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IS THERE a prime minister in the western world who has become head of their party after losing a leadership vote among its members – in Leo Varadkar’s case by a crushing margin of nearly two to one? The new Taoiseach won 35% of the Fine Gael members’ vote as against Simon Coveney’s 65%, but… Read more »

THE TUMULT in the Middle East – where Qatar finds itself isolated economically and diplomatically by a strategy fronted by Saudi Arabia and including smaller Arab and Muslims states such as the United Arab Emirates – is being closely watched by assorted players in Ireland. Should the campaign continue, the Irish racehorse industry in particular… Read more »

MONEYBAGS Bill McCabe’s experiment with the pampering of high-flyers saw him invest big bucks into the Oyster Circle club but now the company has finally been wound up, after a long slow demise. The super exclusive Oyster Circle “luxury destination club” was incorporated in 2006 and, at the time, The Irish Times referred to the… Read more »

THE shadowy Bilderberg Conference, at which the most wealthy and powerful transatlantic decision-makers gather to discuss mutual interests, convened in Chantilly, Virginia, for its annual meeting recently and there appears to be a changing of the Irish guard among its members. Michael O’Leary has attended in the past and he was there again this year… Read more »

LAST WEEK, after the deadly London attack, Irish Times readers were treated to an opinion piece by Edward Burke on the Irish state’s “overburdened” security services. He should know what he’s talking about. Burke’s article was strong on criticism of the Irish set-up, urging the government to follow the UK model by establishing a completely… Read more »

INTERESTING to see “our man in Kabul” Michael Semple pop up last weekend as a speaker at Labour Youth’s Tom Johnson Summer School. The ex-“political officer” for the British Foreign Office addressed activists during a panel discussion along with former foreign affairs minister Eamon Gilmore on, The International Fight Against the Right. Unfortunately, no recordings… Read more »

Dear Goldhawk, Prime Time and Claire Byrne Live have never presented climate change as a 50:50 debate as you falsely claimed in your last edition. All of our debates on the subject have started from the premise that climate change is real, is a very serious threat, and is overwhelmingly man-made as stated by the… Read more »

MR TEMPLE BAR, Paddy Dunning, has seen a number of his businesses struggle in recent years, so he must have been delighted with the plug for his National Waxwork Museum Plus in the Sunday Business Post earlier this month. The bad news continues to mount elsewhere, however. The National Wax Museum in Dublin was previously… Read more »

ALLEGATIONS of poor governance and control of finances have struck yet another voluntary organisation and the dogs of legal war have been let slip within that most innocent of organisations, Scouting Ireland (SI). Two scout masters, Anthony McNamee and Brian Doyle, have taken separate actions in the Dublin Circuit Court demanding an apology and damages… Read more »