IssueM Articles

Archives: Articles

articles
Josepha Madigan

BUSY TIMES AT ANNAGH-MAKERRIG

Date: December 13, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

EARLIER THIS year, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan spent a week at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (TGC) artists’ retreat to work on her proposed novel about the Catholic church and adoption – a surprise follow-up to her steamy Negligent Behaviour, which told the story of a “sassy solicitor”. The minister apparently… 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

3624-FP

Vol 36 No 24

Date: December 13, 2018 -

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

Robert Pitt

PITT’S HUNT FOR INM LEAKS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

THE SHINE has come off former Independent News & Media (INM) chief executive Robert Pitt – the man who blew the whistle on INM’s trawl of journalists’ computers – as it emerges that he was up to the same tricks himself, albeit for different reasons. Pitt’s… Read more »

Neale Richmond

COMMONWEALTH BLUES

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

AT THE height of the Brexit crisis, what are Fine Gael senators Neale Richmond and Frankie Feighan up to in their promotion of the Commonwealth? The two senators have organised an “Evening with Dr Greg Munro, chief executive of the Royal Commonwealth Society” in the private members dining room, Leinster House, this week. Frankie has… 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

Dave Harmon

FF MAN TO SAVE MADAM MENG?

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

FORMER Fianna Fáil spin doctor Dave Harmon will surely be called on to provide political and diplomatic assistance to Ms Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Ms Wanzhou has been detained in Canada on foot of an extradition warrant from the United States, which wants to charge her with alleged Iran… 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

Michael Maguire

ARRESTING THE MESSENGERS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Hush Hush

DESPITE WORLDWIDE protests, Belfast-based journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney – arrested by paramilitary units of the PSNI in August – are still under investigation and subject to stringent travel and bail conditions. The two journalists made the award-winning documentary, No Stone Unturned, about the 1994 Loughinisland ‘World Cup’ massacre, which alleges collusion between 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

article-default

DIVIDENDS AT GRAFTON COLLEGE

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

WHILE THE sudden closure of Grafton College English language school attracted plenty of media attention, little has been said about the operation behind the language school or the fact that the directors were claiming all was well just 10 days before the collapse. The operating company is Grafton College of Management Sciences Ltd (GCMS), where… 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

PHIL HOGAN V FRANCES FITZGERALD

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

SUCH IS the poll-induced hubris in Fine Gael, especially in Dublin, that party seniors are already divvying up and apportioning potential MEPs and even the EU commissioner’s job among various names. Given the extra seat in Dublin, up to four, the party believes that two seats are on the cards. But while one potential MEP,… 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

Gemma O'Doherty

GEMMA O’DOHERTY’S NEXT MOVE

Date: December 13, 2018 - Hush Hush

HAS JOURNALIST Gemma O’Doherty, who failed to get a presidential nomination, begun planning for another shot in seven years? And has she decided that outflanking Peter Casey on the right is the way to go? Gemma harpooned herself in public when stating as fact that… Read more »

Osal Kelly

UNION FACTION FIGHTS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

AN INTRIGUING political quarrel inside the country’s second-largest union, Fórsa, saw its youth wing, Fórsa Youth Network, closed down recently by the union’s bosses, pending its reconstitution (under much tighter control) in the New Year. Surprisingly, the Socialist Party (SP), which had been accused of entryism and factionalism inside the union’s youth wing, welcomed 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

article-default

CHASING MICHAEL HEGARTY

Date: December 13, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

FANS OF Goldhawk may have been a tad surprised to see East Cork Blueshirt county councillor Michael Hegarty pop up on a three-man panel on RTÉ’s Prime Time last week discussing the subject of rural isolation and the role of the Irish pub. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix, 2/11/12) that Hegarty, who has… 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

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: December 13, 2018 - The Hot Air Brigade

My own experience on the ground, weekly experience on the weekends, is that the fans are very enthusiastic about what the FAI are doing. They think the FAI are doing a very good job. Shane Ross interviewed on Newstalk To me Scrooge, like Bono, is some sort of wise old existentialist soothsayer, there to pass… 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

Jeremy Corbyn

CORBYN AND THE DUP

Date: December 13, 2018 - Bird's Eye View

THERE ARE truly astonishing times in British politics as the Conservative party tears itself asunder. This is not the first time, but it’s certainly the worst time. Ian Paisley Jnr for once got it right last week when he said, “some of the huge issues – whether it’s been the corn laws, imperial preference 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

Freddie Scappaticci

MI5 SNUFF MOVIES

Date: December 13, 2018 - Hush Hush

THE EXTREME porn conviction against Brit spy in the IRA, Fred Scappaticci, is a very public admission of defeat for Operation Kenova. In 2016, the PSNI invited the chief constable of Bedfordshire Police, Jon Boutcher, to set up Operation Kenova, an investigation into “a range of activities surrounding an individual codenamed Stakeknife”. After a year… 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

Lisa Chambers

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MUTINOUS MEMBERS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Last Refuge

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin’s March reshuffle was intended to supplement and beef up his senior team, not to replace them. However, divisions about the confidence and supply deal with Fine Gael have since deepened and Martin’s command staff has largely been displaced by younger and more obedient frontbenchers. Martin’s lieutenants since 2016 had been… 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

CHARLIE FLANAGAN’S TACTICS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Last Refuge

JUSTICE MINISTER Charlie Flanagan’s passive-aggressive attitude to the Oireachtas in the matter of Shane Ross’s pet project, the Judicial Appointments Bill, seems to have veered towards the aggressive side recently. Charlie has launched swingeing attacks on barrister “insiders” recently and was not afraid to single out senators Michael McDowell and Ivana Bacik for their filibustering… 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

Michael Martin

DE REAL LEADER IN CORK?

Date: December 13, 2018 - Last Refuge

THE UNSP0KEN but very real tension between Fianna Fáil’s leader, Micheál Martin, and his constituency ‘colleague’, party finance spokesperson Michael McGrath, is about to be ignited in the upcoming convention for candidates in the Ireland South constituency. That McGrath is poised to make a bid for the party leadership if or when Martin loses 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

Emmet Oliver

‘BUSINESS POST’ COUNTER REVOLUTION

Date: December 13, 2018 - Fit to Print?

A QUIET coup appears to have taken place at the Sunday Business Post, with a purge of the editorial top brass and their replacement with a new, conservative officer class that has rather more respect for their fellow captains of industry. Even amongst the jealous back-biters in Irish business journalism there is grudging respect for… 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 Fitzgerald

MARTINA FITZGERALD’S BOOK

Date: December 13, 2018 - Fit to Print?

WAS IT Martina Fitzgerald’s book, Madam Politician, that jinxed the (former) RTÉ political correspondent, who lost her position last week? Certainly, Martina had a mensis horribilis right after the publication of her tribute to female politicians. There is a suspicion in Montrose that Martina’s week of absence to promote the book did her no favours… 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

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

‘IT’ OUTSIDER

Date: December 13, 2018 - Fit to Print?

HISTORIAN and Irish Times columnist Diarmaid Ferriter quoted Irish Times columnist Kathy Sheridan to buttress his Irish Times column heaping hyperbolic praise on Irish Times cartoonist Martyn Turner in the Irish Times recently. Ferriter, normally a rigorously objective historian, opened an exhibition of Turner’s work in the same week and also referred to his “relentless… 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

David Attenborough

IRELAND’S CLIMATE WOODEN SPOON

Date: December 13, 2018 - Fowl Emissions

AS A metaphor for the state of the global ‘response’ to climate change, the choice of Katowice as the venue for the UN’s 24th Conference of the Parties (COP) could not have been more apt. It is located deep in the heartland of Poland’s coal industry. The COP was lucky enough to secure the state-run… 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

MORE HOT AIR

Date: December 13, 2018 - Fowl Emissions

While the young have done the least to cause the ecological crisis, their generation will suffer grievously as the climate hits the fan. In a first of its kind, last week a group of young activists staged a sit-in at the Department of Climate Action in Dublin. While it was a far more polite affair… 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: December 13, 2018 - Bog Cuttings

A BRIDGE TOO FAR A MAN who fell off a bridge into the Garavogue river after getting drunk on a night out suffered enough punishment according to District Court judge Kevin Kilrane. Jason O’Mahoney (41) of Maryville Hostel, Sligo, was charged with being intoxicated in public at Rockwood Parade. “I’m very guilty. I fell over… 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

Consuelo O’Connor

FINE AND DANDY AT BALLYHANE

Date: December 13, 2018 - High Society

LAST MONTH’S big foal sale by Goffs saw Ballyhane Stud – the Leighlinbridge stud operation owned by Joe and Jane Foley – spend a fair few bob. They can certainly afford it. Their star stallion is Dandy Man, who made quite an impact early on and, in 2013, was third on the list of European… 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

Doireann Garrihy

ALL GO FOR THE GARRIHY GIRLS

Date: December 13, 2018 - High Society

WITH RTÉ aggressively promoting social media phenomenon Doireann Garrihy as its newest star property, it turns out that there is plenty to report about the very active and talented members of the Castleknock family, although parents Eugene and Clare Garrihy did struggle during the crash. Doireann is one of three high-profile sisters in the family…. 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

Jamie Dornan and Ann Skelly

DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES – RTÉ1/BBC1

Date: December 13, 2018 - ReviewsTV

THIS IS the first television adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s critically acclaimed 1992 novel about treachery and deception in the 1880s border counties. The three-part series by Allan Cubitt, the writer-director behind Belfast-based crime series The Fall, is set on the day of Beth Winter’s 23rd birthday and is introduced in a series of slightly awkward… 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

Game Changer

GAME CHANGER – CORA STAUNTON/MARY WHITE

Date: December 13, 2018 - BooksReviews

IT HAS been a bumper year for sports autobiographies, with Andy Lee’s Fighter and Tony 10 by Declan Lynch and Tony O’Reilly leading the charge. Cora Staunton’s Game Changer – which won the 2018 Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the Year – must be even better, right? Sadly not. Compared to its competitors, Game… 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 Shortt

THE BELLY OF THE WHALE

Date: December 13, 2018 - MoviesReviews

THERE ARE several indicators that can alert the unwary to ‘troubled’ films in advance of paying money to see them in the cinema. There are too many writers on board; or too many producers, co-producers, associate producers and executive producers; or, if they’re listed on IMDB, there’s an extensive crew credited for “pick ups”. These… 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

Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

CURTIN CALL AT THE ABBEY

Date: December 13, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

WHILE THE Abbey Theatre’s imported Christmas show, Come From Away, has attracted lots of pre-opening night publicity, one of the board members has decided to go away instead. Dónall Curtin is a high-profile number cruncher who has popped up on a lot of boards, where his financial acumen is much sought after. On top 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

Zoe Doyle

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

Date: December 13, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

THE PERIOD from mid-November through to mid-January is traditionally a nervy time for idle freelance workers in the film and TV business. There’s little production under way and a lot of online and offline muttering about projects (if any) being scouted. CVs are polished, rumours of incoming work are triple-checked and a lot of phone… 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

JP McManus

MARK WALSH’S MISTAKE

Date: December 13, 2018 - Sport of Kings

MARK WALSH, the expected heir to the throne as number one jockey to JP McManus, was not the darling of punters recently after he gave his boss’s Gypsy Island a less than vintage ride at Navan. The pair were even-money favourites to win, but Walsh settled his mount a long way off the pace as… 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

Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

MICK O’LEARY’S CLEAN SWEEP

Date: December 13, 2018 - Sport of Kings

GIGGINSTOWN HOUSE Stud has taken more steps towards total domination of the jumps game in recent weeks. This was particularly evident when Michael O’Leary’s runners accounted for the first five home in a maiden hurdle at Navan on Troytown Chase day. Five of the 14 runners carried the maroon and white silks and they were… 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

Barry Connell

BARRY CONNELL’S BAD LUCK

Date: December 13, 2018 - Sport of Kings

BARRY CONNELL and his trainer, Alan Fleming, are finding winners scarce these days and it was presumably frustrating to be stripped of one they did have through no fault of their own. That is what happened when Connell’s Mount Pelier won in Wexford recently. The… Read more »

John Butler

JOHN BUTLER’S BANJAXED HORSE

Date: December 13, 2018 - Sport of Kings

NEWMARKET-BASED Irish trainer John Butler has found himself in hot water with the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), which has suspended his trainer’s licence for three months and fined him a total of £1,000. This looks pretty lenient. The case concerned the Butler-trained National Anthem, owned by soccer agent Mark McKay. It was ordered that 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

Donal Murphy

DCC’S UNNECESSARY PLACING HURTS SHAREHOLDERS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Moneybags

THE MARKET has recently seen two Irish companies raise bucketloads of cash in very different circumstances. Aryzta was in desperate need of funding and raised €800m by issuing shares at an 80% discount and causing 90% dilution damage, while DCC, despite having the luxury of a healthy balance sheet, also damaged its shareholders by raising… 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

Edmond Scanlon

TASTY KERRY GROUP NEEDS TO SEPARATE INGREDIENTS

Date: December 13, 2018 - Moneybags

A YEAR into the job as CEO of Kerry Group, Edmond Scanlon must be a happy man. The share price is riding high and the food ingredients technology sector is booming. However, the share rating is very high, with the p/e ratio sitting at around 25. Keeping this up will be challenging for Scanlon, but… 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