whatsoever about its own commemorative programme for the Troubles was remarkable. It was just 11 days before the centenary of the seminal moment in Irish democracy – the meeting of the first Dáil… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Denis O'Brien

DINNY’S DWINDLING ASSETS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

DENIS O’BRIEN must have been chuffed with the guesstimate of his wealth that appeared in last weekend’s Sunday Independent Rich List. The title, where he still holds a near 30% stake, didn’t focus too much on Digicel, which is the single biggest source of his reported €4.7bn wealth. But is that company worth anything at… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Graham McLaren

PROFILE: GRAHAM MCLAREN

Date: January 24, 2019 - Pillars of Society

EARLIER THIS month, a letter signed by no less than 312 theatre practitioners was sent to the Arts Council, Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan and Abbey Theatre board chair Frances Ruane complaining about the lack of opportunities at the national theatre under its current masters. It has kicked off yet another offstage drama at the… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Jackie Healy Rae Jnr

YOUNG BLOOD: JACKIE HEALY-RAE JNR

Date: January 24, 2019 - The Young Bloods

JACKIE HEALY-RAE Jnr (23), son of sitting TD Michael Healy-Rae, is slated to become the next member of his family to throw his hat into the political arena by running for Kerry County Council in May’s local elections. In his arsenal, he has the family name and a well-oiled local machine to get him across… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Mary Hanafin

KINGSTOWN LADIES AT RISK

Date: January 24, 2019 - Last Refuge

MARY HANAFIN’S unquenchable ambition has not been dulled by her 30 years in politics, some of it in cabinet. She intends running for Fianna Fáil in all three pending elections — general, European and even local. But the school marm’s real target is the Dáil. Most FF activists believe that Hanafin’s belated entry into the… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Graham Linehan

TABLOID TALKING POINTS ON ‘PRIME TIME’

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

TRANS RIGHTS and gender recognition are trendy, emotive and complex issues and it wasn’t going to be too long before Prime Time blundered into them. In a clever move to boost the buzz around the programme, Montrose announced Twitter addict and occasional comedy writer Graham Linehan – who was given a verbal harassment warning by British police… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Ian Lucey

IAN LUCEY’S SMALL MERCIES

Date: January 24, 2019 - The Hot Water Brigade

THERE was finally some good news for tech investor Ian Lucey recently. His investment vehicle, Lucey Technology Ltd, has managed to satisfy a small €30,000 judgment registered against it by a creditor, but fans of Goldhawk will be well aware of Lucey Tech’s recent woes. Tinstring, a tech consultancy owned by Dermot Casey, had registered… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Dee Forbes

RTÉ BALANCING ACT

Date: January 24, 2019 - Fowl Emissions

IT’S NOT every day you get to find out what the taoiseach had for dinner, but Leo Varadkar recently fessed up to putting away “a very nice Hereford steak last night” in a frantic effort to assuage the Fine Gael faithful that he hadn’t gone all vegan on them. Leo had earlier let it slip… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

3702-FP

Vol 37 No 02

Date: January 24, 2019 -

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Josepha Madigan

THE ABBEY’S BAD TIMING

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

IN THIS issue (see p14), Goldhawk profiles the man at the centre of the Abbey Theatre’s latest offstage drama, director Graham McLaren, and investigates the complicated relationship between the national theatre and a nervous Arts Council. And it turns out that the timing of the Abbey debacle could not have been worse. The Abbey is… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Leo Varadkar

VARADKAR’S YELLOW PERIL

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

WHAT A strange, strident initiative Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made on behalf of Ireland during his visit to North Africa’s Mali and Ethiopia recently. In the longest expedition outside Ireland – a week during the escalating Brexit crisis – since becoming taoiseach 18 months ago, Vlad sounded more like a visiting colonial statesman than leader of… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Charlie Flanagan

ROSS VS JUDGES: INJURY TIME

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

IS SHANE Ross’s Judicial Appointments Bill in its final stages of enactment or will there be extra time in the Seanad and Dáil? Threats this week from Independent senator Gerard Craughwell to prolong the bill’s progress with several more months of filibustering indicate another lengthy delay by the Parnellite pygmies. Meanwhile, justice minister Charlie Flanagan… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

article-default

GARY KAVANAGH’S PALS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE HAS been quite a surge in activity in recent weeks at right-wing “think tank” the Edmund Burke Institute (EBI), where Gary Kavanagh has been appointed to the board – the first new director in 16 years – and the boys are busy tapping fellow libertarians for a few bob. Kavanagh, a management consultant based… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Ian Paisley

PAISLEY’S JUNKET

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

CO-OPERATION IRELAND, which funded Ian Paisley’s first-class junket (£6,327 in travel and accommodation) to New York last year, is headed by a former senior RUC man who headed the PSNI’s Crime and Intelligence department. Co-op Ireland chief executive Peter Sheridan is one of the few Catholics to have held a senior command post in either… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Colm Murphy

LAW SOCIETY WARS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

MAYO SOLICITOR Daniel Coleman has just emerged from a decade-long joust with the Law Society. He was successful in an appeal to the Supreme Court, which struck out two orders against the legal eagle and ordered the original case against him to be reheard in the High Court. In 2010, following the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Freddie Scappaticci

STAKEKNIFE ‘A FICTION’

Date: January 24, 2019 - Hush Hush

THE UK government’s multimillion pound Stakeknife investigation was thrown into disarray last week after its most controversial storyline was described as a “fiction”. The head of Operation Kenova, Jon Boutcher, who has been tasked with leading the Stakeknife investigation, met victims’ Belfast solicitor Michael Brentnall… Read more »

article-default

PADDY PRENDERGAST’S PROJECT

Date: January 24, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

NOT FOR the first time, Trinity College Dublin students are expressing their dissatisfaction with Provost Paddy Prendergast and his administration (see The Phoenix, 21/4/17, 9/3/18, 23/3/18 etc). This time the row is over the Trinity Education Project (TEP), a major revamp of the college’s undergraduate calendar and curriculum. Introduced during the current academic term, students… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Brippa

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 24, 2019 - The Hot Air Brigade

Brian Ormond and Pippa O’Connor, meanwhile, were in Dubai for 10 days just after Christmas. Looking fresh and tanned, Brippa were in the InterContinental Hotel in Ballsbridge last Monday. Barry Egan, ‘The Edge’, Sunday Independent A shower should be under three minutes – I favour 90 seconds myself. And the bar of soap is having… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Martina Anderson

VARADKAR LEAVES NORTHERNERS BEHIND

Date: January 24, 2019 - Bird's Eye View

THE OBSESSION with the backstop on the British border in Ireland continues to paralyse the Conservative party in England. Most MPs, both Conservative and Labour, seem to wilfully misunderstand its purpose and rationale. They also forget that it was Theresa May who asked for the whole UK to be included in the backstop as a… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S THREE AMIGOS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Last Refuge

THE SPECTACLE of three senior Fianna Fáil frontbenchers scrambling for places on the European election ticket in the South constituency says a lot about any future FF-led coalition government. Until about 12 months ago, Billy Kelleher, Timmy Dooley and Barry Cowen were part of Martin’s Praetorian Guard in the parliamentary party. However, the lads have… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Heather Humphreys

FINE GAEL VS TICKET TOUTS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Last Refuge

THE GOVERNMENT’S effort to slay ticket touts – on street corners around Croker and the reselling of concert tickets online – is certainly a popular(ist) move, but it faces some interesting political arguments inside Fine Gael. FG Tory boy Noel Rock initiated the move – with support from Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly, then in the… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Tiernan Brady

TIERNAN BRADY’S RACE

Date: January 24, 2019 - Last Refuge

THE DUBLIN Fianna Fáil Euro nomination contest is tightening, with gay campaigner Tiernan Brady narrowly in front. However, ex-minister and party grandee Barry Andrews is making ground, according to most party insiders. Another ex-minister, Conor Lenihan, is in third place, while Mary Hanafin is not at the races. Brady’s forte has been his presentations to… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Sheila Nunan

LABOUR’S MOVEABLE VALUES

Date: January 24, 2019 - Last Refuge

LABOUR LEADER Brendan Howlin’s wheeze in sponsoring outgoing INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan as a European election candidate in Ireland South could provoke a backlash from some members at the selection convention next month. While Nunan and Howlin have already sealed what some might call a Faustian Pact, former Clare TD Michael McNamara, a rival… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Pat Leahy

SDLP MEDIA SPIN

Date: January 24, 2019 - Fit to Print?

A CASE STUDY in how a political agenda is manufactured and disseminated via the media – whether or not it is factual – came in the paper of record’s eager coverage over the new year of the imminent merger of Fianna Fáil and the SDLP. Irish Times Northern editor Gerry Moriarty’s New Year’s Eve message… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Shane Ross

SHANE ROSS’S MEDIA CRITICS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Fit to Print?

THE DISSING of Shane Ross by his Fine Gael cabinet ‘colleagues’, normally given a loud airing by FG’s media Greek chorus, recommenced last week following the transport minister’s supposed ‘gaffe’ about border checks in the event of a no-deal Brexit. But the Irish Independent’s heavyweight pol corrs, as well as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, gave the… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Richard Bruton

‘STAR’S’ NEW REGIME

Date: January 24, 2019 - Fit to Print?

NEWS THAT the Indo group is embarking on another round of cuts has caused yet more gnashing of teeth among the hapless hacks. One title that may emerge relatively unscathed is the 50%-owned Irish Daily Star, where communications minister Richard Bruton has quietly given the final green light to the purchase of Richard Desmond’s 50%… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

article-default

RICHARD BRUTON’S OIL SLICK

Date: January 24, 2019 - Fowl Emissions

IS SOMEONE trying to hobble new climate action and environment minister Richard Bruton? He has taken to his new portfolio with gusto, including a no-nonsense speech at his ‘stakeholder summit’ in Croke Park this month. The meeting kicked off at 9am on January 18 but, just one hour earlier, Seán Canney, junior minister at Bruton’s… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: January 24, 2019 - Bog Cuttings

CANNABIS WAS ‘ORNAMENT’ A LISNAKEA man who had cannabis on his wall when his house was searched said it was an ornament. Mark Kiernan (43) of Trasna Way appeared at Enniskillen Magistrates Court, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a Class B drug. Police searched Kiernan’s home on December 9 and… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber