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Philip Smyth’s hotel bill

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

THE operating company behind the Hampton Court Hotel in Donnybrook filed a scary set of accounts for 2016 recently. Genport Ltd, owned by Goldhawk’s old pal Philip Smyth reported accumulated losses of an eye-watering €17.5m at the end of last year after losing €1.3m over the course of the year and with a major High… Read more »

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Suzanne Jackson

Clarification

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

In the last issue it was reported that Suzanne Jackson has a quarter of a million followers on Instagram “most of them real”. We have been asked to point out that “100% of Suzanne’s Instagram followers are real and organic”. The article also referred to the decision to dissolve SOSU Clothing Ltd. This company never… Read more »

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John Lally

John Lally’s annus horribilis

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

GALWAY developer John Lally has had a tough time of it in 2017 after being slapped with an eye-watering High Court judgment earlier this year. Meanwhile, a company with an interesting history in Lally’s Lalco group has just filed a revealing set of accounts. Accumulated losses of a whopping €12.5m had built up at Lally’s… Read more »

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Eugene McCool’s courtroom blues

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

GOLDHAWK’s old pal Eugene McCool had a November to forget in the Four Goldmines. Not only was the Dublin businessman hit with a €¼m High Court judgment courtesy of ACC Loan Management, he also had a Supreme Court appeal relating to another one of his scraps unceremoniously dismissed. Goldhawk fans will remember McCool from his… Read more »

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Tom McGurk

Christmas humbug for tax defaulters

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

SOME interesting names and companies popped up on the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters, including Wexford businessman Sean Doyle. Well-known Kilmuckridge publican and builder Doyle settled with the taxman for close to €600,000 relating to under-declared income tax and VAT. The Wexford businessman is no stranger to scrapping with the taxman. In 2001, Sean… Read more »

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Patrick Coveney

Coveney fails to deliver at Greencore

Date: December 14, 2017 - Moneybags

FANS OF Moneybags were probably not overly surprised by the troubled end of the year for Greencore, where management decisions led to huge write-offs and the scrapping of business, and troubles in the US played their part in casting a pall over the group’s shares. Moneybags noted at the start of the year, “there are… Read more »

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Philip O'Quigley

Falcon Oil: not for the faint-hearted

Date: December 14, 2017 - Moneybags

PHILIP O’QUIGLEY has been running Falcon Oil & Gas since May 2012. The company has large tracts of land with various permits and licences in Australia, South Africa and Hungary. These are all non-conventional tight shale sand prospects ignored in the past by major oil firms because they were not susceptible to exploration by conventional… Read more »

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Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn stops cleaning up

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

BAD news for Waterford-based environmental services operation FLI International Ltd, which has moved to wind itself up in the High Court after running out dosh. The previously super-profitable company – founded by chief executive Michael Flynn who is also the largest shareholder – is the main entity in a large group with subsidiaries in the… Read more »

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Gerry Barrett’s Marathon pals

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

TOUGH times for Galway businessman Gerry Barrett who looks set to lose control of more assets in his dwindling portfolio. Meanwhile, members of Barrett’s extended family have established themselves since the crash and even managed to maintain links to some former ventures. In October, the Court of Appeal confirmed the appointment of Neil Hughes as… Read more »

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Michael Winters

FINING MICHAEL WINTERS

Date: December 14, 2017 - Sport of Kings

WHEN THE Michael Winters trained Churchtown Glen ran at Cork last month, finishing a never nearer seventh under tender handling from jockey Barry John Foley, it was inevitable that the race day stewards would call in both trainer and rider for a chat. Even so, it was a surprise when Winters got hit with a… Read more »

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John Magnier

COOLMORE’S CHANGE OF PACE

Date: December 14, 2017 -

AS EVERYONE knows, John Magnier and the Coolmore boys have deep pockets but the spending spree the gang have gone on this autumn in a bid to acquire the world’s most sought-after broodmares has been excessive even by their standards. They shelled out $14m on two mares in America in early November and then at… Read more »

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Tim Radford

REPLACING LEXUS?

Date: December 14, 2017 - Sport of Kings

WITH THE Leopardstown Christmas Festival on the horizon, it is disappointing to learn that Lexus has withdrawn its sponsorship of the Day Three feature steeplechase won by some of the great staying chasers over the years. Who will step in? Surprisingly perhaps, no sponsor was found to slot in following the departure of Lexus after… Read more »

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Brendan Duke

DUKE LOSES OUT

Date: December 14, 2017 - Sport of Kings

HAVING ENDURED a frustrating end to the flat season as he waved goodbye to two of his best prospects – Warm The Voice and The Broghie Man – Curragh trainer Brendan Duke then turned his hand to politics but with little success. Duke canvassed for a seat on the committee of the Irish Racehorses Trainers… Read more »

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OH MY GOD WHAT A COMPLETE AISLING - SARAH BREEN / EMER MCLYSAGHT

OH MY GOD WHAT A COMPLETE AISLING – SARAH BREEN / EMER MCLYSAGHT

Date: December 14, 2017 - BooksReviews

THE NOVEL Oh My God What A Complete Aisling began life as a Facebook page detailing the travails of the typical country girl who moves to Dublin for work but has no truck with city “notions” and makes the pilgrimage Down Home to Mammy and Daddy every weekend. As membership of the Facebook group ballooned… Read more »

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Gabriel Byrne

MY ASTONISHING SELF – (RTÉ 1)

Date: December 14, 2017 - ReviewsTV

IN recent years, a growing trend is evident towards arts documentaries presented by celebrities rather than unknown (boring) experts – presumably because knowledge and insight are seen as no match for vague enthusiasm and a touch of showbiz glamour. My Astonishing Self was written and directed by Gerry Hoban (responsible for Sir Bob’s 2016 overblown… Read more »

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Stephanie Dufresne

THE RED SHOES – GATE THEATRE

Date: December 14, 2017 - ReviewsTheatre

AS A new era takes hold at the Gate under Selina Cartmell, one thing is clear. Audiences may come to the theatre to be entertained. But they shouldn’t expect to feel comfortable. For her debut outing as a director on her own stage, Cartmell has chosen a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, in a buzzy… Read more »

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Phil Hogan

AGRI-PR FAILS TO CONVINCE

Date: December 14, 2017 - Fowl Emissions

PHIL HOGAN is about the last person you’d expect to find socking it to Ireland’s agri-food industry, but that’s exactly what the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner did at the Food Wise 2025 love-in on December 4. Being based in Brussels, Phil the Fixer may have grown immune to the daily agri-greenwashing that keeps Irish-based politicians and… Read more »

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Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: December 14, 2017 - Bog Cuttings

Accused ‘sought chicken’, broke window A DUNGARVAN man who broke the window of a local chipper because they had run out of chicken was handed an eight-month jail sentence. Luke Rio (24), with an address at Ballinamuck, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and using threatening language and behaviour. Inspector Larry Sheahan told Judge Terence Finn… Read more »

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Reviewing Eileen Battersby

Date: December 14, 2017 - Fit to Print?

GOOD to see that The Sunday Times has also noticed the symbiotic relationship between Irish Times critics and authors John Banville and Eileen Battersby (see The Phoenix, 11/9/15 and passim). Last weekend the ST took an irreverent swipe at Boswell Banville for lionising Battersby’s novel, Teethmarks on My Tongue – this followed Boswell Battersby’s glowing… Read more »

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Mark Paul and Ciaran Hancock

DENIS O’BRIEN’S STARRING ROLE

Date: December 14, 2017 - Fit to Print?

THERE WAS the usual back-slapping by assorted hacks at the Westbury Hotel shindig earlier this month when the UCD Smurfit School Business Journalist Awards 2017 were dished out. Although not in attendance himself, the star of the show was surely Denis O’Brien. There are seven categories in the annual bash, with Mark Paul and Ciaran… Read more »

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Lisa Chambers

GLOVES OFF IN THE DAIL BAR

Date: December 14, 2017 - Last Refuge

WHO needs a Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) when the Fine Gael press office is so adept at the dark art of media spin against their Fianna Fáil partners in the government confidence and supply arrangement? So pleased was the Irish Independent with its own role in the story about the unruly FF rabble in the… Read more »

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Eoin Ó Broin

PROVOS V FRANCES

Date: December 14, 2017 - Last Refuge

FRANCES FITZGERALD was forced to resign by Fine Gael TDs withdrawing their support rather than the pious claims of acting in the national interest to avoid an election, but the former minister has received solid support from her party in Dublin Mid-West. Such local solidarity and enthusiasm is unlikely to yield the targeted second seat… Read more »

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Billy Timmins

Billy Timmins’s return

Date: December 14, 2017 - Last Refuge

BILLY TIMMINS re-entry to Fine Gael has upset calculations in Wicklow and may prove to be particularly upsetting to local junior minister, Andrew Doyle. FG Minister Simon Harris, FF’s Stephen Donnelly TD and Sinn Féin’s John Brady should return easily (union boss Jack O’Connor’s support for Mr Austerity, Brendan Howlin, will seriously handicap any Labour… Read more »

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Katherine Zappone

PESCO PARANOID NEUTRALITY PESTS

Date: December 14, 2017 - Last Refuge

THE government’s decision to join Pesco, the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (a military alliance but not an army at all, at all), has been presented as a harmonious government decision with unanimous consent at cabinet level. Not so. Following talks arranged for Independent Alliance ministers Finian McGrath and John Halligan with government officials the impression… Read more »

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Theresa May

DUP DARK MONEY AND THERESA MAY

Date: December 14, 2017 - Hush Hush

DANISH financier Peter Hæstrup, who has been linked to the DUP’s dark money Brexit campaign, may be the real reason British prime minister Theresa May felt free to slap the DUP down by suddenly agreeing a Phase One Brexit deal with Ireland and the EU last week. Hæstrup was investigated by the Indian Central Bureau… Read more »

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Saoirse Ronan

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: December 14, 2017 - The Hot Air Brigade

I shop local – and I eat Tayto! Saoirse Ronan on the Late Late Show, submitted by reader If you’re writing or speaking in English, shouldn’t you use “Prime Minister” instead of “Taoiseach”? We don’t refer to Angela Merkel as the Bundeskanzler Tweet by Irish Times columnist Newton Emerson Our desks face each other in… Read more »

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Jared and Ivanka Kushner

JARED, JERUSALEM, AND POSSIBLE JAIL TIME

Date: December 14, 2017 - Foreign Frolics

By Gary Leupp JARED KUSHNER, “senior adviser” to his father-in-law Donald Trump, is also the president’s chief negotiator for Middle East peace. Trump has absolute confidence in Kushner (38) who, like the president himself, is likely a moron. He rarely appears in public and we know little about him except that he is in real… Read more »

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Simon Hamilton

UNIONIST ANTI BREXIT CAMP

Date: December 14, 2017 - Bird's Eye View

ATTITUDES TO Brexit in the North are a lot more complicated than they appear at first sight. Broadly speaking it’s true northern nationalists strongly favour the EU while unionists don’t. That’s the conventional simple picture but the preferences of both communities are more complex illustrated by the voting in the referendum in June 2016. Eighty-five… Read more »

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Niall McGarry Maximum Media

NIALL McGARRY’S RED INK

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

ONLINE PUBLISHER and self-promoter extraordinaire, Niall McGarry was talking up his Maximum Media group last week, announcing new jobs in Galway and promising further expansion in the UK. The bottom line is looking rather less uplifting, however. Certainly, the outcome in the UK falls rather short of the picture McGarry paints of his rapidly growing… Read more »

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Paddy Campbell

BIG BILLS AT BEWLEY’S

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

VISITORS TO Dublin’s Grafton Street in the last couple of weeks may have been struck by the near permanent queue of punters outside the recently reopened Bewley’s Café. While there is clearly a significant appetite among Dubliners and tourists to check out the famous restaurant, some who have dined there have been left cold, literally…. Read more »

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John Hume

ST JOHN HUME JNR

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

THE recent Dublin film premiere of Maurice Fitzpatrick’s In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America heard former President Mary McAleese laud the great man amid quotes from Bill Clinton about Hume being “Northern Ireland’s Martin Luther King”. The audience also heard John Hume jnr speak of his father’s “lifetime’s work” for peace. John… Read more »

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Courts

Injudicious behaviour

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

RUMOURS of some splendidly injudicious carry-on in the Supreme Court building have been circulating in the Law Library for the past week after a court official apparently walked into the courtroom to discover a pair of legal eagles in a state of partial undress, in flagrante delicto. While illicit encounters among our learn’d friends are… Read more »

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George Hook

George Hook’s return

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

GEORGE HOOK’S long-awaited return to the airwaves, promised for December, has been pushed back to January and he will be heard on Newstalk’s weekend schedule next month. At least that’s the plan. Interestingly, the programme is to be pre-recorded which means his likely slot will be early Saturday morning, probably at 8am in place of… Read more »

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RTÉ’s anti-social media

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

HOW long does it take to figure out who has access to an RTÉ social media account? Nearly a month after RTÉ One sent a bizarre tweet to one under-fire comedian Al “Flamboyant and Outrageous” Porter’s accusers, Montrose is still keeping shtum about what actually happened. It’s been widely reported that on November 20 last,… Read more »

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Colm O’Gorman v SIPO

Date: December 14, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

IT IS perhaps not too surprising that the Irish arm of Amnesty International should be digging in its heels on a request from the Standards in Public Office to return a cheque to financier George Soros who has funded various Irish organisations involved in pro-abortion legislation lobbying. The most up-to-date figures for Colm O’Gorman’s agency… Read more »

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3524

Date: December 14, 2017 -

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