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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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U2’s album reviews

Date: December 14, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

EVER SINCE U2 released the critical and commercial flop No Line On The Horizon in 2009, the key question among music hacks with each successive album has been: “Does it herald a return to form?” That has been the verdict in certain quarters about their much-hyped new effort, Songs Of Experience, although discerning readers may… Read more »

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Mick Smurfit statue

MICK SMURFIT’S STATUE

Date: December 14, 2017 - High Society

GOLDHAWK is pleased to report that the striking statue of Mick Smurfit that emerged overnight in the grounds of UCD’s Smurfit College of Business in Blackrock, south Co Dublin, has not cost the taxpayer a cent. The college is headed by Prof Anthony Brabazon, interim dean of the college. Behind him is the advisory board… Read more »

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Alexander Graf Matuschka

DINNY’S GERMAN COUNT

Date: December 14, 2017 - High Society

IT WAS reported last week that Denis O’Brien’s Caribbean based telecoms operation, Digicel, is getting a new chief executive in the form of Alexander Matuschka. It turns out that Dinny’s new suit in Jamaica is a count no less, hailing from an aristocratic German family which turns out to have Irish connections. The outgoing chief… Read more »

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Neil Murray and Graham McLaren

TICKING BOXES AT THE ABBEY

Date: December 14, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

ABBEY THEATRE co-directors Neil Murray and Graham McLaren have ruffled a few Irish feathers since they arrived from Scotland. But maybe you can’t blame the boys for breaking some promises. Two years ago, Fiach Mac Conghail’s testosterone-laden programme from the Abbey gave birth to the #WakingTheFeminists campaign – effectively forcing the board of the National… Read more »

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Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha’s seasonal boost

Date: December 14, 2017 - High Society

THE CHRISTMAS shopping frenzy should help further boost the overflowing coffers of London-based fashion designer Simone Rocha, daughter of John. The reach of the much discussed Simone’s brand can be gauged from the regularity with which her name crops up in lists of what to buy for Christmas, in Ireland, the UK and across the… Read more »

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Tom Crosbie

CORK HACKS REBEL

Date: December 13, 2017 - Fit to Print?

IRISH TIMES DAC’s takeover of Landmark, owners of the Irish Examiner, Evening Echo and other regional titles, provoked some sour coverage from rival bidders INM and Sunday Business Post owners Key Capital. Examiner hacks, meanwhile, are busy planning not only to defend their pay, conditions and staffing, but are also preparing a demand for pay… Read more »

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3523-FP

3523

Date: November 30, 2017 -

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Frances Fitzgerald

That Frances and Leo deal

Date: November 30, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

WHEN the dust settles on the election that nearly was it will be the confidence and supply deal that Leo Varadkar agreed with his Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald as much as the one with Micheál Martin that deserves scrutiny. Before this week’s revelations from the justice department Fine Gael had rallied around Fitzgerald because she was… Read more »

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Willie Penrose

McCABE: ‘RIGHT THE WAY THROUGH’

Date: November 30, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

ONE man with a keen interest in the entire Fitzgeraldgate saga is Colm Smyth, senior counsel for then garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and whose intended line of questioning based on his instructions to Maurice McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission sparked the crisis in the first place. Apparently very certain of his ground Smyth told O’Higgins… Read more »

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Clare McCarthy

COMMITTEE TROUBLE IN TRINNERS

Date: November 30, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

A TYPICALLY toxic student row in Trinity College Dublin has led to the ousting of the Trinity Publications chair by her own committee. Interestingly, former chairwoman Clare McCarthy is a close pal of deposed UCD Student Union president Katie Ascough and even canvassed for her during the pro-lifer’s anti-impeachment campaign last month. On the surface… Read more »

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Jack Kielty

MANY STONES UNTURNED

Date: November 30, 2017 - Hush Hush

THE MURDER of comedian Patrick Kielty’s father is key to understanding the Loughinisland massacre and the wider campaign by loyalist murder gangs in collusion with state forces. Celebrity American film maker Alex Gibney’s docudrama on the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, No Stone Unturned, has attracted major international publicity and is at present being shown in cinemas… Read more »

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Hildegarde Naughton

FANCY THAT

Date: November 30, 2017 - Hush Hush

(Hildegarde) Rearguard Naughton was the first Fine Gael TD to call for Frances Fitzgerald to go. Rearguard was elected on the 14th count taking the last seat of five in Galway West – South Mayo in 2016.

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Enda Kenny

JADOTVILLE REVISED

Date: November 30, 2017 - Top Brass

ENDA KENNY’S decision as outgoing Taoiseach to award medals to the soldiers who fought in Jadotville in the Congo in 1961 – the medals ceremony is to be held this weekend – was, as reported recently, a most political decision that went against advice from the Department of Defence. But despite the current view on… Read more »

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Pippa O'Connor

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: November 30, 2017 - The Hot Air Brigade

They [20th Century Fox] contacted me and were like, “Would you like to have a speaking part in a movie?” And I was like, “Yes!” I told my sister and my husband and they were like, “Oh my God!” Pippa O’Connor on being invited to ‘lend her voice’ to animated pic Ferdinand, VIP magazine, Submitted… Read more »

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Arlene Foster

INDIRECT RULE FOR THE NORTH?

Date: November 30, 2017 - Bird's Eye View

LEO VARADKAR told the Dáil on November 20 that if Sinn ] and the DUP couldn’t cobble together an executive he would call a British-Irish Intergovernmental Council (BIIGC) meeting in January “to plot the way forward”. Few people noticed this announcement was a significant nod towards Sinn Féin. Then again few people have heard of… Read more »

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Chris Donoghue

COVETOUS CORK BLUESHIRTS

Date: November 30, 2017 - Last Refuge

THAT most earnest of journalists, Newstalk’s Chris Donoghue, has joined equally earnest foreign minister Simon Coveney as special adviser and his responsibilities will be ginormous as his brief will be ministerial, not domestic. A personal friend of Leo Varadkar, Donoghue’s leap to the dark side from media, is a decision hastened by the unseemly controversies… Read more »

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Sarah McInerney

NEWSTALK / IRISH TIMES TRUCE?

Date: November 30, 2017 - Fit to Print?

WILL Irish Times editor Paul O’Neill throw his editorial colleague Fintan O’Toole under a bus in order to mollify Communicorp chairperson Lucy Gaffney’s hardline boycott of the newspaper and avert the media war that nobody wants? Fintan has done nothing wrong, insists his boss, backed by the IT’s cabinet and most of its members (bar… Read more »

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Simon Coveney

LEO VARADKAR LOSES SINDO

Date: November 30, 2017 - Fit to Print?

ANOTHER leaked spin from the spinners in the Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) recently emphasised the Grand Canyon separating the SCU from Fine Gael in government. Whatever, and even though this was disseminated in the Sunday Independent, readers may have noticed a growing campaign to denigrate Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the country’s biggest selling newspaper. In… Read more »

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Vincent Browne

Union Militant

Date: November 30, 2017 - Fit to Print?

THE accolade bestowed on Vincent Browne by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) – a life membership certificate – at a recent ceremony will have given a nice warm feeling to those NUJ activists that had to deal with the MD and editor at the Sunday Tribune way back when. An NUJ statement referred to… Read more »

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Bríd Smith

IRELAND IS THE WORST IN EUROPE

Date: November 30, 2017 - Fowl Emissions

BILLS TO ban fossil fuel exploration are like buses: you wait years for one and then two come along at once. Within a few days in November, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and Bríd Smith of People Before Profit launched very similar Bills to put an end to the issuing of new licences to big… Read more »

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Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: November 30, 2017 - Bog Cuttings

‘That’s no reason to plead guilty’ JUDGE Kevin Kilrane refused to accept the guilty plea of a man who said he was only pleading guilty because he felt the justice system had already convicted him. “That’s no reason to plead guilty,” Kilrane told Gavin Kilgallon (27) of St Edward’s Terrace, Sligo Town. The man was… Read more »

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Bloodstock Money

Date: November 30, 2017 - High Society

GOOD NEWS for bloodstock breeder Dermot Cantillon and his missus, Meta Osborne, outgoing Turf Club senior steward. The bloodstock business has bounced back strongly in recent years and Cantillon is one of those cashing in. He was full of pep ahead of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling sale at Fairyhouse, noting that “traffic through the… Read more »

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Chitra Stern

STERN’S EXPENSIVE ESTATE

Date: November 30, 2017 - High Society

THERE IS still no sign of a buyer for the €7.5m Liss Ard estate outside Skibbereen owned by the filthy rich Swiss Stern family. Good job they have been making a mint in the holiday business further afield as costs are building up here. Fans of Goldhawk with long memories will recall that the Liss… Read more »

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LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - ABBEY THEATRE

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – ABBEY THEATRE

Date: November 30, 2017 - ReviewsTheatre

VAMPIRES SMELL funny. Or at least they do according to Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, whose bestselling 2004 novel is currently in an adaptation on the Abbey main stage. It’s a teenage love story where boy meets girl, and girl happens to be an immortal who feeds on human blood. At their first encounter, nerdy… Read more »

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he: A NOVEL - JOHN CONNOLLY (HODDER & STOUGHTON)

he: A NOVEL – JOHN CONNOLLY (HODDER & STOUGHTON)

Date: November 30, 2017 - BooksReviews

THE “he” of John Connolly’s title is Arthur Stanley Jefferson, born in Lancashire and who went on to become the thin part of the famous comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy. With a keen eye for detail, the author depicts Laurel’s early life as a performer in British music halls and later on the US vaudeville… Read more »

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Micháel Martin

MICHEÁL MARTIN GETS OUT OF JAIL

Date: November 30, 2017 - Last Refuge

THE discovery of documents buried within the justice department and which destroyed Frances Fitzgerald saw Micheál Martin leap from bungling Fianna Fáil leader to conqueror of the Taoiseach and his government. But it was a close-run thing and the great majority of his own party, from front bench down to cumainn members, were on the… Read more »

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Sheena Wilkinson

IT’S A SMALL WORLD

Date: November 30, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

WHILE THE most talked about article in last week’s Irish Times Christmas supplement was, of course, the profile of one Al Porter – concluding with the “flamboyant” comic’s prediction that if he ever got fired he could always become a primary school teacher – there was plenty elsewhere in the glossy publication to entertain. For… Read more »

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Katherine Licken

ARTS HEADS PLAYING CATCH-UP

Date: November 30, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

LAST WEEK’S sitting of the joint Committee on Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht focused on the topical issue of sexual harassment and bullying in the arts world and featured contributions from the likes of Katherine Licken, senior mandarin in the Department of Culture, Heritage ad the Gaeltacht, Orlaith McBride, Arts Council director, and Irish Equity’s… Read more »

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Arts Council director Orlaith McBride with the international selection panel

FICTION LAUREATES LINE UP

Date: November 30, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

IT’S THAT time of year again, when the great and good of the Irish literary establishment line up for Merrion Square’s beauty contest to seek selection as the Laureate for Irish Fiction. Given there is €150,000 over three years on offer, along with substantial expenses and other associated fees, interest in developments has been significant…. Read more »

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Declan McDonagh

DECLAN McDONAGH DOWNSIZED

Date: November 30, 2017 - Sport of Kings

JOHN OXX’S decision not to retain a jockey for next season has left Declan McDonagh without a first jockey position at any yard but will hardly give him too many sleepless nights. The Oxx yard only supplied 10 of the rider’s 39 winners during last season and only 18% of his rides. As first jockey… Read more »

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Philip Hobbs

PUNTERS GET BURNED

Date: November 30, 2017 - Sport of Kings

ANTE-POST punters with an eye on the November Cheltenham meeting are unlikely to be toasting JP McManus and his racing manager, Frank Berry, after a swift change of heart over running plans for the McManus-owned Defi Du Seuil left some backers out of pocket. Six days before the race, Berry nominated the Philip Hobbs-trained horse… Read more »

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Robbie McNamara

McNAMARA’S PAPER PROBLEM

Date: November 30, 2017 - Sport of Kings

FANS OF Goldhawk will know of the Turf Club’s handy earner of fining trainers U350 for administrative infringements on recording of vaccinations in horse’s passports. Generally this is an expensive lesson in paperwork for the trainer but handler Robbie McNamara seems to have mislaid the memo on keeping his records up to date. McNamara suffered… Read more »

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