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Michael O'Leary

PROFILE: MICHAEL O’LEARY

Date: August 9, 2018 - Pillars of Society

THIS WEEK, strike action has been scheduled at Ryanair bases in Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and The Netherlands. This represents the apex in the current industrial relations turmoil at the troubled airline and the man experiencing the most turbulence is loaded chief executive Michael O’Leary. Much of the blame for the current uneasy state of… Read more »

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Emmet Kirwan

YOUNG BLOOD: EMMET KIRWAN

Date: August 9, 2018 - The Young Bloods

Opinionated actor and writer Emmett Kirwan (38) is fast becoming one of the most recognisable faces in Irish theatre. Making his silver screen debut as a leading man this summer with Dublin Oldschool, an adaptation of his award-winning play of the same name, the outspoken artist has proved to be a minor success at the… Read more »

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Noel Whelan

WHELAN SPURNS PRESIDENCY

Date: August 9, 2018 - Fit to Print?

WHAT an interesting sequence of statements emanated from barrister, Irish Times columnist, ex-Fianna Fáil election candidate and putative presidential candidate Noel Whelan in the last month or so. On June 29 Whelan told IT readers that Micheál Martin’s statement of support for Michael D Higgins’s return to the Áras had cleverly blocked off a Fianna… Read more »

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Rachel Allen

RACHEL ALLEN’S SURPRISE DISH

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

WHILE CELEBRITY chef Rachel Allen is off to Italy next month to film with the BBC Good Food Channel, back in Cork ‘Rachel’s’ restaurant has served up a surprise dish. The restaurant, called Rachel’s, on Washington Street opened to a blaze of local publicity on Paddy’s Day last year, with Allen very much to the… Read more »

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Keiran Mulvey

KIERAN MULVEY’S JOURNEY

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

FORMER Workers’ Party member and trade union leader Kieran Mulvey may be a little embarrassed at the tardiness of INM in accepting his appointment to join the board. INM’s board has argued that Mulvey’s appointment as Denis O’Brien’s nominee must be balanced by the appointment of an independent director. From the WP and teachers’ union… Read more »

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Paul Blanchfield

PAUL BLANCHFIELD’S CLOSED VAULTS

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

THE APPOINTMENT of an examiner to Frontier Entertainment Ltd must come as a shock to the company’s founder – broadcaster-turned-investor Paul Blanchfield – who recently announced that his €5m tourist attraction in Dublin’s Liberties, The Vaults, was preparing to open its doors. The project has been heavily backed with public funds, but its creditors are… Read more »

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Keith Spencer

KEITH SPENCER’S COURT DATE

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

HIGH-FLYING barrister Keith Spencer BL will have to wait until October to see what Judge Seamus Noonan has in store for him after some document alterations at the High Court last month left the beak rather nonplussed. Spencer has been plying his wares in the courts for over a decade and has been doing rather… Read more »

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Susan Bergin Marlowe Mullingar Film Studio RTÉ Self-Employment

MICHAEL STARRETT’S SUCCESSOR

Date: August 9, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

WITH HERITAGE Council chief executive Michael Starrett retiring after a whopping 22 years in situ, the search is on for a new candidate to fill the job. Mazars, the management consultants of choice for the culture sector, has been hired to source Starrett’s successor and so there is plenty of management speak on offer. Apparently,… Read more »

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3616-FP

Vol 36 No 16

Date: August 9, 2018 -

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MACGILL SCHOOL’S ANTI-NEUTRALITY LINE-UP

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

THE UPROAR over the male-dominated panel of speakers at Joe Mulholland’s MacGill Summer School was not replicated when the gender-neutral but anti-neutrality list of speakers on “Making Europe More Secure” was revealed. The UCD Centre for War Studies lists Ben Tonra as Professor of International Relations, which says as much as one needs to know… Read more »

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Finian McGrath

GRANNY GRANT ROW

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

THE REACTION to Shane Ross’s granny grant budgetary demand was a classic re-run of the usual Fine Gael inspired media onslaught depicting the Alliance minister as some spoilt, political delinquent. This partly reflects the media-FG consensus on the obstreperous Ross, but it is also another example of Leo Varadkar’s quest to provoke somebody, anybody, into… Read more »

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Sophie Toscan du Plantier

IAN BAILEY ‘STING’

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

PERHAPS the most serious allegation made by Ian Bailey, soon to be tried in France in his absence, on the charge of murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier, is that gardaí induced a known drug user – with offers of drugs and cash – to entrap Bailey and prise a confession out of him. The recent… Read more »

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DECLAN DOOLEY’S NEW MOVE

Date: August 9, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

INTERESTING to see Declan Dooley popping up as a player in the Enda O’Coineen vehicle set up to buy the Sunday Business Post from Conor Killeen. Dooley will be known to fans of Goldhawk as a force in the free-sheet media market outside Dublin courtesy of the likes of the Cork Independent and Galway Independent…. Read more »

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Jeffrey Donaldson

DUP FOREIGN POLICY

Date: August 9, 2018 - Hush Hush

AN INDIGNANT letter to The Irish Times this week from the London Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain defended its human rights record and the deployment of “northern Irish experts” in justice reform in the Kingdom. In January 2017, the Kingdom of Bahrain executed three men arrested in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring… Read more »

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SIMON COVENEY’S HEADACHE

Date: August 9, 2018 - Hush Hush

CANADA’S militant pursuit of human rights in Saudi Arabia will have left foreign minister Simon Coveney at a loss as he watches the Canadians steal a march on Ireland. Canada is our main competitor in Ireland’s much-hyped race for a seat at the UN Security Council and it is argued that one of our strong… Read more »

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Micheál Martin

FIANNA FÁIL TO DEVOUR SDLP?

Date: August 9, 2018 - Bird's Eye View

For more than a decade the Fianna Fáil vulture has been hovering over the stricken SDLP as the party stumbles and falls across what for it are the electoral deserts of West Belfast, Tyrone and Fermanagh, weaker after every election. In September 2007 following Sinn Féin’s triumph in that year’s assembly elections and Martin McGuinness… Read more »

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Mary-Lou McDonald

SF BORDER POLL ‘U-TURN’

Date: August 9, 2018 - Last Refuge

SINN FÉIN has done a U-turn of sorts on the timing of a border poll, but its political opponents as well as some media, a frenzied Irish Times in particular, seemed to have entirely missed this development when it actually happened – well over a year ago. Within hours of the UK vote for Brexit… Read more »

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Anne Marie McNally

SOC DEMS: STALE BUT NOT MALE

Date: August 9, 2018 - Last Refuge

CONGRATS to the Social Democrats, whose political ambition belies their effete image as cuddly, social justice champions and who recently eclipsed their left-wing rivals at the Danielle Carroll Summer School in Dublin’s south inner city. The school was named in memory of Ms Carroll, a homeless mother of two who died in emergency accommodation last… Read more »

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Willie O'Dea

O’DEA SLAPS IT UP TO MARTIN

Date: August 9, 2018 - Last Refuge

REPORTS claiming that Willie O’Dea is part of a simmering revolt against Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin are well wide of the mark. But his demand for a ‘fiver-for-all’ social welfare increase is not something that Martin and the party can afford to ignore for a variety of reasons. Bertie Ahern once said he was… Read more »

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

SUSAN MITCHELL’S DISGRUNTLED DOCTORS

Date: August 9, 2018 - Fit to Print?

TWO radically different takes on the CervicalCheck crisis were published last weekend by Sunday Times journalist Justine McCarthy and Sunday Business Post health editor Susan Mitchell. McCarthy described how well-known cervical cancer victim and campaigner Vicky Phelan was taking a sabbatical from campaigning because of a “sinister” backlash from medical professionals. These, McCarthy argued, had… Read more »

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Leslie Buckley

DON’T MENTION THE WAR

Date: August 9, 2018 - Fit to Print?

DENIS O’BRIEN will be pleased to know that RTÉ is watching his back as he contends with various begrudgers in some parts of the media. Marian Finucane’s summer hols substitute on her weekend RTÉ Radio 1 slot, Brendan O’Connor, gave a comprehensive round up of the morning’s newspaper stories last Sunday. Well, almost comprehensive. O’Connor… Read more »

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PEAT BOG SOLDIERS

Date: August 9, 2018 - Fowl Emissions

IT HAS been a cruel summer for Irish agriculture. This follows hot on the heels of what was one of the coldest springs in decades. Grass growth in March and into April was practically non-existent. It had only barely started to recover when the heatwave and drought took hold in June, which has persisted into… Read more »

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Michael Creed

MICHAEL CREED’S COAXING

Date: August 9, 2018 - Fowl Emissions

WHILE THE gardens of south Dublin may have been wilting as the hosepipe ban took effect, there is little public awareness of just how devastating this year’s extreme weather events have been for the ill-prepared and largely climate-sceptic agri sector. Teagasc reckons the dairy sector alone is facing a whopping €800m drop in income this… Read more »

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Bog Cuttings

BOG CUTTINGS

Date: August 9, 2018 - Bog Cuttings

Pigs and pepper spray A CAVAN man, who was pepper-sprayed by gardaí after he verbally abused them outside his home, avoided jail time before a recent sitting of Virginia District Court. Caolain Smith (21) from 59A Swiftbrook Glen, Virginia, was charged with engaging in abusive behaviour. Inspector Valerie Gahan told the court that gardaí were… Read more »

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Miriam O’Callaghan

KEEPING UP WITH MIRIAM

Date: August 9, 2018 - High Society

THERE WAS plenty for fans of Miriam O’Callaghan to savour in last weekend’s Sindo, which featured a fawning interview with the broadcaster by hack Sarah Caden and a page three news story on a planning row involving Miriam’s neighbours in Dublin 6. The paper’s so-called “annual interview” with Miriam left readers in no doubt that… Read more »

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Consuelo O’Connor

DOMINIC WEST’S ‘EXCLUSIVE RENTAL’

Date: August 9, 2018 - High Society

ALTHOUGH THE impressive Glin Castle attracted plenty of attention when it and the surrounding 400-acre estate were placed on the market in 2016 with a hefty €6.5m price tag, most of those who visited the pile were just curious, maybe hoping for a glimpse of TV star Dominic West and his missus, Catherine FitzGerald, (daughter… Read more »

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Denis O'Brien

DINNY’S SECOND CHANCE

Date: August 9, 2018 - High Society

GOLDHAWK spotted a planning notice for some works to be carried out at Ballynahinch Castle estate, where Denis O’Brien is now the owner of the upmarket hotel. He will be hoping things go more smoothly with this proposal for a derelict national monument on an island near the hotel. Meanwhile, Dinny has continued to pour… Read more »

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Eugene Downes

EUGENE DOWNES’S FESTIVAL RATING

Date: August 9, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

WITH THE Kilkenny Arts Festival (KAF) kicking off this week, it is interesting to note that the Arts Council (slightly) reduced its grant to the beano in 2018. This followed a reversal of fortunes last year when it dropped into the red after an expensive programme that failed to entice sufficient punters. The director of… Read more »

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Christine Molloy

SCREEN IRELAND’S HAPPY AUDIENCE

Date: August 9, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

ANNIE DOONA’S Screen Ireland (previously the Irish Film Board) recently released its second-quarter funding decisions, with just over €5.5m of public lolly divvied out to the successful applicants in the form of distribution, development and production funding. There were also seven producers who received unquantified provisional offers of funding support. However, some details are harder… Read more »

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Nick Bradley

NICK BRADLEY’S BAD BATCH

Date: August 9, 2018 - Sport of Kings

GORDON ELLIOTT’S first venture into training two year olds last year was a successful one, especially when the bunch assembled by syndicate specialist Nick Bradley and Elliott’s trusted lieutenant Mouse O’Ryan included Beckford, who was sold for many multiples of his purchase price to Maurice Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud. Things are not looking nearly so… Read more »

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Charles Byrnes

CHARLES BYRNES’S GALWAY GLOOM

Date: August 9, 2018 - Sport of Kings

CHARLES BYRNES is a trainer the bookies fear when the money is down, but the shrewd Limerick man found the going tough at Galway, where the battle began in the second race on day one with Viking Horde. The gelding has been sent off favourite on his last four starts and, after landing a nice… Read more »

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Brendan Duke Adrian Murray Mick Bailey

TOUGH GOING FOR O’BRIEN

Date: August 9, 2018 - Sport of Kings

TRAINER EXTRAORDINAIRE Aidan O’Brien is unaccustomed to a downturn in the form of his expensive string, but the Ballydoyle maestro has recently had to exercise patience with his steeds as a low-grade virus has seen a number of them perform well-below expectations. The first signs all was not well was when hot favourite Magic Wand… Read more »

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Willie Mullins

WILLIE MULLINS’S STRATEGY

Date: August 9, 2018 - Sport of Kings

IT WAS a beano of a week for Willie Mullins in Galway, winning the feature race on three of the first four days, and only missing out on the Galway Plate thanks to Gordon Elliott’s shock winner Clarcam. However, had Mullins landed the €270,000 Plate pot with his runner-up, Patrick’s Park, there would have been… Read more »

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Bob Etchingham

APPLEGREEN NEEDS TO MOVE INTO FAST LANE

Date: August 9, 2018 - Moneybags

THE BIG acquisition of a majority stake in UK motorway service operator Welcome Break is transformative for Applegreen. However, predictably the deal has been approached in a conservative nature that has limited the upside. With DCC coming up on the inside lane, Bob Etchingham and his team need to start pulling off more big deals,… Read more »

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Kirill Golovanov

OVOCA’S BIZARRE SWITCH OFFERS HUGE UPSIDE POTENTIAL

Date: August 9, 2018 - Moneybags

IT IS clearly very odd that a company that has long traded in the natural resources sector has, overnight, turned itself into a pharmaceutical operation. This exact transformation took place on Friday July 27 at an EGM, without even a whimper from the Irish Stock Exchange head honchos. Instead, essentially, of exploring for gold in… Read more »

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Hot Water Brigade default

SULLIVAN’S ALE-ING BREWERY

Date: August 9, 2018 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT’S BEEN a year since a confident Alan Quane, chief executive of Sullivan’s Craft Brewery (1702) Ltd, assuredly told thejournal.ie’s business section, fora.ie, that the company’s sales were well ahead of expectation, even in the crowded Irish craft beer market. However, recently filed accounts show that it hasn’t been all beer and skittles at the… Read more »

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