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RUTH MORAM’S ‘ABUSE OF PROCESS’

Date: April 18, 2019 - Briefcases

ANOTHER chapter in the remarkable legal saga involving Ruth Moram and the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ireland was written in the Court of Appeal recently. The scrap goes back a number of years to when she was ‘disfellowshipped’ – ie shunned – from the church’s congregation in Killarney in 2004. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that… Read more »

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TAXING TIMES FOR MARTIN TUBRIDY

Date: April 18, 2019 - Briefcases

THE TAXMAN has finally lost his patience with Clare businessman Martin Tubridy. A petition to wind up his construction and civil engineering company, GMD Developments Ltd, has just been filed in the High Court by the Revenue following numerous dust-ups with the Cooraclare businessman. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that Tubridy was a director of… Read more »

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Ciaran Desmond

DISCIPLINING CIARÁN DESMOND

Date: April 18, 2019 - Briefcases

MORE on Ciarán Desmond, the legal eagle and financial adviser at the centre of a high-profile court case involving allegations of fraud and “secret profits”. The Rebel County solicitor has just been censured by the Law Society after being found guilty of misconduct at his firm, Ciarán Desmond Solicitors, on Penrose Wharf Quay in Cork… Read more »

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Peter Gaynor

PETER GAYNOR’S BIG BUCKS

Date: April 18, 2019 - Briefcases

MORE GOOD news for restaurateur-turned-construction suit Peter Gaynor, who continues to make a mint in London, having seen his food business back in Dublin essentially collapse last year. Accounts have just been filed in the UK for Cilantro Engineering UK Ltd, which is in the mechanical and electrical engineering game. It provides “specialist design and… Read more »

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Nigel Wray

POOR FORM AT SARACENS

Date: April 18, 2019 - Briefcases

WITH MUNSTER heading to England to play Saracens in the European Rugby Cup semi-finals this weekend, it is interesting to see the kind of financial firepower the English club possesses compared with the (financial) Irish minnows. Saracens has been haemorrhaging money in recent years and continues to do so, but there is plenty of moolah… Read more »

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Mairead McGuinness

SEE NO ARMY, SPEAK NO ARMY

Date: April 4, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

ANGELA MERKEL’S visit to Dublin underlines the EU’s determination to protect its borders, but this is only part of Germany and France’s strategy of post-Brexit EU integration, something that involves the creation of an EU Army. The loud silence following the revelation that Fine Gael… Read more »

Eleanor O'Mahony

TCD BUGGING BACKLASH

Date: April 4, 2019 - Affairs of the Nation

A FORTNIGHT’S a long time in student politics. Just two weeks ago, The University Times (UT) —newspaper of Trinity College’s Student Union (SU) — was raising eyebrows over its role in a so-called ‘bugging’ row. Now, the tide seems to have turned with a number of high profile journalists rowing in behind the embattled newspaper… Read more »

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James Flynn

PROFILE: JAMES FLYNN

Date: April 4, 2019 - Pillars of Society

A GRIPPING legal drama returns to the schedules this month, when German lawyer-turned-movie maker Winfried ‘Winni’ Hammacher goes head to head with two of Ireland’s top TV and movie men, Morgan O’Sullivan and James Flynn. While the former is better known to the public thanks to his previous broadcasting role, Flynn is a force in… Read more »

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Ruairí Ó Murchú

YOUNG BLOOD: RUAIRÍ Ó MURCHÚ

Date: April 4, 2019 - The Young Bloods

The largely unknown Dundalk councillor, Ruairí Ó Murchú, will attempt to replace the rather well-known former Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, as TD in Louth at the next general election after being co-opted onto the county council just a year and a half ago. SF has always been strong in Louth, but Adams helped it… Read more »

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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

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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