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Olga Shajaku

Olga Shajaku’s interesting friend

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

IT WAS interesting to see Bertie Ahern and other familiar faces pop up on a trade mission to Moscow and St Petersburg in November. The Russians are anxious to promote economic ties with Ireland and their woman in Dublin is legal eagle and entrepreneur Olga Shajaku, who has links to at least one former senior… Read more »

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Dermot Desmond’s new house

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

JUST HOW many houses can Dermot Desmond buy in Dublin 4? Dermo originally lived on leafy Ailesbury Road and today no 89 is the address given by his wife, Pat Desmond. She may not be too happy living in the impressive pile, however, since the Council granted permission to next-door neighbour Karen Reihill for a… Read more »

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Sgt Maurice McCabe

Michael Clifford’s book

Date: January 11, 2018 - Fit to Print?

A strange silence surrounds the release last September of Irish Examiner hack Mick Clifford’s book, A Force for Justice: The Maurice McCabe Story. The resignation of Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan came just four days before the book’s release and was followed weeks later by the resignation of justice minister Frances Fitzgerald. These were just the… Read more »

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Bill Shipsey

BILL SHIPSEY’S PRODUCTIONS

Date: January 11, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

TOP BARRISTER Bill Shipsey avoided some embarrassment last month when his Art for Amnesty (AfA) vehicle was taken off the Companies Office strike-off list thanks to some last-minute filings. Meanwhile the legal eagle has plenty of artistic projects to keep him busy. Shipsey has been the driving force behind AfA for the 15 years of… Read more »

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stephen-schwarzman

Steven Schwarzman’s scholarships

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

ONE person who will be delighted with the US Republicans’ new tax plan is CEO of private equity giant Blackstone Steve Schwarzman, who enjoys a warm relationship with Irish third-level institutions. Trump promised to close a controversial capital gains loophole but, happily for the commander-in-chief’s good buddy Stevo, the loophole remains open in the new… Read more »

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Vol.36 No.1

Date: January 11, 2018 -

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Charles Haughey

MI5/UVF HAUGHEY MURDER PLOT

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

Why would a notorious loyalist killer gang like the UVF write to then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey in 1987 informing him of an MI5 plot to kill him two years previously rather than gleefully carry out this spectacular? After all, the newly released UVF letter from the National Archive reveals how this political assassination was handed… Read more »

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Judge Peter Kelly

BEADES VEXES HIGH COURT PRESIDENT

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

FOUR COURTS rules introduced last year to curtail lay litigants have not prevented barrack room lawyer extraordinaire, Jerry Beades, from continuing to challenge judge Peter Kelly’s appointment as President of the High Court two years ago. Beades has clashed with Kelly and other judges repeatedly in the Commercial Court in recent years, arguing that the… Read more »

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Eoghan Harris

REWRITING THE TROUBLES

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

THE revisionist Ultras of last year’s West Cork History Festival (smart-ass Republicans have dubbed it the West Brit Festival) have received predictable praise from the Sindo’s Eoghan Harris for their analysis of the Tan War as sectarian. Specifically they argue that the IRA killed Protestants in County Cork because of their religion and the prime… Read more »

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Peter Sutherland

Suds’ Critics

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

IN THE midst of all the breast-beating and hair-pulling following the death of ‘Sir’ Peter Sutherland, one former Fine Gael tánaiste went against the grain – or at least her Twitter account did. In the hours after his death, the great and the good took to social media to say their piece about the recently… Read more »

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RTÉ Houses

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

DUBLIN CITY chief executive Owen Keegan hit out at the decision of RTÉ to offload a large part of its Montrose site to private developers without insisting on a significant social housing element, above the minimum 10% that will be offered to the Council (at top dollar prices). But, why didn’t the Government get the… Read more »

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Ruairí Quinn

CRYING HALT TO EUROMANIACS

Date: January 11, 2018 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE’S no better man than former Labour minister Ruairí Quinn when it comes to squeezing serious amounts of taxpayers’ money from government departments for his favourite hobby horse, the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA). However, Quinn’s latest demand for €750,000 (for starters) has been rebuffed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), whose… Read more »

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Bono

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: January 11, 2018 - The Hot Air Brigade

The person who wrote best about love in the Christian era was Paul of Tarsus, who became Saint Paul. He was a tough fucker. Bono interviewed by Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone, as republished in Hot Press, Submitted by reader The Magazine (The Dubliner) weathered eight years and while known for its controversial content –… Read more »

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Theresa May

NEVER IN A POLITICAL LIFETIME

Date: January 11, 2018 - Bird's Eye View

HERE WE go again. You could write the script. The new northern secretary invites the parties to Stormont. Desultory talks ensue. An artificial deadline – the end of February for departmental budgets – is imposed. The parties ignore the deadline. The talks run into the sand. Why is this happening and why has it been… Read more »

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Eoghan Murphy

NIMBY: NOT IN MURPHY’S BACK YARD

Date: January 11, 2018 - Last Refuge

FRESH from the PR blunder of Conor Skehan’s reappointment as chair of the Housing Agency, the minister for housing, Eoghan ‘Tory Boy’ Murphy, has revealed a set of priorities that will further enrage the homeless and those engaged in combatting it with his attack on the Local Property Tax (LPT). In Murphy’s world, there are… Read more »

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James Collins

MICHAEL NOONAN’S LEGACY

Date: January 11, 2018 - Last Refuge

DESPITE Fine Gael’s national poll lead, Fianna Fáil apparatchiks claim that polls on the ground in various constituencies show seat gains for the party all around the country. An interesting case in point is Limerick City and surrounding constituencies. Former finance minister Michael Noonan’s retirement will see party colleague Kieran O’Donnell replace him and return… Read more »

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Barry Cowen

MARTIN TO PULL PLUG?

Date: January 11, 2018 - Last Refuge

THE chances of an early election have been dismissed by all and sundry in the media/political bubble, but the debate inside Fianna Fáil still rages with one faction arguing that an early election is still the best option. And by early, they mean before the June recess. The demoralisation inside FF at the continuing lead… Read more »

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Sean Gallagher

Miriam’s Fans

Date: January 11, 2018 - Fit to Print?

FAILED presidential candidate Seán Gallagher’s six-figure sum in compensation for the ‘Tweetgate’ incident on RTÉ’s 2011 Presidential debate programme shows what a small world the media/political bubble really is. The O’Callaghan clan was conspicuous in the matter, with Fianna Fáil frontbencher Jim O’Callaghan being the successful senior counsel representing Gallagher. This followed a review co-authored… Read more »

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dystopian visions

Date: January 11, 2018 - Fit to Print?

PERCEIVED wisdom among whining liberals – you know the type – is that the root cause of Garda scandals is more cultural than structural. A warning from the Garda Review’s regular columnist, Tom Prendeville, in its latest edition of the mag, organ of the Garda Representative Association, gives a flavour of this culture clash. Prendeville… Read more »

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Jim Daly

COASTING TO DISASTER

Date: January 11, 2018 - Fowl Emissions

AT 1km long, Donald Trump’s Irish wall doesn’t enjoy quite as much global infamy as his Mexican wall. However, Clare County Council’s decision on December 21 to grant permission to the Trump Doonbeg golf resort to build a 38,000-tonne wall to keep out the raging sea did provoke a storm of outrage from environmentalists. The… Read more »

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Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: January 11, 2018 - Bog Cuttings

“I Think I Killed your Mother” A YOUNG Kerrywoman who suffered post traumatic stress disorder after being told her mother had been killed has been awarded €27,750 at Tralee District Court. Aislinn O’Rourke, Ballyconry, Lisselton brought a civil action against her uncle-in-law, Tony Hussey, and Kimok Developer Ltd claiming distress following the 2012 incident. O’Rourke… Read more »

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Patrick Annesley

Patrick Annesley’s “gift”

Date: January 11, 2018 - High Society

INTERESTING TO read an interview in The Irish Times at the end of last month with the UK-bound Patrick Annesley. It was noted that the Squire of Annes Grove demesne in north Cork “has offered his library of horticultural books, photographs and records to the Office of Public Works (OPW) when he and [his wife]… Read more »

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Ingrid & Markus Jooste

Magnier and Jooste

Date: January 11, 2018 - High Society

THE DRAMATIC fall from grace of South African billionaire Markus Jooste should come as no surprise to fans of Goldhawk, who were previously made aware of the moneybags’s tax troubles (see The Phoenix 26/2/16). Of interest now, however, is the fate of various horses trained at Ballydoyle and owned in conjunction with the Coolmore personalities…. Read more »

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Dominick Chilcott

ARISE SIR DOMINICK

Date: January 11, 2018 - High Society

CONGRATULATIONS are due to former British ambassador to Ireland Dominick Chilcott, who was given a gong in the New Year’s honours list last month. Chilcott landed the Knight Commander Order of St Michael and St George for “services to British foreign policy” and, in the past, the career diplomat has certainly earned his stripes. Before… Read more »

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MRS OSMOND -JOHN BANVILLE (VIKING)

MRS OSMOND -JOHN BANVILLE (VIKING)

Date: January 11, 2018 - BooksReviews

IN HIS latest novel, John Banville picks up where Henry James left off at the close of The Portrait of a Lady (1881). James’s story concluded with the young American heroine, Isabel Archer, realising that Gilbert Osmond had only married her for her money. Readers were left with an ambiguous ending. Would Isabel return to… Read more »

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Tommy Bowe and Vogue Williams

GETAWAYS – RTÉ 1

Date: January 11, 2018 - ReviewsTV

IT BEING January, holiday shows are a TV staple along with the get-fit programmes. RTÉ’s offering is Getaways, produced by Waddell Media, which is guilty of such treats as Francis Brennan’s Grand Tour and the ubiquitous celebrity hotelier’s makeover show, At Your Service. A new presenter for Getaways this series is Tommy Bowe, the Ulster,… Read more »

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HERE AND GONE - HAYLEN BECK (HARVILL SECKER)

HERE AND GONE – HAYLEN BECK (HARVILL SECKER)

Date: January 11, 2018 - BooksReviews

HAYLEN BECK is the pen name of Northern Irish crime writer Stuart Neville, who has been capturing the mean streets of Belfast in a series of thrillers since 2009. His latest book is set in America and has all the ingredients of the genre – distraught mother, missing children, crooked police officers and an emotionally… Read more »

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Sheila Pratschke

ARTS COUNCIL’S ART ATTACK

Date: January 11, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

THE 2016 annual report of the Arts Council was published recently and includes some rather interesting figures, especially regarding the multi-million euro art collection. Given the tensions that have been so evident between the Merrion Square Mafia and the Department of Culture, it is perhaps no surprise that neither the chair of the Arts Council,… Read more »

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Pálás Programmes

Date: January 11, 2018 - Behind the Scenes

GOLDHAWK has reported on the tortuous (torturous?) development of Galway’s bijou art-house cinema, Cinema Palace. It was originally promoted by Lelia Doolan’s Solas group, now in liquidation. Like Windscale, the toxic project has now been renamed ahead of its long-overdue opening. Some five years in development before Michael Twee Higgins turned the sod on the… Read more »

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John Hales

BIG MONEY MISTAKES

Date: January 11, 2018 - Sport of Kings

GIVEN THE eye-watering sums being lashed out at auction houses in Ireland and England for the perceived cream of the racing crop, it can be well worth charting the progress – or lack thereof – of some of these big ticket lots. Two recent examples were Madison To Monroe and Marie Banrigh. Both were purchased… Read more »

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Ross Doyle

BAD NEWS FOR THE DOYLE BOYS

Date: January 11, 2018 - Sport of Kings

THE PUBLIC fall from grace of South African business tycoon Markus Jooste was bad news for many of his countrymen who had their pension funds invested in Steinhoff, but it was also a blow for the Irish bloodstock agency team of Peter and Ross Doyle. The father and son duo have acted as bloodstock selectors… Read more »

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article default

SHORT ODDS AT THE TOTE

Date: January 11, 2018 - Sport of Kings

WHEN Killahara Castle popped up at 200/1 in a mares hurdle at Thurles before Christmas, her connections – the Burke family (trained, ridden and owned by siblings John, Martin and Elaine respectively) – may have been celebrating the victory. However, spare a thought for anyone lucky enough to back Killahara Castle but unlucky enough to… Read more »

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Rich Ricci

RICCI’S LEOPARDSTOWN WOES

Date: January 11, 2018 - Sport of Kings

LEOPARDSTOWN’S 2017 Christmas Festival will be remembered for many of the wrong reasons. The four-day festival threw up some downright bizarre results and provided a series of dramatic thrills and spills. There were also some concerns about the attendance figures. Chief among the vanquished was Willie Mullins and, more so, his chief patron, Rich Ricci…. Read more »

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Bernard Byrne

AIB’s high share rating will be hard to maintain

Date: January 11, 2018 - Moneybags

AGAINST THE background of a successful IPO in June last year, which raised €3.4bn for the state through the sale of a 29% stake in AIB, there have been plenty of optimistic statements from the bank since. The latest came on December 5 last with AIB reporting, “We are well progressed with our work on… Read more »

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Bertrand Gautier

Taxpayer piles into Greencoat Renewables

Date: January 11, 2018 - Moneybags

AN IPO last year that broke new ground was Greencoat Renewables, which raised €270m in July 2017 and launched the first quoted Irish vehicle in the renewable energy sector. The Irish company was formed to give investors exposure to the renewable energy sector, with the infrastructure assets held by Greencoat Renewables in its investment portfolio…. Read more »

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Dervla Kenny

Dervla Kenny’s planning win

Date: January 11, 2018 - Briefcases

HARD LUCK to Caroline and Veitch McCombs who have had a planning appeal rejected by An Bord Pleanála (ABP), despite the inspector giving a thumbs-up for the development to go ahead. Fans of Goldhawk will recall that the couple were embroiled in a scrap with the neighbours – who happen to be the family of… Read more »

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